10.1: Send an automatic confirmation on new tickets using automations

[jstanden]

Introduction

The Cerb 10.1 update introduces a mail.received event to simplify automations that react to new inbound messages.

In this guide, we'll use the event to create an automatic reply for confirming new tickets.

Creating an auto-reply automation

Navigate to Search >> Automation Events.

Edit the mail.received event.

Click the 'magic wand' icon above the editor:

Select Auto-reply from the Generate an automation list.

Click the blue Continue button.

The prefix of the automation name is randomly generated. You can replace it with something unique to your organization:

Click the blue Continue button.

The new auto-reply automation is automatically configured for you on the mail.received event for inbound messages that open a new ticket.

Before saving the event you can customize the auto-reply email.

Hold CMD (Mac) or CTRL (Windows/Linux) and click on the cerb:automation:example.mail.received.autoReply text in the editor. Then click Edit at the top of the card popup.

This is the auto-reply automation by default:

start:
  # Don't send auto-replies to automated senders
  outcome/isAutoSender:
    if@bool:
      {{
        message_sender_email is prefixed ('postmaster@','mailer-daemon@')
        or message_headers['auto-submitted'] is prefixed ('auto-')
        or message_headers['precedence'] == 'bulk'
        or message_headers['preference'] == 'auto_reply'
        or message_headers['x-precedence']
        or message_headers['x-autorespond']
        or message_headers['x-autogenerated']
        or message_headers['x-autoreply-from']
        or 'all' == message_headers['x-auto-response-suppress']|lower
        or 'autoreply' in message_headers['x-auto-response-suppress']|lower
        or 'out of office' in message_headers['subject']|lower
        or 'out of the office' in message_headers['subject']|lower
      }}    
    then:
      return:
  
  # See: https://cerb.ai/docs/automations/commands/record.create/
  record.create/draft:
    output: new_draft
    inputs:
      record_type: draft
      # See: https://cerb.ai/docs/records/types/draft/#records-api
      fields:
        type: mail.transactional
        name: Auto-reply to {{message_sender_email}}
        to: {{message_sender_email}}
        is_queued: 1
        queue_delivery_date@date: now
        params:
          to: {{message_sender_email}}
          from: support@cerb.example
          subject: Auto-Reply: {{message_ticket_subject}}
          headers:
            Auto-Submitted: auto-replied
            Precedence: bulk
          content@text:
            Thanks for writing!
            
            Your reference number is #{{message_ticket_mask}}.

In outcome/isAutoSender the automation first checks if the new message was sent by an automated sender (an auto-reply, newsletter, bounce, etc). If so, it uses return: to exit early without sending an email.

If the new message didn't self-identify as an automated sender, the automation creates a new mail.transactional draft record to send back to the message sender. Transactional messages are not stored in the ticket conversation. This draft is queued for immediate delivery.

You can edit start:record.create/draft:inputs:fields:params: to modify the from:, subject:, and content: of the auto-reply email.

You can test the automation by targeting a message in the Inputs: panel.

message__context: message
message_id: 1

Prior to testing, you may want to temporarily disable the Mail Queue job in Setup >> Configure >> Scheduler. This will prevent your message from being sent until you review it. Remember to re-enable the job after you're done or no other queued mail will be sent.

You'll find the queued auto-reply draft in Search >> Drafts. You can either delete it or let it send.

Once you're satisfied with the changes, click the Save Changes button on the popups for both the automation and the event.

You can also test with a new inbound message from Setup >> Mail >> Incoming >> Import by pasting a message like the following:

From: customer@cerb.example
To: support@cerb.example
Subject: This is a test subject.

This is a test message.

And clicking the Import button.

You should see a corresponding auto-reply in Search >> Drafts.

If you want to confirm that inbound replies to existing tickets don't create an auto-reply, you can import a message like:

From: customer@cerb.example
To: support@cerb.example
Subject: [#ABC-12345-678] This is a reply.

