converting email for helpdesk call logging

[pinkybrain]

Hi,

It's been a while (18 months) since I've worked with .net, I'm now looking at upgrading an old helpdesk system I wrote.

How difficult is it/ what would be the best way of adding a feature to automatically convert an email into a logged call. Does asp.net have mechanisms for identifying sender, sent time, extrapolating the email body, etc?

tx

 

[jbenson001]

Is this an email you are generating in the app, or an email coming in to the app? I need more info.

 

[jmeckley]

How difficult is it/ what would be the best way of adding a feature to automatically convert an email into a logged call. Does asp.net have mechanisms for identifying sender, sent time, extrapolating the email body, etc?

.net is the framework the basic pieces (objects) for common tasks like database access, file access, xml, cryptography, etc.

converting an email to a logged call is specific to your application. therefore you will need to parse the email and convert the parsed values into an logged call which you can then process. there is no magic object which will do this for you. you will need to code it yourself.

the language is irrelevant. it's the concepts/workflow of the conversion that matters. Once this is undetstood the it's just syntax.

Jason Meckley
Programmer
Specialty Bakers, Inc.

faq855-7190

 

[pinkybrain]

Jbenson001,

It's an email coming from someone else into the app.

jmeck,

"converting an email to a logged call is specific to your application..."

How specific is it to ask if there's an easy way to extract the text body data from an email, the sender as text and the time?

I've had a google for this, but couldn't find much on it.

tx

 

[jmeckley]

jmeck,

"converting an email to a logged call is specific to your application..."

How specific is it to ask if there's an easy way to extract the text body data from an email, the sender as text and the time?

the concept is general. The reason it's specific is this relates directly to your application. you want to add functionality to parse an email and put those pieces into your help desk system.

here are some things to consider.
1. an email is just text so regex is an option.
2. the framework contains the System.Net.Mail namespace which can create and send email messages (not sure about receiving though).
3. with this being a web application you need to consider how you will pickup the emails. the web server will need to talk to the email server (Exchange?).


Jason Meckley
Programmer
Specialty Bakers, Inc.

faq855-7190

 

[pinkybrain]

jmeck,

thanks for the tips.