Mayday! is an issue tracker, trouble ticket system, problem manager. It can’t solve your problems, but it can organize them and prevent them from falling through the cracks. In this way it will help you solve problems faster.

The summary screen is the first page you see when you enter the Mayday! application (Screenshot). By default the center of the screen has a list of all the Maydays you have created which are still open and the right-hand side has a list of the Maydays you have created which are resolved. Each row represents a Mayday and is packed with useful information:

• If the row is bold then the Mayday has had a new comment added since you last viewed it.
• You can view a user’s phone number and department by hovering over their name.
• You can view the exact time (as opposed to the relative time) a ticket was submitted by hovering over the submit time.
• You can view a snippet of the Mayday’s description by hovering your mouse anywhere over the row.
• The Edit icon allows you to update the Mayday, add comments and attachments, etc.
• The Close icon allows you to close the Mayday, marking it as resolved.
• If a Mayday is closed a Re-open icon appears that allows you to re-open a Mayday.
• The Display icon allows you to view the Mayday.
• The Buddy icon tells you who the Mayday is assigned to. If it is hollow then it belongs to no one. If it is blue then it belongs to someone else – hovering over the icon will tell you who owns it. If it is yellow then it belongs to you. Clicking on the icon will give you ownership of the Mayday.
• The priority icon is a color gradient which indicates the urgency of the Mayday. Clicking the plus and minus icons will increase or decrease the priority.
• Any row can be sorted by clicking on the row title.

By clicking on the “My Profile” link in the left-hand menu you can customize your Summary Screen. You can customize the Refresh Rate which specifies how often the summary page reloads itself. You can customize each of the 8 summary page blocks (4 center blocks and 4 narrower right-hand blocks). Each block can contain a customized list of Maydays by assigning a different Filter or Category to that block.

Customizing your summary screen allows you to see all the Maydays you want to see, sorted in the order you want them sorted (Screenshot). An example summary page might be:

You can create a New Mayday by clicking on the “New Mayday” link in the upper right-hand corner or in the menu on the left-hand side. Next, fill in the form with the following information (Screenshot) (Note: Some of these fields might not be present, depending on your permissions):

• A short Summary of the problem
• A more detailed Description of the problem, steps to reproduce it, etc.
• Select the department/category you want to Assign the Mayday to
• Select your Location
• Select the individual who should Own the ticket (i.e. the person to whom it should be assigned)
• You can optionally select a Due Date when you would like the ticket completed by.
• You can optionally add users to the Watchlist. These users will receive an email every time the ticket is updated.
• You can optionally Attach a file to the ticket, such as a screenshot or document. Note: Additional files can be attached to the ticket by editing it at a later time.

To display a Mayday you must first find it, either on your Summary screen or by searching for it using the Search Box on the left-hand side of the screen. Once you have found the desired Mayday click on the Display icon (Note: if the icon is not present it means you do not have permission to view that Mayday). From this screen you can:

• View all the pertinent information about a Mayday
• View the History. The history contains a list of who has done what to the Mayday. Now you can figure out who keeps passing off their Maydays onto your plate
• Take action upon the Mayday, such as Editing it, Resolving it, etc. by clicking on the button at the bottom of the screen.

Find the desired Mayday click on the Edit icon (Note: if the icon is not present it means you do not have permission to edit that Mayday). You can now perform the following actions:

• Add a Comment to the Mayday. If you check the Private Comment checkbox underneath the comment box the comment will only be visible to other users who have the permission to edit the Mayday. A private comment will be marked with a lock symbol when it is displayed.
• Edit or deleted previous comments (if you have the appropriate permissions).
• Change the Status of the Mayday.
• Update Progress field to reflect how much of the ticket has been completed.
• Attach additional files or remove previous attachments.
• Edit the Location, Owner, Assign To, Due Date, and Watchlist fields.

When you have solved the problem (or decided it’s not a problem worth solving!) it’s time to resolve the Mayday. Find the Mayday you want to resolve and click on the Resolve icon (Note: if the icon is not present it means you do not have permission to resolve that Mayday). You can now perform the following actions:

• Select a Resolution from the drop-down list. This will automatically fill in the Comment field with a summary of how the problem was resolved
• You can either keep the default resolution text or type in your own description of how the problem was resolved.
• You can edit the Assign To and Owner fields.

If it turns out that an issue wasn’t really resolved or the problem popped back up you may want to re-open an existing Mayday instead of creating a new one. To do this click on the Re-Open icon (Note: if the icon is not present it means you do not have permission to resolve that Mayday). From here you can:

• Edit any of the fields you would change when Editing a field.

Filters are basically complicated searches that allow you to view a subset of Maydays. After being created they can be used in your custom summary screen or on the Search page by selecting it from the Filter dropdown list. Filters you create can only seen and used by you; other users do not have access to them. When you go to add or edit a filter you can edit the following fields:

• The Name which describes your filter
• The Sort By field allows you to specify how the Maydays returned by this filter are ordered. This is only used when you select this filter to be part of your Summary Screen.
• The Operator field allows you to specify how your search query will be composed. If you select AND then all filter field you fill in must match in order for the Mayday to be included in the filter. If you select OR then only one of the filter fields you fill in must match in order for the Mayday to be included in the filter.
• The rest of the fields should be self-explanatory. Fill out only the fields you want to be included in your filter. For the select boxes with multiple options hold down your CTRL key in order to select multiple entries.

Here are some example Filters to give you an idea of what can be done:

• Urgent Maydays: Show all the urgent maydays.
  1. Select the Urgent Priority.
  2. Select Priority in Descending order from the Sort By list (This wil cause the most urgent Maydays to be at the top of the list).
• Maydays in my Department: Show all the Maydays assigned to your department.
  1. Select your department from Categories.
  2. Select all Statuses except Resolved.
  3. Select Last Updated in Descending order from the Sort By list (this will cause Maydays the most recently updated Maydays to be at the top of the list).
• Assigned to Me: Show all the Maydays of which you are the owner.
  1. Select all Statuses except Resolved.
  2. Select your name from the Owner list.
  3. Select Submitted in Descending order from the Sort By list (this will cause the most recently submitted Maydays to be at the top of the list).
• Computer Maydays: Show all the Maydays which contain computer-related terms.
  1. In the Description and Summary fields select Does Match (regexp) from the dropdown lists and enter (computer|monitor|keyboard|mouse) in the text box.

Categories are like the baskets on your desk that allow you to sort and organize issues. They can be used to classify Maydays by department, type, etc. When you go to edit or add a category you have the following options:

• Set the Name of the category.
• Set whether this is the Default category on the New Mayday form.
• You can add Custom Fields that only show up when that category is selected. For example, you may want to create a category called “New Employee” which has additional fields for the user to fill in when creating the Mayday, such as “Date of Hire,” “Employee Name,” and “Is this a Temporary Hire?”. Note: You can only create custom fields in Edit mode.
• You can set extensive Permissions for the category. By default, everyone can View, Edit, Create, and Resolve tickets in the category. However, you can change the permissions for each of those actions so that only the Ticket Creator, a set of individuals, or a set of permission groups (i.e. all those users who have that permission group) can perform the specified action. To see these additional permissions, simply uncheck the “All Users” checkbox. An example of what you could do with these permissions is to create a category where only the creator of the ticket and the IT department can edit and view the ticket and only the IT department can resolve the ticket.

Locations allow users to specify the physical location of where the problem is located. This might be a room number, building, or city. When adding and editing you have the following options:

• Set the Name of the location.
• Set whether this is the Default location on the New Mayday form.

Tip: If you create a location with an empty name (i.e. just a space) then Mayday will not allow the user to submit a Mayday with that location selected. This allows you to force the user to select their location.

Resolutions make it easy for you to close recurring problems with minimal effort. When adding and editing you have the following options:

• Set the Name of the resolution.
• Set whether this is the Default resolution on the Resolve Mayday form.
• The Default Response is the text filled into the Comment text box when this resolution is select. For example, you could create a resolution named “Google It,” which informs users that their problem can be resolved by searching for an answer on their favorite search engine.

Statuses mark the stage of a Mayday, such as “New,” “In Progress,” “Awaiting Feedback,” or “Resolved.” When adding and editing you have the following options:

• Set the Name of the status.
• Set the Color of the status (used on the Summary and Search pages).
• Set whether this is the Default status on the Add Mayday form.
• Set whether this is the In Progress status for when the Mayday is first edited.
• Set whether this is the Resolution status for when the Mayday is closed.

