Web Help Desk. Administrator s Guide Version 9.2.1. 2009 MacsDesign Studio

Web Help Desk Administrator s Guide Version 9.2.1 2009 MacsDesign Studio

Table of Contents Chapter 1: Database Select a Database 1 Database Setup 1 MySQL 1 SQL Server 2005/2008 2 Oracle 3 PostgreSQL 8 3 OpenBase 3 Backup Strategies 3 Chapter 2: Installation Mac OS X 4 Pre-Install Requirements 4 Installation 4 Windows Server 4 Pre-Install Requirements 4 Installation 4 Linux 5 Pre-Install Requirements 5 Installation 5 Solaris 5 Pre-Install Requirements 5 Installation 5 Apache Integration 6 Existing Tomcat Integration 6 Microsoft IIS Integration 6 Chapter 3: Getting Started Setup 7 General 7 Locations & Departments 10 Tickets 12 Clients 15 Techs 15 Assets 17 Change Management 19 Surveys 19 Parts & Billing 19 Data Import 20 Chapter 4: Managing Clients Manual Web Entry 21 Client Info 21 Assigned Assets 21 Ticket History 21 Data Import 21 LDAP Synchronization 22 Mapping Attributes 22 Synchronizing LDAP Connections 23 Chapter 5: Tickets Web-Based Ticketing 24 Client Info 24 Asset Info 24 Ticket Details 25 Other Ticket Options 26 E-Mail Ticketing 28 Reporting by E-Mail 28 Updating by E-Mail 28 Task Management 30 Creating Tasks 30 Task Elements 30 Triggering Tasks 30 Search Tickets 30 Refining Search Results 31 Saved Queries 31 Ticket Bulk Actions 31 Quick Tickets 32 Ticket Assignment Logic 33 Chapter 6: Asset Management Adding Assets 34 Manual Web Entry 34 Import Assets 35 Asset Discovery Integration 36 Search Assets 36 Refining Search Results 36 Saved Queries 36 Purchase Orders 37 Define Vendors 37 Create a New Purchase Order 37 Add Line Items 37 Purchase Order Import 38 Chapter 7: Asset Discovery Asset Discovery Components 39

Table of Contents Supported Components: 39 Asset Discovery Mechanics 39 Discovery Tool Configuration 39 Apple Remote Desktop 3.2 39 Apple Remote Desktop 3.3 40 Casper 40 LANrev 40 Web Help Desk Configuration 41 Attribute Mapping 43 WHD Hyperlink to Discovery Tool 44 Chapter 8: Change Management Approver Roles 45 Location Approver Roles 45 Department Approver Roles 45 Change Advisory Board Roles 45 Assign Approver Roles 46 Approval Processes 46 Add Approval Steps 46 Define Request Types Supported 46 Approval Status Types 47 Add Approval Status Types 47 Assign Approval Status Types 47 Using Approvals 47 Ticket Creation 47 Approver Action 48 Requester Action 49 Chapter 9: FAQs FAQ Search 50 New FAQ 50 Import FAQs 50 Public FAQ Access 51 Web Access 51 RSS Feed 51 Chapter 10: Parts & Billing Billing Preferences 52 Inventory Alerts 52 Invoicing Options 52 Rates & Terms 53 Managing Parts 53 Parts List 53 Importing Parts 54 Adding Inventory 54 Importing Inventory 54 Using Parts 54 Invoicing 55 Service Time Blocks 55 Chapter 11: Reports Sample Reports 57 Creating Reports 57 Ticket Report 57 Billing Report 60 Creating Report Groups 61 Group Options 61 Included Reports 61 Creating Report Schedules 61 Schedule Details 61 Tech Recipients 62 Included Reports 62 History 62 Creating Survey Reports 62 Chapter 12: Surveys and Messages Managing Surveys 63 Survey Manager 63 Sending a Survey 63 Viewing Survey Results 64 Ticket Detail View 64 Survey Reports 64 Messages 65 Creating Messages 65 Viewing Tech Messages 65 Viewing Client Messages 66 License Key Expiration Message 66 Chapter 13: Client Interface Help Request 67 History 68 Approvals 68 FAQs 69 Client Admins 69 Client Admin Roles 70

Table of Contents Logout 71 Chapter 14: Deployment Considerations Memory Sizing and JVM Options 72 Supporting less than 20 Techs 72 Supporting more than 20 Techs 72 WebObjects on Mac OS X Server 72 Clearing JVM Heap Memory 75 Mac OS X 75 Windows 75 Linux/Solaris 76 Configuring WHD for HTTPS 76 Setting HTTPS_PORT and URL_HTTPS_PORT in whd.conf 76 Certificate configuration overview 77 Generating a new certificate 78 Importing an existing certificate 81 Enabling HTTP-to-HTTPS redirection 82 Troubleshooting 83

Chapter 1: Database 1 Select a Database Before installing the Web Help Desk, you should decide on which database the application will use. JDBC drivers for all supported databases are installed by default. Supported Databases: FrontBase (included on Mac OS X and Windows) MySQL 5 SQL Server 2005 or later Oracle 8i/9i/10g PostgreSQL 8 OpenBase If installing on Mac OS X or Windows a FrontBase database is included in the installation. FrontBase is a very handy medium duty database. Great care and consideration should be taken to select a database that meets both your current and future needs, as migrating between databases is not supported, and not recommended unless you have access to an experienced DBA. If you wish to use the embedded FrontBase database, you may skip ahead to Chapter 2 at this point. with the IP address or DNS name of the WHD server that will connect to the database. Select the host you ll connect from, then click the Schema Privileges tab. Select the whd schema, and assign the Select, Insert, Update, Delete, Create, Drop, References, Index, Alter and Lock_Tables privileges. Database Setup MySQL Using the MySQL Administrator Tool, create a new database schema named whd using the Catalogs option. Save changes and the database is ready for the Web Help Desk to connect. Add a whd account, and attach an appropriate host to the account. If you re running MySQL on the same server as the WHD is installed, localhost is fine, otherwise attach a host

CHAPTER 1 Database 2 SQL Server 2005/2008 Use the SQL Server Configuration Manager tool to ensure that the server is listening over TCP/IP. Depending on what edition you re using, you may need to enable Remote Connections over TCP/IP if your database is on a different machine from the WHD installation. Right click on the TCP/IP Protocol Name in the right panel and select Properties for the window below and enable TCP/IP. Expand the Security folder under the database server in the Object Explorer pane, then right-click on the Logins folder and select New Login.... NOTE: If using SQL Server 2005, use the SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration tool to ensure that the server is listening over TCP/IP. Depending on what edition you re using, you may need to enable Remote Connections over TCP/IP if your database is on a different machine from the WHD installation. Connect to the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio application. Make sure you ve enabled SQL Server Authentication by right-clicking on the database server in the Object Explorer pane and selecting Properties. Select the Security Page, and check off SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode. Create a new whd login using SQL Server Authentication set the password to anything you like. Make sure that Enforce password policy, Enforce password expiration, and User must change password at next login are all unchecked.

CHAPTER 1 Database 3 for the table space to make a connection from the Web Help Desk. PostgreSQL 8 As the postgres admin user, create a new whd user and a new database called whd. Grant all permissions to the whd database for the whd user. OpenBase Create a new database called whd and enable automatic start on reboot. For the default Admin user, set the password to one of your choosing. Refer to the OpenBase documentation if you more explicit instructions. NOTE: If using SQL Server 2005, the window above may look a bit different, but settings should remain the same. Right-click on the Databases folder in the Object Explorer pane and choose New Database.... Name the new database whd and assign the whd user as the Owner. Backup Strategies Having a regular backup schedule is very important to protect your data in the event of a catastrophic hardware failure. The Web Help Desk can automatically make scheduled backups on the embedded FrontBase database. Embedded FrontBase backups are located at <WebHelpDesk>/FrontBase4/Backups/ whd.fb by default, or you can choose your own backup location. If not using FrontBase, the application can trigger the execution of your own backup script daily. The backup should always be moved to a separate hard disk or tape. The database is now ready for connection with the Web Help Desk. Oracle Create a new table space and user account having select, insert, update, delete, create, drop, index, and alter privileges. The user account should be named whd and the password can be set to one of your choice. You will need the SID value

4 Chapter 2: Installation Mac OS X Pre-Install Requirements Mac OS X 10.4 or later with Java 5 installed. If not using the embedded FrontBase, your database of choice should be setup as described in Chapter 1. Installation Mount the WebHelpDesk-<version>.dmg disk image in the Finder and double click on the WebHelpDesk.pkg installer. The application will be installed into: /Library/WebHelpDesk Utilities to start and stop the Web Help Desk and the Front- BaseManager application are installed into: /Applications/WebHelpDesk The application is configured to start automatically after installation and on reboot. However, if you do need to stop or restart the application for any reason, you can use the start and stop options in /Applications/WebHelpDesk. By default, the Web Help Desk serves web pages on port 8081. If you would like to configure the Web Help Desk to work with Apache, or run on port 80 directly, follow the instructions described in the Apache Integration section. Connect to the Web Help Desk by going to the URL: http://localhost:8081/helpdesk The application will attempt to connect to the FrontBase embedded database by default. You will be prompted to update the database to the latest version. Login to the application, using the default account: E-Mail Address: admin Password: admin Windows Server Pre-Install Requirements If not using the embedded FrontBase, your database of choice should be setup as described in Chapter 1. Installation Launch the WebHelpDesk-<version>.exe application and follow the on screen instructions. By default, the application will be installed into: C:\Program Files\WebHelpDesk The Web Help Desk is configured to start automatically on reboot. However, if you do need to stop or restart the application for any reason, go to Start > All Programs > Web Help Desk and use the stop/start options. By default, the Web Help Desk serves web pages on port 8081. The application can be configured to run on port 80, but IIS must be stopped. Refer to the Microsoft IIS Integration section at the end of this chapter for more information. Connect to the Web Help Desk by going to the URL: http://localhost:8081/helpdesk The application will attempt to connect to the FrontBase embedded database by default. You will be prompted to update the database to the latest version. To login to the application, use the default account: E-Mail Address: admin Password: admin Tip: In a new installation, the application will not prompt you for a database connection or license name and key. It will automatically use the embedded database and start up in demo mode. If you don t want to use the embedded database, you will need to go to Setup > General > Database to update your settings. You must restart the application to use the new database connection. To enter your license name and key, go to Setup > General > License. Tip: In a new installation, the application will not prompt you for a database connection or license name and key. It will automatically use the embedded database and start up in demo mode. If you don t want to use the embedded database, you will need to go to Setup > General > Database to update your settings. You must restart the application to use the new database connection. To enter your license name and key, go to Setup > General > License.

CHAPTER 2 Installation 5 Linux Pre-Install Requirements RPM Package manager The application has only been tested on RedHat Linux, but should work on other distributions. Database setup as described in Chapter 1. Installation Decompress and install and install the RPM: gunzip webhelpdesk-9.x.x-1.noarch.rpm.gz sudo rpm -ivh webhelpdesk-9.x.x-1.noarch.rpm The RPM installs and starts the Web Help Desk at: /usr/local/webhelpdesk The application is configured to restart automatically upon reboot. However, if you do need to manually stop and start the application, using a shell: cd /usr/local/webhelpdesk sudo./whd stop sudo./whd start By default, the Web Help Desk serves web pages on port 8081. If you would like to configure the Web Help Desk to work with Apache, or run on port 80 directly, follow the instructions described in the Apache Integration section. If no Apache integration is required, connect to the Web Help Desk by going to the URL: Solaris Pre-Install Requirements Database setup as described in Chapter 1. Installation NOTE: You will need the open-source utilities sudo and star (a tar replacement). star is needed because the tar utility included with Solaris (/usr/bin/tar) will not extract the long filenames in the webhelpdesk-<version>.tgz package correctly, nor will the open-source GNU tar. (gtar version 1.13, currently the most popular build for Solaris, seems to have a bug that truncates the last character of paths having 103 characters.) You can use the following to install star (replace sol9 with sol8 if using Solaris 8): Download the pre-compiled star package (star-1.5a40- sol9-sparc-local.gz) from: http://ftp.sunfreeware.com/ftp/pub/freeware. Uncompress the package (for Intel servers, replace sparc with intel): gunzip star-1.5a40-sol9-sparc-local.gz Install the package: pkgadd -d star-1.5a40-sol9-sparc-local The Web Help Desk startup script depends on finding the bash shell at /bin/bash. Unfortunately, before Solaris 9, bash was not included in the default installation. If you do not have bash installed, you can download it as a package from http://sunfreeware.com. After installing the package, check that there is a link to the bash executable from /bin/bash. If not, you can create it with the command ln -s <path_to_bash_ executable> /bin/bash. http://localhost:8081/helpdesk Provide your settings to at the database configuration screen. You will be prompted to update the database to the latest version. To login to the application, use the default account: To install the Web Help Desk once the above prerequisites are met: Extract the webhelpdesk folder into /usr/local/. Be sure to use star not tar! E-Mail Address: admin Password: admin sudo star xfz webhelpdesk-<version>.tgz -C /usr/local/ Tip: In a new installation, the application will not prompt you for a license name and key. It will automatically start up in demo mode. To enter your license name and key, go to Setup > General > License.

CHAPTER 2 Installation 6 Execute the following to make the Web Help Desk start up automatically after a reboot: sudo /usr/local/webhelpdesk/bin/install_autostart Start the Web Help Desk: /usr/local/webhelpdesk/whd start By default, the Web Help Desk serves web pages on port 8081. If you would like to configure the Web Help Desk to work with Apache, or run on port 80 directly, follow the instructions described in the Apache Integration section. If no Apache integration is required, connect to the Web Help Desk by going to the URL: http://localhost:8081 Provide your settings to at the database configuration screen. You will be prompted to update the database to the latest version. To login to the application, use the default account: E-Mail Address: admin Password: admin Tip: In a new installation, the application will not prompt you for a license name and key. It will automatically start up in demo mode. To enter your license name and key, go to Setup > General > License. Apache Integration By default, the Web Help Desk runs on port 8081. If you don t need Apache, and would prefer to run the application on port 80, do the following: Stop Apache Set the DEFAULT_PORT variable in webhelpdesk/ conf/whd.conf to 80 Restart the Web Help Desk To configure the Web Help Desk to work with Apache, perform the following steps: In your Apache configuration file (httpd.conf ), enable the mod_proxy module by making sure the following lines are uncommented (Apache 1.x): LoadModule proxy_module AddModule mod_proxy.c Add the following lines at the end of your Apache configuration file (httpd.conf): ProxyPass /helpdesk http://localhost:8081/helpdesk ProxyPassReverse /helpdesk http://localhost:8081/helpdesk Restart Apache Existing Tomcat Integration To simplify installation, the Web Help Desk comes bundled with its own copy of the Apache Tomcat application server. However, if your deployment server already has Tomcat installed and you wish to use it in place of the included copy, move the following two directories to your existing Tomcat/ webapps directory: webhelpdesk/bin/webapps/helpdesk webhelpdesk/bin/webapps/whdreminderdaemon If you are running Tomcat and Apache, you will need to add the ProxyPass entry described in the previous section. Microsoft IIS Integration By default, the Web Help Desk runs on port 8081. If you don t need IIS, and would prefer to run the application on port 80, do the following: Stop IIS Stop the Web Help Desk Set the DEFAULT_PORT variable in C:\Program Files\webhelpdesk\conf\whd.conf to 80 Restart the Web Help Desk If there are multiple IP addresses on the machine, you can run the Web Help Desk on port 80 along with IIS on port 80 provided you bind IIS and Web Help Desk to separate IPs. To specify the IP address for Web Help Desk, edit the C:\ Program Files\WebHelpDesk\conf\whd.conf file and set the IP_ADDRESS option to the IP you want to bind. To bind IIS to a specific port: At a command prompt, switch to the C:\Program Files\Support Tools folder. Type the following command: httpcfg set iplisten -i xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address you want IIS to listen) To check your settings, type the following command: httpcfg query iplisten Restart the server

7 Chapter 3: Getting Started Setup Log in as an Administrator and click on the Setup icon. should Require Authentication on External Hyperlinks. Time & Place Business Zones The application creates a default business zone that should match the time zone specified by the server s operating system. You can create additional business zones for other time zones your Techs or Locations may use. All Techs use the default zone unless overridden in their profile. Clients inherit their business zone from their assigned Location, using the default if the Location has no override. Business zones define the date, time and number formats as well as the business hours used in calculating ticket open times. Tip: Pop-up help is available throughout Web Help Desk. Mouse over any preference label for a detailed description of the setting. General License If you have license key to enter, click the lock icon and apply the name and key. General Options Specify your server DNS name and, if enabled, when to use the HTTPS protocol. Define an optional login message and edit the forgot password message to your liking. Enable automatic login and define the session timeout values for both Techs and Clients. Give your helpdesk a Page Title that will appear in the browser s title bar. Calendars Enable/disable calendar links, determine which ticket types are included, specify the calendar time window and customize the format for event listings. Authentication Define an optional login message and edit the forgot password message to your liking. Enable automatic login and define the session timeout values for both Techs and Clients. Decide whether or not external hyperlinks included in e-mails

CHAPTER 3 Getting Started 8 E-Mail The Web Help Desk can send and receive e-mail notifications. Web Help Desk can support multiple outgoing and incoming e-mail accounts. Each outgoing account can be linked to one or more incoming accounts. Account user name and password Outgoing Mail Account Request Type for new tickets sent to the account The account is checked for new mail every minute and should be a dedicated account for use by the Web Help Desk. Outgoing Mail Accounts To send e-mail from your helpdesk, you must provide the following settings: SMTP server address Friendly name for helpdesk e-mail address Helpdesk e-mail address (the from address for mail) WARNING: DO NOT use your personal mail account as the receiving e-mail box. Once the application connects, all mail in the account inbox will be processed and DELETED. Outgoing Mail Accounts can be linked to one or more incoming mail accounts in the Incoming Mail Accounts editor (discussed below). A single outgoing account can be used for all incoming accounts, or you can create as many accounts as required by your individual helpdesk setup needs. Use the Outgoing Mail Account popup menu to select the account used for sending mail related to this e-mail account. Use the Request Type popup menu to select a request type to link the incoming e-mail account to. Any incoming mail to that address will be assigned to the request type selected. Incoming Mail Accounts Configure as many Incoming Mail Accounts as required by your individual helpdesk setup needs. Each incoming account is linked to a specific request type to allow incoming e-mail to be properly categorized and routed in your helpdesk. Tip: You can use the Tech Group popup menu to filter the request types that will be available in the Request Type popup menu, but selecting a tech group is not required. E-Mail Options E-mail options are split into two categories: Incoming Mail and Outgoing Mail. In order to receive and update tickets via e-mail you must provide: E-Mail address for submitting tickets Server Type: IMAP, POP3 or Exchange 2007 (or later) Incoming Mail server address Incoming Mail Options include a setting to specify if the helpdesk will create a new client account when an unrecognized user sends an e-mail to the helpdesk. Accepted Domains specify which e-mail domains will be accepted when a sender s e-mail address is not recognized by the helpdesk. You can set up lists of e-mail senders to ignore, as well as

CHAPTER 3 Getting Started 9 set filters for both e-mail subject and e-mail body. How the helpdesk handles e-mail replies is also controlled here. See the help pop-up items for a more detailed description of each mail option. E-Mail Templates Create customized greetings for your mail messages. Greetings are linked to specific ticket status types. SMS mail text can also be customized. Greetings may contain application specific tags for personalization and customization. The full list of supported tags is listed at the bottom of the panel. Outgoing Mail Options include an SMTP timeout setting, and a setting to send mail in either plain text or HTML format. You can also specify if HTML e-mail should be used for clients, and show or hide action links which allow clients to update or cancel a ticket via e-mail. Additional options include the ability to set the ordering of information in the mail message (Client info, Ticket info, Notes), and specify how many notes should be included in the mail message. Logo Upload a customized logo used in the web application and client e-mail. Logo should be 259 x 61 pixels in size. Tip: Outlook 2007 users should select No Graphics for the HTML E-Mail Format. The HTML renderer in Outlook 2007 is no longer web standards compliant which causes rendering problems with HTML e-mail using CSS. Database Specify the database vendor, machine name or IP address and connection account. Specify a backup schedule for your database and set a custom backup path for the FrontBase database if desired.

CHAPTER 3 Getting Started 10 Logs Specify the logging level of the application (default is Error). Enable sending the log to a remote server for monitoring with the Chainsaw log tool. Logs are stored in <WebHelpDesk>/ log/helpdesk.log. assigned one or more Client Admins a Client account that can view all tickets for the location, as well as create tickets for themselves or other clients at the location (if enabled). Client Admins may be given editing permission on all tickets for the location and can also be sent a copy of all e-mail updates sent to clients at the location. (see Chapter 13: Client Interface for more information on Client Admins). If billing is enabled, the location can be designated for parts storage, and a default billing rate can be specified. To facilitate service level agreements (SLAs), a default priority for the location can be defined. Tech note work time can be displayed to clients at the location. System Information Displays system environment information: application version, Java version and memory used. Locations & Departments Click on the Locations module in the left column (this will be called Locations & Departments if departments are enabled as described below) this module is used to define support locations and to organize locations into Location Groups. Location Options Departments and Department Groups can also be configured in this section if enabled at Setup > Locations > Options > Use Departments. Rooms can be configured in this section if enabled at Setup > Locations > Options > Use Rooms. Location & Rooms The application defines a single Sample Location at installation. To add an additional location, click on the New button at the bottom of the list, or select the name of an existing location to edit. This will open a panel named Location Info where the bulk of the location information will be entered. Rooms Editor If Setup > Locations > Options > Use Rooms is enabled, rooms can be linked to the Location by clicking on the Rooms Editor tab. Add rooms by clicking on the New button at the bottom of the list. Remove rooms by clicking the trash can icon on the room s row. Location Info Provide a name and optional address for the location and specify a Business Zone (time zone). Each location can be Service Time Blocks Define a service level agreement that is constructed around blocks of time under (Service Time Blocks must be enabled under Location Info for each specific Location). Assign a fixed block of time to a location and an expiration date for that block. As techs book time to the location, the balance of available time is displayed. For further information on using

CHAPTER 3 Getting Started 11 Time Blocks, see Chapter. 10: Parts and Billing. Assigned Techs Use this tab to assign the technicians to the group. A technician can be in any number of location groups. To remove a tech from the group, click on the small trash can icon in the tech s row. Location Groups This sub-module is used to define groups of Locations and link them to the Techs that will handle their tickets. The application defines a single Sample Location Group at installation, to which the Sample Location was added. To add an additional location group, click on the New button at the bottom of the list, or select the name of an existing group to edit. Tip: If you wish to have jobs routed to a different Tech for every location, you must create a separate Location Group for every location. Only group locations together if you want the Techs in the group to handle jobs from multiple locations. Location Custom Fields Define custom fields for Locations and specify view/editing permissions for techs at Setup > Locations & Departments > Location Custom Fields. Mouse over labels for examples and formatting of fields. Group Name Name the location group and assign a Group Manager. The group manager can be any a tech or an administrator, and will receive Manager level escalations if the ticket s Tech Group specifies Location Group Manager escalation preference. Tip: Client permissions cannot be set for location custom fields because they are never visible to clients. Assigned Locations Define the locations for the group. Each location can only be assigned to one group. As locations are assigned, they disappear from the list of available locations. To remove a location from the group, click the small trash can icon on the location s row. Departments This module is only available if Setup > Locations & Departments > Location Options > Use Departments is selected. To add an additional department or edit an existing one, click on the New button at the bottom of the list, or select the name of an existing group to edit.

CHAPTER 3 Getting Started 12 Tip: Client permissions cannot be set for department custom fields because they are never visible to clients. Tickets Department Info Define the department name and optionally assign one or more Client Admins. Specify editing permissions and e- mail settings for the Client Admins. (see Chapter 13: Client Interface for more information on Client Admins). Click on the Tickets module in the left column this module is used to define ticket options, Request Types and other important ticket functions. Department Groups Use this sub-module to define groups of Departments and link them to the Techs that will handle their tickets. To add an additional department or edit an existing one, click on the New button at the bottom of the list, or select the name of an existing group to edit. Use the Assigned Departments tab to add appropriate departments to the group and the Assigned Techs tab to assign techs to the department group. Ticket Options Ticket options are categorized into three categories; General Options, Client Options and Tech Options. Other important options include: Default setting for e-mail recipients for tickets with no tech group Enable clients to set ticket priority Lock the ticket to the client s assigned location so that service locations remain private Field style for rooms (text or popup menu) Mouse over the field labels to see the online help pop-ups for more information. Department Custom Fields Define custom fields for Departments and specify view/editing permissions for techs at Setup > Locations & Departments > Department Custom Fields. Mouse over labels for examples and formatting of fields. Request Types Define what request categories your Web Help Desk will support. By default, the application has two request types defined: Sample Problem and E-Mail Report. The E-Mail Report type is linked to the default Incoming Mail Account for e-mail ticketing. Both request types can be renamed or deleted. Click on the New button to define another request type. A request type can be defined at the top level, or as a child beneath any other level.

CHAPTER 3 Getting Started 13 Define if the request type should be used as a category for FAQs. The Lead Technician will receive any top level escalations for tickets of this type. If the request type isn t assigned to any Tech Group, the Lead Technician will be assigned to tickets of this type automatically. Assign the survey to be linked to tickets using this request type. In the Request Type list view, you can expand a Parent/Child grouping by clicking on the triangle icon next to the Parent type name. Parents with no children will not have a triangle. In the sample above, the Monitor request type is defined as child of the Mac sub-type, which is a child of the Hardware parent, both of which were previously created. Assign the request type to a Tech Group (optional at this point can be assigned when tech groups are created). Define the Default Priority that tickets of this type will be assigned. Hide Subject and Request Detail for tickets using the Request Type Specify if there is a Request Detail Required in the ticket when the request type is selected Provide any Detailed Instructions you want to appear for clients to follow when submitting the request. Detailed Instructions will only appear on ticket creation, and the first time the client views it. Create internal request types that are not visible to clients by unchecking the Visible to Client option. By checking Use Models, a ticket with this request type must have a hardware model or asset selected by the client. Specify which Locations and Departments the request type is visible from (default is All ). Custom Fields can be linked to the request type. The default option is to display None additional options include Specific and All. Specify if attachments are allowed to clients for the request type. Status Types Status types fall into two main groups: Special and Other. By default, the Web Help Desk defines the special types as Open, Closed and Cancelled. These types cannot be deleted, but they can be re-named. The application creates two other types by default: Pending and Resolved. The Resolved state is pre-configured as a status that prompts the client for resolution. If the client confirms the resolution of the ticket, the status is automatically changed to Closed. You can define as many resolving status types as you like, and any of the other types can be set to auto-close if the client fails to respond for a given period of time. The status type detail editor also includes options to use the status in calendars, load balancing during ticket auto-assignment (see Chapter 5: Tickets > Ticket Assignment Logic), enabling client reminders, counting ticket open time, enabling alerts, and to determine if the type is shown by default in the Tickets > My Tickets and Group Tickets view.

CHAPTER 3 Getting Started 14 Status Types Options Use the Options tab to specify if clients can re-open closed tickets and to map various Approval related status types. An option to change the ticket status when a Client updates is also available. Approval status types will be covered in more detail in Chapter 8: Change Management. By default, all approval status types use Open. Priority Types & Alerts The application defines four priority types by default: Urgent, High, Medium and Low. Additional priority types can be created and the names and display order for each priority can be changed. events, sending a message to the assigned tech, the tech s supervisor or the group manager for the ticket s request type. The alert repeat interval can also specified for each priority type. Each priority has a Due Time value that is used by a ticket to automatically calculate the due date and time. The due date and time can be overridden within each ticket if desired. Ticket Custom Fields Create custom fields for your tickets and define viewing/editing permissions for clients and techs. Custom fields can be defined as one of the following types: Text, Multiple Choice (checkboxes), Single Choice (radio buttons), or Popup Menu. If the custom field must have more options than will fit in the Options text field, they can be uploaded in a text file. The options should be either semicolon or new line delimited. Each option must be less than 150 characters in length. Tasks Tasks can be created and managed in the Tasks section of the Tickets module. Tasks are used to create scheduled events in Web Help Desk and are made up of Elements. Elements are tickets that are created in Web Help Desk and they can be set to trigger on creation of the element, or when the ticket status equals a set value. (see Chapter 5: Tickets > Task Management for more information) Tip: If the status type for the ticket has alerts disabled, no alert level changes will be observed regardless of the alert settings. Each priority type has its own set of Alert Conditions that are used in conjunction with a ticket s status to determine what the current alert status is. When a condition in each alert level is reached, you have the option of triggering e-mail

CHAPTER 3 Getting Started 15 Clients Click on the Clients module in the left column this module is used to define the helpdesk users and their roles as well as set up LDAP synchronization to outside directories for client integration into Web Help Desk. Techs The application installs a single Administrator account which can be edited but not deleted. Click the New button to create a new Tech or Admin account, or click on an existing name to edit the account. Client Options Specify the client login attribute (e-mail or user name), define which client fields are editable and required, and list which domains the client e-mail must match to create a new account. The default module displayed to the client after login can also be specified. Client Admin Roles Client Admin Roles are used to define which Request Types are available to an Administrative Contact assigned to the role. (see Chapter 13: Client Interface > Client Admin Roles) Account Info Provide name and contact information for the account and define the account type. If creating a Tech account, you must provide a Supervisor, which can be either an Admin or another Tech. When a ticket is overdue or escalated, the assigned Tech s Supervisor may receive an e-mail. You may optionally specify a weekly work schedule. The schedule is used when determining if a technician is available for the auto-assignment of tickets. A backup tech can be specified to receive any assigned tickets when the tech is unavailable due to schedule or vacation. Client Custom Fields Create custom fields for your clients and define viewing/ editing permissions for clients and techs. Custom fields are always visible to administrators. LDAP Connections The Web Help Desk can be configured to use multiple LDAP directories as a source for client data. (see Chapter 4: Managing Clients > LDAP Synchronization) Techs Click on the Techs module in the left column this module is used to create new Tech/Admin accounts and to link techs with specific request types by creating Tech Groups as well as allow for setting up permissions and groups for them. My Account Allows the tech who is logged in to access and edit their own account details. E-Mail notification settings and SMS messaging can be set up and controlled here.

