Save replies to existing ticket?

[patriotaki]

Environment (please complete the following information):

• PHP IMAP version: [latest?not sure]
• PHP Version: [7.4.33]
• Type of execution: [Apache]

Your Text
Hello,

How can I map a reply with an existing email? I am trying to create a basic support ticketing system, lets say for example an email is sent to test@example.com, when the cron job executes a new ticket is being created in my web app and I reply through my system. If the user replies back through his email client, how can I detect it and add it as a reply and not as a new ticket?

[Sebbo94BY]

Hello @patriotaki,
I had the same use-case and question a few years ago. 😅

Each email has an unique Message-ID. Those must be referenced in all related emails of the same email thread/conversation. So your ticket system needs to store each single Message-ID to be able to reply to them in order to build the email thread/conversation.

I've shared my solution on Stackoverflow in the past. It also includes an example based on Laravel. You might want to check it out: https://stackoverflow.com/a/50768215/2966991

[patriotaki]

Hello @Sebi94nbg
thank you for the reply.
From what I see the messageId is only present in replies? and not in the first email that is being sent?

[Sebbo94BY]

@patriotaki Usually, every email has a Message-ID.

However, RFC 2822 3.6.4 Identification fields specifies, that every email (message) SHOULD have it:

Though optional, every message SHOULD have a "Message-ID:" field.

So if an email has a Message-ID or not, depends on the software, which sent the email.

I personally don't know any case, where this header is not set / available. In my cases it was always available / set.

In worst case, your ticket system should be able to handle incoming emails without this header field.

[patriotaki]

@Sebi94nbg hmm thats weird, emails that are sent from gmail do not have a message ID in my tests

I am trying to find the correct logic of how ticket system should work. I guess that everytime that a ticket is created (either by form or by email) a unique message id must be generated by the software (me) that should be included in the reply-email (when a staff/admin replies). This way when the user replies through the email client ill be able to "detect" that its a reply to that specific email.

So in conclusion all emails that are sent by the software (me) should have a unique message id generated by the software (me), even if the initial sender does not have a message id?

Is my understanding correct?

[Sebbo94BY]

Are you sure? I've just sent an email from a Gmail business account to myself and it had a Message-ID. The private Gmail stuff usually behaves identical. I've found an old email from a private Gmail account and I also could find it there.

As written: The Message-IDs are the way to go. That's a RFC standard and usually also used by email clients for building the email threads/conversations. Also Gmail uses those therefore.

Yes, your ticket system needs to set for each sending email the header field Message-ID with an unique value.

Additional, if its a reply to an existing email thread/conversation, you also need to set ALL Message-IDs of the previous emails in the References header field.

Just as my $this->withSwiftMessage(function ($swiftmessage) { ... } on Stackoverflow shows it: https://stackoverflow.com/a/50768215/2966991 :)

[patriotaki]

@Sebi94nbg Yes, i've tried multiple times, message id is always empty, unless i am not using the correct code.
This is the output
Image: https://monosnap.com/file/yHXbdxfEZUn8OwyvMh3FJ8C9moBArz

code:
echo 'from-name: '.(string) ($email->fromName ?? $email->fromAddress)."\n"; echo 'from-email: '.(string) $email->fromAddress."\n"; echo 'to: '.(string) $email->toString."\n"; echo 'subject: '.(string) $email->subject."\n"; echo 'message_id: '.(string) $email->messageId."\n";

[Sebbo94BY]

Ah, using this library, ok. But in a mail client, you should see it.

Can you find it in $email->headersRaw? If yes: Can you please provide your censored headers, so that I can debug and fix it, if necessary?

[patriotaki]

@Sebi94nbg Message id is still empty in headersRaw

h=to:subject:message-id:date:from:mime-version:from:to:cc:subject :date:message-id:reply-to;
followed by a long string, unless the values are encoded in that long string?

[Sebbo94BY]

headersRaw should return you a huge text block with all available headers. It should simply contain the headers in the raw format. Unchanged from this library.

See

• https://github.com/barbushin/php-imap/blob/master/src/PhpImap/Mailbox.php#L1123-L1127
• https://github.com/barbushin/php-imap/blob/master/src/PhpImap/Mailbox.php#L1172

If you don't even get this, then you probably have a different problem. How does your code look like?

Did you also check the email headers in Gmail? There you should see a Message-ID. Click on "Show original" at the three dots on the right side within an open email.

[patriotaki]

The message id is visible in the gmail when clicking show original
code sample below:

`

            $user = $department_value["email"];
	$host = $department_value["imap_host"];
	$port = $department_value["imap_port"];
	$pass = $department_value["imap_password"];
	$auth = $department_value["imap_secure"];

	if($user!="" && $host!="" && $pass!="" && $port!="" && $auth!="")
	{
		$host_splitted = explode($host, ".");
		$host_s = "";
		if(count($host_splitted)>2){
			$host_s = "{".$host;
		}
		else
		{
			$host_s = "{mail.".$host;
		}
		
		$auth_s = "";
		if($auth=="ssl")
		{
			$auth_s = "/ssl/novalidate-cert";
		}
		else
		{
			$auth_s = "";
		}
		
