Statuses and flags
Every ticket has one status. On top of it a ticket can carry flags: overdue, locked, or deferred. The status decides which list a ticket appears in; the flags add badges and lists of their own.
Statuses
Section titled “Statuses”| Status | Means | Set by |
|---|---|---|
| New | Nobody has replied yet, or the ticket was reopened. | Creating a ticket; Reopen Ticket; the Status list. |
| Pending | The customer has written and is waiting for your team. | A reply from the customer; the Status list. |
| In Progress | Someone is working on it. | Mark In Progress; the Status list. |
| Answered | Your team has replied and the ticket waits for the customer. | A reply from you or a staff member; the Status list. |
| Closed | Finished. | Close Ticket, Close On Reply, Ban email and close ticket, the bulk Close action, and auto-close. |
| Merged | Merged into another ticket, which carries on the conversation. | Merge Ticket. A merged ticket can’t be changed further. |
Which list a ticket is on depends on who wrote last as well as on the status. A reply from your team marks the ticket as answered; a reply from the customer, or reopening, marks it as waiting for your team.
- Open: not closed or merged, waiting for your team, and not deferred.
- Answered: the status is Answered and your team wrote last.
- Closed: Closed and Merged tickets.
The ticket form’s Status field and the Status list on the ticket screen set the status only; they don’t change who is waiting. A ticket you set to Answered that way stays on the Open list, and an answered ticket you set to New leaves both lists until someone replies. Only the Status list tells the ticket’s watchers about the change, and neither emails the customer.
Custom statuses
Section titled “Custom statuses”Statuses you add under Flow → Ticket Statuses are labels on top of these: each belongs to one of New, Pending, In Progress or Answered. Picking one on the ticket screen sets the ticket to its built-in status and shows your label beside the badge. The ticket behaves exactly as its built-in status does. Reopening a ticket, or picking a built-in status, removes the custom label.
| Flag | Shows as | Means |
|---|---|---|
| Overdue | An Overdue badge; the Overdue list | The ticket needs attention sooner. See below. |
| Locked | Locked in place of the status badge; a Locked badge in the list | The customer can’t reply. See Locking. |
| Deferred | “Deferred until” on the ticket; the Snoozed list | Taken off the Open list until a date. See Defer until. |
Automatic changes
Section titled “Automatic changes”The component changes tickets by itself in these cases.
Replies
Section titled “Replies”- A reply from you or a staff member sets Answered.
- A reply from the customer sets Pending.
Auto-close
Section titled “Auto-close”Auto-Close Tickets under System → Settings → General Settings is a number of days. Tickets that are answered (waiting for the customer) and whose last reply is older than that are closed. The history shows them closed by System, and the Ticket close email goes out as for a manual close. Set it to 0 to turn auto-close off.
Overdue
Section titled “Overdue”The component marks a ticket overdue when any of these is true and the ticket is not closed, merged or already overdue:
- its Due Date has passed and it is not answered;
- it is not new, not answered, and its last reply is older than the overdue interval of its priority;
- it is new and was created longer ago than the overdue interval of its priority.
The overdue interval is set on each priority under Flow → Priorities, in days or hours. Marking a ticket overdue sends the Ticket mark overdue email. Closing a ticket clears the flag; you can also clear it with Unmark overdue, or by moving the due date of an overdue ticket into the future on the ticket form.
Deferral and reminders
Section titled “Deferral and reminders”A deferred ticket comes back to the Open list when its date passes, and due reminders appear on the Notifications page. See Linking, deferring and reminders.
When this runs
Section titled “When this runs”Auto-close, overdue marking, reminders and the other background work run when the component’s background tasks run: on visitors’ page loads while Run Background Tasks On Page Load is Yes (System → Settings → General Settings), or from Joomla’s Scheduled Tasks.
Reopening
Section titled “Reopening”Reopen Ticket on a closed ticket sets it back to New and returns it to the Open list. As the site administrator you can reopen any closed ticket. Staff members and customers can only reopen within Reopen ticket within days of the last reply (System → Settings → Ticket Settings). The bulk Reopen action on the ticket list has no time limit.