New Email Integration Available for Spira & KronoDesk that Supports IMAP & OAuth

26-Nov-2024 by Adam Sandman Product News

We are pleased to announce the release of our completely revamped email integration service for our Spira lifecycle management platform (SpiraTest, SpiraTeam & SpiraPlan editions) as well as our KronoDesk ITSM solution. This new releases adds support for IMAP as well as POP3 and includes the ability to support multiple different authentication schemes, including Basic, OAuth, Google Workspace (Gmail) and Microsoft Exchange Web Services (EWS) / Office365.

What is New in the Latest Version

The latest version of the plugin expands the range of emails servers supported from simply POP3 to the following list:

  • POP3
  • IMAP
  • GMail (Google Workspace)
  • Exchange Web Services (Office 365)

Using the New Email Integration

This integration service is designed to read inbound emails to a set of dedicated mailboxes and then create/update incidents in Spira and help desk tickets in KronoDesk. This migration service is NOT needed to simply send outbound emails from either Spira or KronoDesk. That is already handled by the applications natively.

Connecting to Spira

Before connecting to any email server, you will need to use the first tab to specify the Spira instances that the email integration service will connect to.

The integration service can connect to both cloud and on-premise versions of Spira.

Connecting to KronoDesk

Before connecting to any email server, you will need to use the first tab to specify the KronoDesk instances that the email integration service will connect to.

The integration service can connect to both cloud and on-premise versions of Spira.

Configuring the Email

For both Spira and KronoDesk, you can then enter the different email servers that you will want to connect to:

The new version of the plugin supports any of the following:

  • POP3
  • IMAP
  • GMail (Google Workspace)
  • Exchange Web Services (Office 365)

Using the Service with Spira

Once you have the email integration enabled and running, any users that email in a support ticket to one of the "watched" email addresses will experience the following process:

  • The user emails incident.logger@mycompany.com with an incident to create.

  • The contents (including attachments) of the email will be parsed by the email integration service.

    • The application will look for tokens to decide if it should be inserted in the default project or added as a comment to an existing artifact.
    • The sender's email address will be queried to make sure that the user has access to create incident in the selected project. (If not, the system will then check the user's permissions for the default project.)
    • If the user has permission, the new incident is created.

  • The user will receive an automated email from the system letting them know that the incident was created

  • The user will not be subscribed to the incident unless the user falls under normal Workflow Notification or Event Notification settings

  • Any time the user gets a notification email from the server, they can reply to the email -- leaving the token in the subject line unaltered -- and their reply will be put into the ticket as a new comment. It's important that -- if enabled in the SpiraTeam application -- the separator line is not altered, and the reply is kept above the line. Any text under that line will not be inclued in the new comment. (If the separator line is altered, or the option is disabled in the SpiraTeam administration, then the entire email including quotes and reply text will be inserted into the comment.)

Using the Service with KronoDesk

Once you have the email integration enabled and running, any users that email in a support ticket to one of the "watched" email addresses will experience the following process:

  • The customer emails support@mycompany.com with a help desk request.
  • The contents (including attachments) of the email will be parsed by the email integration service and a new help desk ticket will be created in KronoDesk.
  • The customer will receive an automated email from the system letting them know that the ticket was received

  • If this is the first time the user has ever submitted a help desk ticket, the system will also create a new unverified user account in KronoDesk on behalf of this user.

    • The user will receive a separate email with information about their new account. It will provide a hyperlink that allows them to "verify" this new user account so that they can view/modify their help desk tickets through the website.
    • If the user clicks on this verify link, they will be taken to KronoDesk, where they will have the option of providing a password and other security information that will allow them to access the support system through the website. If they don't verify the account, they can still respond to the ticket through email.

  • The customer service manager(s) will assign the ticket to the appropriate customer service agent and the assigned agent will add information to the ticket either providing a possible solution to the enquiry or requesting additional information. In either case, the customer will receive an email containing the note(s) from the customer service agent.

  • The customer can either verify their account and reply to the agent through the KronoDesk web interface, or they can simply reply to the email notifications, making sure that their comments are above the special line marked "please reply above this line". Any text that is entered above this line will be added to the help desk ticket as a new note. Any attachments will be added to the existing attachments linked to the ticket
  • This process continues until the customer's enquiry is resolved.

Where Can I get the New Version?

You can download the latest version the Downloads section of our website. The direct link to the email integration is here: Email Integration Service.

Where Can I Learn More?

The full documentation for the updated email importer can be found here: