Mail sent to ticket is put into additional comments by default - how to change

[Jens Mogensen]

In tickets and requested items when posting to additional comments, a mail is generated to the user with this content. Conversely when they reply, the reply is put into additional comments. This is fine.

Sometimes the Servicedesk needs to contact someone else by email though. If it's a colleague they will use the @ function and write in work notes. If it's an external provider or another end-user they will use the Email function:

Now here's the issue. When the external provider answers the e-mail sent from the ticket, the answer is automatically inserted into additional comments and thereby is viewable on the service portal as well as sent in an Email to the user. this is very undesirable as the info from Microsoft, Cisco etc. is not always something the user should be privy to. As well as it pretty much being spam if there is a long dialogue between technicians before the issue is resolved. The users don't need to know how the sausage is made so to speak.

So my question: Where do I change the mails sent to a ticket to be logged in work notes in stead of additional comments? Since it's not default, are there any drawbacks to changing this?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[Jens Mogensen]

Damn. I am sure I tested yesterday that it worked but today when making the same alteration to the code for Requested Item it did not work and when I checked Incidents.... it does not work there either. Third party mail ends up in work notes as planned but is still visible to the user. Very strange. I will look into the ACLs to see if I can find the error.

[TrevorK]

If you're not aware you can simply turn on Debug Security (should be in your left hand nav) and impersonate the user. You should get a popup like this (below). Navigate to the Incident form where it should load work notes (I assume it's part of your form). You can then filter to the work_notes field (like below) and see what specific ACL applies.

The ACL could be on task or sc_req_item (since it inherits from task). The debug just makes it quick and easy if you have a ton of custom stuff setup.

[Jens Mogensen]

I was not aware. Will try that next, thanks.

I couldn't find any ACL which impacted work notes. Went through every one with the Operation "Read" and the word "Incident" in the title. None of them were about Work Notes. I then made an ACL from scratch set to Operation Read for work notes and only available to the group ITIL. Still didn't work.

And then it hit me - the user I am testing with has the ITIL role so of course it is able to read the work notes. Just a moment, testing for real this time with a non itil user.

[Jens Mogensen]

Incredible. Nothing is wrong. The Incident is working as it should. I just forgot not to test with a user that had the ITIL role.

I need a vacation 😄

Thanks for the patience, Trevor.

[Jens Mogensen]

So I've run into a slight issue with this solution. Presently this is working:

Replies to the ticket is automatically routed to work notes thereby making the replies from third parties invisible to the caller.

Unwanted side effect:

When the caller replies to a mail from the ticket they are not able to see their own mail on the service portal because it fits the above rule - it's a reply and is in work notes.

I thought I could fix this by altering the ACL for work notes to the one below but it has no effect - the user still can't see his own mails on the portal :

Caller is not something I chose - I wrote it. I take it that the system can't identify the caller this way. Initially I tried to do it like this:

But I can't choose Caller here. If they created the ticket using self-service then Created By should work but sometimes the ticket will be created by the Servicedesk from a phone call so that won't work consistently.

Am I going about this the right way and if so, what should I write in "Updated by - is - ?" in order to identify the Caller?