Adding comments to service requests via email notification

Post comments to Catalog-native requests and their fulfillment tickets directly from email notifications. When you receive email notifications, you can click the Post a comment button in a notification, type your comment in a new compose window, and send it. The comment is instantly added to the request and its fulfillment tickets. With this capability, you can benefit from the following advantages:

  • Increase efficiency by saving time, as you don't need to log into BMC Helix Digital Workplace to leave a comment. 
  • Experience enhanced collaboration as it's easier for the entire team to contribute from anywhere. 
  • See an increase in engagement through a more straightforward process of contributing to Catalog-native requests.

Administrators must configure the Email Engine and Email Rule Engine settings for you to be able to post comments to Catalog-native requests via email. For information about administrative activities, see Enabling-users-to-add-comments-via-email.

Important

This capability is available only with the notification engine on BMC Helix Innovation Suite. If your company uses the traditional notification engine, you can't add comments via email. 

Related topics

Leveraging-the-notification-engine-on-BMC-Helix-Innovation-Suite-for-greater-flexibility


Scenario: Adding a comment to a request for a new laptop

Scenario

Apex Global has started using the notification engine on BMC Helix Innovation Suite to send email notifications to the end users. Allen, the administrator, sets up the notification engine on BMC Helix Innovation Suite so that users can post comments on Catalog-native requests directly from the email notifications they receive.

Britney, an end user, receives an email notification that a comment asking for more details was added to her request for a new laptop. Britney is on the go. So, instead of logging into BMC Helix Digital Workplace to reply to the comment, she clicks the Post a comment button in the email notification, which opens a new compose window. In this window, she enters her comment along with all the required details. After adding her comment to the email, she sends it, and the comment is instantly added to the request.


Supported request types, users, and notification types

Posting comments from email notifications is supported only for Catalog-native requests and their associated fulfillment tickets, which are created in BMC Helix ITSM, BMC Helix Business Workflows, or BMC Service Request Management.

Important

Comments for service requests from BMC Service Request Management or other external catalog sources are unsupported.

To post comments to Catalog-native requests from email notifications, you must have one of the following roles: requester, on-behalf-of user, approver, or collaborator. Based on your role, you can post comments from the following types of notifications:

Notification type

User who can post a comment

Messages on request (approval commented) 

Approver

Messages on request (approval commented) after the Approve or Reject action

Approver

Approval needed

Approver

Request shared with people

Requested By, Requested For

Request status change

Requested By, Requested For, Collaborator

Request was commented

Requested By, Requested For, Collaborator

Single request submitted

Requested By, Requested For

Comments can be added to Catalog-native requests that have the following BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog statuses:

  • ACTIVE
  • PENDING
  • WAITING_FOR_APPROVAL
  • APPROVED

Important

If you try to post a comment to a request with an unsupported status, such as COMPLETED, CLOSED, CANCELLED, FAILED, UNKNOWN, SUSPENDED, or REJECTED, you will receive an email stating that the comment addition was unsuccessful.


Posting comments from email notifications

To post a comment to Catalog-native requests and their fulfillment tickets directly from email notifications, perform these steps:

  1. Click the Post a comment button in the email notification. 
    01.png

    Important

    If you don't click the Post a comment button and reply directly to the email notification, your response won't be added as a comment. 

  2. When prompted, select an email client to send your comment from. It must be the client where you're logged in with your primary work email, as indicated in your user profile.

    Important

    If you send a comment from an email address different than your primary work email, the comment won't be added to the request.

  3. In a new compose window, enter your comment and send it. Include attachments if needed.
    02_highlighted.png

    Warning
    • Do not modify the subject line as any changes will result in comments not being added.
    • Do not change the Reply-to email address as any changes will result in comments not being added. The administrator defines this address while enabling the notification engine on BMC Helix Innovation Suite. For more information about configuring this email address, see Task-5-Enabling-the-notification-engine.

You can post comments from various email clients, including Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail. You may experience slight variations in the comments posted from different email clients. If your organization uses custom email clients, the comments' behavior and appearance may differ. 

Supported formatting for posting comments

When you enter your comment in a new compose window, you can use plain text, paragraphs, and attachments. You can include attachments in-line or attach them to your reply.

