django-helpdesk - A Django powered ticket tracker for small enterprise.

(c) Copyright 2009 Jutda. All Rights Reserved. See LICENSE for details.

django-helpdesk was formerly known as Jutda Helpdesk, named after the 
company who originally created it. As of January 2011 the name has been 
changed to reflect what it really is: a Django-powered ticket tracker with
contributors reaching far beyond Jutda.

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0. Table of Contents
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1. Licensing
2. Dependencies (pre-flight checklist)
3. Upgrading from previous versions
4. Installation
5. Initial Configuration
6. Spam filtering
7. API Usage
8. Custom fields

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1. Licensing
#########################

See the file 'LICENSE' for licensing terms. Note that django-helpdesk is 
distributed with 3rd party products which have their own licenses. See 
LICENSE.3RDPARTY for license terms for included packages.

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2. Dependencies (pre-flight checklist)
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1. Python 2.4+ 

2. Django (1.2 or newer)

3. An existing WORKING Django project with database etc. If you
   cannot log into the Admin, you won't get this product working.

NOTE REGARDING SQLITE AND SEARCHING:
If you use sqlite as your database, the search function will not work as
effectively as it will with other databases due to its inability to do
case-insensitive searches. It's recommended that you use PostgreSQL or MySQL
if possible. For more information, see this note in the Django documentation:
http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/databases/#sqlite-string-matching

When you try to do a keyword search using sqlite, a message will be displayed
to alert you to this shortcoming. There is no way around it, sorry.

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3. Upgrading from previous versions
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If you are upgrading from a previous version of django-helpdesk, you should 
read the UPGRADING file to learn what changes you will need to make to get 
the current version of django-helpdesk working.

1. Find out your current version of django-helpdesk. In the 'helpdesk' folder,
   use the 'svn' command to find the current revision:

    svn info .

   Look for the 'Revision' line, eg:

    Revision: 92

2. Read through the UPGRADE file, looking for any changse made _after_ that 
   revision. Apply the commands provided in order from oldest to most recent.

3. Restart your web server software (eg Apache) or FastCGI instance, to ensure
   the latest changes are in use.

4. Continue to the 'Initial Configuration' area, if needed.

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4. Installation
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1. Try using 'pip install django-helpdesk'. If that fails, download and 
   place 'helpdesk' in your Python path. I use /var/django, others may use 
   /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/ or a similar path.

2. In your projects' settings.py file, add these lines to the INSTALLED_APPS
   setting:
   'helpdesk',
   'django.contrib.admin',

3. In your projects' urls.py file, add this line:
    (r'helpdesk/', include('helpdesk.urls')),

    You can substitute 'helpdesk/' for something else, eg 'support/' or even ''.

4. Ensure the admin line is un-hashed in urls.py:
    # Uncomment this for admin:
    from django.contrib import admin
    admin.autodiscover()
    (r'^admin/(.*)', admin.site.root),

    If you use helpdesk at the top of your domain (at /), ensure the admin 
    line comes BEFORE the helpdesk line.

5. In your project directory (NOT the helpdesk directory) run 
    ./manage.py syncdb
   to create database tables

6. Inside your MEDIA_ROOT folder, create a new folder called 'helpdesk' and 
   copy the contents of helpdesk/htdocs/ into it. Alternatively, create a
   symlink:
    ln -s /path/to/helpdesk/htdocs /path/to/media/helpdesk

   This application assumes all helpdesk media will be accessible at
   http://MEDIA_URL/helpdesk/

7. Inside your MEDIA_ROOT folder, inside the 'helpdesk' folder, is a folder 
   called 'attachments'. Ensure your web server software can write to this 
   folder - something like this should do the trick:

    chown www-data:www-data attachments/; chmod 700 attachments
     (substitute www-data for the user / group that your web server runs
      as, eg 'apache' or 'httpd')

   If all else fails ensure all users can write to it:

    chmod 777 attachments/

   This is NOT recommended, especially if you're on a shared server.

8. Ensure that your 'attachments' folder has directory listings turned off, 
   to ensure users don't download files that they are not specifically linked 
   to from their tickets.

