Book:OTRS 3.0 - Admin Manual/Chapter 2/2

OTRS has many features. The following list gives an overview of the features included in the central framework.

The features of OTRS

 * Web interface&#58; :
 * Easy and initial handling with a web browser.
 * Because no active web contents like Flash or Java applets are used, the web interface is usable with most web browsers, even with mobile phones or other mobile computers.
 * A web interface to administer the system via the web is available.
 * A web interface to handle customer requests by employees/agents via the web is integrated.
 * A web interface for customers is available to write new tickets, check the state and answer old tickets and search through their own tickets.
 * The web interface can be customized with different themes; own themes can be integrated.
 * Support for many languages.
 * The appearance of output templates can be customized (dtl).
 * Mails from and into the system can contain multiple attachments.


 * Mail interface&#58; :
 * Support for mail attachments (MIME support).
 * Automatic conversion of HTML into plain text messages (more security for dangerous content and enables faster searching).
 * Mail can be filtered with the X-OTRS headers of the system or via mail addresses, e.g. for spam messages.
 * PGP support, creation and import of own keys, signing and encrypting outgoing mail, signed and encrypted messages can be displayed.
 * Support for viewing and encrypting S/MIME messages, handling of S/MIME certificates.
 * Auto answers for customers, configurable for every queue.
 * Email notifications for agents about new tickets, follow-ups or unlocked tickets.
 * Follow-ups by references or In-Reply-To header entries.


 * Tickets&#58; :
 * Expanded queue view, fast overview of new requests in a queue.
 * Tickets can be locked.
 * Creation of own auto answer templates.
 * Creation of own auto responders, configurable for every queue.
 * Ticket history, overview of all events for a ticket (changes of ticket states, replies, notes, etc.).
 * Print view for tickets.
 * Adding own (internal or external) notes to a ticket (text and attachments).
 * Ticket zooming.
 * Access control lists for tickets can be defined.
 * Forwarding or bouncing tickets to other mail addresses.
 * Moving tickets between queues.
 * Changing/setting the priority of a ticket.
 * The working time for every ticket can be counted.
 * Up-coming tasks for a ticket can be defined (pending features).
 * Bulk actions on tickets are possible.
 * Automatic and timed actions on tickets are possible with the "GenericAgent".
 * Full text search on all tickets is possible.


 * System&#58; :
 * OTRS runs on many operating systems (Linux, Solaris, AIX, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Mac OS 10.x, Microsoft Windows).
 * ASP support (active service providing).
 * Linking several objects is possible, e.g. tickets and FAQ entries.
 * Integration of external back-ends for the customer data, e.g. via AD, eDirectory or OpenLDAP.
 * Setting up an own ticket identifier, e.g. Call#, Ticket# or Request#.
 * The integration of your own ticket counter is possible.
 * Support of several database systems for the central OTRS back-end, e.g. MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, DB2).
 * Framework to create stats.
 * utf-8 support for the front- and back-end.
 * Authentication for customers via database, LDAP, HTTPAuth or Radius.
 * Support of user accounts, user groups and roles.
 * Support of different access levels for several systems components or queues.
 * Integration of standard answer texts.
 * Support of sub queues.
 * Different salutations and signatures can be defined for every queue.
 * Email notifications for admins.
 * Information on updates via mail or the web interface.
 * Escalation for tickets.
 * Support for different time zones.
 * Simple integration of own add-ons or applications with the OTRS API.
 * Simple creation of own front-ends, e.g. for X11, console.

Top new features of OTRS 3.0

 * Context : User Centered redesign of the Graphical User Interface which results in a dramatic shift from a comprehensive but static to a more powerful and dynamic application using state-of-the art technologies like Ajax, xHTML and optimized CSS.


 * New Ticket and Article Indicator : This new feature has been implemented on both ticket and article level. It allows an agent at a glance to check for any updates within a ticket or on the article level to check for new and unread articles. You benefit from increased transparency and decreased response times.


 * Optimized Fulltext Search : The new search feature allows you to flexibly customize the way you browse the information base. Options the new search feature provides range from single search-string searches to complex multi-string boolean search operations including various operators. You benefit from fully customizable searches according to your needs.


 * New Ticket Zoom View : The redesign based on Ajax technology allows agents to display complex and linked information structures in real-time while keeping the agents' current working environment. The agent will benefit from increased orientation and increased workflow efficiency.


