Email templates

Each email the help desk sends is built from a template that you can reword. Open Email → Email Templates.

Editing a template

1. Click the template’s button at the top of the screen. The selected one is highlighted.

2. Change the Subject and the Body. The body is HTML, written in your Joomla editor.

3. Put in placeholders where you want ticket details. Parameters, under the editor, lists the ones offered for this template; Copy beside each copies it, braces included, ready to paste.

4. Click Save Email Template in the toolbar.

Placeholders are written in capitals inside braces, such as {TRACKINGID}, and are replaced when the email is sent. A placeholder the template doesn’t support is sent as it is, braces and all.

Links in emails

• {TICKETURL} becomes a “Ticket Detail” link to the ticket. The administrator’s copy opens the ticket in the administrator; everyone else gets the ticket on the front end. In the customer’s New Ticket email the link carries the ticket’s tracking ID and email address, so it opens the ticket without logging in.
• {FEEDBACKURL} (in Close Ticket) becomes a “Click here to give us feedback” link to the feedback form.
• In Feedback Email To User, {LINK} and {/LINK} go around the words you want to turn into the link to the feedback form, and {TRACKING_ID} is itself a link to the ticket.

Custom fields

Templates marked “+ fields” below also accept your ticket form’s custom fields, as { + the field’s name + }. The Parameters list shows each one with its title. File-upload fields aren’t offered.

The templates

The button names are as the screen shows them. The placeholders are the ones the email actually fills in, which in a few cases differ from the Parameters list; those are marked.

Template	Sent to, and when	Placeholders
New Ticket	The customer, when their ticket is created.	{USERNAME} {SUBJECT} {TRACKINGID} {HELP_TOPIC} {EMAIL} {MESSAGE} {DEPARTMENT} {PRIORITY} {TICKETURL}¹ + fields
Staff Ticket (Pro)	Staff, about a new ticket. {USERNAME} is the staff member’s name.	{USERNAME} {SUBJECT} {TRACKINGID} {HELP_TOPIC} {EMAIL} {MESSAGE} {TICKETURL} {DEPARTMENT} {PRIORITY} + fields
New Ticket Admin Alert	The administrator, and a department with Receive Email on, about a new ticket.	{USERNAME} {SUBJECT} {TRACKINGID} {HELP_TOPIC}¹ {EMAIL} {MESSAGE} {TICKETURL} {DEPARTMENT} {PRIORITY} + fields
Reassign Ticket (Pro)	A ticket is assigned to another staff member.	{SUBJECT} {TRACKINGID} {STAFF_MEMBER_NAME} {TICKETURL} {DEPARTMENT} {PRIORITY} + fields
Close Ticket	A ticket is closed.	{USERNAME}¹ {SUBJECT} {TRACKINGID} {EMAIL}¹ {MESSAGE}¹ {TICKETURL} {FEEDBACKURL} (customer only) {DEPARTMENT} {PRIORITY} + fields
Delete Ticket	A ticket is deleted.	{SUBJECT} {TRACKINGID}
Mark overdue (Pro)	A ticket is marked overdue.	{SUBJECT} {TRACKINGID} {TICKETURL} {DEPARTMENT} {PRIORITY} + fields
Ban email (Pro)	An address is banned.	{EMAIL_ADDRESS}
Department Transfer (Pro)	A ticket moves to another department. {DEPARTMENT_TITLE} is the new department.	{SUBJECT} {TRACKINGID} {DEPARTMENT_TITLE} {PRIORITY} + fields
Unban email (Pro)	An address is unbanned from a ticket.	{EMAIL_ADDRESS}
Response Ticket	Staff or the administrator replied.	{USERNAME} {SUBJECT} {TRACKINGID} {EMAIL} {MESSAGE} {TICKETURL} {DEPARTMENT} {PRIORITY} + fields
Reply Ticket	The customer replied.	{USERNAME} {SUBJECT} {TRACKINGID} {EMAIL} {MESSAGE} {TICKETURL} {DEPARTMENT} {PRIORITY} + fields
Lock Ticket	A ticket is locked.	{USERNAME} {SUBJECT} {TRACKINGID} {EMAIL} {TICKETURL} {DEPARTMENT} {PRIORITY} + fields
Unlock Ticket	A ticket is unlocked.	Same as Lock Ticket.
In Progress Ticket	A ticket is marked in progress.	{SUBJECT} {TRACKINGID} {TICKETURL} {DEPARTMENT} {PRIORITY} + fields
Ticket priority is changed by	A ticket’s priority changes. {PRIORITY_TITLE} is the new priority.	{SUBJECT} {TRACKINGID} {PRIORITY_TITLE} {TICKETURL} {DEPARTMENT} + fields
Feedback Email To User (Pro)	The customer, asking for feedback on a closed ticket.	{USER_NAME} {TICKET_SUBJECT} {TRACKING_ID} {CLOSE_DATE} {LINK}…{/LINK}¹ {DEPARTMENT} {PRIORITY} + fields
User Reply On Closed Ticket (Pro)	The customer, when their reply to a closed ticket is refused.	{SUBJECT}² {DEPARTMENT} {PRIORITY} + fields
Erase user data request for admin	The administrator, when a customer asks for their data to be erased.	{USERNAME} {SITETITLE}¹ {CURRENT_YEAR}¹
Erase user request data	The customer, confirming their erase request.	{USERNAME} {SITETITLE}¹ {CURRENT_YEAR}¹
User data deleted	The customer, once their data is erased.	{USERNAME}¹ {SITETITLE}¹ {CURRENT_YEAR}¹
Watcher: new reply (Pro)	Watchers, when a reply is posted.	{WATCHER_NAME} {ACTOR_NAME} {SUBJECT} {TRACKINGID} {MESSAGE} {STATUS} {EMAIL} {TICKETURL} (the screen lists no parameters for the watcher templates)
Watcher: status changed (Pro)	Watchers, when the status changes. {STATUS} is the new status.	Same as Watcher: new reply.
Watcher: ticket closed (Pro)	Watchers, when the ticket is closed.	Same as Watcher: new reply.

¹ Works, but isn’t in the screen’s Parameters list. ² The Parameters list offers {TICKET_SUBJECT}, which isn’t filled in. Use {SUBJECT}.

Check the shipped wording

A few of the templates installed with the component use placeholders that are never filled in: Reassign Ticket uses {STAFF_MEMBER_TITLE} (change it to {STAFF_MEMBER_NAME}), and the subject of Department Transfer has {DEPARTMENT_TITLE without its closing brace. Most shipped templates also end with “DO NOT REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL”; if customers can answer by email through ticket via email, reword that line.

Which of these emails are sent at all, and to whom, is set in Notifications.

Templates that aren’t sent

These buttons open templates that nothing in 1.3.0 sends, so editing them has no effect: New Department, New Staff (Pro), New Help Topic (Pro), Ban email try to create ticket (Pro), Ban email and close ticket (Pro; banning and closing a ticket sends Ban email and Close Ticket instead), New Mail Receviced and New Mail Message Recevied.