As we previously posted in April, our recent release of RT 4.4.9 marks the end of life for the RT 4.4 series and the RTIR 4.0 series. Best Practical will no longer support these series or publish any new releases with security updates, bug fixes, or new features. We recommend all RT 4.4 / RTIR 4.0 users upgrade to a supported release.
Best Practical continues to support RT 5.0 / RTIR 5.0 as a maintenance release. RT / RTIR 6.0, released earlier this year, are the current stable release. Current supported releases and EOL dates are always available in our release page.
We are pleased to announce that Request Tracker (RT) 6.0.2 and 5.0.9 are now available. The 6.0.2 release continues to build on the new features in RT 6, while the 5.0.9 release provides maintenance and security updates for users on the RT 5 series. Both releases contain security fixes, and we recommend that all RT users upgrade to one of these new versions.
The security updates in these releases are the result of reports from security researchers and testers at 4ARMED and CERT Polska. You can find details in the release notes posted on our documentation site. Thanks to the security professionals for reporting these issues so we could get them fixed.
New in RT 6.0.2: History Filtering
We’re excited to highlight significant updates to ticket history filtering and search in 6.0.2. For tickets with a long and complex history, it can be challenging to find a specific update or reply. You can now filter the ticket history to show only the transaction types you’re interested in and search transaction content right from the header in the ticket History section. Watch below to see the new features in action.
More Updates in 6.0.2
In addition to history filtering, the 6.0.2 release includes:
A new calendar view for saved searches.
Server-side memory management improvements, specifically for command-line utilities, to reduce memory usage.
A collection of other bug fixes and enhancements.
You can find details on all of the changes and security updates in the release notes.
As always, if you need assistance with your upgrade, we’re available to help. Don’t have the time get upgrade yourself? Move to our managed cloud RT platform and let us handle every upgrade for you, automatically.
Request Tracker (RT) 6.0.1 and RT for Incident Response (RTIR) 6.0.1 have been released, so RTIR users can now upgrade and get all of the new features in RT 6. In addition to providing compatibility with RT 6, the new version of RTIR offers some new features and fixes as well.
What’s New in RTIR 6.0.1
RTIR 6.0.1 is updated to run with htmx, like RT 6, so you’ll get the same snappy feel to navigation. Feeds have been updated to work better with modern browsers and the default feeds have been updated. Also, the default search components on the RTIR home page are now standard RT saved searches rather than custom searches. This means it’s easier to update the searches and formats right in the web UI.
The big new feature is custom page layouts that let you manage exactly what you want to see on your RTIR tickets and how you want things arranged. As shown previously, RT’s new page layouts features give you complete control over the layout of your ticket pages. RTIR takes this even further on Incidents by providing a custom page layout for each different incident type (Classification). This video shows how you can customize these new features with your own classifications and custom fields.
RT 6.0.1 Means Time to Upgrade
Updates in RT 6.0.1 are primarily to improve compatibility with RTIR. But it also includes a few bug fixes since the initial RT 6 release in May. For everyone who prefers to wait for the first bugfix release in a new major version, it’s here! Time to start planning your upgrade.
Get the Latest Versions
Additional links and information are available on our forum posts for RT 6.0.1 and RTIR 6.0.1. While you’re there, create an account and enable notifications from the Announcements topic to get notified when we post new release information.
Plan Your Upgrade Before November
Support for RT 4.4 and RTIR 4.0 will officially end in November 2025. If you’re still running these older versions, now is the perfect time to plan your upgrade.
We’re here to help, whether it’s reviewing your current setup, outlining a migration path, or providing hands-on assistance.
We’re excited to announce the release of a new extension for Request Tracker (RT) that integrates AI features to help your team work more efficiently. RT-Extension-AI adds AI assistance directly into RT, both through automated scripts and interactively within the ticket editor.
AI Prototype
As we started to experiment with AI options in RT, we had the opportunity to collaborate with a talented group of computer science students from the University at Buffalo on an initial prototype. The team spent a semester getting up to speed on creating an RT extension and adding various AI features to the interface. At the end of the semester, the CS department has a big demo day for all semester projects and they had some fun creating an exciting marketing video for the new features.
