CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hi folks.

We're looking to set up CiviCRM with a Drupal 7 website we've produced. The intention is to use CiviCRM to handle incoming enquiries from their website (via form capture)

The key question we have is about email notifications. Now we understand this isn't standard functionality, but is it possible to do what we need?

Essentially, the system will assign incoming queries (Cases?) to a CiviCRM/Drupal user - based on form criteria (i.e. which location was selected on the form). This user will then be notified by email.

Then, if the user assigns it to somebody else, they are notified by email too.

THEN, if this user doesnt update to another status (say 'in progress') within 24 hours, they are reminded by email. If 48 hours pass, the original assignee is notified. As the case/activity remains open, the assignee is reminded by email once a week and the original owner notified once a month.

We were wondering if:

- The original assignee (and their email) can be remembered (using custom fields/set?)
- Whether to use Cron jobs to handle this email processing? if so, could this handle the various times/emails we need?

Any insights much appreciated - as well as any developers who could take this on as contract work for us.

Thanks in advance

The original assignee (and their email) can be remembered (using custom fields/set?)

You would indeed have to use custom fields to remember the original assignee, and use hooks and API to make sure the relevant data is stored and retrieved.

The key question we have is about email notifications. Now we understand this isn't standard functionality, but is it possible to do what we need?

Depends on your exact requirements. For activities (in Cases and outside Cases) email notifications are sent to assignees and this is standard functionality. The same happens if an activity is assigned to someone else. So that behaviour is standard. If a query is assigned from outside you might want to add an Activity (or a Case, depends on the functional requirement)  using the API and have an automatic email sent to the assignee?

The reminder functionality is not standard, although Kurund pointed you to some additional functionality that was developed. If this is not sufficient, you would have to develop a script that deals with the other stuff. ANd yes, you could use Cron to schedule that script.