Forwarded email into Service Desk should create a useful issue
Problem to solve
Users email the service desk simply with a forward of an issue or one item we should action on. The issue is only created with the message body, which can be blank. So all we get is a subject line.
Further details
I can see why you strip out all replies from emails, the gitlab noise in comments would be unmanageable to keep those in, and redundant.
Users will make service desk items like subject "FWD: New Vendor requirements" and the body: "please see this". Just capturing the first quoted "forwarded message" in this case would smooth over our user experience. Currently we have to ask for clarification or got into our email system and retrieve the source message.
Proposal
- For an incoming service desk email, that is a forward.
- If this is a new issue to be created, not a reply to an existing issue
- Take the first (and only first) embedded email that's quoted
It's not a perfect answer, but I think it would help smooth over large % of scenarios.
What does success look like, and how can we measure that?
Forward messages/attachments are created in new issues from email (via the service desk.) Which improves the context for the discussion going forward.
Links / references
You seem to use the Discourse email_reply_parser to strip the replies. It exposes extract_embedded_email which seems like its done all the hard work.
I thought reply_parser.rb needs modifying or where that's called perhaps to include this logic. I've never touched ruby before that's about the limit that I can work out.
Related gitlab-ce#35264 but discussion seems to be aiming for a rather more perfect solution that this suggestion trying to offer a small improvement