This is a submission for the Postmark Challenge: Inbox Innovators.
What I Built
I built WP Email Ticketing, a WordPress plugin for customer support management. It leverages Postmark's inbound email processing to seamlessly convert customer emails into support tickets within WordPress. This plugin allows users to manage and respond to these support tickets via email efficiently, all within the WordPress dashboard.
Demo
Support Tickets listing
Support Ticket Detail View and Management
Live Site
https://wordpress-mjadi.wasmer.app/wp-admin/admin.php?page=wp-email-ticketing
Username: testuser
Password: L(%FFnH%*9YxF(t7@RQ)vslu
Code Repository
How I Built It
Implementation Process
I often struggle with finishing side-projects. This time I had great results using AI as my Project Manager. I spent time upfront documenting my MVP idea and basic architecture. Then I had AI break down the implementation into clear, manageable phases. This structure kept even small coding sessions on track, and helped avoid hallucinations or chasing the wrong solutions.
Phase 1: WordPress Foundation
Set up the plugin scaffolding with custom post types for tickets, leveraged WordPress comments for threaded replies, and built attachment handling using the media library.
Phase 2: Email Handling
Integrated Postmark's inbound email API with a webhook URL to automatically convert incoming emails into support tickets. The endpoint detects replies vs new tickets using the ticket id in the email subject.
Phase 3: REST API
Built endpoints for ticket management, status updates, and replies. I have tried to keep the feature-set minimal but complete.
Phase 4: React Frontend
Created a clean admin interface in React/TypeScript that integrates with the REST API.
Tech Stack
Backend: PHP with WordPress APIs for custom post types, metadata, attachments, and REST API endpoints.
Frontend: React and TypeScript for a modern, responsive admin interface.
Email Processing: Postmark's inbound email API for seamless ticket creation. Send reply emails to customers using Postmark.
Build Tools: Composer for PHP dependency management and Vite for frontend bundling.
Experience with Postmark
Postmark's inbound email API was quite easy to integrate, thanks to the clear documentation. I used it to process incoming emails and convert them into WordPress custom post types for support tickets. I also setup Postmark integration for the outgoing emails.
I faced some issues with the authentication on the webhook URL which did not seem to work, probably a issue with my hosting provider.
Top comments (0)