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    ticket.txt
    
    $Id$
    
    @author gERD Schaufelberger <gerd@exit0.net>
    @copyright 2004/2005 Wombat Web Bench
    @link http://wombat.exit0.net
    @package wombat
    @subpackage manual
    
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WOMBAT TICKETING SYSTEM
=======================

The ticket and messaging system is meant to act as a to-do list for site
administrators. Therefore tickets can be informational - whose don't require
user action. They can be tasks - whose require user action. Or they can be
problems - whose require immediate user action. 


Ticket Lifecycle
----------------
Tickets have a status. Each ticket begins as "new" and should be "solved" at the
end. Obviously a ticket is "new" when it is created. Usually it will be assigned
or to an user. Then this user becomes responsible to solve the ticket. 

An assigned ticket will automatically appear in the user's ticket list.

Solving a ticket can be quite easy. Informational tickets may just be read.
Other tickets, like tasks require user action and may last unsolved longer.
Anyway, the responsible user can either mark a ticket as solved or as rejected -
kind users also add a correspoding comment. Both rejected and solved tickets
will immediatly disappear from the user's ticket list. 

Still rejected and solved tickets remain in the system to keep a history and
further processing. Sometimes an administrator may want to re-assign a rejected
or solved ticket.

As mentioned, assigned tickets have a user who is responsible to solve this
ticket. Of coure it is also possible to re-assign a ticket to another user or to
adopt a ticket (which us technically the same).


Ticket Comments
---------------
To ease communication between administration users, users may add comments to
each ticket. This should be done by the responsible user - at least. Also polite
users add enlightening comments when they mark a ticket as solved or rejected
etc.


Ticket Recipients
-----------------
Besides the user who is responsible to solve a ticket, each ticket may have
several recipients whose "read" the same ticket. Ticket recipients are not
responsible to solve the ticket. Still, they are ment to observe the ticket
ongoing, guide the responsible user, add comments to the ticket and adopt the
ticket if necessary.