News and Views from the Makers of Request Tracker
RTIR 3.2.0 is the first release of RTIR compatible with RT 4.2.
It is only compatible with RT 4.2.9 and later and will refuse to install on earlier versions of RT 4.2.
You should be sure to review both core RT's UPGRADING-4.2 as well as RTIR's UPGRADING-3.2 documentation and any other UPGRADING documentation which may be relevant to your old version.
You can find complete release notes and downloads on https://bestpractical.com/rtir/
RTIR 3.0.4 is a bug fix release for the RTIR 3.0 series and is now available.
If you've been waiting to upgrade to RTIR 3.2.0, please consider testing RTIR 3.2.0rc5 and sending feedback to the mailing list or bugtracker.
RT 4.2.9 has been released.
RTIR 3.0.3 contains a number of bugfixes from 3.0.2.
We released our first release candidate for RTIR 3.2.0rc1 earlier this week.
You can read the release notes or download a tarball.
RTIR 3.0.1 contains a number of bug fixes identified since 3.0.0 as well asperformance improvements for those upgrading from RTIR 2.
Read complete Release Notes and Download RTIR 3.0.1.
Our third training for 2013 will be held in New York, NY on October 8th and
9th. As we like to keep class sizes relatively intimate, register soon or we
may not be able to guarantee you a seat. If you can't make it to this training
session, feel free to drop us a line to suggest locations for the future.
This training will introduce you to the new features in RT 4.2 as part of a
comprehensive overview of RT. Whether you're an old hand at RT or a recent
convert, you'll have a good understanding of all of RT's features and
functionality by the end of the session.
The first day starts off with a tour of RT's web interface and continues with a
detailed exploration and explanation of RT's functionality, aimed at
non-programmer RT administrators. We'll walk through setting up a common
helpdesk configuration, from rights management, constructing workflows and
notifications, and the basics of Lifecycles.
The second day of training picks up with server-side RT administration and
dives into what you need to safely customize and extend RT. We'll cover
upgrading and deploying RT, database tuning, advanced Lifecycle configurations,
writing tools with RT's API, building an extension, and demonstrate how to
extensibly alter the web UI and internal functions.
It goes without saying that you'll get the most out of training if you attend
both days of the course, but we've designed the material so that you can step
out after the first day with a dramatically improved understanding of how to
use RT or show up on the second day and get quickly up to speed on how to make
RT do your bidding.
Each class includes training materials, a continental breakfast, and an
afternoon snack (lunch is not provided).
If you'd like to pay with Visa, MasterCard or Discover, please visit Best Practical's online store.
Unfortunately we are unable to accept American Express or PayPal. If you'd
prefer to pay with a purchase order, please email us at
training@bestpractical.com. Be sure to include:
Please also contact us at training@bestpractical.com for discounted pricing if
you are from an academic institution or if you'd like to send more than 3
people.
RT allows you to send HTML email from notification templates and in RT 4.2 we're improving HTML support and providing HTML versions of all of the standard templates. New RT installs will default to using the new HTML templates. If you are upgrading an existing RT instance, your existing templates will be left in place, and the new HTML templates will be installed so you can switch to them when you're ready.
As described in the upgrade notes, we have also provided some convenient scripts to switch to the HTML templates and back to text. To switch to HTML templates, run:
/opt/rt4/etc/upgrade/switch-templates-to html
To switch from HTML back to text, run:
/opt/rt4/etc/upgrade/switch-templates-to text
When sending HTML email, RT automatically makes the outgoing messages multipart, allowing recipients who can read only plaintext to still get email they can read, while users with HTML-capable clients to see the HTML version.
Coding HTML in email can be challenging since the HTML support in various email clients varies widely. In many ways you need to put aside modern web design techniques and design more like it's 1999 (or maybe 2003). But it's worth the effort since HTML email can give your correspondence with customers a more polished look. The new HTML templates provide you with a start and you can build from those.
To start, you might add a header image that identifies you or your organization immediately for recipients. Much like a website, the header and footer are convenient places to put links to other useful resources like FAQs, your home page, or other web resources.
If you plan to include images, you'll need to host the image on a web server that your users can access. You may want to put the images on a world-accessible web server, like your main web site, since some customers may not have access to your RT server. Also keep in mind that many email clients are initially set to not display images by default and keep that in mind when designing your email.
Even with the mixed email client support, you can still use CSS in your design. However, your email is likely to render in more clients if you use inline CSS, something you have likely avoided in web design. You'll also want to use table-based layouts to make sure the email renders properly in more email clients.
Mobile devices have become ubiquitous so you need to also consider mobile email clients. The good news on this front is that many of the email-capable devices have fairly good support for HTML standards, often better than PC-based email clients.
Given the number of email clients available, you'll want to determine what clients are most used by your customers and test on those platforms. If you are in a managed IT environment, you might be able to reliably narrow it down to the official company email client. If you have more variation in your customer pool, pick the more widely used and available clients and test with those. Don't forget popular web-based clients like GMail.
We hope these tips are enough to get you started and encourage you to try customizing the default RT templates to personalize your correspondence with customers. You can find more information on working with templates in general in the RT template documentation.
Read the RT 4.2 new feature overview for information on more new features.
Our third training for 2013 will be held in New York, NY on October 8th and
9th. As we like to keep class sizes relatively intimate, register soon or we
may not be able to guarantee you a seat. If you can't make it to this training
session, feel free to drop us a line to suggest locations for the future.
This training will introduce you to the new features in RT 4.2 as part of a
comprehensive overview of RT. Whether you're an old hand at RT or a recent
convert, you'll have a good understanding of all of RT's features and
functionality by the end of the session.
The first day starts off with a tour of RT's web interface and continues with a
detailed exploration and explanation of RT's functionality, aimed at
non-programmer RT administrators. We'll walk through setting up a common
helpdesk configuration, from rights management, constructing workflows and
notifications, and the basics of Lifecycles.
The second day of training picks up with server-side RT administration and
dives into what you need to safely customize and extend RT. We'll cover
upgrading and deploying RT, database tuning, advanced Lifecycle configurations,
writing tools with RT's API, building an extension, and demonstrate how to
extensibly alter the web UI and internal functions.
It goes without saying that you'll get the most out of training if you attend
both days of the course, but we've designed the material so that you can step
out after the first day with a dramatically improved understanding of how to
use RT or show up on the second day and get quickly up to speed on how to make
RT do your bidding.
Each class includes training materials, a continental breakfast, and an
afternoon snack (lunch is not provided).
If you'd like to pay with Visa, MasterCard or Discover, please visit Best Practical's online store.
Unfortunately we are unable to accept American Express or PayPal. If you'd
prefer to pay with a purchase order, please email us at
training@bestpractical.com. Be sure to include:
Please also contact us at training@bestpractical.com for discounted pricing if
you are from an academic institution or if you'd like to send more than 3
people.
RTIR 3.0.0 is now available.
RTIR 3.0 is fully compatible with the RT 4.0 series. It takes advantage of many new native RT features to remove complexity and ease future development.
This RTIR release requires RT 4.0.14, but we recommend installing the latest RT release available (4.0.17 at this time) as it repairs a few regressions in the upgrade path.
Please review all of the documentation in docs/UPGRADING and corresponding docs/UPGRADING-* files relevant to your current RTIR version.
You may also review the upgrading documentation at http://www.bestpractical.com/docs/rtir/3.0/
With the release of RTIR 3.0.0, the RTIR 2 series has officially entered maintenance mode. For more details about this and future RTIR release scheduling, we have published a blog post.
A permanent changelog is available.