RT-Extension-AI Initial Release
We continue to polish the extension and have now released the first version, available to run with RT 6. You can see updated versions of the available features below.
AI-Powered Features
The extension introduces several AI-driven features.
Sentiment and Ticket Summaries
The extension includes new scrip actions to submit ticket content to your AI provider to assess how the ticket is going so far and store the results in custom fields on the ticket.
Analyze Ticket Sentiment: The AI receives the latest reply and assesses the user’s sentiment as Satisfied, Dissatisfied, or Neutral and stores the result.
Generate Ticket Summary: The AI creates a concise summary of the ticket history, assesses the current situation, and lists any next steps. This is then saved in a custom field on the ticket.
These are installed as standard scrip actions, so you can create scrips with whatever conditions you want to use, and apply them to queues as desired. In our testing we have mostly used the “On Correspond” condition to re-run the actions each time a new reply is added.
Editor Features
Several AI tools are also integrated directly into the RT editor, available via an “AI Assist” menu in the toolbar.
Autocomplete: As you type a reply, the extension suggests the next few words to complete your sentence.
Adjust Tone: You can have the AI paraphrase a block of text to make it more polite, concise, and customer-friendly.
AI Suggestion: The AI can suggest a response to the current issue on the ticket. This option will be very depended on the prompt you configure.
Translate: The extension can accept a block of text from your response and then translate it to the language you choose.
BYO AI
The video above shows interactions with Google Gemini, but we know users will want to integrate with their own AI provider. The extension is built to connect to any AI provider that has a REST API. We have tested it with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Gemini so far.
You can configure the API endpoint and authentication details to match your provider’s requirements. The extension also allows you to specify different AI models for different tasks. For example, you can use a faster model for the autocomplete feature to ensure quick suggestions.
Flexible Configuration
The RT-Extension-AI is designed to be flexible and work with your existing support workflow and tools. You can set up a default, global AI configuration for your entire RT instance, and you can also define specific configurations for individual queues.
Each feature described above sends a prompt to the AI API along with the content, and these prompts can have a big impact on the results you get back. You can customize the prompts for each feature and for each queue. This allows you to guide the AI to process content differently for a support queue or a sales queue.
Time for a Test Drive
If you’re already using AI in your day-to-day work, you’re probably ready to take the new AI extension for a test drive. Note that it needs RT 6 to run, so you may need to plan an upgrade first.
This is just the start and we expect to add and update as we continue to experiment. Have some ideas for how AI can help your RT? We’d love to year from you, just send your ideas to contact@bestpractical.com.
Request Tracker (RT) 6.0.0 was released just a few weeks ago, and we know users are starting to plan upgrades. We also know RT systems depend on the rich ecosystem of free RT extensions (plugins). One blocker to upgrades can be the availability of new versions of RT extensions that are compatible with RT 6.
We have great news: we have been hard at work, and over the past few weeks, numerous popular extensions have been updated with RT 6 compatibility. We run many of these extensions ourselves, so we have been testing them over the past couple of months. We hope these new releases will help clear the remaining roadblocks delaying your upgrades.
Recently Released
Below is a list of extensions recently updated to run with RT 6. All link to their documentation page, so you can take a look if you aren’t familiar with some of them.
If the new version of an extension works only with RT 6, we have incremented the major version number, so 1.xx to 2.00, for example. Older versions will remain available on CPAN for RT 5, but we are unlikely to make new updates to older extensions.
We are continuing to work on other extensions, and more will be updated in the coming weeks. If you want to follow the releases, you can watch metacpan.org, watch our github pages, or follow us on LinkedIn or Bluesky where we post new releases.
More Than Just Compatibility
In some cases, we have done more than just make an extension compatible with RT 6. While working, we took the opportunity to make some improvements as well.
RT::Extension::MandatoryOnTransition
The very popular MandatoryOnTransition extension is used to require certain values on a ticket to be filled out before the status can be changed. This is very often used to remind users to fill out important fields before a ticket can be resolved. But the flexible rules allow you to add restrictions for any status transition.