		$mailbox = new PhpImap\Mailbox(
			$host_s.':'.$port.$auth_s.'}INBOX', // IMAP server and mailbox folder
			$user, // Username for the before configured mailbox
			$pass, // Password for the before configured username
		);
					
		try {
    $mail_ids = $mailbox->searchMailbox('ALL');
	} catch (ConnectionException $ex) {
		echo $ex->getErrors('first');
		continue;

	} catch (Exception $ex) {
		echo $ex->getMessage();
		continue;

	}

		foreach ($mail_ids as $mail_id)
		{
    echo "+------ P A R S I N G ------+<br>";

    $email = $mailbox->getMail(
        $mail_id, // ID of the email, you want to get
        false // Do NOT mark emails as seen (optional)
    );
    echo 'from-name: '.(string) ($email->fromName ?? $email->fromAddress)."<br>";
    echo 'from-email: '.(string) $email->fromAddress."<br>";
    echo 'to: '.(string) $email->toString."<br>";
    echo 'subject: '.(string) $email->subject."<br>";
    echo 'message_id: '.(string) $email->messageId."<br>";`

[Sebbo94BY]

Mhmm, looks good in general. I can't see anything, what could cause the issue. But I also can't see your full code, so the issue might be somewhere else. You're using continue within the try-catch block, but this will only work in loops, which I can't see there.

Also checking the variables, if they are empty or not is not really necessary - the connection attempt would throw either a connection exception or authentication failure, which can be catched. If you really want to check them, you may also rather want to use something like !empty(trim($user)) to be sure, that it's empty or not.

When you add a echo 'headers_raw: '.(string) $email->headersRaw."<br>"; under your PARSING code, you should see the respective headers as they are fetched by the PHP IMAP function(s). If the Message-ID is already missing there, then this is probably an issue of your specific used PHP version or your code.

Please also ensure, that you're using the latest version https://github.com/barbushin/php-imap/releases/tag/5.0.1 of this library and try it again. This also works with PHP 7.4, which you use.

[patriotaki]

@Sebi94nbg
Yes, the process is in a loop thus the keyword continue

this is the a partial result of headersRaw() , as far as I can see there is no message-id, I've tried other email clients but again no message-id. I haven't included the whole header because no where else the word message-id was present.
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20210112; h=to:subject:message-id:date:from:mime-version:from:to:cc:subject :date:message-id:reply-to; bh=B4CVInUWzAN/Ra9i2OOtLCnYKxsQpMggMCNQN6FAjAs=; b=A3K7rCwbDUUBYWzlVgDf8cxLVZ3opsJcsrJp5uXMeTd+Px+vAFfXO4IdQ+fS2yrVK Idddt/B3sYZI6qL6MBIWFCA2mwlqDXb0sc9cveEANwfwAFMPkQzBqxqNw3fOTKC0Plc5 XCG0aONdp6Dbr9gDde0imyhhzbNxXPd4u0uckA9Ci1h7nPRic+Zr6gyEpqAwKmE1APg cgulkDaC0aw9XZdpnUfRbEXVNw55C4D1TRwYLzSRFbaxm0OngFlPlxjPXsp5arITD8Vm r4aSYcDBKyrrJTnQvJg1viWH+nI5QDg4mMtBX4zhJvXRXp0pAfODrLZMxolVq+5JS/D NP/Q== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20210112; h=to:subject:message-id:date:from:mime-version:x-gm-message-state :from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id:reply-to; bh=B4CVInUWzAN/Ra9i2OOtLCnYKxsQpMggMCNQN6FAjAs=; b=HhSa+ouevUgP3ub/nkX/dg0s3HlKwh9dRTOPfVOt6O7cFwJI5KVke9prz8QxkoKIa kT0J73hAssvsOKIdKE+C0lBJdhQmD4fo+6KXmGz5hl2teK6q8/PGEeI0KMj4NxSlLVot W99jnBsFPQ/lwonzTpklrduQDic5BOeaNXyc+SlF5QGXAmk2PHXXFNy+E5lKK7GR0g uOK3EY4+3tVLRBOgszmGsnZz2TfaeQ+hGwfgngGLjqTJwcdI7GshPtplx9JnTL1LtiVh cFIE6YadsQkYFKwQK9qhvmF61zBzsJ6AkqFcTXc31IKciEfVUStYkvrV1ucalVPLQlj tcvg==

[patriotaki]

@Sebi94nbg
PS: I tried Outlook email, and still no message ID

[patriotaki]

@Sebi94nbg sorry for bumping, just want to know if this is a "global" issue or is isolated to my code only?
I haven't figured it out yet, messageID is always empty

[Sebbo94BY]

I‘ve also asked this myself. I need to test it. But due to christmas and my main work, I had no time to test it yet. Am 15.12.2022 um 09:43 schrieb patriotaki ***@***.***>: @Sebi94nbg sorry for bumping, just want to know if this is a "global" issue or is isolated to my code only? I haven't figured it out yet, messageID is always empty —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[patriotaki]

Great, let me know once you have more information.
Enjoy your holidays.

I‘ve also asked this myself. I need to test it. But due to christmas and my main work, I had no time to test it yet.

[patriotaki]

Hi @Sebi94nbg ,

Happy new year!

from what I can see I am not the only one with an empty message id in header response (see headers from issue #698)
seems like a bug, is there any ETA of when this will be fixed? It's kinda urgent for me so if there are there any workarounds that I can do to get the message id please let me know.