RT 4.4.4 Documentation
RT::Action::UpdateParentTimeWorked
NAME
RT::Action::UpdateParentTimeWorked - RT's scrip action to set/update the time worked on a parent ticket when a child ticket's TimeWorked is added to.
DESCRIPTION
This action is used as an action for the 'On TimeWorked Change' condition.
When it fires it finds a ticket's parent tickets and increments the Time Worked value on those tickets along with the built-in behavior of incrementing Time Worked on the current ticket.
Important Notes on Operation
There are some important details related to the use of this scrip for time tracking that you should take into account when using it.
Parent and child time entries are combined on the parent
This is the intended function of the scrip, but since the parent ticket has only one Time Worked value, it is difficult to differentiate time recorded directly on the parent ticket from time added from child tickets. If you record time only on child tickets, this is typically not an issue. If you record time on the parent ticket in addition to child tickets, it can make it difficult to pull out the time specifically logged on the parent.
A ticket must be linked as a child when the time is recorded
For this scrip to work properly, a ticket must be linked to the parent as a child before time is entered. If you link a child ticket to a parent and it already has time recorded, that time will not be added to the parent. Similarly, if you remove a child ticket link from a parent, any previously recorded time will remain in the parent's Time Worked value. If you want the time removed, you must subtract it manually.
RT has a feature called $DisplayTotalTimeWorked
that you can activate in your RT_SiteConfig.pm
file. This feature dynamically calculates time worked on child tickets and shows it on the parent. This solves the issues above because it doesn't modify the parent's Time Worked value and it will update if children tickets are added or removed.