How is an incoming email matched to an existing incident?

Environment:

Techmail Utility
Oracle B2C Service, May 2010 and later releases

Resolution:

The Oracle B2C Service application uses a unique tracking string within messages to identify the correct incident to update by email. A reference number in the subject line or content is no longer the primary method of identifying the correct incident. The reference number is now a back up method and most likely will not be used.

All out going email from Oracle B2C Service (Service and Outreach) includes this tracking string which has details on the specific site the email came from and the object (incident, thread, mailings, contact, etc.) of the source. This tracking string is used for bounce handling and incident update. 

The outgoing email sent to the contact will contain a message ID in a format like the following (Service example).

Message-Id: <RNTT.Av8G~wrrDv8S~Rb~Gvce~5Th2NwqyS7~Mrb~.1349793366.xBPEG8YR6iGsN~gleEF_m48!@webmw17.int.rightnowtech.com>

When reply is selected on the contact's email client, the email client references the message id in a format like the following in the header of the message sent back to CX.

In-Reply-To:
<RNTT.Av8G~wrxDv8S~Rb~GvMe~wbxg4gqQi7~Mtr~.1349718784.xBPEG8YR6iGsN~gleEF_m48!@utilmw01.int.rightnowtech.com>

When the techmail utility processes the incoming email, the site is identified in the tracking string and by default the message will be rejected if the site is different.  If the incoming email is referencing the correct site and contact, then the incident identified from the tracking string is updated from the incoming email. 

Example Behavior:

A response is added by an agent and sent to the incident contact with a carbon copy to the agent's manager.  The manager determines that some internal action should take. The manager removes the reference number from the subject and replies back to CX with the intention of creating a new incident associated to the themselves.  Because the tracking string is included in the reply, the techmail utility will filter the message because the manager is not the contact on the incident and the incident was identified from the tracking string.  A new incident would not be created.

The behavior of incident updates from other contacts can be impacted by the EGW_SECURE_UPDATE_MODE configuration setting.  Please see Answer ID 1457: Allowing other contacts to update incidents for more information on this setting and how it works.

Note: Beginning in 17D, the EGW_SECURE_UPDATE_ENABLED configuration setting as been renamed to EGW_SECURE_UPDATE_MODE.  This setting determines the level of security applied when updating an incident by email.