Using the Text API › Text API › Input Format

Input Format

Input to the Text API is specified in the following ways:

• In the command-line interface, input is typically specified in a text file passed to the pdm_text_cmd command.
• In the email interface, input is specified in the text of the email. You specify a regular expression to find the target object identifiers.

You format the Text API input in the same way no matter which interface you use.

The basic format for input is as follows:

%keyword=value

or

%PROPERTY={{property_label}}value

The normal behavior of Text API commands has the following exceptions, where the last-appearing of two or more conflicting commands takes precedence:

• When a message contains multiple valid ticket ID artifacts matching the mailbox rule filter string, or multiple Text API ticket ID commands, the first one encountered is used. Also, a ticket ID artifact, which is identified using the mailbox rule filter string, overrides any Text API ticket ID command, regardless of which appears first.
• When a message contains multiple log comment Text API commands, all comments are posted, although the order in which they appear in the ticket activity log can vary.

All ticket ID artifacts that match the filter, valid or otherwise, and Text API ticket ID commands within the message, applicable or otherwise, applied or otherwise, are commented out before the message is posted. The ticket ID artifacts identified through the mailbox rule filters appear as -((...))-. Leading percentage signs (%) in Text API ticket ID commands are converted to two opening parentheses ((, and two closing parentheses )) follow the command. If a Text API ticket ID command appears after another Text API command with a log comment (%LOG=…), then the commented-out Text API ticket ID command is made into a separate log comment.

Note: The log comment is the only Text API command that can appear multiple times in one message and still have each occurrence applied. For any other commands, the Text API uses the last occurrence only, because multiple occurrences of other commands conflict with each other. Multiple log comment commands post separate log comment messages to the ticket, and not necessarily in any particular order.

In addition, if a Text API ticket ID command appears in the message either at the beginning of the message or in between two other Text API commands, it is converted into a log comment. If the previous command is a log comment (%LOG=…) or update description (%DESCRIPTION=…), it is appended to that command, rather than becoming a separate log comment.

Incoming messages that are sent HTML-only, without a plain-text version included, lose their message body. If the message matches any mailbox rule filters with an empty message body, a ticket can be created with an empty Description, or with the quoted message subject as the entirety of the ticket description.