NAME
RT-Extension-AdminConditionsAndActions - Admin Conditions And Actions
DESCRIPTION
A web UI for managing RT conditions and actions.
RT VERSIONS
This extension is compatible with RT 4.0 and RT 4.2.
INSTALLATION
perl Makefile.PL
make
make install
May need root permissions
Edit your /opt/rt4/etc/RT_SiteConfig.pm
Add this line:
Set(@Plugins, qw(RT::Extension::AdminConditionsAndActions));
or add RT::Extension::AdminConditionsAndActions to your existing
@Plugins line.
You can customize Condition/Action list format by config
%AdminSearchResultFormat, e.g.
Set(%AdminSearchResultFormat,
...
Conditions =>
q{'__id__/TITLE:#'}
.q{,'__Name__/TITLE:Name'}
.q{,'__Description__','__UsedBy__},
Actions =>
q{'__id__/TITLE:#'}
.q{,'__Name__/TITLE:Name'}
.q{,'__Description__','__UsedBy__},
);
Clear your mason cache
rm -rf /opt/rt4/var/mason_data/obj
Restart your webserver
USAGE
The core building blocks of scrips in RT are the conditions and actions
you select when configuring the scrip. A condition defines the criteria
for an action to run in the context of the current transaction. The
result is true or false: if true, the condition is satisfied and the
action runs, if false, the action is skipped. Actions define something
to be done when a condition is true and they can be anything you can
capture in code, either changing things in RT or calling out to other
systems, DBs, or APIs.
You can view all of the scrips that come standard with RT by going to
Tools > Global > Scrips (RT 4.0) or Admin > Global > Scrips (RT 4.2). In
the scrips list you'll see each has a condition and an action and these
are provided with the initial RT installation. You might also see
additional conditions and actions added by extensions or through a local
customization.
This extension provides a web UI to allow you to easily register your
own conditions and actions in RT, making it easier than ever to
customize RT for your specific needs.
User Defined Conditions and Actions
The simplest way to add a custom condition or action is to create a new
scrip and select "User Defined" as the Condition or Action. You can then
put your custom code right in the "User Defined" boxes on the bottom of
the scrip modification page.
However, you might prefer writing your condition or action in a module
with the code in a file. This allows you to track it in version control
and call it from other places like rt-crontool. The following sections
describe how to create these modules.
Custom Conditions
Let's assume you have a custom lifecycle with a status called 'review'
and you want an 'On Review Needed' condition so you can trigger actions
when a ticket is put in review status. You notice RT already has 'On
Resolve' and other similar conditions, so you look at the configuration
at Admin > Global > Conditions and click on 'On Resolve' (in RT 4.0,
select Tools > Global > Conditions.)
The condition has a Name, which is displayed in the Condition dropdown
when you create a scrip, and a Description to identify it. The Condition
Module is the RT module that executes the condition, in this case
StatusChange. You can find the code in
/opt/rt4/lib/RT/Condition/StatusChange.pm and view the documentation on
the Best Practical "documentation site". (Confirm your RT version when
checking the documentation.)
Parameters to Pass shows the actual parameter that is passed to the
module when this condition is executed. When you look at the module
documentation it makes sense when you see that StatusChange accepts a
valid status and returns true if the transaction is setting the status
to the provided value. Finally, Applicable Transaction Types lists the
transactions for which this condition will run, and in this case it's
Status transactions.
This is really close to what we might need for our 'On Review Needed' so
you can click the Copy Condition button to copy the current condition.
On the new condition page, you can update the Name and Description and
set the Parameters to Pass to 'review'. Then click save and you have
your new condition. You can now create a new scrip and select it from
the Condition dropdown.
Custom Condition Module
Now assume we have an additional requirement to check if a custom field
value 'Special' is selected when we check the review status. For this
one we'll need to write some code. To start, create a new file for your
new SpecialReviewNeeded module here:
/opt/rt4/local/lib/RT/Condition/SpecialReviewNeeded.pm
Creating it in the local directory will keep it safe when you apply RT
upgrades in the future.
The basics of a condition module are as follows:
package RT::Condition::SpecialReviewNeeded;
use strict;
use warnings;
use base 'RT::Condition';
sub IsApplicable {
my $self = shift;
# Your code here
return 1; # True if condition is true, false if not
}
1; # Don't forget module needs this
IsApplicable is the method you will override from the RT::Condition base
class. The return value of this method, true or false, determines
whether the condition passes or not.
$self gives you access to the ticket object and transaction object via:
$self->TransactionObj
$self->TicketObj
These are your main hooks into the current ticket and transaction.