CHAPTER 3 Getting Started 16 Tech Groups Selecting the Tech Groups section presents a list of your groups. By default, the application has one group: E-Mail Reports. This group contains only the E-Mail Report request type and can be renamed or deleted. The main purpose of creating Tech Groups is to match a group of related Request Types with one or more Techs who are qualified to handle the requests in the group. Tech Groups must have at least one Level. Tickets always enter a group at Level 1, and can be auto-assigned to a tech, the group manager the request type lead. Ticket assignment can also be set to none so that group members can self-assign tickets from a queue of tickets. To create a group, click on the New button, or click on an existing group name to edit. Request Types Supported Specify the request types for the group. A request type can only be assigned to one Tech Group. As request types are assigned, they disappear from the list of available types. Tech Group Info Provide a group name and specify a Group Manager. This can be either a technician or administrator account. The group manager receives escalations above the highest Tech Group Level. Optionally, manager level escalation can be sent to the ticket s Location Group Manager by selecting the precedence checkbox. Tech Permissions Control what features of the Web Help Desk your techs can access by creating one or more named permissions. The application installs a Default permission set that you are free to edit. You can also create as many additional named permission sets as required. Each tech can only be linked to one permission at a time. Administrators are not linked to a permission set and always have full access to the application. Tech Group Levels To function, a Tech Group must have at least one level defined. In the level editor, specify auto-assignment rules, e- mail recipients for client updates, default e-mail recipients for tech updates and select which techs are members of the level. Permissions are divided into five main sections: Location Permissions Ticket Permissions Client Permissions Asset Permissions Other Permissions

CHAPTER 3 Getting Started 17 Asset Types The application defines a single Sample Type asset type by default. To add additional types, click on the New button at the bottom of the list, or click on an existing type to edit. Use Asset Types to categorize your assets common types include: Desktop, Laptop, Printer, Software, etc. Each type can also be linked to one or more of your defined custom fields. Assets The Web Help Desk can be used as a complete asset management solution, however if you want to include basic asset information in tickets, you must at minimum define Asset Types, Manufacturers, and Models. Chapter 6: Asset Management deals with this topic in detail. Asset Options Specify if asset numbers should auto-increment, set view/editing permissions for technicians and enable expiration e-mail messages to be sent to a specified Tech. Enable asset discovery integration to 3rd party tools like Apple Remote Desktop, LANrev, JAMF Software s Casper and Microsoft SCCM (see Chapter 7: Asset Discovery for more information). Asset Status Types Define the various states that an asset can be categorized with. Common types include: Deployed, Storage, Donated, etc. Any status type can be additionally flagged as Retired which means that assets using this status won t be available for use in new tickets. Warranty Types Specify the warranty options available for your models. Warranties can be named whatever you like, and the expiration can be defined in days, weeks, months or years. Lease Types Leases are only used in purchase orders (POs) for orders defined as Lease (vs. Purchase ). The lease periods defined

CHAPTER 3 Getting Started 18 in this tab are available in the PO, and the period is used by any assets linked to the PO to calculate their lease expiration date. Asset Custom Fields Define custom fields and specify view/editing permissions for techs. Manufacturers & Models Use this sub-module to define the models your help desk will support. Before adding specific models, you need to create Manufacturers to link the models to. The application defines a single Sample Manufacturer by default. Model Editor Add models for the manufacturer under this tab. Click New to create a new model, or click on an existing model to edit it. You must provide a model name and an asset type and default warranty period. If you need to add additional asset and warranty types, go to Setup > Assets > Types and edit the appropriate type tab. You can also upload file attachments that relate to the model. These attachments will show up in any asset records that utilize the model. To add a new manufacturer, click on the New button at the bottom of the list, or click on the name of an existing manufacturer to edit. Tip: Manufacturers and models are added automatically when using the Asset Importer. If you plan on importing assets, you may want to hold off creating your manufacturers and models and let the importer do it for you. You will still need to go back to each entry and fill out details using the web interface. Manufacturer Info Provide a manufacturer full name and short name the short name is used in all popup menus for any models linked to the manufacturer. Any additional information beyond the full and short names is optional. Vendors Use this sub-module to define the vendors your help desk will support. Before adding a purchase order, you need to create Vendors to link them to. Click on the Vendor sub-module to see a list of your current vendors. Click New to create a new vendor, or click on an existing vendor to edit it. Put in the contact information for the vendor you are editing. Click Save when you are finished.

CHAPTER 3 Getting Started 19 Change Advisory Boards Change Advisory Boards allows for the creation of a change advisory board (or CAB) with the ability to set how many yes votes from the board are required for approval. (see Chapter 8: Change Management > Assign Approver Roles) Location Approvers Location Approver Roles allows for the assignment of Approver Roles by location. (see Chapter 8: Change Management > Assign Approver Roles) Discovery Connections Use this sub-module to define the Asset Discovery connections your help desk will support. (see Chapter 7: Asset Discovery for more information on Discovery Connections). PO Custom Fields Define custom fields and specify view/editing permissions for techs. These fields may be of text, multiple choice, single choice or popup in nature. If the type is text, the height and width of he line may be specified as well as the maximum number of characters allowed. Department Approvers Department Approver Roles allows for the assignment of Approver Roles by department. (see Chapter 8: Change Management > Assign Approver Roles) Approval Processes Once approver types have been created and assigned, define the actual approval processes in this sub-module. (see Chapter 8: Change Management > Approval Processes) Surveys This module is used to define and build the surveys in Web Help Desk. Survey Options Use this sub-module to control the default survey and set reminder parameters. (see Chapter 12: Surveys and Messages) Surveys Use this sub-module to create and edit surveys in Web Help Desk. (see Chapter 12: Surveys and Messages) Change Management This module is used to define the approvers and Approval Processes in Web Help Desk. Approver Roles Use this sub-module to define the Approver Roles that your help desk will support. For further information on using Approvals, see Chapter 8: Change Management. Parts & Billing Options for Billing are available only if Parts and Billing is enabled in Setup > Parts & Billing > Parts & Billing Options. There are four sub-modules available: Options, Inventory Alerts, Invoicing Options and Rates & Terms. Parts & Billing Options Parts & Billing is enabled in this sub-module.

CHAPTER 3 Getting Started 20 Inventory Alerts Indicates the frequency with which e-mail alerts will be sent when the inventory levels are below the threshold specified for each. Alert recipients are added in this editor. Invoicing Options Invoicing Click on the Invoicing tab to invoke the Invoicing Editor. The Invoicing editor controls which address will be used on the invoice: Help Desk uses the Client s assigned Location address, while Personal Address will use the address defined in the client s profile. (see Chapter 10: Parts & Billing for more information on setting up this section) Data Import All data importers in Web Help Desk are now located in Setup > Data Import. There are eight sub-modules available: Locations Clients Assets POs Tickets FAQs Parts Inventory. All of the data importers provide a template download button and accept tab or comma delimited files. Each importer specifies which fields are required. Logo Click on the Logo Editor to choose and upload a logo for your invoices. Tip: Your logo will be automatically scaled to a width of 3 inches in the PDF file. A medium to high resolution file is suggested. Rates & Terms Click on the Rates & Terms sub-module to set values that are used in calculating ticket cost and for invoicing. Tabs to define billing rates, billing terms and tax rates are available. Taxes can be applied to either labor, parts or both.

21 Chapter 4: Managing Clients Manual Web Entry Individual clients are added to the application by going to the Clients > Search Clients and clicking on the New Client button at the top of the search results list, or the New button on the lower right of the list. at Setup > Clients > Client Options > Password Reset Value, or the value can be set manually. Assigned Assets View client assets under the Assigned Assets tab. Click the hyperlinked asset number to edit the asset details, or use the asset discovery buttons (enabled at Setup > Assets > Asset Options). Client Info All clients must have at least a last name and an e-mail address to be saved successfully. A client can be assigned to a primary location, room and department. Once the client record is saved, the client can be assigned to additional rooms. Personal address information can be stored in the client record expose the fields by clicking on the triangle in the label row. By default, clients log in using their e-mail address, but clients may instead log in with a user name if enabled at Setup > Clients > Client Options > Client Login Attribute. New account confirmation is mailed to the client if enabled at Setup > Clients > Client Options > E-Mail Client When Account is Created. Ticket History A complete history for the client is available under the Ticket History tab. Entries can be sorted by column header and details are viewed by clicking on the hyperlinked ticket number or request detail. Data Import Importing is an efficient way to populate your client list. The import is facilitated by a template available at Setup > Data Import > Import Clients. Click on the Download Template link and open the client_import_template.txt file in Excel. When adding client rows to the spreadsheet, it is very import to leave the column header and all columns in order and intact. If you do not wish to import data for a particular column, it is fine to leave the cells empty for the column. If you delete the headers, columns, or change the column order, the import will receive an error message. When e-mail is the client login attribute, there are two required columns for any client import: Last Name E-Mail Address Tip: Passwords for web entry clients are created automatically using the value set The importer adds a new client for each unique e-mail address it encounters and synchronizes data based on the sync key you select. The sync attribute is client e-mail address by

CHAPTER 4 Managing Clients 22 default, but you can also choose user name or one of your custom fields. If you have Location, Room or Department information contained in the data file, the importer creates new Locations, Rooms and Departments for any uniquely named values if the Add New Entities option is selected. Once your template is prepared, make sure to save as the file as tab or comma delimited, then use the Choose File button to navigate to your file. Click the Import button to upload the template and import the clients. When the upload is complete, go to Clients > Search Clients to check your upload results. Tip: For most directories anonymous access is all the Web Help Desk requires to import your client data. Active Directory, however, requires authentication to read the directory. The connection account should look like admin@yourdomain.com, where the domain name matches the dc values in your Base DN. You must also provide a password for the account. LDAP Synchronization The Web Help Desk can be configured to use multiple LDAP directories as a source for client data. To optimize performance, the Web Help Desk downloads client data from the LDAP directory to the Web Help Desk database; consequently, changes to LDAP data require the Web Help Desk database to be re-synchronized. Synchronization can be performed manually or at scheduled intervals. Creating an LDAP Connection LDAP connections are specified at Clients > LDAP Connections. To create a new LDAP connection click on the New button or click on an existing LDAP connection name to edit. In the Connection Basics, provide an optional connection name and the required host and Base DN parameters for the LDAP connection. If the LDAP directory is a Microsoft Active Directory, be sure to select the Microsoft Active Directory checkbox. You can also select SSL for secure connections and several authentication options are available. LDAP synchronization does not import any passwords into the database, so your directory must store password information if you want to use it with the Web Help Desk. To authenticate your clients, the application performs an LDAP bind with your directory passing the user supplied password as part of the bind. Tip: There is an option to ignore all client passwords, which is helpful if your directory doesn t store passwords and client privacy isn t an issue. See this FAQ for more information: http://support.webhelpdesk.com/cgi-bin/webobjects/support.woa/wa/ FaqActions/view?action=70050002baa94921&id=1. Mapping Attributes Besides importing basic client information, LDAP synchronization can also be used to map values stored in your directory to Web Help Desk entities like Location and Department or to custom fields. To map these attributes, select an LDAP connection, then click on the Attribute Mappings tab. You may select to use either the default schema (user for Active Directory, inetorgperson for others), or a custom schema. If a custom schema is selected, a popup menu will appear containing schemas provided by the LDAP directory. The LDAP attributes to which the Web Help Desk entities may be mapped are determined by the selected schema. Clients can log into the Web Help Desk using either e-mail address or a user name as defined in Setup > Clients > Client Options > Client Login Attribute. If a custom schema is selected, name, e-mail, and phone attributes may be mapped;

