Project

General

Profile

RedmineReceivingEmails » History » Version 25

Roland ..., 2009-07-24 12:19

1 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
h1. Receiving emails
2
3 4 Jean-Philippe Lang
{{>toc}}
4
5 17 Jean-Philippe Lang
As of 0.8.0, Redmine can be configured to allow issue creation or comments via email.
6 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
7
h2. Setup
8
9 7 Jean-Philippe Lang
You can configure Redmine to receive emails in one of the following ways:
10
11
* Forwarding emails from your email server:
12
13
  * Pros: works with a remote mail server, email are processed instantly, fast (no environment reloading)
14 10 Jean-Philippe Lang
  * Cons: needs some configuration on your mail transfer agent (eg. Postfix, Sendmail...)
15 7 Jean-Philippe Lang
16
* Fetching emails from an IMAP server:
17
18
  * Pros: easy to setup, no need to configure your MTA, works with a remote mail server
19 9 Jean-Philippe Lang
  * Cons: emails are not processed instantly (a cron job needs to be added to read emails periodically)
20 7 Jean-Philippe Lang
21
* Reading emails from standard input:
22
23
  * Pros: fine for testing purpose
24
  * Cons: slow (the environment is reloaded each time an email is read), needs some configuration on your MTA
25 4 Jean-Philippe Lang
26
h3. Forwarding emails from your email server
27
28
A standalone script can be used to forward incoming emails from your mail server.
29
This script reads a raw email from the standard input and forward it to Redmine via a HTTP request.
30
It can be found in your redmine directory: @extra/mail_handler/rdm-mailhandler.rb@.
31
32
In order to use it, you have to enable the API that receive emails:
33
Go to _Application settings_ -> _Incoming emails_, check *Enable WS for incoming emails* and enter or generate a secret key.
34
35
Copy @rdm-mailhandler.rb@ to your mail server and configure your MTA.
36
37 5 Jean-Philippe Lang
Usage:
38 4 Jean-Philippe Lang
39 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
<pre>
40 5 Jean-Philippe Lang
rdm-mailhandler [options] --url=<Redmine URL> --key=<API key>
41 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
42 5 Jean-Philippe Lang
Required:
43
  -u, --url                      URL of the Redmine server
44
  -k, --key                      Redmine API key
45
  
46
General options:
47
  -h, --help                     show this help
48
  -v, --verbose                  show extra information
49
  -V, --version                  show version information and exit
50 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
51 5 Jean-Philippe Lang
Issue attributes control options:
52
  -p, --project=PROJECT          identifier of the target project
53
  -t, --tracker=TRACKER          name of the target tracker
54
      --category=CATEGORY        name of the target category
55
      --priority=PRIORITY        name of the target priority
56
  -o, --allow-override=ATTRS     allow email content to override attributes
57
                                 specified by previous options
58
                                 ATTRS is a comma separated list of attributes
59 6 Jean-Philippe Lang
</pre>
60
61 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
Examples:
62 6 Jean-Philippe Lang
63
<pre>
64 5 Jean-Philippe Lang
  # No project specified. Emails MUST contain the 'Project' keyword:
65
  rdm-mailhandler --url http://redmine.domain.foo --key secret
66
  
