A helpdesk is a piece of online software that enables 1 or more people (usually Technical Support) to ansswer questions from users. The main benefit is that all the support issues are in one place, and it is easy to login and see what needs answering…

3 Pillars

I recently purchased a piece of software created by WillB over at Barden Media called "3 Pillars" as a WSO (Warrior Special Offer). I knew that I was going to need a helpdesk system sometime in the future and at the price-point I couldn't let it go by. It is also nice to support other AIS'ers, eh?

The payment/download process was very painless. Went through Paypal and received the download link same day. It was only yesterday that I came to install the software for the first time. This is where the problems began…

The sales pitch and the User Manual both state that the software is usable on PHP4 and MySQL4. Good stuff as my host has not updated to version 5 of either of these, yet. I unzipped the full contents of the download package, and followed the instructions in the User Manual…

The first problem was within the Install procedure. MySQL 4 has a limit of 255 for a Varchar, which meant that one of the database tables was not created. However the installer did not bomb out to let me know. More on that to follow…

Moving onto the actual PHP code

A small piece of the code is written solely for PHP5, thus anyone using the software on PHP4 will be disappointed to see multiple errors. These will need fixing up. I supplied Will with some replacement code for one of the files which does the same job (but is compatible with PHP4). I didn't have enough time to delve into the other files, so I opened up a Support Request (Will uses his own software, which is good), and asked about a version for PHP4.

Within about 30 minutes, Will had re-coded all the PHP5 stuff, which now meant I had to re-upload a few files. After this, the ticketing system still would not work.

I was starting to get a bit frustrated - and went through the files with a fine tooth comb. I noticed mention of a "ticket" table, which did not exist in my database! Hence any tickets I was adding were not showing. After a bit of manual dexterity I had added the "ticket" table (see my comment above about Varchar(255)).

And now, everything was working! Yippee!

I was very pleased that Will was so responsive, but a bit disappointed that there were quite so many PHP5/MySQL5 specific features.

Another problem was with the "captcha" facility. The User Manual describes a "capcha" folder, but there was no "capcha" folder within the zip file - at least, not according to winzip! I did not realise that users have to create this manually - it does not say so in the User Manual. I brought this up with Will, who maintained that the zip does include the capcha folder. I wonder if winzip can see "empty" folders?

The FAQ System

I then wanted to make the helpdesk a bit more intuitive. I re-coded some of the files in order that the layout was better - as an example, I removed everything except the Question and Answer (when viewing a FAQ). Of course, I also have a linkback to the FAQ index. On the index I also jigged the layout about to make it a little better. All of this is just cosmetic and makes zero difference really.

The Ticketing System

I then decided that I would like to have a way for Users to close and re-open their own tickets.

After all, if a User asks a question and then finds the answer in the FAQs or Google or where-ever, it makes sense for him to come and close the question.

This was a 10 minute job to make this work.

The image shown to the right is a view of a ticket that was closed by the user. It works just perfect!

In the Future

I know that Will is presently working on a "Pro" version, which I think will solve all the errors that I experienced. In addition, I fervently hope that the User Manual is made more beefy, perhaps with Screenshots (remember that an image speaks 1000 words!).

Here is my wishlist for the Pro version…

• Multiple Technical Support facility. With each person having a different signature, and the ability to sort tickets by Tech Support person.
• Ticket Assignation. Ability to assign tickets to different Tech Support people. As an example, I might be expert at "design", another might be expert at "code".
• Stats! Everyone loves stats. I'd like to be able to see who closes the most tickets, who makes the most replies and so on. How many tickets were closed this month, this week, today, yesterday and by whom.
• User ability to open and close tickets. Really easy, and very useful. I've already coded this, which Will is welcome to.
• Better Templating System - use PHP includes and access the "settings" file to grab info such as "site name" for example.

If I come up with more ideas, I will post them.

Conclusion

The only bad points; Poor User Manual. Initial lack of support for PHP4 and MySQL4 (now solved!). All in all, it's a good system.

I'm impressed with the ease of adding extra facilities (eg my "open/close by user"), and also the ease of making it look different to standard. If you are delving into the depths of the software, you will need PHP experience - without it, you have no chance. Will offers an installation service, which is a good upsell.