CHAPTER 4 Managing Clients 23 otherwise, these attributes are automatically mapped to the givenname, sn, mail, and telephonenumber attributes of the default schema. Synchronizing LDAP Connections Tip: If your LDAP does not define separate first and last name attributes, but combines them into one, choose a Custom schema and the Full Name option in the Name Attribute. The last word in the name value is used for the client s last name and the rest of the value is used for the first name. The location, room, and department attributes have checkboxes indicating whether new corresponding entries should be added to the Web Help Desk database if they don t already exist. In order for the LDAP location, room, and department data to map to existing Web Help Desk entities, the values of the LDAP attributes must exactly match the names of the mapped Web Help Desk entity. For example, if mapping the LDAP l attribute to the Web Help Desk Location entity, you must be sure that you created your locations with the exact same names as the l entries in LDAP. Note that once new location, room, and department entries have been added, they will not be modified by subsequent LDAP synchronizations. Optionally, you can specify that clients are assigned a Fixed Value for Location and Department. The Location and Department used must already be created in order to map the fixed value. Once an LDAP connection has been defined, you must synchronize it with the Web Help Desk database. Although password authentication is initially performed directly against the directory using an LDAP bind, all other client data is referenced from cached copies contained within the Web Help Desk database. You can perform a manual synchronization of the LDAP data by clicking on the Sync Now icon in the list of LDAP connections. If more than one LDAP connection has been defined, an additional synchronization icon is provided in order to sync all connections at once. You may use the Auto-Sync Schedule setting of each LDAP connection to define when automatic synchronizations should take place. Tip: You can combine LDAP sync with client import to populate values that are not available in your LDAP directory. For example, if your LDAP directory only stores client name and e-mail, you can still use it to create WHD client accounts for authentication. To populate values like Location, Room and Department, you can use an import template and sync to the client s e-mail address or user name. Some LDAP implementations do not allow the discovery of Schemas and Attributes. In that case, the Detect Schemas & Attributes button will not be shaded, and the popup menus will be replaced with text fields where mappings can be entered manually.

24 Chapter 5: Tickets Web-Based Ticketing the selected one. The history can be filtered by status. New tickets are created at Tickets > My Tickets or Group Tickets and Tickets > Search Tickets. Click on the New Ticket button at the top-left of the list or the New button on the bottom-right of the list. Client Info By default, new web-based tickets open to the Client Info tab. Tickets do not require a client, unless specified at Setup > Tickets > Ticket Options > Client Required. Use the Client Lookup search panel to find clients by name, user name, e-mail, phone, location or department. Search results are displayed below. To assign the client, click on the hyperlinked name. If only one match is found for the search criteria, that client is automatically assigned to the ticket without having to select it from the list. Asset Info Click on the Asset Info tab to link an asset to the ticket, or supply a model if a defined asset is not available. An asset or model is not required in a ticket. If assets are disabled at Setup > Assets > Asset Options > Use Assets the Asset Info tab will not be visible. Any assets assigned to the ticket s client are displayed in the middle of the panel. Assets can be looked up by asset number, serial number, model, location, room or custom field. To assign an asset, click on the hyperlinked asset number. The assigned asset can be edited by clicking the edit button to the far right of the Ticket Assets row. To remove an assigned asset from the ticket, click the trash can icon at the right side of the asset row. The blue info icon displays additional information about the asset when rolled over by the cursor. Multiple assets can be assigned to the ticket. Tip: To search by partial name or e-mail, use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard. Once a client is selected, his/her contact information is displayed in full on the upper left section of the Client Info panel. If a mistake was made, you can click the Unassign Client button to remove the client assignment. The client record can be edited in a popup window by clicking the Edit button next to the client name. In addition to client info, a ticket history for the assigned client is displayed on the right side of the panel. If an issue has already been reported in a previous ticket, clicking on the ticket number or problem report replaces the new ticket with Tip: A ticket is not required to have an assigned asset or model. If the issue you are reporting doesn t need this information, the Asset Info tab can be skipped entirely.

CHAPTER 5 Tickets 25 Ticket Details Saving a New Ticket The Ticket Details panel is where you define the ticket s request type and provide a subject and request detail. The ticket s Location and Room can be specified here as well if the assigned client or asset had location information, that will already be reflected in this panel. A request type and description are required before the ticket can be successfully submitted. You may also create a tech note with time and billing info for the ticket, and set the ticket status. By default, the Level 1 assignment rules for the ticket s Tech Group will be used, but the tech can use the Myself option to override the assignment. However, if the ticket status is set to Closed the ticket is automatically assigned to the current tech regardless of any auto-assign rules in effect. Recipients can be added at the bottom of the panel. Group Manager (or Location Group Manager if specified in the Tech Group settings). If the manager is already assigned to the ticket, it will be escalated to the Lead Technician for the ticket s request type. If auto-assign is disabled for Level 1, the ticket will not be assigned to a specific tech, but will belong to the tech group level s pool of tickets. For more information on ticket workflow, see Ticket Assignment Logic at the end of this chapter. Status & Schedule All new tickets are assigned with the Open status type, and the ticket s priority is set according to the value specified in Setup > Tickets > Ticket Options. The priority may also be set based on the ticket s request type or location. If both location and request type have a default priority setting, the location priority takes precedence. The due date is calculated based on priority, but can be manually overridden. If the priority is changed, the due date is re-calculated on the fly. The ticket can also be scheduled for work at a specific date and time range due dates and scheduled dates are displayed in the calendar view (web and icalendar). Required approvals are displayed, and can be listed by clicking Approvals button in the panel. (see Chapter 8: Change Management for more information on approvals) Assigned Tech and Escalation If the ticket s request type belongs to a Tech Group, and auto-assign is enabled for Level 1 of the group, the application will assign a technician to the ticket using load balancing. The ticket can be escalated to the next level by clicking on the escalation widget which displays the current Tech Group Level. If the ticket is already escalated to the highest level number, further escalation assigns it to the Tech Ticket Notes Technicians add information to a ticket using a tech note. A ticket can have any number of notes, and notes can be added by any technician. Notes can contain basic HTML tags or BBCode tags for formatting. Notes are date and time stamped when saved and the tech who entered the information is automatically associated with the note. The amount of time that was spent on the work can be added to the note using the

CHAPTER 5 Tickets 26 Work Time fields. By default, notes are visible to clients and are colored blue. Notes can be hidden from clients, and appear gray in color. A note defined by the tech as a Solution is colored green. Clients can also add notes, which appear yellow. If Setup > Parts & Billing > Parts & Billing Options > Parts & Billing Enabled is checked, a billing rate for the work can be specified. If the ticket s location has a billing rate set, new tech notes will use it by default. A tech note can also be used to create a new FAQ the request detail is used as the question and the tech note is used as the answer. New FAQs created from tech notes are set to Unapproved status by default and use the ticket s request type as the FAQ category. Ticket E-Mail Recipients E-mail to the client, assigned technician, level techs, group manager or other addresses via the Cc: and Bcc: fields can be sent when the ticket is saved. Select the recipient checkboxes and add Cc: or Bcc: addresses (comma separated) if necessary, then click the Save & E-Mail button. No mail is sent when clicking the Save button. Clicking the padlock icon makes the ticket private and not able to be viewed publicly. Other Ticket Options Problem Tickets A ticket can be designated as a Problem Ticket by clicking on the Ticket Type widget in the Details section of the Ticket Details panel and selecting Problem. Once a ticket has been designated as a problem, other tickets related to the problem ticket can be linked. When the problem is resolved, closing the problem ticket will automatically close all linked child tickets. Tip: Clicking the Save button at the bottom of the ticket will save any open tech note as well as any changes made to other ticket fields. A tech note can be saved independently from the rest of the ticket fields by clicking the note s Save button. Using FAQs in Notes A link to an existing FAQ can be embedded into a tech note using the Insert FAQ Link button when editing the note. Clicking this button opens a FAQ search popup window. Once the FAQ you wish to link is found, click the Link button on the right side of the FAQ row. This copies a link tag into the current tech note. If you happen to know the FAQ number by memory, you can skip the lookup and enter the tag yourself. The format is: <faq id=x> where x is the FAQ number. To view the current problem tickets, click on the Problems tab on the right side of the ticket detail. Clicking on Link will make the current ticket a child of the selected problem ticket, while the View hyperlink replaces the detail view with the selected ticket. The linked child ticket is automatically changed to an Incident type in the Ticket Type widget.

CHAPTER 5 Tickets 27 A ticket with a linked parent problem ticket adds a row in the Ticket Details to display the parent ticket number. The link can be broken by clicking on the trash can icon. Clicking on the ticket number switches you to the parent problem ticket. Tip: You can also designate a ticket that is NOT linked to a problem ticket as an incident. This is in order to conform to ITIL definitions. Print View To display the ticket information in a printer-friendly view, use the Print button at the top of the ticket. Clicking the button opens the ticket in a window suitable for printing. Ticket Related Tech Permissions Administrators are free to re-assign technicians, change ticket status and delete tickets. Technicians can have various levels of access depending on the permission set they are linked to. The ticket related permissions are: Limit to Assigned Tech Groups: create, view and edit tickets belonging only to Tech Groups to which the tech is assigned. New Ticket Assignment Override: override the normal Ticket assignment logic and self-assign the Ticket instead. Change Others Ticket Status: allows the tech to change the status of tickets not assigned to themselves. Open Date, Close Date, Note Date and Due Date Editing: specify which of these dates the tech can edit. Request Detail Edit: allows the tech to update the text of the reported issue. Client Note Edit: allow the tech to edit a client created note. Allow Re-Assignment: enables the tech to re-assign the ticket to any other tech. Disabling this option allows the tech to only re-assign jobs to themselves. Change Priority: allows the tech to change the priority of tickets assigned to themselves or, if Edit Other s Tickets is enabled, the priority of any ticket. Close Tickets : enables the tech to set tickets to the Closed status type.