To check review status and the custom field value, we might add
something like this:
# Setting status to review?
return 0 unless $self->TransactionObj->Type eq 'Status'
and $self->TransactionObj->NewValue eq 'review';
# Is 'Special' set to Yes?
return 0 unless $self->TicketObj->FirstCustomFieldValue('Special') eq 'Yes';
return 1;
We've hardcoded review and Special here, but as with StatusChange, you
could pass a value from the Parameters to Pass field. You can access
this value by calling the Argument method.
my $arg = $self->Argument;
Using passed arguments can make your conditions and actions more general
and potentially reusable.
Once the file is created, return to the RT web UI and create a new
condition, possibly by editing On Review Needed and clicking Copy
Condition. You can name it Special Review Needed and set the Condition
Module to SpecialReviewNeeded.
Custom Actions
Once you have the correct condition you can now think about the action.
You want to send email to a group of people, so to start you look at
some of the existing actions on the action display page at Admin >
Global > Actions (in RT 4.0, Tools > Global > Actions). You find Notify
AdminCcs, which might be close. Taking a quick look you see it has a
Name and Description, like conditions, and the module it calls is
Notify, which can be found at /opt/rt4/lib/RT/Action/Notify.pm.
The Parameter to Pass is AdminCc, and if you look at other notification
actions you'll see many use Notify and just pass a different ticket
role.
Your reviewers aren't always AdminCcs on tickets, so you'd rather send a
notification to a group. You can create this new action using the
existing action module NotifyGroup. On the action list page, click
Create and add something like the following:
Name Notify Review Group
Description Send notification to the review group
Action Module NotifyGroup
Parameters to Pass Review Group
The 'Review Group' can be whatever your group name is. Then you can
build a template with some custom ticket information for reviewers and
set up a new scrip to send email to the review group whenever a ticket
status is set to review.
Custom Action Modules
As part of the request to add a condition to check for the 'Special'
custom field, we now want to route these special requests to the person
who handles them. This extra bit of functionality will require a module,
maybe called SetOwner. Create the new file in:
/local/lib/RT/Action/SetOwner.pm
The base action code looks like this:
package RT::Action::SetOwner;
use strict;
use warnings;
use base 'RT::Action';
sub Prepare {
my $self = shift;
# Your code here
return 1; # True if Commit should run, false if not
}
sub Commit {
my $self = shift;
# Your code here
return 1; # True if action was successful
}
1; # Don't forget module needs this
Actions have two methods you can override. The Prepare method provides
you with a chance to make sure the action should actually run. If
Prepare returns false, Commit will not run. You'll typically handle this
in your condition, in which case you can just omit Prepare from your
action. However, when you have a condition that covers a common general
case, but you want to check one extra criteria for a particular action,
the Prepare method can be helpful. In our example, you might choose to
keep just the On Review Needed condition and add the check for the
'Special' custom field to the Prepare method.
Commit is where you do the actual work of the action. It should return
true on success. On failure, you can use RT::Logger to write errors or
debugging information to RTs logs so you can track down the problem.
In actions, $self gives you access to the transaction and ticket
objects, just like conditions, via:
$self->TransactionObj
$self->TicketObj
For our SetOwner action, we don't need Prepare and can add the following
to Commit:
my $user = RT::User->new(RT->SystemUser);
my ($ret, $msg) = $user->Load($self->Argument);
RT::Logger->error('Unable to load user: '
. $self->Argument . " $msg") unless $ret;
$self->TicketObj->SetOwner($user->Id);
return 1;
The Argument method returns the value set for Parameters to Pass in the
action configuration. This example expects the argument to be the
username of an RT user.
Now you can create the new action in RT. Go to the action page, click
Create, and enter the following:
Name Set Owner
Description Set owner
Action Module SetOwner
Parameters to Pass reviewer_username
Click save and the new action will be available when creating scrips.
Note that actions you perform in scrips can themselves create new
transactions, as is the case with SetOwner. When this action runs, the
set owner transaction will fire the default On Owner Change Notify Owner
scrip, if it is enabled.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
When writing actions and conditions, it's helpful to look at the actions
and conditions provided with RT. You can find more information about the
methods available from ticket and transaction objects in your RT
distribution and on the "Best Practical website"
.
AUTHOR
Best Practical Solutions, LLC
BUGS
All bugs should be reported via email to
L
or via the web at
L.
LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT
This software is Copyright (c) 2014 by Best Practical Solutions
This is free software, licensed under:
The GNU General Public License, Version 2, June 1991