Installation

django-helpdesk installation isn’t difficult, but it requires you have a bit of existing know-how about Django.

Getting The Code

Installing using PIP

Try using pip install django-helpdesk. Go and have a beer to celebrate Python packaging.

GIT Checkout (Cutting Edge)

If you’re planning on editing the code or just want to get whatever is the latest and greatest, you can clone the official Git repository with git clone git://github.com/rossp/django-helpdesk.git

Copy the helpdesk folder into your PYTHONPATH.

I just want a .tar.gz!

You can download the latest PyPi package from http://pypi.python.org/pypi/django-helpdesk/

Download, extract, and drop helpdesk into your PYTHONPATH

Adding To Your Django Project

1. Edit your settings.py file and add helpdesk to the INSTALLED_APPS setting. You also need django.contrib.admin in INSTALLED_APPS if you haven’t already added it. eg:

   INSTALLED_APPS = (
       'django.contrib.auth',
       'django.contrib.contenttypes',
       'django.contrib.sessions',
       'django.contrib.sites',
       'django.contrib.admin', # Required for helpdesk admin/maintenance
       'django.contrib.markup', # Required for text display
       'helpdesk', # This is new!
   )
   

2. Make sure django-helpdesk is accessible via urls.py. Add the following line to urls.py:

   (r'helpdesk/', include('helpdesk.urls')),
   

   Note that you can change ‘helpdesk/’ to anything you like, such as ‘support/’ or ‘help/’. If you want django-helpdesk to be available at the root of your site (for example at http://support.mysite.tld/) then the line will be as follows:

   (r'', include('helpdesk.urls')),
   

   This line will have to come after any other lines in your urls.py such as those used by the Django admin.

3. Create the required database tables. I’d suggest using South, however the following will work:

   ./manage.py syncdb

4. 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
   

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. If it’s not already installed, install python-markdown:

   pip install Markdown