Hi owessels, thanks for the quick reply and clarification. I've entered JSD-3501 to ask for this functionality.

Hi hfisher2,
I think the answer is yes ("do you mean the 'email requests' functionality"), I'm referring to https://confluence.atlassian.com/servicedeskcloud/receiving-requests-by-email-747602718.html.
At current there is no way to disable requests getting created via email, while still allowing replies to notifications to add public comments to existing requests.
Thanks for your feedback, I will pass it on to our product managers.

Hi owessels, when you say "and processed by the Service Desk mail handler" do you mean that the 'email requests' functionality? If so, then does that mean there is no way to have that option disabled (and thus force users to use the portal) but still have emailed comments by either participants or reporters marked as public?

If that is the case, then that functionality (in my humble opinion) needs to be enhanced. There's a very good use-case for having customers be able to see the comments they email in but not be able to file tickets via email (i.e. you need to ensure certain data is provided).

Hi nragusa1,

There isn't a way to make the JIRA mail handler do what the Service Desk one does, I believe this is why we decided to implement a separate mail handler - can you confirm tbuiquang / danhdao?

Hi Oiliver,

Is it possible to get some insight as to what the Service Desk mail handler is doing that the JIRA mail handlers are not? We're currently hoping JSD-798 gets pushed through at some point, but until then, we're stuck using JIRA mail handlers to process email. I noticed at least one property which gets set on the comment:

{
  "key": "sd.allow.public.comment",
  "value": {
    "allow": true
  }
}

but am not sure if there's anything else. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

This is working as expected / designed.
Service Desk interprets all comments as internal unless:

• they were created in the customer portal
• they were created in reply to an email notification by the reporter / a participant / an agent, and processed by the Service Desk mail handler
• an agent made a comment in JIRA and selected the "respond to customer" (external) option
• an agent changes any comment from internal to external by editing it in JIRA
• they were created before an existing JIRA project was converted into a Service Desk project

Collaborators (non-agent JIRA users) are not allowed to make public comments, unless they are acting as a customer (are the reporter or a request participant) and communicating in the Customer Portal or via email (with Service Desk incoming mail handler).

An existing bug / misbehaviour means that reporter comments appear on the portal, no matter where they came from - JSD-1604, this is due to be fixed in an upcoming release.