CHAPTER 5 Tickets 28 Delete Tickets: exposes the ticket Delete button to the tech. Import Tickets: allows the tech to access the Tickets > Import Tickets module. Task Edit: allows the tech to create and edit tasks created at Setup > Tickets > Tasks. Additionally, access to tickets (as well as Assets and Clients) is controlled by the two Location Access Permissions : Limit by Location Group: allows the tech access only to those tickets, clients and assets that are in his assigned Location Groups. Note that tickets, clients and assets that have no location assigned are also accessible. Limit by Department Group: allows the tech access to only those tickets, clients and assets that are in his assigned Department Groups. Note that tickets, clients and assets that have no department assigned are also accessible. E-Mail Ticketing Reporting by E-Mail Tickets can be created by sending an e-mail message to the dedicated help desk e-mail address. A ticket is created for each new message sent to the address provided the sender s e-mail address exists in your Client list. If the sender is not a registered user of the application, the sender can be added to your client list along with a new ticket, or an error e-mail can be sent in reply. Preferences for handling e-mail tickets are located at Setup > E-Mail > Incoming Mail Accounts. The application creates a default incoming mail account at installation. If you add additional incoming accounts, the default label can be moved to any of the accounts. A mail account can be toggled between online and off by using the Enable E-Mail Tickets checkbox. The e-mail account may be either IMAP, POP3 or Exchange (available via Exchange Web Service on Exchange 2007 or later), and can connect via SSL if required. The receiving preferences can be configured to ignore requests coming from a list of accounts several are created by default at installation. E-mail may also limited to particular domains. Both the subject and body of the message can be filtered by regular expression to reject unwanted messages (out of office replies, for example). When Create New Tickets From Replies is enabled, the application will parse the subject of the e-mail to determine if the message is in response to an existing ticket, and if so, append the message body as a note. Please pay special attention to the popup help related to this setting. Updating by E-Mail Clients receive an e-mail confirmation on e-mail tickets based on the preference set at Setup > Tickets > Options > Auto-Reply to Client. Action links can be enabled in the e-mail reply which allow the client to add notes or cancel the ticket. Action links are enabled at Setup > General > E-Mail > Sending E-Mail > Include Action Links and appear as buttons in an HTML e-mail or as hyperlinks in plain text e-mail messages. It is important that an e-mail reply has its subject line left intact, as the Web Help Desk uses the subject to determine if the e-mail triggers a new ticket or an update to an existing ticket. Only the client that created the ticket or a client that has been carbon copied (Cc:) on the ticket can update it via e-mail. The default account is setup to use the E-Mail Report request type, so any new e-mail sent to the account will generate a ticket tagged with the E-Mail Report request type and follow the assignment rules defined for the E-Mail Reports tech group. You are free to change the request type to any other you prefer.

CHAPTER 5 Tickets 29 Techs can also update tickets by e-mail. In addition to adding notes, techs can change the status of the ticket by clicking on one of the status links at the bottom of the message. This will create a reply e-mail with a pre-formatted subject line the application uses to carry out the action. For example: Ticket:1532 Action:TechUpdate Hidden:NO Status:Pending EmailClient:NO Reassign:sally@mycompany.com MinutesWorked:30 BillingRate:Standard This subject tells the application to add the body of the message to ticket 1532 as a tech note visible to the client, change the status of the ticket to Pending, don t send the client an e-mail confirmation, reassign the ticket to another tech (Sally), set the work time for the note to 30 minutes and the billing rate to Standard. To use the reassign option in the subject, you must supply the full e-mail address of the tech. The specified billing rate must match an existing rate name. If the tech is an administrator, a Delete Ticket button is also available in the e-mail message.

CHAPTER 5 Tickets 30 Task Management Creating Tasks A Task is a container for one or more ticket templates called Elements. A task can be scheduled to repeat at daily, weekly or monthly intervals. A task may also have a Client associated with it the Client would be assigned to all tickets created by the task. To create a new task, go to Setup > Tickets > Tasks. Click the New button at the bottom of the Task list. Triggering Tasks Tasks run automatically on their scheduled date or they can be triggered manually using the green Play button next to the task name. Running a scheduled task manually will set the last run date to the current date, and set the next run date based on the schedule interval. At a minimum, the Task must have a name in order to be saved. If tickets created by the task should have a client assigned, use the search feature to find and select the assigned client. Selecting the scheduled option exposes a Start Date field and an interval selector. The task can be private or shared with all other techs by using the Shared checkbox. Task Elements To add an Element to the Task, click the New button at the bottom of the Element list. To save the Element, you must provide a request type, subject and detail for the ticket to be created. Optionally, location, room, department, technician, priority and asset number can be added. If the Task needs to create multiple tickets when triggered, continue adding additional Elements as needed. The tickets generated from task elements can be created all at once, or after the ticket for the previous element reaches some status type. Use the Generate Next Element option to specify when the next element s ticket should be created. Search Tickets Tickets > Search Tickets provides two search options: Basic or Advanced mode. Basic searching is a simplified sub-set of the search criteria available in the advanced search mode. Search results are sorted by clicking on a column header. The sort order of a column is reversed by clicking on the header again. Sorting is performed using the last 3 column headers selected. Download the search results in PDF format by clicking on the Tickets PDF button, or download the results as a tab separated text file suitable for viewing in a spreadsheet by clicking on the Download TSV button. The buttons will act on a subset of the search results checked off in the left column.

CHAPTER 5 Tickets 31 To edit a ticket, click on the hyperlinked ticket number or request detail text in the search results list. After saving any changes to the ticket, clicking the back arrow button on the save confirmation dialog returns you to your previous search results list. You can also return to the search results by using the back arrow button on the top left of the ticket detail or by clicking the Cancel button at the bottom of the ticket. Query as: field. By default, a query can only be seen by technician who creates it. Selecting the Shared checkbox allows all techs to use the query. Shared queries have an * after their name. Tip: Shift-clicking on the save button in a ticket will both save and return you to the ticket list view. Alt-clicking will save the ticket and create a new one. Refining Search Results The search results list can display a large amount of ticket data. To control what information is displayed use the Column Set widget to control column visibility. The widget is located at the upper right corner of the search results list. Click the + button to add a new set, or the pencil button to edit the selected set. To run a query, select the query name from the Query popup menu at the top of the search results display. The query will be run automatically upon selection. To re-run the same query, use the play triangle. To remove the selected query from the list, click on the - button. To subscribe to an icalendar made up of tickets captured by the query, click on the calendar button. Tip: In Advanced Search mode, you can use the Technician, Status and Priority select list options to search for multiple criteria in your search or query. Ticket Bulk Actions Column sets are saved individually for each Tech by name. Each column set can specify a different PDF download option (Invoice or Ticket format) and full text option. Bulk actions allow you to run a saved set of ticket changes against one or more tickets in a search results list. To create an action, click the + button. A bulk action template looks similar to the Ticket Details tab of a normal ticket. The template allows you to assign a client, create a tech note, change status, etc. any set of values you can change in a normal ticket can be specified in the bulk action template. Once changes have been made, you have the option of running the action against any tickets you ve selected from the search results list without saving the template, or you can save the template by name to be run at any time in the future. Bulk actions can be private or shared, and can be edited and re-named. Saved Queries Search criteria that you plan to re-use can be saved as a named query using the Advanced Search tab. To save a query, define your search criteria, then provide a name in the Save

CHAPTER 5 Tickets 32 Quick Tickets To save time creating tickets for common issues, the Quick Ticket popup menu is available for new tickets. Quick Tickets are defined using a template very similar to a bulk action, with a few added options appropriate for new tickets like the ability to specify a subject and request detail. On a new ticket, Quick Tickets are created and run using the widget at the lower left of the new ticket detail panel. Typically the technician would lookup a client to assign to the ticket, then run the Quick Ticket action. To add a new quick ticket action, click the + button. Edit the selected option by clicking the pencil icon, or run the selection by clicking the play triangle. To run a saved action, select the left column checkbox for one or more tickets from the search results list, then choose the appropriate action from the popup menu. Click the Play triangle you will receive an alert that summarizes what changes will be made to the selected tickets with a chance to cancel the action. Tip: To select all the tickets in the search results list, click on the small checkbox in the column header for the selection column. To edit an existing bulk action, select the action from the popup menu, then click the pencil button.

CHAPTER 5 Tickets 33 Ticket Assignment Logic New Ticket Web Help Desk Ticket Assignment Logic Is the Ticket's Requset Type in a Tech Group? Yes No Setup > Techs > Tech Groups > [Group] > Request Types Supported Assign to Lead Tech for the Request Type* Setup > Tickets > Request Types > [Request Type] > Lead Technician Assign to Lead Tech for the Request Type* Setup > Tickets > Request Types > [Request Type] > Lead Technician Lead Tech Level Tech Level 1 Auto-Assign Tickets Yes Auto assign to? Get techs in Tech Group Level 1 No Setup > Techs > Tech Groups > [Group] > Tech Group Levels > Level 1 > Auto Assign Tickets to Group Manager Place in pool of tickets for Tech Group Level 1 Assign to Manager of the Tech Group* Setup > Techs > Tech Groups > [Group] > Assigned Techs Setup > Techs > Tech Groups > [Group] > Level 1 > Assigned Techs Specify e-mail recipients for new tickets at Setup > Techs > Tech Groups > [Group] > Tech Group Levels > Level 1 > E-Mail Recipients of Client Updates Setup > Techs > Tech Groups > [Group] > Tech Group Info > Group Manager May use Location Group Manager instead if specified at Setup > Techs > Tech Groups > [Group] > Tech Group Info Filter out any techs not currently scheduled or on vacation Setup > Techs > Techs > [Technician] > On Vacation Setup > Techs > Techs > [Technician] > Specify Work Schedule Is the ticket's Location in a Location Group? Yes Filter out any techs not in the Location Group To enable Departments, check Setup > Locations & Departments > Options > Use Departments Is the ticket's Department in a Department Group? Yes No Setup > Locations & Departments > Location Groups > [Group] > Assigned Locations Setup > Locations & Departments > Location Groups > [Group] > Assigned Techs No Setup > Locations & Departments > Department Groups > [Group] > Assigned Departments Filter out any techs not in the Department Group Setup > Locations & Departments > Department Groups > [Group] > Assigned Techs Are any techs remaining? No Any Tech Group Levels above the current level? Yes Move Ticket to Next Tech Group Level Yes Assign to tech who has fewest load balance tickets No Assign to Manager of the Tech Group* Specify which status types are used in calculating ticket load balance at Setup > Tickets > Status Types > [Status Type] > Use for Load Balance * If this Tech marked as "On Vacation" the ticket is assigned to the "Backup Tech" in the Tech's profile