 * Global Ticket Overviews : Well known from OTRS 2.4 the global ticket overviews have been optimized to achieve increased inter- activity. Depending on the use case and preferences of your agents they can easily change the ticket overviews layout according to their special needs. Options are small, medium and large, each providing a different degree of information details.


 * Accessability : The redesign includes common accessibility standards WCAG and WAI-ARIA which also allows disabled users to better interact with OTRS Help Desk. The US Rehabilitation Acts Section 508 has been fulfilled.


 * New Customer Interface : The customer web front-end can be integrated to your organizations intranet and is fully integrated into the redesigned help desk system.


 * Archive Feature : OTRS 3.0 now offers a new archiving feature. With a separated archive you'll benefit from a reduced time spent for searches and increased display of results.

New features of OTRS 2.4

 * Licensing changed to AGPL Version 3 : Why AGPL instead of GPL? - AGPL and GPL are identical, with one exception: For software used in an SaaS environment Copyleft is effective in AGPL - which is not the case when using GPL. Keeping in mind the growing world of SaaS, ((otrs)) wants to ensure that future developments continue to return to the OTRS community. This is the reason for the switch to AGPL.
 * Why v3 instead of v2? - GPL v2 is getting older and has, especially in the USA, various legal uncertainties. In the opinion of ((otrs)) GPL v3 is keeping the spirit of GPL v2, and at the same time has been tailored to new needs. ((otrs)) views GPLv3, more specifically AGPLv3, as being the best balanced Copyleft Open Source License available today, offering Protection for copyright owners and users and providing the best security under the law.


 * New Management Dashboard : The need for a system-spanning, next to real-time, and personalized presentation of useful information led to an integrated Management Dashboard. It is possible to create plug-ins to display content from individual extensions alongside the standard content. Standard plug-ins are:
 * Ticket volume (new & open) from the last 24h, 48h and 72h
 * Calendar including an overview of upcoming events (escalations, auto-unlocks, etc.)
 * System-wide overview of ticket distribution within the queues
 * First Response Time/Solution Time of Queues
 * Integration of RSS


 * New Standard Reports : The new reports provided with OTRS 2.4 are:
 * Created Tickets
 * Closed Tickets
 * SLA Analysis
 * Required working time per customer / per queue
 * Solution time analysis per customer / per queue
 * Answer time analysis per customer / per queue


 * New Master/Slave Ticket Feature : With the Master/Slave Ticket, it is possible to link multiple tickets of a similar nature, and handle them collectively. As soon as the problem is solved, only the master ticket must be closed. All other tickets will be closed automatically, and the solution text for the master ticket will be sent to all customers of slave tickets.
 * A new link type 'Slave' will be available. All tickets with this Type of link will inherit the following actions from their Master ticket:
 * Status change
 * Email answers
 * Change in FreeText fields
 * Notes
 * Pending time changes
 * Priority changes
 * Owner changes
 * Responsibility changes


 * New Rich-Text/HTML E-Mail Support (WYSIWYG) : With this feature, it is now possible to write e-mails, notes, and notifications in rich text format (HTML format). Using a WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get), it is possible to comfortably write using formatted text and even include in-line pictures.


 * New Out-Of-Office Feature : With this new feature it is possible for all users to activate "out-of-office" to notify colleagues and OTRS of the period of their absence. The out-of-office feature is active for a time frame set by the user. Activation of this feature has the following effects:
 * In the lists in which an agent can be selected as owner or responsible (i.e. Ticket creation or changing ownership), the period of absence and the time till return will be shown behind the user's name. This will help making the absence of the user more transparent.
 * If an agent receives a follow-up during a period of absence, the ticket is automatically unlocked and a notification is sent to all agents in the queue. This allows immediate reaction to the customer follow-up by another service employee.


 * New Ticket Overviews and global Bulk Action : Flexibility of presentation within the ticket overview is a must. Based on the "S/M/L" (Small/Medium/Large) Ticket View every agent has the possibility to change the view for each type of overview (Queue View, Status View, etc) on-the-fly with a simple mouse click on the appropriate icon. This allows for the highest possible level of individualization and adjustment to any operational situation.
 * Additionally, decentralization of the Bulk Action feature integrated the Bulk Action in all ticket overviews (Bulk Action allows processing of multiple tickets at a time).


