Support Request Life-cycle

The support request Status attribute describes the current state of the request. This attribute is displayed on the request's main page as well as in most support requests listing.

Status definitions

The statuses defined for a support requests are:

• Open: The support request needs an answer. This may be because the request is new or because a previous answer didn't solve completely the problem.

  Needs information: More information is required from the reporter before an answer can be provided.

  Answered: An answer was provided to the support request. We don't know if this answer solved the user's problem or not.

  Solved: The support request received an answer and the request owner confirmed that the problem is solved.

  Expired: A support request in the Open or Needs information states that doesn't see any activity for more than two weeks is automatically set to this status.

  Invalid: The support request's content isn't really a support request.

A support request starts its life in the Open state and will change its state automatically based on users' action.

Actions that affect the support request status

The following actions are possible on a support request and will change its status in the described way.

1. A person (other than the reporter) comes in requests more information. When the status of the support request is Open, this will change it to Needs information.

2. The reporter provides more information on the problem. When the status of the support request is Needs information, this will change it back to Open.

3. A user gives an answer to the support request. When the status of the support request is Open or Needs information, this will change it to Answered.

4. The support request owner indicates that he has found the solution to the problem himself. This will change the status of the support request to Solved.

5. The support request owner confirms an answer given by another user. This will change the status of the support request to Solved.

6. After receiving an answer, the support request owner replies that the problem still occurs. This will change the status of the support request back to Open.

7. After two weeks gone by with no new information added to a support request in the statuses Open or Needs information, the support request's status is changed to Expired.

8. A support contact or administrator rejects a support request which contains spam or is a duplicate. This changes the status to Invalid.

9. An administrator can change the status to an arbitrary value using the Change Status link.