Chapter 6: Asset Management 34 Adding Assets Asset management is an optional extension to the Web Help Desk available in the Pro version. The asset management features can help keep track of what you own, where it is located and who is using it. In addition, the application can store purchase order information and link it to assets in your inventory. This combination makes it easy to know where you purchased your assets from and when warranties expire. Using the integrated asset management tools enhances the help request ticketing functionality of the application, but it is not required. There are three methods for adding asset information: Manual Web Entry Data Import Asset Discovery Integration (chapter 7) Asset Basics Asset basics are the what, where, and who of the asset. When you go to Assets > Search Assets > New (or edit an existing asset), the application will auto-enter an asset number that increments your highest number by one. You are free to change this number to match the actual value on the asset you wish to add. Besides the asset number, the only other required information is the model. An asset can have one or more clients assigned. The Synchronization Disabled check box can be used to disable the asset from being effected by Asset Discovery Synchronization. Manual Web Entry New assets are added by going to Assets > Search Assets and clicking on the New Asset button at the top of the search results list, or on the New button on the bottom right of the list. Asset Options Asset Options are controlled at Setup > Assets > Asset Options. In this module, you can select Auto Increment Asset No., if you would like the application to auto-enter an asset number that increments your highest number by one. You are free to change this number to match the actual value on the asset you wish to add. Parent/Child Relationships Once an asset has been inserted into the database, the option to create a Parent/Child relationship is available. Parent/Child relationships are a powerful way to group assets together. For example, you may issue several assets to an employee that you wish to group: computer, monitor, printer and scanner. You could treat the computer as the parent while the other assets act as children. After adding all four assets to the system, return to the parent computer, and add the other assets as children to it. Click Edit in the Child Assets tab and lookup assets by number, type, serial number location and room. Click the link hyperlink in the search results list to link the asset. Repeat the process for the other assets you wish to add as children. Children automatically inherit the Location, Room, and Deployed values from the parent. If the parent has only one assigned Client, the child will inherit that

CHAPTER 6 Asset Management 35 as well. To remove a child asset from the list, click on the trash can icon next to the child asset. Important concepts: A child asset can have multiple parents. You cannot make an asset that has children (a parent) into a child asset. Children will automatically update their location information if the parent changes provided there is only one client assigned to the asset. Asset History Lists the change history of the asset including: creation date, location/room change, client add/remove, status change, sync date. The history includes the date and the tech that made the change. Asset Details Additional asset information can be added by clicking on the Asset Details tab on the asset editor, then on the edit mode button to display fields. There are several pre-defined fields to store information, including serial number and version as well as any custom fields defined in Setup > Assets > Custom Fields. There is also the option to relate the asset with a specific purchase order, or to enter the purchase date manually. The warranty expiration date is calculated based on the PO date (if a valid PO number is entered), or the manually entered purchase date, and the warranty type specified for the asset. Ticket History Provides a list of all tickets created for the asset and provides a link to a ticket detail view for editing. Models For further information on using adding and editing Models, see Chapter. 3: Getting Started. Import Assets Importing is an efficient way to populate your assets. The import is facilitated by a template you download from the Web Help Desk. To download the template, go to Setup > Data

CHAPTER 6 Asset Management 36 Import > Import Assets. Click on the Download Template button and open the asset_import_template.txt file in Excel. When adding asset rows to the spreadsheet, it is very import to leave all columns in order and intact. If you do not wish to import data for a particular column, it is fine to leave the cells empty for the column. If you delete columns, or change the column order, your import will be stopped with an error message. There are four required columns for any asset import: Asset Number (alphanumeric) Asset Type Manufacturer Model Basic searching provides a simplified sub-set of the search criteria available in the advanced search mode. Search results are sorted by clicking on a column header. Download the search results in PDF format by clicking on the Download PDF button, or download the results as a tab separated text file suitable for viewing in a spreadsheet by clicking on the Download TSV button. To edit an asset, click on the hyperlinked asset number. After saving any changes to the asset, clicking the OK button on the save confirmation dialog returns you to your previous search results list. You can also return to the search results by using the Cancel button at the bottom of the asset detail. Refining Search Results The search results list can display a large amount of asset data. To control what information is displayed, use the Column Set widget on the upper right of the search results list to enable/disable specific columns. Click the + icon to add a new column set, or edit the selected column set by clicking on the pencil icon. The importer adds a new asset for each unique asset number it encounters and synchronizes data for any existing asset matching a number in the import file. The importer adds new asset types, manufacturers, models, locations, rooms and departments for any uniquely named values when the Add New Entities option is selected. Otherwise, the importer links the asset to the existing entities that match the names provided in the file. Once your template is prepared, save the file as tab or comma delimited text, then use the Choose File button to navigate to your file. Click the Import button to upload the template and import the assets. When the upload is complete, go to the Search Assets screen to verify your import. Asset Discovery Integration For further information on using the Asset Discovery feature of the WHD, see Chapter. 7: Asset Discovery. Search Assets Searching can be done in either Basic or Advanced mode. Tip: Most text search fields can use the * wildcard to find results when you don t know the exact matching value. Saved Queries Search criteria that you plan to re-use can be saved as a named query using the Advanced Search tab. To save a query, define your search criteria, then provide a name in the Save Query as: field. By default, a query can only be seen by the technician who creates it. Administrators have the option of defining shared queries, and only an administrator can delete a shared query. To run a query, select the query name from the Query popup menu at the top of the search results display. The query will be run automatically upon selection. To re-run the same query, use the round search button. To remove the selected query from the list, click on the round delete button.

CHAPTER 6 Asset Management 37 Notes Only the PO Number and Vendor are required to save the purchase order. Tip: In Advanced Search mode, you can use the Status and Priority select list options to search for multiple criteria in your search or query. Purchase Orders Using the purchase orders feature of the Web Help Desk can simplify the tracking of where and when you purchased or leased your assets. The feature is not meant to replace your company s current accounting system. It is designed to make linking a specific PO number (and its associated vendor and date information) to your assets a simple matter. Define Vendors Before adding a new PO, one or more vendors must be entered into the database. Vendors are managed by going to Setup > Assets > Vendors. To add a new vendor, click on the New button at the bottom of the list. To edit an existing vendor, click on the hyperlinked vendor name. Create a New Purchase Order Once vendors are in the database, a new purchase order can be created. Click on Assets > Purchase Orders and click on the New button at the bottom of the search display list. Fields in a purchase order include: PO Number (must be unique in the database) Request Date the date the purchase order was entered Invoice Date the date the vendor shipped the product (used to help calculate warranty / lease expiration date) Vendor Originator Name lookup, by last name, the client who made the PO request. Deliver To lookup, by last name, the client the purchased items should be delivered to Attachments - link any supporting documentation The Order Type field has a toggle button that switches between Purchase and Lease. Toggling to lease exposes an additional option the lease length popup. After supplying purchase order information, click Save to enter it in the database. Add Line Items Once a purchase order is saved, the line item editor becomes visible. Line items must define a model, and may contain part number and price information. Line items can also be associated with a specific asset by providing a valid asset number. If you attempt to link a line item to an asset number that doesn t exist, or is already linked to another PO, you will receive an error message. Create line items by clicking on the New Line Item button on the editor. To edit existing line items, click on the hyperlinked model name. Remove line items by clicking on the trash can icon. Duplicate a line item by clicking on the + button. The line item editor also allows you to specify the Tax and Shipping amounts for the PO.

CHAPTER 6 Asset Management 38 Tip: An asset can also be associated to a PO from within the asset detail view. You must have a free line item defined in the PO in order to link the asset. If you were to add a new imac G5 asset, you could associate it with the PO in the example above, because the imac G5 line item is free (not linked) to any asset number. Purchase Order Import Purchase orders can be imported at Setup > Data Import > Import POs. At a minimum, the import template must provide the PO Number and Vendor for the import to succeed. Line items may be added to the PO import by providing a line item number, asset type, manufacturer and model. If the model/type doesn t already exist in the database, it will be added. Line items can also be linked to specific asset numbers. If the asset number doesn t exist, a new asset is created with the number.

Chapter 7: Asset Discovery 39 Asset Discovery Components Web Help Desk supports several methods of automated asset discovery. For the supported components listed below, WHD can be configured to sync with the native tools and populate the assets in the WHD. Supported Components: Apple Remote Desktop version 3 or later Casper Suite 6 (or just the Recon Suite 6, which is the asset discovery component of the Recon suite) LANrev 4.6.4 or later Microsoft SMS/SCCM Database Table or View In order for native tool links to work with ARD, download and run the WHD/Remote Desktop Bridge on the local machine from http://downloads.webhelpdesk.com/ WHDRemoteDesktopBridge.dmg. Asset Discovery Mechanics For each discovered asset encountered during a sync, WHD does the following: First WHD compares the discovered asset against all assets currently associated with the Asset Discovery Connection. Typically, the asset discovery tool provides a unique identifier for each asset, and this is recorded internally by WHD for each synchronized asset and used to determine whether a discovered asset matches an asset that was previously synchronized. For example, Casper assigns each asset a JSS ID. This is recorded by WHD as the asset s synchronization identifier. During subsequent synchronizations, WHD will find each discovered asset s corresponding WHD record by matching the JSS IDs provided by the discovery database against the synchronization identifiers stored in the WHD database. If no WHD asset can be found having a synchronization identifier that matches that of the discovered asset, then a search is conducted for any un-deleted asset in the database (regardless of whether it is associated with an Asset Discovery Connection) that matches any of the following values of the discovered asset, in this order of priority: Asset Number Serial Number MAC Address If no matching asset record can be found in the WHD database, a new asset record is created and stamped with the new asset s synchronization identifier. After matching all assets that have been discovered by the synchronization tool and creating any new ones, any existing attributes associated with the connection that were no longer discovered are handled as specified by the When Assets Are Removed option at Setup > Assets > Discovery Connections > Connection Basics. Discovery Tool Configuration Apple Remote Desktop 3.2 In order to use Apple Remote Desktop 3.2, the PostgreSQL database needs to be enabled and configured to allow network connections. WHD has provided a setup script to make the configurations for you. In addition to setting up the Remote Desktop database, within the Remote Desktop tool you will need to scan all the assets that must be included in WHD and then run a System Overview report (The System Overview Report option in ARD is what exports the asset data to the ARD PostgreSQL database). In order for the native tool links to work with ARD, the WHD/Remote Desktop Bridge must be downloaded and run on the WHD application server (a download link is provided under Supported Components above). Tip: For more information, Apple has a knowledge document for setting up the database at: http://developer.apple.com/appleapplications/ardsql.html. The Apple document explains in more detail what the WHD script does, and gives instructions on how to manually access the database from the terminal. 1. Install Apple Remote Desktop on the machine that will serve as the database server upon which asset data will be stored. Start Apple Remote Desktop and be sure it is scanning computers successfully.