 * Postmaster Filter recognizes Follow-Ups to internal forwarded messages : Currently, e-mail replies to forwarded articles arrive in OTRS as email-external. The problem is that the answers to these forwarded articles can be seen by the customer in the web- interface. Although it is possible to classify e-mails of an entire domain as email-internal, this only shifts the problem. Also, such step makes it impossible to properly service customers in the domain, as the customer would not be able to track tickets in the customer web-interface any more. With this new feature, e-mail replies can be traced back, and email- internal or email-external will be set based upon the original Forward-Article type.


 * Configurable event based notifications : Until now, a very inflexible notification could be sent to an agents and customers, for example Agent: New Ticket or Customer: Status Change. In order to make the notification system more flexible, a complete overhaul was performed on the messaging mechanism. The new system allows messaging to agents, customers, or a dedicated email address, based on the event taking place.
 * With this, it is now possible to just inform the customer when the ticket has been closed. Or, for example, when a VIP customer creates a ticket, a message can be sent to a specific address. Events (i.e. TicketCreate, TicketStateUpdate, TicketPriorityUpdate, ArticleCreate), and all known message variables (i.e.  ), are freely selectable for creating triggered messages via the web interface.


 * READ-ONLY Permissions and Notifications with watched Tickets : In the current release of OTRS it is possible for a user to maintain a Watched Tickets List. This feature is dealing with tickets marked as "subscribed" by a user. It has the advantage that users no longer lose track of tickets marked as "sub- scribed", and are able to view them on an individual list. The "Read-Only" Feature - Up to now, tickets marked as "sub- scribed" were shown in a list, however, the agent could only actually view them if they were in a queue for which the agent had read permissions. With the "Read-Only" Feature, agents subscribed to a ticket always have read permissions on the ticket, even if the ticket is moved to a queue where the agent has no permissions. "Notify" Feature - Via a personalized setting, every agent can define whether or not to receive notifications about tickets, just as the owner and responsible of a ticket would receive. This allows for active tracking of watched tickets.


 * Secure SMTP : OTRS can receive and send mails in multiple ways. All currently available methods for receiving emails have been implemented within OTRS 2.3 (POP3,POP3S,IMAP,IMAPS). Until now, there were two options for sending emails: using a local MTA (Sendmail, Postfix, etc.) or per SMTP. In OTRS 2.4.x, SMTPS (Secure SMTP) has been implemented in order to keep up to the growing security standards.

New features of OTRS 2.3

 * Performance :
 * Data base- and code-improvements increase lead to a general performance gain of up to 20%.
 * The support of an indexed full text search has been added. The feature is disabled per default because additional disc space is needed. The expected performance gain is 50%.
 * Reduced reloads by using AJAX technology.
 * Instead of an ongoing recalculating of the escalation time during run time, it is only recalculated when it changes due to an event in OTRS. It is then being stored in the ticket object which allows a direct access of external reporting tools to the data base as well as a more efficient reporting on escalations. This will also lead into a substantial performance improvement.


 * Search functionality :
 * Support of logical expressions: ticket-, customer- and FAQ- search supports logical expressions, utilizing the AND, OR and ! operators as well as structuring expressions with parentheses.
 * Search for ticket numbers by using the Browser OpenSearch feature (OpenSearch format).
 * Search for ticket titles in the agent ticket search form and in the generic agent.
 * Search for ticket close time in the agent ticket search form and in the generic agent.


 * Ticket zoom and ticket move :
 * Expand/Collapse of articles: the article view can be expanded to display all articles at once. The current article will remain in focus, and the preceding, or following articles will be displayed.
 * Structured article tree - The article tree has been changed to a table.
 * Printing of articles has been realized.
 * The ticket title of linked tickets are displayed in case of a mouse over action.
 * Merged tickets are displayed crossed out.
 * Multiple files can be attached while moving a ticket using the ticket move mask.


 * Ticket FreeText and FreeTime opportunities :
 * When splitting a ticket, all FreeText and Free Time data will be copied to the new ticket.
 * Ticket Free Time fields can be declared as mandatory.
 * A URL can be configured that takes the value of a FreeText field and displays it as an URL link in the ticket.
 * Added X-OTRS-TicketTime and X-OTRS-FollowUp-TicketTime email headers.


 * IMAP, IMAPS and POP3S support :
 * With OTRS 2.3 additionally to POP3, POP3S, IMAP and IMAPS is supported to fetch mails from your MTA.


 * Security :
 * In case of a lost password, OTRS is sending an e-mail to the user with a "password reset link". After clicking this link the new password is sent to the user in a second e-mail.


 * Notifications and escalations :
 * All agents that have a read permission on a certain queue can be selected for notification.
 * An escalation view has been added that displays all tickets sorted by their remaining time to escalation.

