When you configure a mailbox, you can configure FogBugz to reply automatically to incoming email. This is the only instance in which FogBugz can be configured to send an automatic message to an outside party (a user without a FogBugz account). FogBugz will not send automated emails when a case is resolved or closed. We believe it should be your choice as to how to communicate this status to your customers, and that communicating automatically might cause more harm than good.
If you are sending an automatic reply, you can include the following variables in the message or subject line. The placeholder will be substituted with the appropriate value when the message is sent:
| {case} | the case ID number |
|---|---|
| {sender} | the sender's email address |
| {subject} | the subject of the incoming message |
| {ticket} | the external customer reference number to this case; includes a random password for security |
| {url} | the URL of the FogBugz install |
| {ticketurl} | a link the customer can use to check the status of their case |
| {fullname} | the full name associated with this mailbox |
| {email} | the email address associated with this mailbox |
No matter what you do, the outgoing subject must include (Case {case}), because that will insure that if the customer replies to the autoreply, their reply will be appended to the same case instead of opening a new one. In this case, FogBugz will not send an auto-reply, as the correspondent has already had confirmation of this particular case reaching the system.
FogBugz will not send auto-reponses to messages categorized as spam.
Also, to prevent mail loops, FogBugz will not automatically reply if any of the following is true:
FogBugz will not automatically reply to the same email address more than three times in one hour.