Previously all configuration was done in the RT_SiteConfig.pm file, so even SuperUsers could not make changes in the web UI. With RT 6 and the updated version of the extension, you can not only modify the configuration in the UI, we have added an entirely new web UI to make configuration easier.
New configuration interface to define rules for MandatoryOnTransition
RT::Extension::RepeatTicket
The RepeatTicket extension allows you to schedule automatic creation of tickets. You define the schedule in a custom component added to the ticket display page. With the new page layouts feature in RT 6, you now have the flexibility to put this component wherever you want on the page. Or you can remove it from some page layouts completely if you don’t need to use it on some queues. We think this will be a common pattern for other extensions that add components to ticket and asset pages.
The RepeatTicket component can be selectively added to ticket display pages using RT 6 Page Layouts
Planning Your Upgrade
If your upgrade plans have been on hold waiting for extension compatibility, now is a great time to review your list of extensions. You can also review some earlier postsshowing some of the updates and new features in RT 6. We recommend checking each extension you depend on to confirm the latest release and compatibility notes, and testing in a staging environment before upgrading your production system.
If you need help with your upgrade plans or have questions about a specific extensions, let us know at contact@bestpractical.com or create a new topic for discussion on the Request Tracker forum.
We are thrilled to announce the release of RT 6.0.0, the latest major version of the Request Tracker ticketing platform. This release represents a significant evolution in RT’s capabilities, with a focus on customization, flexibility, and modern web technologies.
What’s New in RT 6
If you haven’t had a chance to look at our previews, you can see some of the new features in action including updates that improve the look and feel of working in RT, along with new ticket and saved search features. And with the release now available, we’re excited to share one of the biggest updates.
Page Layouts: Tickets and Assets Your Way
The centerpiece of RT 6 is our new Page Layouts system. You can now customize the content and layout of ticket and asset pages with reusable page layouts, giving you complete control over your RT experience with no coding required.
Layouts are available for every page you use to interact with Tickets and Assets, so you can control the look of create, display, and update pages. And layouts are managed as separate configurations, so you can use them selectively on one queue or catalog, many, or even all. You just go to the admin page for a queue, for example, and select the page layouts you want to use.
Creating a custom page layout in Request Tracker 6
These new layouts leverage the Bootstrap grid system, allowing you to create multiple rows and columns to organize your information exactly how you want it. Whether you need a compact view for support staff or a comprehensive layout for managers, the new Page Layouts feature makes it possible.
Enhanced Dashboards
We’ve extended these new layout capabilities to dashboards as well. You can now completely customize the look of your dashboards with multiple rows and columns of different widths, creating personalized information hubs that meet your specific needs.
This enhancement gives you the flexibility to design dashboards that truly work for your team, whether you’re monitoring service levels, tracking project progress, or keeping an eye on key metrics.
Upgrading to RT 6
As always, RT comes with utilities and documentation to help you through the upgrade process. Our database update utilities can upgrade from even very old versions of RT right up to the latest version.
As with any major release, RT 6 introduces updates that require some planning for your upgrade. We strongly recommend performing a trial upgrade on a test system before upgrading your production environment. Documentation is available describing the bigger changes you’ll see when coming up from older versions.
Custom Code and Extensions
The significant changes in RT 6, particularly the addition of htmx and the new layout options, may require updates to your custom code and local extensions. We have provided technical documentation for your developers to help with the process. If your team doesn’t have the time or resources to handle these updates, our professional services team is ready to assist.
Need Help?
We understand that upgrading mission-critical systems can be challenging, especially with the day-to-day demands on your IT team. That’s why we offer several options to help:
Professional Services: Our team can help support your RT 6 upgrade, answering questions and sharing our experience upgrading many other systems.
Hosted RT: We’re currently offering free migrations from on-premise systems to our hosting service, which includes a free upgrade from older versions of RT. If you’d like us to take over your RT maintenance and upgrades, check out our hosting options.