Important

  • Rich text formatting is not preserved in a comment. 
  • If you send an empty comment from Gmail or Outlook, it appears as an empty line or as a comment with the > character in the request. However, an empty comment from Apple Mail is not recognized and not added to the request. 

Included attachments are added to a comment in the request as follows:

  • Attachments are added as a zip folder if two or more files are included, while a single file is added directly to the request.

  • The REMEDY.ARF.ZIPATTACHMENTS plugin sets attachment restrictions, such as count, size, and extensions. However, the admininstrator must set the same attachment size in BMC Helix Digital Workplace and BMC Helix Innovation Suite to prevent attachment rejection due to excessive size. For more information, see the Before you begin section in Enabling-users-to-add-comments-via-email. 

    Important

    If you insert an inline image or attach a file that exceeds the allowed size or has an unsupported extension, it is removed from the list of files to attach to the comment. The remaining files that meet the size and extension requirements are added to the comment.

  • You can download attachments in a zip folder or as a single attachment from the Comments section in a Catalog-native request or from the Service Requests report in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog. 


Forwarding email notifications

Only users permitted to view specific Catalog-native requests receive notifications about them from BMC Helix Digital Workplace and can add comments from these email notifications. When you post a comment from the email notification, other users who are authorized to receive emails about changes to the request will also receive an email regarding your comment, provided they have their email notifications enabled.

As a permitted user, you can forward email notifications from BMC Helix Digital Workplace to other users. The following table presents the outcomes when you forward email notifications to different users based on their permissions and email addresses: 

User to whom an email is forwarded

Email address to which an email is forwarded 

User's ability to post comments from the forwarded email notification

Error messages

Another user who is permitted to view the request

User's primary work email, as indicated in their user profile

The user can post comments from the forwarded email notification. 

NA

An email address different than the user's primary work email

The user can't post comments from the forwarded email notification. 

After sending a comment, the user will get the following reply from BMC Helix Digital Workplace:

Rejected: Auth: No matching People record for Email <email address of sender comes here>

For more information, see Troubleshooting.

A user who is not permitted to view the request

User's primary work email, as indicated in their user profile

The user can't post comments from the forwarded email notification. 

After sending a comment, the user will get a response stating that the comment addition was unsuccessful. For more information, see Troubleshooting.

An email address different than the user's primary work email

The user can't post comments from the forwarded email notification. 

After sending a comment, the user will not receive any response indicating a failure to add a comment.


Results

As an end user, you can view added comments in Catalog-native requests and their associated fulfillment tickets. The following images illustrate how a comment is posted to the request and its fulfillment ticket:

  • Comment added to the Catalog-native request

    03_highlighted.png

  • Empty comment added to the Catalog-native request

    06_highlighted.png

  • Comment displayed in the associated fulfillment ticket in BMC Helix Business Workflows

    04_highlighted.png

  • Comment displayed in the associated fulfillment ticket in BMC Helix ITSM

    Comment_in_ITSM.png

A Catalog administrator can also find these comments in the Service Requests report, on the Comments tab. For more information about the report, see Reports-and-analysis-of-the-enhanced-service-catalog.

Comment displayed in the Service Requests report

05_highlighted.png


Troubleshooting

The following table provides information that can help troubleshoot the issues with comments not being added to the requests:

Issue

Solution 

Comments are not added to the requests.

Check the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog status of the request to determine if posting comments via email is supported for it.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, request assistance from your administrator to troubleshoot the problem. Troubleshooting steps for the administrators can be found in Enabling-users-to-add-comments-via-email.

After sending a comment, you get the following reply from BMC Helix Digital Workplace:

Rejected: Auth: No matching People record for Email <email address of sender comes here>

You get this error only if you send a comment from an email address that is different from your primary work email, as indicated in your user profile. 

Always make sure to send comments from the primary work email address indicated in your user profile.

After sending a comment, you get a response stating that the comment addition was unsuccessful.

You get this error only if you are not permitted to view the request. As a user without the required permissions, you can't get email notifications for a specific request directly from BMC Helix Digital Workplace. However, you can get these notifications forwarded to you.

If you, as an unpermitted user, try to post a comment from a forwarded email notification, you'll receive an email response informing that the comment addition was not successful, provided you replied from your primary work email.

If this email was forwarded to an email address other than your primary work email, and you try to post a comment, you do not get any error message from BMC Helix Digital Workplace and your comment won't be added to the request. 

 

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