Release Note
OTRS 2024.2.8
March 25, 2024 —OTRS Group, the leading global provider of the OTRS Service Management Suite, including the fully managed OTRS solution and the ITIL® 4 compliant IT service management software OTRS::ITSM, today announces the release of OTRS 2024.2.
As we had an additional important change, we directly build the next version 2024.2 for you.
Additional information for support of Elasticsearch version 8.
The support for Elasticsearch version 8 will be included in the next build of OTRS.
With this next release, the support for Elasticsearch version 6 ends and you need to upgrade.
Improvements
New automatic time accounting feature.
It is possible to activate or deactivate this feature via SysConfig option AgentFrontend::AutoTimeAccountingActive.
When it is enabled, there is an automatic time accounting timer on create and detail view screens. For create screen (Phone, Email, Process):
For the detail view screen of the ticket timer is positioned next to the scroll nav bar:
The value of this timer is also added to accounted time field. It is possible to pause the timer which enables manual editing of the field.
There is group control via SyscConfig
AgentFrontend::AutoTimeAccounting::WhiteListGroups for the feature and setting AgentFrontend::AutoTimeAccounting::ThresholdRed and AgentFrontend::AutoTimeAccounting::ThresholdYellow which regulates thresholds for the timer colors.
In the DB values are saved based on UserID and TicketID pairs so accounted times are preserved even on closing session.
Additionally, when this feature is enabled, display of Accounted Time in detail view screen is in the following format HH::MM::SS. All values saved in the ticket for accounted time is in seconds.
Improve performance of widget “Queue Metrics”.
Description of Changes
Optimize and move the generation of Queue Overview report to a background task.
New Possibilities and Benefits
Because the report might take a long time to be generated, offloading it to an external process makes the web process free to respond to other requests.
Empty article directories are now removed.
Description of Changes
Empty article directories on FileStorage are now removed.
New Possibilities and Benefits
Adds the function that when article folders are removed, the backup strategy on OTRS can now properly decide if a folder is intentionally empty or not.
Improved field explanation in queue management screen.
Description of Changes
The current field explanation mentions open state type only, but open state can be changed in Ticket::UnlockStateType. The explanation text is improved by adding the relevant system configuration.
Split signature from body and make it editable.
Description of Changes
Signatures were in some places, but not all, in a separate field from the body.
We now make sure it is always separated from the body, but we also make it editable. Before they were read only.
New Possibilities and Benefits
Every agent can now customize the signature on every communication screen.
Console command to set credentials validity.
Description of Changes
New console command to set credentials validity.
Admin::Credentials::Validity
New Possibilities and Benefits
When the migration script fails because of credentials errors, we can now set those credentials to invalid so we can continue to migrate the system.
Usage:
otrs.Console.pl Admin::Credential::Validity –id … –validity …
Added the possibility to set mail headers on outgoing mails for further mail handling.
Description of Changes
With the new setting Sendmail::Template it is possible to set which ticket attributes should be written to specific mail headers.
New Possibilities and Benefits
With this new functionality, it is possible to process mails even more detailed in a connected mailserver setup. E.g. you could set up routing based on a queue a ticket was in and apply any rules you need in your mailserver.
Improved attachment handling in webservice debugger.
Description of Changes
Attachments are truncated to a readable size in the webservice debugger.
New Possibilities and Benefits
Attachments are often polluting the webservice debugger and make it challenging to debug a webservice. This functionality keeps the debugger cleaner and maintainable.
Example:
‘Content’ => ‘/9j/4TWDRXhpZgAATU0AKgAAAAgACgEPAAIAAAAGAAAAhgEQAA… [Truncated]’,
Merged OTRSCreditCardFilter into framework.
Possibilities and Benefits
This functionality allows you to remove credit card information from articles to be shown. The standard credit card formats are already implemented.
Merged OTRSAutomaticStartOfProcesses into framework.
Possibilities and Benefits
This functionality allows you to define time-based triggers to create a process ticket and run a process as usual.
Merged OTRSAdvancedGenericAgent into framework.
Possibilities and Benefits
this functionality allows you to set date and date time ticket attributes in the genericagent in a relative manner. E.g., you could set a dynamicfield for a due date to “now plus 2 weeks” when moved to a specific queue.
Merged OTRSLDAPPasswordNotifications into framework.
Possibilities and Benefits
This feature will inform an agent or customer user with a hint when the user’s LDAP password is about to expire. Additionally, a link to a page to change the password is possible.
This function is only available when the backend for authentication is LDAP, and the LDAP provides an attribute about the expiring password.
Merged OTRSRestorePendingInformation.
Possibilities and Benefits
When a ticket has a set pending time and a follow-up will set the ticket to open again, the pre-set pending time is automatically preset when an agent sets a pending state, so the old pending time gets preserved.
Merged OTRSSystemconfigurationHistory into framework.
