Email Aliases

[Brashquido]

Hi All,

 

I have a couple of clients who have multiple aliases for the one email account. They have their own reasons for requiring this, however it is causing some frustration in relation to raising support tickets. At present I am having to create an entire new contact with the same details just to add an email alias.

 

Is it possible to add the functionality of adding email aliases to an account the same way additional phone numbers can be added? This would also need to be a user configurable option so these aliases can be kept up to date by the client themselves.

[velaware]

I'm kind of confused on this.  You can have multiple clients with the same primary email address.  What exactly is the issue in the current set up?

[Brashquido]

Apologies if this wasn't clear.

 

I have two separate clients in Blesta who on a regular basis use workstations at other locations. The email applications at these other locations are all configured to use the same mailbox, however they are all configured to use different email aliases based on location. For example;

 

NewYork.John.Doe@company.com

London.John.Doe@company.com

 

Essentially the fact they are using aliases is irrelevant. What I need in Blesta is to be able to;

• Add multiple email addresses for each contact (same as what can be done for phone contacts now)
• Support tickets to be accepted from any of these addresses
• Email addresses to be a editable by the contact themselves

[Paul]

Are the other addresses required just to be able to open tickets, or should all addresses be emailed anytime the primary address is emailed? For example, would an invoice be emailed to all addresses, or only the primary?

 

I think your request is pretty clear -- have the ability to add multiple email addresses like phone numbers. But, I think an email address would necessarily need to be able to be selected as the primary.

 

Also, this is implemented in a way, with contacts. Billing contacts should all receive invoice emails for example.

 

I'm not sure if email from non-primary contacts (anyone other than the account holder) are accepted for support tickets, so if tickets are the main concern, this may end up being a slightly different feature request.

[Cody]

My concern with this is the association of a given email address with multiple different client accounts. If the point of this is to associated a ticket with a client, it's a huge security risk to allow any one email addresses to be associated with two or more different clients.

 

You would necessarily have to make email addresses unique, system wide, which would cause more limitations than problems it would solve.

[Brashquido]

Hi Paul,

 

I would say the additional email addresses are only required for raising support tickets via email. Logging into the web portal would still require the use of the primary email address (unless set to use username obviously). All outbound email from Blesta should be via the primary email. Other good reasons for allowing alternate email addresses would be for raising support tickets in the event the clients mail server is down or Internet is out and support tickets need to be raised via an email client on a smartphone (or similar). For smaller operators such as myself who do not have a manned helpdesk, the support module in Blesta is the only means of raising support tickets for clients.

 

Non-primary contacts do seem to be accepted for raising support tickets. This is what I am doing now, however as mentioned it is a major pain having to create a new contact for the same actual person for every new email address alias they are wanting to log support tickets from.

 

Hi Cody,

 

That is interesting. As I mentioned just earlier I have been creating additional contacts for each email a client is wanting to use for support. This works and clients have been using them to raise support tickets via email for a few weeks. It was an assumption that the email addresses added to these contacts were unique. I just tried adding two identical contacts to two separate Blesta clientsb(which works) and then tried logging a support ticket from that address via email. A ticket is logged for the first client (possible based off the lower client ID Number?), but not for the second.

 

I believe this is probably a bug then? The issue you outlined is already in play without adding the functionality I have requested.

[Paul]

I would say the additional email addresses are only required for raising support tickets via email. Logging into the web portal would still require the use of the primary email address (unless set to use username obviously). All outbound email from Blesta should be via the primary email. Other good reasons for allowing alternate email addresses would be for raising support tickets in the event the clients mail server is down or Internet is out and support tickets need to be raised via an email client on a smartphone (or similar). For smaller operators such as myself who do not have a manned helpdesk, the support module in Blesta is the only means of raising support tickets for clients.

 

Non-primary contacts do seem to be accepted for raising support tickets. This is what I am doing now, however as mentioned it is a major pain having to create a new contact for the same actual person for every new email address alias they are wanting to log support tickets from.

Since the support system is an extension, a feature that only benefits that extension should not be in the core. Perhaps an area, created by the support manager within the client area, in which clients can add additional email addresses for tickets would work in this case.

  

[Cody]

Hi Cody,

 

That is interesting. As I mentioned just earlier I have been creating additional contacts for each email a client is wanting to use for support. This works and clients have been using them to raise support tickets via email for a few weeks. It was an assumption that the email addresses added to these contacts were unique. I just tried adding two identical contacts to two separate Blesta clientsb(which works) and then tried logging a support ticket from that address via email. A ticket is logged for the first client (possible based off the lower client ID Number?), but not for the second.

 

I believe this is probably a bug then? The issue you outlined is already in play without adding the functionality I have requested.

 

That is the intended and current behavior. The email address "belongs" (with respect to tickets) to the oldest added contact. We don't enforce a limitation on email addresses for contacts. My point is simply that to allow email aliases (as opposed to contacts) would require the enforcement of uniqueness across all email addresses since this would introduce ambiguity.

 

BTW, are you taking advantage of the copy contact option? If so, it really ought not to take any longer than it would to add an additional phone number.

[Brashquido]

Since the support system is an extension, a feature that only benefits that extension should not be in the core. Perhaps an area, created by the support manager within the client area, in which clients can add additional email addresses for tickets would work in this case.

  

 

Sure thing. Sounds like it'd make this tidier/easier to implement too?

 

 

That is the intended and current behavior. The email address "belongs" (with respect to tickets) to the oldest added contact. We don't enforce a limitation on email addresses for contacts. My point is simply that to allow email aliases (as opposed to contacts) would require the enforcement of uniqueness across all email addresses since this would introduce ambiguity.

 

BTW, are you taking advantage of the copy contact option? If so, it really ought not to take any longer than it would to add an additional phone number.

 

Ah, ok. Will keep that in mind, though I don't anticipate having identical contacts across multiple clients. Would shifting this functionality out to the Support Manager plug-in solve any of these issues.

 

Also, I cannot find the copy contact option. Is this a new feature (I'm still on 3.0.6)?

[Alk]

BTW, are you taking advantage of the copy contact option? If so, it really ought not to take any longer than it would to add an additional phone number.

 

Yes, I cannot find the copy contact option either. Please would someone explain where it is?

[Cody]

Yes, I cannot find the copy contact option either. Please would someone explain where it is?

 

That's only an option when creating payment accounts.