   If you are using Apache, put a .htaccess file in the 'attachments' folder 
   with the following content:

    Options -Indexes

   You will also have to make sure that .htaccess files aren't being ignored.

   Ideally, accessing http://MEDIA_URL/helpdesk/attachments/ will give you a 
   403 access denied error.

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5. Initial Configuration
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1. Visit http://yoursite/admin/ and add a Helpdesk Queue. If you wish, 
   enter your POP3 or IMAP server details. 

   IMPORTANT NOTE: Any tickets created via POP3 or IMAP mailboxes will DELETE
   the original e-mail from the mail server.

2. Visit http://yoursite/helpdesk/ (or other path as defined in your urls.py) 

3. If you wish to automatically create tickets from the contents of an e-mail 
   inbox, set up a cronjob to run scripts/get_email.py on a regular basis. 

   Don't forget to set the relevant Django environment variables in your 
   crontab:

   */5 * * * * /path/to/helpdesksite/manage.py get_email

   This will run the e-mail import every 5 minutes

   IMPORTANT NOTE: Any tickets created via POP3 or IMAP mailboxes will DELETE
   the original e-mail from the mail server.

4. If you wish to automatically escalate tickets based on their age, set up 
   a cronjob to run scripts/escalate_tickets.py on a regular basis:
   
   0 * * * * /path/to/helpdesksite/manage.py escalate_tickets
   
   This will run the escalation process hourly, using the 'Escalation Hours' 
   setting for each queue to determine which tickets to escalate.

5. If you wish to exclude some days (eg, weekends) from escalation calculations, enter 
   the dates manually via the Admin, or setup a cronjob to run 
   the create_escalation_exclusions management command on a regular basis:

   0 0 * * 0 /path/to/helpdesksite/manage.py create_escalation_exclusions --days saturday,sunday --escalate-verbosely

   This will, on a weekly basis, create exclusions for the coming weekend.

6. Log in to your Django admin screen, and go to the 'Sites' module. If the 
   site 'example.com' is listed, click it and update the details so they are 
   relevant for your website.

7. If you do not send mail directly from your web server (eg, you need to 
   use an SMTP server) then edit your settings.py file so it contains your 
   mail server details:

   EMAIL_HOST = 'XXXXX'
   EMAIL_HOST_USER = 'YYYYYY@ZZZZ.PPP'
   EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = '123456'

You're now up and running!

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7. Spam filtering
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django-helpdesk includes a copy of `akismet.py' by Michael Foord, which lets
incoming ticket submissions be automatically checked against either the 
Akismet or TypePad Anti-Spam services.

To enable this functionality, sign up for an API key with one of the following
serviceS:

Akismet: http://akismet.com/
Save your API key in settings.py as AKISMET_API_KEY
Note: Akismet is only free for personal use. Paid commercial accounts are 
available.

TypePad AntiSpam: http://antispam.typepad.com/
Save your API key in settings.py as TYPEPAD_ANTISPAM_API_KEY
This service is free to use, within their terms and conditions.

If you have either of these settings enabled, the spam filtering will be 
done automatically. If you have *both* settings configured, TypePad will 
be used instead of Akismet.

Example configuration in settings.py:

TYPEPAD_ANTISPAM_API_KEY = 'abc123'

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7. API Usage
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django-helpdesk includes an API accessible via HTTP POST requests, allowing
you to create and alter tickets from 3rd party software and systems.

For usage instructions and command syntax, see the file
templates/helpdesk/api_help.html, or visit http://helpdesk/api/help/.

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8. Custom fields
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As of February 2011, django-helpdesk supports custom fields on the Ticket 
model. These fields are created by using the Django administration tool, and
are shown on both the public and staff submission forms. 

You can use most Django field types including text, integer, boolean, and list.

The demo at http://demo.jutdahelpdesk.com contains an example of each type of 
custom field, including a mix of mandatory and optional fields.

Note that this feature is still in beta - it needs quite a bit of testing and 
no doubt has bugs!