Support Ticket System

[TamedTech]

Hello Guys,

Looking for your thoughts on application development with regards to a support ticketing application.

So, i'm sure many of you have a similar service provided by your ISP where when you send a support request in it automaticaly issues support number to you, and you then all further corispondence is linked by that ticket number and logged in the database.

What do you see as the best approach for developing somthing along those lines, where i can still use standard outlook email clients and yet keep a database catalouge of all the support tickets current alive on the system and an archive of old support issues.

Thanks,

Rob

 

[FALCONSEYE]

i guess
1. you will write that request to a dB table and send the user the primary key of the record with <cfmail>
2. somewhere in your mail body, you will put a link back to your sire with the primary key appended something like

http://....cfm?recID=123456

of course, a user can switch the recID manually in the url. if you are worried about security, you may think about implementing a login interface so when they come back they have to login.

in this case, you will tie the user info (username, password) with the recordid

hope it helps...

http://www.jetansolutions.com

 

[GUJUm0deL]

I developed a help-desk support system several years back, and we followed this business logic:
1. User would go to the site and fill out the form to request some type of aide.
2. The user would get a confirmation email (like FALCONSEYE mentioned.) But instead of having the link to the actual record, what I did was have the link to 'lookup request' page and asked the user to type in their confirmation number (that number would be in the email also).
3) Once the user submits a ticket they can not edit it anymore. They can only view.
4) Any updates made by the IT staff will trigger an email to the customer notifying them of changes to their request.

____________________________________
Just Imagine.

http://www.imajinarts.com

 

[imstillatwork]

I also made a helpdesk for a large office years ago.

other features added where the ability to automaticly assign taskes to certain techs based on the subject of the ticket, assign multiple techs to one ticket, track hours spent on each, and let the techs choose to display the final solution in a public listing in FAQ style so people would quit bothering them about the same thing over and over.

so the main areas you need for basic functionality are

**
USER FORM for the end user to input the ticket. SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE. if the user has trouble asking for help, problems occur!

User form would also include the functionality to store ticket to DB, and send email to someone, including notice to the user that made the ticket with a link to easily track the progress if that fits business policy...

**
Master / Detail view for techs / helpdesk staff to view all tickets, search tickets, etc..


Kevin

http://www.lot-o-nothin.com/cfml/

Phase 1: Read the CFML Reference
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: Profit!

 

[TamedTech]

Thank you for that feedback and ideas guys.

I completely agree with you comments on keeping things completly simple as far as the user is concerned.

My only gripe at the moment is enabling my users to use thier email client such as outloot to keep in touch with regards to support calls and not have them having to go to the site everytime they want to update the status of the case.

This is also somthing i'd like to enable my tech guys to do, as we're only a small firm and we're all running multi-roles being out and about doing sales visists and suchlike it isn't really practical to have to keep two seperate mail clients, i just need to be able to use my outlook to manage all of the support requests yet still keep things recorded in a database.

Rob

 

[GUJUm0deL]

TamedTech, well if you send the emails once a support staff updates the request then the client can keep track of the status via email and not have to login. But if the client gets no emails its understood that the matter is still under investigation.

What you can do is cfoutput the request details in the email itself, along with throwing in the URL for those users that just want to go to site (you know, best of both worlds)

____________________________________
Just Imagine.

http://www.imajinarts.com

 

[Wullie]

My only gripe at the moment is enabling my users to use thier email client such as outloot to keep in touch with regards to support calls and not have them having to go to the site everytime they want to update the status of the case.

This is also somthing i'd like to enable my tech guys to do, as we're only a small firm and we're all running multi-roles being out and about doing sales visists and suchlike it isn't really practical to have to keep two seperate mail clients, i just need to be able to use my outlook to manage all of the support requests yet still keep things recorded in a database.

I'm actually working on a support system just now as well and one of the parts I am building into this is e-mail piping.

Basically, a schedule will run every minute and the script will use CFPOP to check an e-mail account for new mail, decide from the subject if it is a reply (will have something like [SDSD-4324234] in the subject) or a new ticket. The script will then populate the database with the e-mail contents.

E-mails sent to staff contain a tag similar to [staff_member_45465464] in the body and when they reply, the script knows it is a staff reply and can populate the database as such.

If you are looking to fully customise the system to fit in with your needs, then building a support system is worthwhile (this is my second one) but if you are just wanting something easy to deal with, you would be cheaper and quicker buying a pre-made script such as

http://www.kayako.com

Hope this helps

Wullie

Fresh Look - Quality Coldfusion 7/Windows Hosting
YetiHost - Coming Soon

The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails. - John Maxwell