Possibilities and Benefits
This function allows an OTRS administrator to restore and monitor all changes made to all system configuration settings.
Merged OTRSProcessManagementArticleEmail into framework.
New Possibilities and Benefits
This function allows an administrator to also allow articles of communication channel email to be used in process dialogs. This enables a process to be used to send mail.
This channel for an article can now easily chosen in the process configuration.
Merged OTRSDeleteAttachments into framework.
Possibilities and Benefits
By deleting attachments of closed tickets, this function allows you to remove this data for assorted reasons. By configuration, you can choose how long a ticket must be closed and what attachments (types) should be deleted. Additionally, a filter by queue is possible.
Merged OTRSOutOfOffice into framework.
Possibilities and Benefits
By adding a postmaster filter to set a specific header, you can filter out unwanted out-of-office mails which would reopen, and lock tickets already closed. The filter can be set by any rule you need. Mails matching this filter will be added to the ticket as a normal follow up but will not change the lock or status of a ticket.
Fixed Defects
Missing thirdparty dependencies.
On some OTRS systems, check environment script shows that not all dependencies are installed correctly:
Mojolicious::Plugin::Status……Not all prerequisites for this module are correctly installed.
Fix Description
Extended otrs.CheckEnvironment.pl script, it makes sure that BSD::Resource and File::Map are installed.
“There is new data available. Click to Refresh” illegible in dark mode.
Defect Summary
On dark themes, the refresh notification was too dark to see the notification.
Fix Description
The legibility of dark themes has been improved.
Activity dialogues with non-mandatory article field creates an empty article.
Defect Summary
If activity dialogue (in process management) does not contain mandatory article field and the user does not write anything in Subject or Body, then an empty article is created.
Fix Description
Article will be created only if there is Subject/Body or attachment.
List data failed when having invalid dynamicfields in forms.
Defect Summary
Red box error and/or empty ticket list when using an invalid dynamic field.
Fix Description
Ignoring invalid dynamic fields.
Changed the display rule for the statistics y-axis legend to display none.
Defect Summary
In dark mode in statistics preview, the y-axis has unnecessary dots instead of a legend, which is not needed.
Fix Description
The legend of the y-axis is now hidden.
Ticket type and service are not translated in some places.
Defect Summary
In a couple of places, the ticket type and service are not translated.
Fix Description
Enable the translation mechanism and split the service name by translating every piece individually.
Column headers are hard to read in high-contrast or dark mode.
Defect Summary
When using dark mode or specific high-contrast skins some table column headers are hard to read.
Fix Description
Simplified the color scheme, and now we use the same color.
Adding new FAQ not possible if FAQ::MultiLanguage is disabled.
Defect Summary
Adding new FAQ not possible if FAQ::MultiLanguage is disabled.
Fix Description
Choose the correct key for the default value on the Language list. Now FAQ/KBA can be created properly.
Avatar image on the External Interface can expand on the whole screen.
Defect Summary
The avatar image was big if you upload a huge image.
Fix Description
Added max-width.
Improved the description on queue fields in forms.
Defect Summary
The explanation for the queue input field was too short and a bit misleading.
Fix Description
Enhanced the description to:
Queues are used to assign tickets to the responsible group of people (e.g. team, department, group).
Webservice returned no result body.
Defect Summary
The administrator did not see the actual error message when a SOAP call returned no XML, but also no error code.
Fix Description
Append the error message to the end of the message.
Elasticsearch Email bug.
Defect Summary
When the document search backend is having an issue at the exact moment an incoming mail is processed, this will lead to an empty ticket without an article. The mail will be reprocessed, and an additional correct ticket will be created.
Fix Description
Handling of incoming mails is made independent of the document search backend.
Queue and service name full path displayed.
Defect Summary
In the ticket list when having a queue-sub queue-structure the whole sub queue structure was displayed. Like (Queue A Sub Queue B)..
Fix Description
The queue name is now shown properly, and the complete path is shown on hover, as it was also in former versions of OTRS.
Admin package page – Widget-Title needs to be adjusted.
Defect Summary
Admin interface package manager – the widget title referring to the FAOs is not up to date.
Fix Description
Changed wording.
Document Search: Search Overlay: active filters are not visually shown.
Defect Summary
When the filters or presets are present the colored orange dot is missing to indicate this.
Fix Description
Added the correct computed property.
Browser Support
- JavaScript is required to use OTRS.
We recommend using the latest version of your browser because it has the best JavaScript and rendering performance. Dramatically performance varieties between the used browsers can occur with big data or big systems. We are happy to consult you on that matter.
Notes:
- Support for Internet Explorer will be discontinued in the future. This will be communicated in a separate announcement.
OTRS Group managed customers who are using product versions that are reaching end of maintenance and support must be updated by our Customer Solution Team by scheduling an individual maintenance appointment in order to continue receiving necessary releases and support. OTRS On-Premise customers must obtain a newer product version by ordering our migration services.