Training and Support: We provide comprehensive training and support to help your team get the most out of RT 6’s new features.
Ready to Upgrade?
The Request Tracker 6.0.0 release is available now. You can download it from our website or access it through your usual channels.
We’re excited to see how you’ll use RT 6’s new capabilities to streamline your workflows and improve your service delivery. As always, we welcome your feedback and look forward to continuing to evolve RT to meet your needs.
RT version 5.0.8 is now available, along with RT 4.4.8. In addition to a batch of updates, new features, and fixes, there are several security updates provided in these releases. Details on these fixes are in the release notes linked in the forum posts below. We recommend that all RT users upgrade to get these security updates.
The security updates in these releases are the result of reports from security researchers and testers at Siemens, the Spanish National CSIRT, and the NATO Cyber Security Centre. You can find details in the release notes posted on our documentation site. Thanks to the security professionals for reporting these issues so we could get them fixed.
Have Questions?
It’s always good to keep your system up-to-date, but upgrading is especially important when there are security fixes. If you run into any problems or have questions, our team is always ready to help at sales@bestpractical.com. And remember, we offer managed hosting if you’d like us to handle the upgrades for you.
The countdown to RT 6 is officially on, and we’re thrilled to invite you to get in early! The beta release of Request Tracker 6.0.0 is now available – and this is your chance to explore what’s new, and get a head start on everything it has to offer.
This beta release is your opportunity to preview what’s coming and help us polish the final release. If you’re interested in testing it out or want to dig into the details, head over to our forum announcement for full information on how to get started. Just want to take RT 6 for a test drive? Try it out on our demo instance.
Your feedback makes RT better. We can’t wait to hear what you think!
The Request Tracker 4.4 series (first released in February of 2016) and Request Tracker for Incident Response 4.0 series (first released in July 2016) will reach end of life on November 1, 2025. After this date, Best Practical will no longer support these series or publish any new releases with security updates, bug fixes, or new features. We recommend all RT 4.4 / RTIR 4.0 users upgrade to a supported release.
Best Practical continues to support RT 5.0 / RTIR 5.0 as a maintenance release. RT / RTIR 6.0 will be released soon as the new stable release. Current supported releases and EOL dates are always available in our release page.
Exciting news for the Request Tracker (RT) community—RT 6 is coming soon, and we’re getting closer to the public beta release! As we reported on the forum, we’ve been running RT 6 on our own RT instance, and it’s made updating tickets fun as we work with the new features! While we finalize the last details, we want to share a sneak peek of some of the new features you can expect in this major update.
Updated Reply/Comment Editor
One of the most noticeable improvements in RT 6 is the upgraded CKEditor 5, which brings a modern, streamlined editing experience. Whether you’re formatting ticket responses or drafting internal notes, CKEditor 5 enhances usability with a cleaner interface, better support for rich text, and improved handling of copy-pasted content, including images.
RT 6 running with CKEditor 5
New “Description” Field for Tickets
To provide even more context within RT, we’ve added a new “Description” field on tickets. This allows users to store additional details beyond the subject and initial content, making it easier to provide structured, at-a-glance information about a ticket. Whether you need to summarize an issue, add key details, or categorize requests more effectively, this field will help improve organization and clarity.
RT 6 with Ticket Descriptions
Enhanced Auto-Refresh for Saved Searches
We know how valuable saved searches are, especially for keeping an eye on ticket activity. RT 6 introduces an improved auto-refresh feature, ensuring your saved searches update more efficiently. This means faster access to the latest ticket information, helping teams stay on top of workflows with minimal manual effort.
Auto-refresh options in RT 6
Public Beta Coming Soon
We’re excited to get RT 6 into your hands, and the public beta will be available soon. If you want to be among the first to test it and provide feedback, stay tuned for our official beta announcement.
Want an early look at RT 6 in action? You can sign up for a quick demo session and see what’s new.
In the meantime, let us know what you think of these new features in the comments or on our forum!
Stay tuned for more updates as we approach the RT 6 release!
Contact us today or explore your support options to get started.
