Escalation Types

Escalation types contain generic information about the conditions that need to be matched in order to start, restart, suspend, resume or stop an escalation on a ticket. The type itself does not contain any time settings (e.g. how many hours need to pass until the escalation starts).

Use this screen to add escalation types to the system. After installation of the package some escalation types are already added. The escalation type management screen is available in the Escalation Types module of the Ticket Settings group.

Escalation Type Management Screen

Escalation Type Management Screen

Manage Escalation Types

To create a new escalation type:

  1. Click on the Create New Escalation Type button in the left sidebar.

  2. Fill in the required fields.

  3. Click on the Create button.

  4. You will be redirected to Edit Escalation Type screen to edit the escalation type details.

Create New Escalation Type Screen

Create New Escalation Type Screen

To edit an escalation type:

  1. Click on an escalation type in the list of escalation types or you are already redirected here from Create New Escalation Type screen.

  2. Modify the fields and the escalation type details.

  3. Click on the Save or Save and finish button.

Edit Escalation Type Screen

Edit Escalation Type Screen

To delete an escalation type:

  1. Click on the trash icon in the Delete column.

  2. Click on the OK button in the confirmation dialog.

Delete Escalation Type Screen

Delete Escalation Type Screen

To export an escalation type:

  1. Click on the export icon in the Export column.

  2. Choose a location in your computer to save the Export_EscalationTypeID_X.yml file.

To import an escalation type:

  1. Click on the Browse… button in the left sidebar.

  2. Select a previously exported .yml file.

  3. Click on the Import escalation type configuration button.

Escalation Type Settings

The following settings are available when adding or editing this resource. The fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory.

Name *

The name of this resource. Any type of characters can be entered to this field including uppercase letters and spaces. The name will be displayed in the overview table.

Comment

Add additional information to this resource. It is recommended to always fill this field as a description of the resource with a full sentence for better clarity, because the comment will be also displayed in the overview table.

Description

Like comment, but longer text can be added here.

Allow resume from stop

If this is checked, it allows this escalation to be resumed although it had already been stopped at some point in the past (of course only if the related resume conditions match).

If the resume conditions match on an escalation type which has Allow resume from stop enabled, the escalation will be resumed with the time that was still left on this escalation when it was stopped (which means was fulfilled).

Validity *

Set the validity of this resource. Each resource can be used in OTRS only, if this field is set to valid. Setting this field to invalid or invalid-temporarily will disable the use of the resource.

Condition types

This widget has five tabs for Start, Restart, Suspend, Resume and Stop events. The following options are available for the tabs.

General

This setting is only available for the Start and Restart event of the escalation. This setting controls if the ticket creation time or the time of the current action should be taken as base time for the start or the restart of the escalation.

Example: If you set up current time as base time for the restart event, the full escalation time will be available (e.g. 1 hour) if the restart condition matches. If you set up ticket creation time, the escalation will restart based on the creation time of the ticket. This could be useful if you close a ticket as successful (which stops your escalation) but it turns out that the problem has not been solved.

You are also able to set a date or a date-time dynamic field as base time. If you create a ticket with this dynamic field filled and the escalation start then the value of the dynamic field will be used as base time. If the configured dynamic field is not filled then the fallback for the base time is used (current time or ticket creation time or no time value – escalation will only start if the dynamic field is filled).

Ticket Attributes

Several attribute sets can be set up. Each of these sets can contain several attribute conditions. The sets are logically connected by OR, which means that one of the sets has to be matched in order to trigger the event. The conditions within a set are logically connected by AND, which means that all of the conditions have to match in order to verify the whole set.

After adding a new set, you can add conditions to this set by using the Add attribute set button on the top right of the widget. After enabling the added condition in the widget, you can choose what ticket attribute you want to check.

Note

All configured conditions are used to evaluate values present on each action, which is defined as a snapshot of the ticket values taken from the ticket history. The time window for this snapshot is defined by the TicketHistorySplitTimeThreshold setting. All actions for a ticket are evaluated one by one each time the escalation is recalculated.

Ticket created by a customer

This condition type means that the ticket has to be created by customer user (by sending an email, using the external interface or by an agent using the New Phone Ticket screen).

Ticket Attributes

In this drop-down menu you can choose from a list of match types:

equals now

(Is) – One of the configured ticket attributes should match the particular attribute value from the action which is currently being evaluated. The condition evaluates as true if there is at least one match.

doesn’t equal now

(Is not) – None of the configured ticket attributes should match the particular attribute value from the action which is currently being evaluated. The condition evaluates as true if there is no match.

equaled

(Was) – One of the configured ticket attributes should match the particular attribute value from the action which is currently being evaluated. All actions from the history of the particular ticket are being evaluated. The condition evaluates as true if there is at least one match in one of the historical ticket attribute values.

did never equal

(Was never) – None of the configured ticket attributes should match the particular attribute value from the action which is currently being evaluated. All actions from the history of the particular ticket are being evaluated. The condition evaluates as true if there is no match in one of the historical ticket attribute values.

changed to

(Changed to) – The configured ticket attribute changed to one of the given values. This implies that the value was different before (= on the previous action).

equals previous

(Was previously) – At least one of the configured ticket attributes should match the particular attribute value on the previous action, which means going back exactly one step in the ticket history. The condition evaluates as true if there is a match in one of the historical ticket attribute values of the previous action.

doesn’t equal previous

(Was not previously) – None of the configured ticket attributes should match the particular attribute value on the previous action, which means going back exactly one step in the ticket history. The condition evaluates as true if there is no match in the historical ticket attribute values of the previous action.

Message presence

This condition type defines if a customer user or agent message must be/must not be present.

Message delivery

If enabled, this will define that the customer user or agent has to send a message to match the condition.

To remove a condition, uncheck the checkbox in the Active column, and click on the Save button.

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