Priorites mark the urgency of a Mayday. When adding and editing you have the following options:

• Set the Name of the status.
• Set whether this is the Default priority on the Add Mayday form.
• Set the Points of the status. This is how Mayday orders the urgency of each priority. The higher the number the taller the priority gradient on the Summary and Search pages.
• Optionally, set the Alert Message of the status. If set, a popup message appears to the user when they select this priority. For example, you might set an alert message for the Urgent status that says, “Please only use this status in emergencies or when work is completely halted.”

Rules reduce your work by having actions automatically be taken upon Maydays if they match a certain criteria. When adding and editing you have the following options:

• Set the Name of the rule.
• Set the Rule Type. This is the action the rule takes. Changing the action will cause the page to refresh and a description of the rule will appear at the top of the page and additional fields will show up in the form. Below are the available Rule Types:
  • Change Location: Changes the Location of the Mayday.
  • Change Priority: Changes the Priority of the Mayday.
  • Change Category: Changes the Category of the Mayday.
  • Change Assignee: Changes the owner of the Mayday.
  • Email Mayday: Emails the Mayday. It can send a full summary of the Mayday or just a 100 character summmary (good for pagers). You can set it to email the person who created the Mayday, the owner of the Mayday, all users who can edit the Mayday, and/or a comma separated list of additional email addresses.
• Set whether the rule is Enabled
• The rest of the fields are identical to the filter form.

Below are some example rules to get your creative juices flowing.

• Page IT: A rule which sends a page to the IT department when an urgent Mayday is created.
  1. Select the “Email Mayday” rule type
  2. Click the “Send Short Email” checkbox
  3. Enter all the pager email addresses in the Email text area.
  4. Select “Mayday Created” for Apply on this Action. That way you won’t get paged every time the Mayday is updated.
  5. Select the Urgent priority
• Cry Wolf: Do you have a user who is consistently putting in Maydays with an exagerrated urgency? This rule is for you; it will lower the priority of all Maydays by a certain user.
  1. Select the “Change Priority” rule type
  2. Change the priority adjustment to “Decrement by 20 points”
  3. Select “Mayday Created” for Apply on this Action.
  4. Under Reported By change it to “Does equal problem_username”

You now have a bunch of rules set up to categorize, filter, and email Maydays at breakneck speed. But how do you actually run the rules to they work their magic. There’s a few ways:

1. Click on the Run icon next to each rule. This will run that individual rule. Useful for testing purposes to see if your rule performs as expected.
2. Click on the Run all Rules link in the upper right-hand corner. This will run all enabled rules.
3. The best way is to run the rules as a cron job. To do this you would create a crontab entry that looked something like this:

   */4 * * * * /usr/bin/php /usr/local/apache/FastFrame/apps/mayday/scripts/run_rules.php > /dev/null

   That will run the script every four minutes and suppress the script’s output.

One of the keys to creating a good trouble ticket system is making it as easy as possible for end-users to report their problem. The last thing you want is for the user to encounter more problems when they’re trying to report their problem! To that end Mayday has an email interface so that end-users can communicate with Mayday completely via email. This would make the workflow of a Mayday look something like this:

1. User emails help@example.com which creates a new Mayday
2. Mayday admin uses the Mayday interface to update the Mayday requesting more information. The updated Mayday is emailed to the user.
3. User replies to the Mayday email with the additional information, this gets automatically added to the Mayday as a new comment.
4. Mayday admin closes the ticket. The resolved ticket is emailed to the user.

To get this system going you’ll need to connect the mayday_mail.php script with a mail transport agent. There are several ways this could be done, but let me show you a simple way, using sendmail, a fairly common MTA. (Note: This only works on Linux/Unix, I’m not sure how it would be done on a Windows server.)

1. Open up the mayday_mail.php file which is in Mayday’s scripts/ folder in your favorite text editor and edit each of the configuration settings.
2. Make the mail script executable:

   chmod 755 /usr/local/apache/FastFrame/apps/mayday/scripts/mayday_mail.php

3. Create a new email alias in /etc/aliases

   help: "|/usr/local/apache/FastFrame/apps/mayday/scripts/mayday_mail.php 2>&1 1>/tmp/log", /tmp/maydaymail

   This will forward all emails sent to help@yourserver to the mail script as well as append the contents of the email to /tmp/maydaymail so you can look at the actual email if any problems arise.

4. Test it out! Send an email to help@yourserver and see if a new Mayday is created. If it isn’t, check /tmp/log for any error messages.