This is a reply message.

Where ABC-12345-678 above is an existing ticket mask in your system.

Conclusion

You now know how to create an automatic reply in response to inbound messages. This event can be used for any action -- Slack notifications about new mail from important clients, etc.

[mryanb]

What is the best way to put the message content into a template so that other workers could adjust without going into the automation?

[jstanden]

We handled that with behaviors previously using role-owned snippets, along with the 'Set placeholder with snippet' action.

Automations could use something similar. You can load a snippet's content from an automation; but we probably need a simpler way to use an arbitrary dictionary for placeholder substitution.

If you want to make up your own placeholders, then you could use a custom record, a custom fieldset on the automation, etc. An interaction on the automation profile/card could update it.

Filed as: jstanden/cerb#1511

[jstanden]

This is possible in recent versions with the kata.parse: command: https://cerb.ai/docs/automations/commands/kata.parse/

The 10.5 release has a workflow template that uses this approach:

workflow:
  name: cerb.auto_responder
  version@date: 2024-10-07T00:00:00Z
  description: Send an automatic response when new tickets are opened
  requirements:
    cerb_version: >=10.5 <11.0
    cerb_plugins: cerberusweb.core,

records:
  snippet/snippet_autoresponder:
    updatePolicy@csv:
    fields:
      title: Ticket Auto-Response
      context: cerberusweb.contexts.ticket
      owner__context: app
      owner_id: 0
      content@raw:
        Thanks for contacting us! We'll get back to you as soon as possible.

        Reference #: {{mask}}
        Subject: {{subject}}

  automation/automation_autoresponder:
    fields:
      name: cerb.autoResponder.mailReceived
      extension_id: cerb.trigger.mail.received
      script@raw:
        start:
          set:
            snippet__context: snippet
            snippet_id: {{cerb_workflow_resources('cerb.auto_responder')['records']['snippet/snippet_autoresponder']}}

          kata.parse:
            output: results
            inputs:
              kata:
                template: {{snippet_content}}
              dict@json:
                {% do message_ticket_ %}
                {{cerb_placeholders_list('message_ticket_', '')|json_encode}}

          record.create:
            output: new_draft
            inputs:
              record_type: draft
              fields:
                name: Auto-Response
                type: ticket.reply
                ticket_id: {{message_ticket_id}}
                is_queued: 1
                queue_delivery_date@date: 5 mins
                to: {{message_sender_address}}
                params:
                  to: {{message_sender_address}}
                  subject: [#{{message_ticket_mask}}] {{message_ticket_subject}}
                  headers:
                    In-Reply-To@optional: {{message_headers['in-reply-to']}}
                    Auto-Submitted: auto-replied
                  content: {{results.template}}
      policy_kata@raw:
        commands:
          record.create:
            deny/type@bool: {{inputs.record_type is not record type ('draft')}}
            allow@bool: yes

  automation_event_listener/listener_mail_received:
    fields:
      name: Email Auto-Responder
      event_name: mail.received
      priority: 10
      is_disabled: 0
      event_kata@raw:
        automation/autoresponder:
          uri: cerb:automation:cerb.autoResponder.mailReceived
          # Exclude automated senders
          disabled@bool:
            {{
              not is_new_ticket
              or message_sender_is_banned
              or message_sender_is_defunct
              or message_sender_address is pattern (
                'mailer-daemon@*',
                'postmaster@*',
                'noreply@*',
                'no-reply@*',
              )
              or message_headers['auto-submitted']
              or message_headers['x-autogenerated']
              or message_headers['x-autoreply']
              or message_headers['x-autoreply-from']
              or message_headers['x-autorespond']
              or 'auto_reply' == message_headers['x-precedence']
              or 'auto_reply' == message_headers['preference']
              or 'bulk' == message_headers['precedence']
              or message_ticket_subject is pattern (
                '*out of the office*',
                '*out of office*',
                '*auto response*',
                '*autoreply*',
              )
            }}