New features of OTRS 2.2

 * Support of Services and SLAs : As major step towards IT Service Management OTRS 2.2 brings in the new attributes 'Service' and 'Service Level Agreements (SLA)'. While creating a new ticket a service requester has to select both a service (e. g. email-service) and a related SLA . SLA attributes are "response time", "update time" and "solution time". These attributes are used by the IT Service Organization for notification and escalation purposes in order to keep the agreed SLA. Service- and SLA-related informations within incoming email headers might also be used by the Postmaster-Filter as already known before.


 * Support of native ticket types : Ticket types can now be managed over the admin interface. You do not longer need to use ticket free text field for this purpose. Installations which already use a ticket free text field for ticket type classification do not need to migrate. This feature will also be shown in zoom and print view for agents and customers and can be changed via the agent interface.


 * Support of multiple authentication backends : Added support of multi authentication feature for agent and customer backend. By using this feature it is now possible to use multiple trusted authentication sources (i.e. use LDAP as a first source for authentication and in case of an unsuccessful authentication try a SQL DB as a second source).


 * Support of different password crypt types : Supported and permitted password authentication types for agent and/or customer login are:
 * unix_crypt
 * md5
 * plain
 * Default is 'unix_crypt'. The administrator can easily switch from unix_crypt to md5 on the fly by changing the related configuration parameter.


 * Changed OTRS internal CustomerUser structure : Customer datas (CustomerUser) are restructured and split into the objects "CustomerCompany" and "CustomerUser" within the internal OTRS database. Company related attributes like company name and address will be managed separately from those attributes related to a single contact (e.g. first name, surname, phone etc.).
 * This information will be shown in zoom and print like the current customer info.


 * Enhanced OPM-Format : OPM Packages are now delivered with an additional on-line help. The introduction page will inform the user about new features and will also give a short overview about the next steps to do after having installed the packages.


 * PostMaster-Admin-Interface : The improvement has lead to a more detailed definition of those email addresses which have to be matched by PostMaster filter.


 * SysConfig Improvement : A quicker page view and page saving leads to essential time savings during configuration process.

New features of OTRS 2.1

 * Stable Support of Microsoft SQL Server : starting this version OTRS offers an interface to MS SQL Server databases. OTRS supports all popular operating systems like Linux, Windows, UNIX, Mac OS X etc. as well as all major databases like MS SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle and DB2.


 * Multi-Calendar Function : This Feature simplifies working in distributed surroundings. National teams are supported by permitting different local working schedules and public holiday regulations. International organizations are additionally supported by a time-zone feature.


 * New Statistics-Framework : Gain access and define your Reports- and Statistics in a more flexible way than ever. A powerful and easy to use Wizard will guide you through the process. Once defined OTRS may deliver periodically needed Reports automatically to a predefined Mailing List. Export- and Import functions allow to transfer Statistics between different OTRS Installations. So you can define and test your Statistics before loading them up to your production System.


 * Optimized Synchronization of authorizations from LDAP-Directory Services : That simplifies the connection of all known LDAP-Directory Services like Microsoft Active Directory, OpenLDAP, Novell eDirectory, Oracle Internet Directory, etc. A useful Feature which saves time and effort of maintaining authorizations in the local Database of OTRS.


 * PDF-Generator : OTRS now supports the Output of Reports and Statistics as well as the results of a ticket search and ticket zoom in the PDF-Format.


 * New implemented Knowledge Database / FAQ-Module : OTRS makes allowance for the need of an efficient Knowledge Management within daily Service Request handling. Fundamental in this context is a quick access towards existing problem-solving Know-How and standardized answers. Advantages: optimized search-functions, more effective administration of FAQ-Articles, faster Navigation and opportunities to rate an existing FAQ-Article.


 * Tracking of Sub-orders and Support of hierarchical Team-Structures : New Features like the Ticket Supervisor and the Ticket Watchers support working within hierarchical Teams and enable you to define and depute Work packages temporarily to another Service Agent. While the Ticket Supervisor enables authorized Team members to depute a Ticket to another Service Agent without loosing the right to edit this ticket the Ticket Watcher allows you to track a ticket passive on the basis of an individual watch list.


 * Optimized Follow-Up-Detection : In addition to the subject heading, OTRS also checks for referable ticket numbers inside the Email-body and further attachments. This new feature aims to automatically assign an incoming Service Request to an existing Incident much faster than before.