Issue/Comment Creation from Email

PDF

JIRA can be configured to automatically create issues or comments based on incoming emails. This is especially useful in a helpdesk or support scenario, where users send support queries via email, which you wish to track with JIRA. Subsequent emails about the issue, for example responses to Email Notifications, can be automatically recorded as comments.

To set up issue and comment creation via email, you will need to create a mail account on your server (usually for each project). For example, for the 'ABC' project, you might establish an account abc-issues@yourcompany.com. This mail box should be accessible via POP, IMAP, or on the local filesystem. JIRA will periodically scan this mail box, and appropriately create issues or comments for any emails it finds, and (optionally) new user accounts for senders not previously seen.

Once you have established a mail account, here is how to configure JIRA to periodically scan it (POP access assumed):

1. Login as a user with global administrator access.

2. Bring up the administration page by clicking either on the "Administration" link on the top bar or the title of the Administration box on the dashboard:

   

3. On the panel on the left, under the title "Global Settings", click on the link labelled "Mail Servers".
4. Click on the "Configure new POP mail server" link.

5. This will bring up the "Add POP Mail Server" page.

   

   Fill in as follows:

   • Name: put a short descriptive name, possibly just the email address that will be collected by this service
   • Description: put a short phrase that describes this service, probably 'Email Issue Creation/Comments for <Project>'.
   • Hostname: put the name of your POP server
   • Username and Password use the email account details as created in step 1.
     
6. This should bring you back to the Email Servers page, where you should see a new POP server listed. You can edit and delete this server here.
7. On the panel on the left, under the title "System", click on the link labelled "Services".
8. This will bring up the "Services" page. It lists the current services running on this system. On a vanilla system there should be one service running - Mail Queue Service. You cannot delete the Mail Queue Service. Additionally, if you have enabled the option to automatically backup JIRA's data, you will also see the Backup Service listed here too.
9. Fill in the "Add Service" form as follows:
   
   
   For Name enter a descriptive name, eg "Create Issue/Comment Service for <Project>". For Class, select the appropriate option presented in the drop down list, or enter com.atlassian.jira.service.services.pop.PopService, and the Delay is best left as 1 minute. Click Add Service.
10. This will bring up the "Edit Service" screen to configure the service.
    
    
    For Handler, select "Create Or Comment Handler" from the drop down box. Set Handler parameters to something like:

    project=JRA, issuetype=1, catchemail=foo@atlassian.com

    Further details on the handler parameters are available here.

    The Forward Email parameter specifies an email address to which error notifications can be forwarded. Any failures encountered in this process are logged and forwarded in an email to this address.

    It is also possible to specify whether SSL is used or not.

    Click the "update" button and the service will be in effect.