Problem:
At work we have a helpdesk system but it isn't simple to add new tickets to it if those tickets have been sent directly to me rather than the designated helpdesk email address. If I forward messages from my mailbox to the helpdesk email address then the message is processed assuming that I am the one asking for help.
Solution:
I have created an Outlook Add-in that supports Outlook 2016 and newer desktop and Outlook for Web.
The add-in first asks for the users API key from the helpdesk system which it valides by calling the helpdesk API.
The user then creates some generation presets, typically they will set the responder ID to their own ID code and the group ID to their own helpdesk group ID, but it is equally valid to have a pre-set that leaves these details empty or points to a colleague.
Installation:
Please note this plug in will only work for helpdesk agents at the University of Strathclyde.
In Outlook for web, open an email, select the three dots to the left of the forward button then click on Get-Add-Ins. Click on My add-ins then 'Add a custom add-in', select 'Add from URL...' from the drop down. Paste in the the below URL then click on OK, then Install.
https://fraserconnolly.co.uk/assets/fs/officeappmanifests/freshserviceoutlookmanifest.xml
To do:
Update the manifest file to support mobile devices.
Gotchas:
Once the app was published to my web server it became available on the desktop client but not the web client. This is because the browser rendering the Outlook web client refused to display the iFrame containing the web app because the X-Frame-Options was set to Same Origin.
To fix this I edited the web.config file for the directory containing the add in and added this instruction for IIS.
<system.webServer>
<httpProtocol>
<customHeaders>
<remove name="X-Frame-Options" />
</customHeaders>
</httpProtocol>
</system.webServer>