Create tickets from emails

Thanks to Redmine and our hosting, carrying out this project is a breeze. Simply set a few basic configurations in the customer center, and you're good to go.
In the following sections, we'll provide detailed explanations and practical examples on how to effectively use emails in Redmine. Don't worry, even if you're new to this, it's straightforward.

The requirements

The following scenarios are based on values that must exist in Redmine.
Since every Redmine can be structured differently, you can also transfer all actions to your system.

• In Redmine there is a project called Test with the identifier test
• There is a Redmine user with the login name joe and the email address joe@saas-secure.com
• There are trackers in Redmine: Bug, Feature, Support
• In Redmine there are the statuses: New, Feedback, In Progress, Closed

Activate and configure email reception

First of all, log in to the customer center and open the settings of your Redmine.


Email reception can now be activated here.


Now select a project in which the ticket should be created. You can choose from all of your active Redmine projects.
Do the same with the tracker (type of ticket that is created).
You can also specify a default user to assign the ticket to when created. This user will then also be informed about the new ticket via email from Redmine.
Attention! The user must of course have permissions in the project that was selected.

The "Override Attributes" setting can prevent keywords in the email from overwriting the basic settings (project, tracker, assigned person). It is also possible to create tickets in other projects - more on that later.
Next - How do you want to handle emails from unknown users, i.e. email senders who are not registered as users in Redmine?
You can reject or allow such emails. Allowing also does not allow Redmine users, e.g. your customers, to create tickets.
If you allow unknown users to create tickets, you can recreate a helpdesk. If you have any questions or problems, your customers simply need to send an email to the email address you provided.
You can now apply all of your settings by clicking on Setup or Save Changes. For our following example we use the following settings:

Send an initial email to Redmine

Write an email to your personal email address using your email program.
You can find the address in the email reception settings. As a rule, the email address is derived from your standard domain for Redmine.
For example, if your Redmine domain is saas123456.saas-secure.com, your email address is saas123456@saas-secure.com.
Include a short, descriptive subject in the email. This will be used as the subject for the ticket.
Now enter a text. This will be used as a description in the ticket. If you add email attachments, they will be attached to the ticket.
Send the email now.
As an example, we created and sent the following email:
Subject: a first test via email
Email text: This is the description of the ticket.

Once the email has been sent, it may take 1-5 minutes (depending on the workload) until the email is processed and appears in Redmine.



The ticket with ID #22 has now been created in Redmine. The email subject became the topic of the ticket.

Update a ticket in Redmine via email

Any user who has permissions to edit tickets in the project can also update the ticket via email.
If you want to update ticket #22, write an email to your personal email address and use the following keywords in the subject:
Subject: Re: [#22]
Email text: this is another description with a status change.
Status: In Progress



The status of the ticket was then changed and a note was added.

Keywords for control

As you can see from the example, you can influence the ticket with special keywords in the email.
But there are other keywords that can be used:

• project: indicates the project identifier if the ticket is to be created in a project other than the default
• status: changes the status
• tracker: changes the tracker, but the tracker must be possible in the project (see project settings)
• category: If categories are defined in the project, the category will be changed.
• assigned_to: the login name of a user or group to which the ticket should be assigned
• fixed_version: If versions are defined in the project, the version can be set here.
• private: Creates the new ticket as a private ticket
• <Custom field name>: This can be used to assign a value to a custom field in the project

Do you want to add watchers to the ticket when creating it? These can be entered in the CC field in the email program.
Adding observers later is not possible.