NAME

       RT::Extension::RepeatTicket - Repeat tickets based on schedule

DESCRIPTION

       The RepeatTicket extension allows you to set up recurring tickets so new tickets are
       automatically created based on a schedule. The new tickets are populated with the subject
       and initial content of the original ticket in the recurrence.

       After you activate the plugin by adding it to your RT_SiteConfig.pm file, all tickets will
       have a Recurrence tab on the create and edit pages. To set up a repeating ticket, click
       the checkbox to "Enable Recurrence" and fill out the schedule for the new tickets.

       New tickets are created when you initially save the recurrence, if new tickets are needed,
       and when your daily cron job runs the rt-repeat-ticket script.

INSTALLATION

       "perl Makefile.PL"
       "make"
       "make install"
           May need root permissions

       "make initdb"
           Only run this the first time you install this module.

           If you run this twice, you may end up with duplicate data in your database.

           If you are upgrading this module, check for upgrading instructions in case changes
           need to be made to your database.

       Edit your /opt/rt4/etc/RT_SiteConfig.pm
           If you are using RT 4.2 or greater, add this line:

               Plugin('RT::Extension::RepeatTicket');

           For RT 4.0, add this line:

               Set(@Plugins, qw(RT::Extension::RepeatTicket));

           or add "RT::Extension::RepeatTicket" to your existing @Plugins line.

       Clear your mason cache
               rm -rf /opt/rt4/var/mason_data/obj

       Add bin/rt-repeat-ticket to the daily cron job.
       Restart your webserver

CONFIGURATION

   $RepeatTicketCoexistentNumber
       The $RepeatTicketCoexistentNumber determines how many tickets can be in an active status
       for a recurrence at any time. A value of 1 means one ticket at a time can be active.  New
       tickets will not be created until the current active ticket is resolved or set to some
       other inactive status. You can also set this value per recurrence, overriding this config
       value.  The extension default is 1 ticket.

   $RepeatTicketLeadTime
       The $RepeatTicketLeadTime becomes the ticket Starts value and sets how far in advance of a
       ticket's Due date you want the ticket to be created. This essentially is how long you want
       to give people to work on the ticket.

       For example, if you create a weekly recurrence scheduled on Mondays and set the lead time
       to 7 days, each Monday a ticket will be created with the Starts date set to that Monday
       and a Due date of the following Monday.

       The value you set in RT_SiteConfig.pm becomes the system default, but you can set this
       value on each ticket as well. The extension default is 14 days.

   $RepeatTicketSubjectFormat
       By default, repeated tickets will have the same subject as the original ticket. You can
       modify this subject by setting a format with the $RepeatTicketSubjectFormat option. This
       option accepts formats in the same form as formats for RT searches. The placeholders take
       values from the repeated ticket, not the original ticket, so you can use the format to
       help differentiate the subjects in repeated tickets.

       For example, if you wanted to put the due date in the subject, you could set the format
       to:

           Set($RepeatTicketSubjectFormat, '__Due__ __Subject__');

       You'll want to use values that you don't expect to change since the subject won't change
       if the ticket value (e.g., Due) is changed.

       Since this uses RT formats, you can create a custom format by creating a new RT ColumnMap.
       You can see the available formats by looking at the columns available in the Display
       Columns portlet on the RT ticket search page.

   rt-repeat-ticket
       The rt-repeat-ticket utility evaluates all of your repeating tickets and creates any new
       tickets that are needed. With no parameters, it runs for "today" each day. You can also
       pass a --date value in the form YYYY-MM-DD to run the script for a specific day.

           bin/rt-repeat-ticket --date 2012-07-25

       This can be handy if your cron job doesn't run for some reason and you want to make sure
       no repeating tickets have been missed. Just go back and run the script for the days you
       missed. You can also pass dates in the future which might be handy if you want to
       experiment with recurrences in a test environment.

USAGE

   Initial Tickets
       The initial ticket you create for a recurrence stores the schedule and other details for
       the recurrence.  If you need to change the recurrence in the future, to make it more
       frequent or less frequent or anything else, make the changes on the original ticket.  To
       help you find this initial ticket, which may have been resolved long ago, a custom field
       is created on each ticket in the recurrence with link called "Original Ticket."

       When setting up the recurrence, you can use the original ticket as an actual work ticket.
       When doing this, you'll need to set the Starts and Due dates when you create the ticket.
       Scheduled tickets created subsequently will set these values based on the recurrence.
       Resolving the original ticket does not cancel the recurrence.

   Start Value
       You can set a Start date for a new recurrence. If you don't, it defaults to the day you
       create the recurrence.

   Cancelling Recurrences
       You can cancel or end a recurrence in two ways:

       •   Go to the original ticket in the recurrence and uncheck the Enable Recurrence
           checkbox.

       •   Set ending conditions on the recurrence with either a set number of recurrences or an
           end date.

   Recursive Recurrences
       Creating recurrences on recurrences isn't supported and may do strange things.

FAQ

       I'm not seeing new recurrences. Why not?
           A few things to check:

           •   Do you have rt-repeat-tickets scheduled in cron? Is it running?

           •   Do you have previous tickets still in an active state? Resolve those tickets or
               increase the concurrent active tickets value.

           •   Is it the right day? Remember to subtract the lead time value to determine the day
               new tickets should be created.

           •   If you set a start date and another criteria like day of the week, the new ticket
               will be created on the first time that day of the week occurs after the start date
               you set (if the start date isn't on that day of the week).

METHODS

   Run( RT::Attribute $attr, DateTime $checkday )
       Repeat the ticket if $checkday meets the repeat settings.  It also tries to repeat more to
       meet config "RepeatTicketCoexistentNumber".

       Return ids of new created tickets.

   Repeat ( RT::Attribute $attr, DateTime $checkday_1, DateTime $checkday_2, ... )
       Repeat the ticket for the check days that meet repeat settings.

       Return ids of new created tickets.

   MaybeRepeatMore ( RT::Attribute $attr )
       Try to repeat more tickets to meet the coexistent ticket number.

       Return ids of new created tickets.

   SetRepeatAttribute ( RT::Ticket $ticket, %args )
       Save %args to the ticket's "RepeatTicketSettings" attribute.

       Return ( RT::Attribute, UPDATE MESSAGE )

AUTHOR

       Best Practical Solutions, LLC <modules@bestpractical.com>

BUGS

       All bugs should be reported via email to

           L<bug-RT-Extension-RepeatTicket@rt.cpan.org|mailto:bug-RT-Extension-RepeatTicket@rt.cpan.org>

       or via the web at

           L<rt.cpan.org|http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=RT-Extension-RepeatTicket>.

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

       This software is Copyright (c) 2014 by Best Practical Solutions

       This is free software, licensed under:

         The GNU General Public License, Version 2, June 1991