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- --------------------------------
- dotProject enhanced Ticketsmith
- --------------------------------
-
- Ticketsmith was originally developed by Justin Miller at Voxel.Net to
- be a standalone trouble ticket management system. It was originally
- incorporated into dotProject although it wasn't well integrated.
-
- Work has since been done to incorporate it more seamlessly into
- dotProject. This includes not having separate configuration files,
- changing the gateway code to work with the PHP config files, etc.
-
- Check the document INSTALL to see how to install the email gateway
- for dotproject.
-
- The original README from ticketsmith is included here for completeness:
-
-
- --------------------
- Ticketsmith v0.6.3
- --------------------
-
- URL: http://www.voxel.net/projects/ticketsmith/
- Mailing list: ticketsmith@solidlinux.com
- Author: Justin R. Miller <justin@voxel.net>
- License: Voxel Public License (see LICENSE)
-
- ----------
- Overview
- ----------
-
- Ticketsmith is an all-in-one email/web-based ticket support system. Messages
- to your support list will be inserted into a database and cataloged for easy
- viewing on the web. Multiple staff users can answer tickets via the system and
- their answers and resulting responses (and so on) will all be recorded. The
- system is multi-user capable, fast, and full-featured. Say goodbye to lost
- support mail!
-
- Ticketsmith is the open-source support component of Voxel Dot Net's web hosting
- automation system, â–„bersmith.
-
- --------------
- Requirements
- --------------
-
- Ticketsmith needs a server with PHP4 enabled. There are a few features (such
- as auto-wordwrapping) that will require a very recent version of PHP4 (greater
- than 4.0.2) but these features can be disabled. You'll also need access to a
- MySQL server on which you can create a separate database. You'll need Perl as
- well as the MySQL DBI module for it. Lastly, you'll need some kind of MDA
- (Mail Delivery Agent) such as procmail that is capable of piping mail to a
- program or be able to set up your MTA (such as sendmail or qmail) to send mail
- for an address to a program.
-
- On the client side, 4.x browsers give the best appearance, since stylesheets
- and JavaScript are used. Also, with the introduction of PHP4 session
- management, a browser which accepts cookies is required.
-
- --------------
- Installation
- --------------
-
- 1. Uncompress and un-tar the download file. I'm assuming that since you're
- reading this, you've already done this. Put the scripts someplace
- accessible from the web.
-
- 2. Be sure to protect the gateway.pl file. You basically need to do one
- of two things, either move it out of a web-accessible place or somehow
- protect it from being accessed over the web:
-
- <Files "gateway.pl">
- order deny,allow
- deny from all
- </Files>
-
- If you don't protect it, one of two things will happen, either users will be
- able to see the source and thus grab your Ticketsmith MySQL password, or
- something unpredictable will happen when Apache tries to run it as a CGI
- script. I don't think this could be harmful, but hey, you never know.
-
- 3. Create the database on your MySQL server. A good name is 'ticketsmith' with
- access as user 'ticketsmith' and a password of your choosing.
-
- 4. Edit the bottom of the table.schema file to reflect the administrative password
- you would like.
-
- 5. Create the necessary tables. You can use the provided database schema file:
-
- mysql -uticketsmith -p ticketsmith < table.schema
-
- and entering the password you set up in Step 3 when it prompts you.
-
- 6. Move or delete the table.schema file. If you don't, it will be accessible from
- the web and users will be able to gain your admin password.
-
- 7. Edit config.inc.php and the top of gateway.pl to fit your setup.
-
- 8. Create user accounts for your staff. You can do this by logging in as 'admin'
- with the password created in Step 4 after pointing your browser at the
- Ticketsmith main login page. It should be pretty self-explanatory. Name,
- email, and signature are as you'd want them on outgoing mail. If you include
- a signature, when that user goes to followup, their signature will automatically
- be included in the composition area.
-
- 9. Configure your MDA or MTA to pipe mail for your support list to gateway.pl. For
- example, here is a sample procmail recipe:
-
- :0
- * (^To:|^CC:|^Cc:) .*support@foo.bar
- |/path/to/gateway.pl
-
- You can also set Ticketsmith up directly with sendmail in /etc/aliases:
-
- support: "|/path/to/gateway.pl"
-
- Keep in mind that with sendmail you need to either put gateway.pl in
- /etc/smrsh or at least symlink to it from that directory so that
- sendmail will execute it. If you do this, you'll have to point
- the /etc/aliases entry to the copy in /etc/smrsh.
-
- 10. Start using Ticketsmith! Mail sent to your support list should start
- showing up on the main page.
-
- -------
- Usage
- -------
-
- As mail accumulates, you will see it on the main page. When you examine a
- ticket, you will some basic info. Here you can assign the ticket to one
- of your staff, change its status, or read its followups. Followups come in
- two varieties, either ones made by your staff or ones emailed in by clients.
- Followups made by your staff can either be email responses to the client
- (known as 'followups') or internal comments which don't get sent but can
- be viewed by your staff (known as 'comments').
-
- Ticketsmith should handle the subject lines properly so that followups are
- kept with their parent ticket. You might want to let your clients know
- to keep the standard subject that is in the email. Most mail clients will
- do this automatically when you hit 'reply'.
-
- --------------
- Mailing List
- --------------
-
- To subscribe to the Ticketsmith mailing list, send an email to
- minimalist@solidlinux.com with the words "subscribe ticketsmith"
- in the subject. Follow the instructions that you receive from there.
-