67
  # Fixed project and default tracker specified, but emails can override
68
  # both tracker and priority attributes:
69
  rdm-mailhandler --url https://domain.foo/redmine --key secret \\
70
                  --project foo \\
71
                  --tracker bug \\
72
                  --allow-override tracker,priority
73
</pre>
74
75
Here is an example for a Postfix alias:
76
77
<pre>
78
foo: "|/path/to/rdm-mailhandler.rb --url http://redmine.domain --key secret --project foo"
79
</pre> 
80 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
81
h3. Fetching emails from an IMAP server
82
83 20 Kurt Miebach
A rake task (@redmine:email:receive_imap@) can be used to fetch incoming emails from an IMAP server. When you run the rake command from a cron job you can include the switch @-f /path/to/redmine/appdir/Rakefile@ on the rake command, because otherwise the rakefile is not found. This is an example line for a cron file that fetches mails every 30 minutes:
84 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
85 21 Kurt Miebach
<code>
86
*/30 * * * * redmineuser rake -f /path/to/redmine/appdir/Rakefile redmine:email:receive_imap RAILS_ENV="production" host=imap.foo.bar username=redmine@somenet.foo password=xxx 
87
</code>
88 20 Kurt Miebach
89 22 Kurt Miebach
The command has to go on a single line in your cronfile. Also see the other examples below, which only show the rake commands without the @-f@ option and without the cron part. 
90 20 Kurt Miebach
91 25 Roland ...
For Windows as server "pycron":http://www.kalab.com/freeware/pycron/pycron.htm can be used to schedule a fetch task.
92 20 Kurt Miebach
93 6 Jean-Philippe Lang
It can be necessary that you open the firewall on the machine for outgoing TCP connections to IMAP port 143.
94 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
95 6 Jean-Philippe Lang
Available IMAP options:
96 20 Kurt Miebach
<pre>
97 6 Jean-Philippe Lang
  host=HOST                IMAP server host (default: 127.0.0.1)
98
  port=PORT                IMAP server port (default: 143)
99
  ssl=SSL                  Use SSL? (default: false)
100 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
  username=USERNAME        IMAP account
101 6 Jean-Philippe Lang
  password=PASSWORD        IMAP password
102 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
  folder=FOLDER            IMAP folder to read (default: INBOX)
103 20 Kurt Miebach
</pre>
104 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
Issue attributes control options:
105 20 Kurt Miebach
<pre>
106 6 Jean-Philippe Lang
  project=PROJECT          identifier of the target project
107
  tracker=TRACKER          name of the target tracker
108
  category=CATEGORY        name of the target category
109
  priority=PRIORITY        name of the target priority
110
  allow_override=ATTRS     allow email content to override attributes
111
                           specified by previous options
112
                           ATTRS is a comma separated list of attributes
113
  
114 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
</pre>
115 18 Eric Davis
116
These options are available on trunk or the upcoming 0.8.1
117
118
<pre>
119
  move_on_success=MAILBOX  move emails that were successfully received
120 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
                           to MAILBOX instead of deleting them
121 18 Eric Davis
  move_on_failure=MAILBOX  move emails that were ignored to MAILBOX
122
</pre>
123
124 20 Kurt Miebach
Examples for the rake command:
125 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
126 6 Jean-Philippe Lang
<pre>
127
  # No project specified. Emails MUST contain the 'Project' keyword:
128
  
129 11 Thomas Lecavelier
  rake redmine:email:receive_imap RAILS_ENV="production" \\
130 6 Jean-Philippe Lang
    host=imap.foo.bar username=redmine@somenet.foo password=xxx
131 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
132
133 6 Jean-Philippe Lang
  # Fixed project and default tracker specified, but emails can override
134
  # both tracker and priority attributes:
135
  
136 11 Thomas Lecavelier
  rake redmine:email:receive_imap RAILS_ENV="production" \\
137 6 Jean-Philippe Lang
    host=imap.foo.bar username=redmine@somenet.foo password=xxx ssl=1 \\
138
    project=foo \\
139
    tracker=bug \\
140
    allow_override=tracker,priority
141 18 Eric Davis
142
  # Move successful emails to the 'read' mailbox and failed emails to
143
  # the 'failed' mailbox
144
  
