Overview

The integration of Out of Office Assistant for Jira Cloud with MS Outlook ensures that users always have their OoO status activated in Jira when they schedule time off in their preferred calendar.

What you need to know

• The integration syncs the dates from the MS Outlook Automatic Replies settings into Jira.
• The details of the OoO rules activated by the Auto Replies are defined in templates.
• Out Of Office Assistant connects a simple default template with a standard message. This rule should be enough to inform other Jira users when somebody is Out of Office.
• The advanced configuration allows to define additional templates, such that auto replies trigger multiple Out of Office rules for different projects and/or issue filters. For example:
  
  • An approvals rule, to delegate approvals to a coverer in a specific JSM project
  • A delegation rule, to reassign specific request types to a coverer 
  • A generic Out of Office message, for everything else.

Making the Connection with Outlook

Navigate to the Integrations tab in Out of Office Assistant for Jira

1. Click on Connect Outlook

2. Give your Consent

resolution Reichert Network Solutions GmbH is a Microsoft Verified Publisher

On the next screen, you will be asked to give your consent to the app for accessing your mailbox settings.

Note that Out of Office will not read any information from your calendar, or anything related to your emails.

3. Set Auto Reply

If you haven't done so yet, you can just click on "Auto Reply Settings" to configure your Automatic Replies in Outlook

The connection allows Out of Office Assistant to take the dates and times of your Automatic Replies to automatically create absences in Jira.

Note that the internal and external messages of the automatic replies will NOT be synced by the app.

• Check Automatic replies on

• Check "Send replies only during a time period"  if you want to create an absence with a final date

• Select start and end times. By default, Outlook will load your current time for the start and end times. Remember to edit them to have full coverage during your absence.

• Save the configuration

4. Access the Outlook rule in the Out of Office Assistant

• To see the new rule from Outlook, click on the Rules tab

• Then, look for any rules that have Outlook in the Source column

How to modify Outlook rules

Note that Outlook rules are read only. However, they can be modified in two ways from the configuration page:

• To modify the dates, change the defined interval in the Outlook Auto Reply settings

• To modify the rule configuration, edit the template

Any of these changes will be automatically synced every 15 minutes.

However, it's also possible to refresh the data manually by clicking on the "Refresh integration" button

Configuring the Outlook integration

Upon its first connection, Out of Office offers a default template that shares a simple Out of Office message for the interval of the Automatic Replies in Outlook.

However, we recommend configuring the integration to implement automatic delegations and handovers.

In order to access the configuration:

• Click on the Integrations tab

• Click on the Configure button next to the "Connected" badge.

Note

This action must be conducted per each end user.

Editing the Default Template

The configuration page displays a table with the connected templates.

From this page you can:

• See all existing templates

• Access the settings of the Outlook Automatic Replies

In particular, the table of connected templates allows to:

• Edit connected templates

• Connect additional templates by adding them to the table

• Remove connected templates from the table

• Deactivate templates (without removing them from the table)

There is no limit to how many templates you can connect to the Auto Reply. For each connected template, a different rule will be created. Every rule will have the dates and times set for the Auto Reply.

To learn more about how templates work, read this article: Out of Office Templates.

• To modify the Default Outlook Template, just click on the name.

This will open the template form, where you can make any changes, including the name.

Be mindful when making changes to templates, as they may be in use by other connections as well.

Opening Auto Replies settings

The Open Auto Replies Settings button allows you to quickly make changes to your Outlook settings, where you can:

• Set Auto replies on/off

• Send replies only during a time period

• Set start and end times