Ability to create a ticket on behalf of someone else (population of Reporter field) when logged in

[richard.leach@…]

Is there an easy (e.g. trac.ini parameter) way of optionally reverting to the earlier behavior of having to type in the Reporter when creating a new ticket, rather than this field being automatically populated with the username of the logged-in user?

In our setup, we'll often create tickets on behalf of people who will want to recieve email notifications (since they are the real Reporters) but won't be in a position to create tickets themselves. Having to create a ticket, then immediately edit it to change the Reporter (and remembering to do so) is a pain! Similarly, logging in & out of Trac 30 times a day to create tickets on behalf of others and then to actually edit tickets as yourself is not ideal.

[Noah Kantrowitz (coderanger) <coderanger@…>]

Just put their name in the CC field.

[Christian Boos]

Well, I can imagine that in this special case he really wants to have it as "Reporter" (editing reports, for example).

However, if no one else supports going back to the old behavior, I'd propose a wontfix resolution.

The user's newticket.cs template could easily be modified to restore that behavior for him:

templates/newticket.cs

@@ -11 +11 @@
 <?cs include:"site_newticket.cs" ?>
 <form id="newticket" method="post" action="<?cs
   var:trac.href.newticket ?>#preview">
- <?cs if:trac.authname == "anonymous" ?>
   <div class="field">
    <label for="reporter">Your email or username:</label><br />
    <input type="text" id="reporter" name="reporter" size="40" value="<?cs
      var:newticket.reporter ?>" /><br />
   </div>
- <?cs /if ?>
  <div class="field">
   <label for="summary">Short summary:</label><br />
   <input id="summary" type="text" name="summary" size="80" value="<?cs

[richard.leach@…]

Thanks, if it does end up as a wontfix we'll look at using the template workaround. Cheers, Rich

[r.s.hatcher@…]

I need this too for the same reasons as Richard. It is a real pain having to change the reporter field separately.

And more importantly I need this because we have a generic username to access support of different systems which our users log in with - they need to be able to specify their email rather than it being a meaningless generic user. Getting them to remember to add their name to the cc: field is risky and also means we will lose the information about who created the ticket initially as other people may come along and want to be kept informed of progress to a ticket. Have a separate account for each user it is unmanageable.

I hope this doesn't end up as a wontfix.

I've tried the solution above, but removing those two lines from my projectEnv/templates/ticket.cs doesn't help. The entry box is visible, but when the ticket is submitted it's contents are ignored. Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Emmanuel Blot]

Could it be done from a plugin ? I think this could be a good plugin candidate.

[Noah Kantrowitz (coderanger) <coderanger@…>]

Replying to eblot:

Could it be done from a plugin ? I think this could be a good plugin candidate.

It could be done. If there is sufficient interest I can code it up later tonight.

[Emmanuel Blot]

Replying to Noah Kantrowitz (coderanger) <coderanger@yahoo.com>:

Replying to eblot:

Could it be done from a plugin ? I think this could be a good plugin candidate.

It could be done.

IMHO this kind of special features are better implemented as plugins, in order to keep the Trac source code and UI simple, clean and lean.

[Noah Kantrowitz (coderanger) <coderanger@…>]

Okay, created ​a plugin for this. Just run easy_install TracFakeUsername and then enable it in trac.ini.

Propose a worksforme for this ticket.

[Matthew Good]

Replying to Noah Kantrowitz (coderanger) <coderanger@yahoo.com>:

Okay, created ​a plugin for this. Just run easy_install TracFakeUsername and then enable it in trac.ini.

Propose a worksforme for this ticket.

Based on our recent discussions for the triage guidelines, this is a wontfix since we're not implementing this in the Trac core.

[Christian Boos]

This request has been raised again on the ​Trac-users mailing list, and I suspect it will annoy more than one people making the switch from 0.9 to 0.10.

When the ticket-preview branch was merged, I was not surprised to see the Reporter: field on the new ticket page, it felt natural to have it there, just after the summary (when logged in).

I think that we shouldn't end up in a situation where logged in users have less privileges that anonymous users, which would require users to log in and out repeatedly, as described above.

The problem of users masquerading as others is a real one, but was not addressed by this restriction anyway (as anonymous users could still do it). Real solutions to this issue are discussed in #1890 (display if the author of the change was authenticated or not when he did the change).

When #1890 gets implemented, one should take care of making the distinction between the authenticated actual creator of the ticket and the non-authenticated reporter.

[Christian Boos]

In r4989, the changes made in the Reporter: field are taken into account.