145
  rake redmine:email:receive_imap RAILS_ENV="production" \\
146
    host=imap.foo.bar username=redmine@somenet.foo password=xxx \\
147
    move_on_success=read move_on_failure=failed
148
149 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
</pre>
150
151 6 Jean-Philippe Lang
152 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
Emails that are ignored (unknown user, unknown project...) are marked as 'Seen' but are not deleted from the IMAP server.
153
154 24 Roland ...
The option _allow_override_ is not only for overriding default values given to rake, but for every attribute in a mail. If you want to override the tracker in your mail you have to add _allow_override=tracker_ as parameter.
155 23 Roland ...
156 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
h3. Reading emails from standard input
157
158
A rake task (@redmine:email:receive@) can be used to read a single raw email from the standard input.
159
160 6 Jean-Philippe Lang
<pre>
161
Issue attributes control options:
162
  project=PROJECT          identifier of the target project
163
  tracker=TRACKER          name of the target tracker
164
  category=CATEGORY        name of the target category
165
  priority=PRIORITY        name of the target priority
166
  allow_override=ATTRS     allow email content to override attributes
167
                           specified by previous options
168
                           ATTRS is a comma separated list of attributes
169
</pre>
170 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
171 6 Jean-Philippe Lang
Examples:
172 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
173 6 Jean-Philippe Lang
<pre>
174
  # No project specified. Emails MUST contain the 'Project' keyword:
175
  rake redmine:email:read RAILS_ENV="production" < raw_email
176 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
177 6 Jean-Philippe Lang
  # Fixed project and default tracker specified, but emails can override
178
  # both tracker and priority attributes:
179
  rake redmine:email:read RAILS_ENV="production" \\
180
                  project=foo \\
181
                  tracker=bug \\
182
                  allow_override=tracker,priority < raw_email
183
</pre>
184 23 Roland ...
185 24 Roland ...
The option _allow_override_ is not only for overriding default values given to rake, but for every attribute in a mail. If you want to override the tracker in your mail you have to add _allow_override=tracker_ as parameter.
186 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
187
188
h2. How it works
189
190 12 Eric Davis
When receiving an email, Redmine uses the From address of the email to find the corresponding user. Emails received from unknown or locked users are ignored.
191 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
192
If the email subject contains something like "Re: *[xxxxxxx !#123]*", the email is processed as a reply and a note is added to issue !#123. Otherwise, a new issue is created.
193 3 Jean-Philippe Lang
194 15 Jean-Philippe Lang
h3. Target project
195
196 16 Jean-Philippe Lang
The target project can be specified using the @project@ option when receiving emails.
197 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
198 16 Jean-Philippe Lang
If you don't use this option, users have to specify in the email body which project the issue should be added to. This can be done by inserting a line in the email body like this: @"Project: foo"@.
199
200 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
Example (email body):
201
202
<pre>
203
This is a new ticket that will be added to project foo.
204
Here we have the ticket description
205
[...]
206
207
Project: foo
208
</pre>
209
210 16 Jean-Philippe Lang
You can set a default project using the @project@ option and let users override this default project by using the @allow-override@ option when receiving emails.
211
Example:
212
213
<pre>
214
  # Create issues on project foo by default
215
  rake redmine:email:receive_imap [...] project=foo allow_override=project
216
</pre>
217
218 14 Jean-Philippe Lang
Of course, user permissions are checked and this email would be ignored if the user who sent this email is not allowed to add issues to project foo.
219 16 Jean-Philippe Lang
Make sure that the target project doesn't use *required* custom fields with no default value for its issues, otherwise the creation of the issue will fail.
220 15 Jean-Philippe Lang
221
h3. Issue attributes
222 8 Jean-Philippe Lang
223 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
Based on the options you use when receiving emails (see @allow-override@ option), users may be able to override some attributes when submitting an issue.
224 12 Eric Davis
This can be done by using the following keywords in the email body (just like @Project@): @Tracker@, @Category@, @Priority@, @Status@.
225 8 Jean-Philippe Lang
226 16 Jean-Philippe Lang
Example (email body):
227 8 Jean-Philippe Lang
228
<pre>
229
This is a new ticket that overrides a few attributes
230
[...]
231
232
Project: foo
233 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
Tracker: Bug
234 8 Jean-Philippe Lang
Priority: Urgent
235 12 Eric Davis
Status: Resolved
236 8 Jean-Philippe Lang
</pre>
237 15 Jean-Philippe Lang
238 1 Jean-Philippe Lang
h3. Watchers
239
240
If the user who sends the email has the 'Add issue watchers' permission, users that are in To or Cc field of the email are automatically added as watchers of the created issue.
241 16 Jean-Philippe Lang
242
h3. Email format and attachments
243
244
Redmine tries to use the plain text part of the email to fill the description of the issue.
245
If a HTML-only email is received, HTML tags are removed from its body.
246
247
Email attachments are automatically attached to the issue, unless their size exceeds the [[RedmineSettings#Attachment-max-size|maximum attachment size]] defined in the application settings.