[otrs] Display Queue and Status of Linked Items

10 Feb 2010

      Here is another FYI tip and a methodology question.

In the Ticket Zoom view, we quite often have Linked items (Parent tickets,
Child tickets, Normal, etc).  Unfortunately, the default view simply shows
the ticket number of those linked objects.  To get any information about
those linked objects, you actually have to click on them.

This is a big productivity drain for our group.  In order to know what to do
with a parent ticket, they need to know the status of all child tickets.
 So, they are forced to click into each child and back to the parent over
and over.  Once they finally know the status of all the child tickets, they
can set the state of the parent.  Needless to say, that wastes lots of time
and causes the occasional accident where someone is still on a child when
they change the status of what they THINK is the parent.

I've solved this problem by modifying Kernel/Output/HTML/LinkObjectTicket.pm
to display not just the ticket number, but also the queue and ticket status
of any linked objects.

File : Kernel/Output/HTML/LinkObjectTicket.pm
Function : TableCreateSimple
Lines : Starting at 324
Original:
---------------------------------------------
                # define item data
                my %Item = (
                    Type    => 'Link',
                    Content => 'T:' . $Ticket->{TicketNumber},
                    Title   => "$TicketHook$Ticket->{TicketNumber}:
$Ticket->{Title}",
                    Link    =>
'$Env{"Baselink"}Action=AgentTicketZoom&TicketID=' . $TicketID,
                    Css     => $Css,
---------------------------------------------

New :
---------------------------------------------
                # define item data
                my %Item = (
                    Type    => 'Link',
                    Content =>  $Ticket->{TicketNumber} . ' - ' .
$Ticket->{Queue} . ' : ' . $Ticket->{State};,
                    Title   => "$TicketHook$Ticket->{TicketNumber}:
$Ticket->{Title}",
                    Link    =>
'$Env{"Baselink"}Action=AgentTicketZoom&TicketID=' . $TicketID,
                    Css     => $Css,
                );
---------------------------------------------

Okay, that was a lot of explanation and code.  Now, I have a question.  Am I
going about these changes properly?  When working with .dtl template files,
it's easy to ensure they aren't overridden by updates / upgrades because I
put them in my own template directory.  However, LinkObjectTicket.pm is a
core file.  The next time I upgrade, those changes will get overridden.  Is
there any way for me to create changes like this and ensure they are blown
out by the next update?  Is there some way to extend each file so that I
simply override the functionality similar to the OOO approach?

Thanks,
Justin Noel
Calendee LLC http://www.calendee.com