CHAPTER 7 Asset Discovery 40 enter the database connection parameters provided by the database setup script (Step 2 above). 5. 6. Use the Attribute Mapping tab of the asset discovery connection to map any custom asset fields to ARD attributes (See Attribute Mapping later in this document). Save the discovery connection and synchronize it. You should now see the synchronized assets when you search for them in Assets > Search Assets. Tip: Because the ARD database files are put in place when ARD is first launched, Remote Desktop must have been started at least once before continuing on to configure the database for TCP/IP access. 2. Follow the steps outlined in the Apple Developer Connection article referenced above to enable the ARD PostgreSQL database with TCP/IP support. Tip: To simplify this process, WHD has provided a script that will do these steps automatically. As a Mac OS X administrative user (but not as root), download and uncompress the setup_ard_database.command script from: http://downloads.webhelpdesk.com/setup_ard_database.command.zip then double-click to execute it. 3. You will be prompted to enter your Mac OS X password. The script will configure the ARD database to enable TCP/IP access and will then display your database connection information. Take note of these connection settings. You will need to enter them into Web Help Desk. After setting up the ARD database, run a System Overview report of all the computers that you want included in the Web Help Desk asset sync. Open Remote Desktop, select the computers to be included, and then choose Report > System Overview and run the report. Tip: ARD does not remove computers from the database when they are no longer included in a System Overview report. Since Web Help Desk will synchronize with all computers found in the ARD database, you must remove any old computers from the ARD database manually if you want them to be removed from Web Help Desk. 4. In Web Help Desk, go to Setup > Assets > Discovery Connections and create a new Asset Discovery Connection (See Connection Basics later in this document). Select Apple Remote Desktop as the discovery type and Apple Remote Desktop 3.3 As of version 3.3, Apple Remote Desktop uses a local sqllite database to store report data. This means that ARD must be installed on the same machine as your Web Help Desk in order to sync the data. The ARD discovery settings in the WHD give you the option of either version 3.2 or 3.3. When using ARD 3.3, there is no additional configuration required on the sqllite database to make the connection. Like ARD 3.2, you must first run a System Overview report before syncing with a 3.3 connection. Casper To enable Casper as the Asset Discovery tool, there is no additional configuration outside of the Web Help Desk Connection Basics and Attribute Mapping settings discussed later in this document. There is no need to set up the database or the native tool links. LANrev Web Help Desk features an integration with LANrev 4.6.4. There are 2 components to this integration. The import of LANrev inventory data into Web Help Desk via the LANrev MySQL ODBC export. The ability to view inventory details about a client in the LANrev admin console and initiate a remote control session through LANrev via a web link in Web Help Desk. For the integration to work you must: Configure LANrev s MySQL ODBC export. Configure the LANrev admin console to respond to HTML requests from Web Help Desk. Configure Web Help Desk to import client inventory data from the LANrev MySQL database and enable the LANrev inventory and remote control links.

CHAPTER 7 Asset Discovery 41 Configuring LANrev s MySQL ODBC Export To configure LANrev s MySQL ODBC export please consult the following LANrev support forum tip at: 3. In addition to syncing up with the LANrev database, you need to go into Setup > Assets > Asset Options and enable links to the LANrev admin console. http://www.lanrev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=223 Configuring the LANrev Admin Console Close the LANrev admin console and add the following setting to the LANrev admin console preferences in one of the following locations. Mac OS X ~/Library/Preferences/com.poleposition-sw.lanrev_ admin.plist file Go into each Tech s account and turn the links on/off for each of them (See WHD Hyperlink to Discovery Tool later in this document) With this enabled, wherever assets are referenced in Web Help Desk, icons will appear allowing you to open the asset in the LANrev admin console, or to control it via LANrev. Note that the LANrev admin console must already be open for these icons to work. Windows Edit HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Pole Position Software\LANrev Admin registry key Set HTTPServerEnabled - Boolean/DWORD - Yes/1 These changes can be made with either Property List Editor or Regedit. They can also be made at the Terminal or Command window with the following. Mac OS X defaults write com.poleposition-sw.lanrev_admin HTTPServerEnabled -bool true Windows REG ADD HKCU\Software\Pole Position Software\ LANrev Admin /v HTTPServerEnabled /t REG_ DWORD /d 1 /f Configuring Web Help Desk 1. In the Web Help Desk Admin interface select Setup > Assets > Discovery Connections, and create a new Asset Discovery connection that points to the LANrev MySQL database (See Connection Basics later in this document). The connection will read the LANrev asset data into Web Help Desk s asset tables. It can be set up to re-sync automatically at a specified interval. You can also trigger a manual sync. Web Help Desk Configuration Connection Basics Database connection information is provided via the Setup Assets > Discovery Connections > Connection Basics tab. In this panel, create a new Asset Discovery connection that points to the asset discovery tool s database. You will be prompted to enter the database name, username, and password. The connection will read the asset discovery tool s data into Web Help Desk s asset tables. 2. Use the Attribute Mapping tab of the asset discovery connection to map any custom asset fields to LANrev attributes (See Attribute Mapping later in this document). Click on New and create a new Connection Name. Specify the Discovery Tool (ARD, Casper, LANrev, Microsoft SCCM or Table View) and specify an Auto-Sync Schedule.

CHAPTER 7 Asset Discovery 42 is desired, you will have to manually clear the ARD database and then re-run an ARD System Overview Report. ARD Settings When using the ARD asset discovery tool, the following Basic Connection settings will need to be set: Remote Desktop PostgreSQL Database Host Port Database Name Username - For that database Password - For that database Clear Unmapped Attribute Values For Asset Discovery, WHD allows only custom fields to be mapped. If the checkbox Clear Unmapped Attribute Values is checked, then any custom fields that have not been mapped will be cleared when the assets are synchronized. This setting is useful if you already have some data in the custom fields of existing assets and want to clear it all out in order to make the assets strictly reflect the data provided by the asset discovery tool. Ignore Blank Discovered Values This option indicates whether blank values provided by the discovery tool should wipe out corresponding fields in WHD asset records. For instance, if there is a manually entered operating system value for a particular asset via the WHD web interface, but the discovery tool does not have OS information for the particular asset, then checking this setting would prevent the asset synchronization from wiping out the value that was provided manually. The difference between this setting and Clear Unmapped Attributes is that it applies to ALL attributes, and clears the fields not based on whether they are mapped or not but on whether the corresponding values provided by the discovery tool are empty. (It only applies to mapped and built-in fields.) When Assets Are Removed When applied, this setting will remove an asset that was previously found by the discovery tool yet in the current sync, is no longer found by it. Tip: When syncing with Apple Remote Desktop, ARD never deletes records from its database. This means if a computer is removed from the network after it has already been scanned with an ARD System Overview Report, it will not be removed from the ARD database when the next System Overview Report is run. As a consequence, if a fresh view of the synchronized assets that excludes any that have been taken offline Casper Settings When using the Casper asset discovery tool, the following Basic Connection settings will need to be set: Casper MySQL Database Host Port Database Name Username - For that database Password - For that database Client Relationships LANrev Settings

CHAPTER 7 Asset Discovery 43 When using the LANrev asset discovery tool, the following Basic Connection settings will need to be set: LANrev MySQL Database Host Port Database Name Username - For that database Password - For that database Include Virtual Machines Client Relationships Database Type (dropdown menu) Database Host Port Database Name Username - For that database Password - For that database Schema Database Table or View Sync Column Microsoft SMS/SCCM Settings When using the Microsoft SCCM asset discovery tool, the following Basic Connection settings will need to be set: SCCM SQL Server Database Host Port Database Name Username - For that database Password - For that database Attribute Mapping The Attribute Mapping tab allows for the mapping of asset custom fields to the discovery tool s attributes. The asset attributes available to be mapped to depends on the particular discovery tool. These values are taken directly from the values provided by the discovery tool s database. The specific set of options in the popup menu is hard coded in the WHD ARD plugin, based on the values Apple provides in the database. The set of attributes written to the database is fixed (i.e., they are coded into the Remote Desktop application itself). They get written into the database at the time the System Overview report is run. There is no way to customize the attributes that appear in this popup. Database Table or View Settings When using the Database Table or View asset discovery tool, the following Basic Connection settings will need to be set:

CHAPTER 7 Asset Discovery 44 section. With this enabled, wherever assets are referenced in Web Help Desk, icons will appear allowing you to open the asset in the asset discovery tool s admin console, or to control it via the tool. Tip: The LANrev admin console must already be open for these icons to work. WHD Hyperlink to Discovery Tool In addition to synchronizing data, WHD provides the option of displaying hyperlinks for opening asset information in the discovery products native tools. These options are enabled in Setup > Assets > Asset Options. Enable the link option for individual technicians at Setup > Techs > Techs > [Individual Tech] > Account Info or at Setup > Techs > My Account in the Asset Preferences

Chapter 8: Change Management 45 The use of approvals is an optional extension to the Web Help Desk available in the Pro version. The ability to manage requests by approval, where appropriate, can help maintain managerial control over important company processes. Using the integrated approvals management tools enhances the functionality of the application, but it is not required. In order to utilize the Change Management function of the Web Help Desk and set up approval processes, three things must be defined and assigned: Approver Roles Approver Processes Approval Status Types Approver Roles Before approval processes can be set up, Approver Roles must first be created under Setup > Change Management. Department Approver Roles To add a position that will be responsible for approvals for one or more departments, click on Setup > Change Management > Approver Roles > Department Approver Roles. Then Click on the New button to bring up a panel that will allow for a new department approver to be added inside the Approver Role Name cell. New approver roles are added by going to Setup > Change Management. In the resulting module, there are three types of Approver Roles that can be added: Location Approver Roles allows for the assignment of Approver Roles by location. Department Approver Roles allows for the assignment of Approver Roles by department. Change Advisory Boards allows for the creation of a change advisory board (or CAB) with the ability to set how many of the board are required for approval, and is accomplished at Setup > Change Management > Change Advisory Boards. Select the type of approver role that is appropriate, click on the tab of that type, and then click on the New button on the bottom right of the panel. Change Advisory Board Roles To add a Change Advisory Board (CAB), click on Setup > Change Management > Change Advisory Boards. Then Click on the New button to bring up a panel that will allow you to name the CAB. CAB membership is assigned in the CAB Members section. Use the Client Lookup search function to select and add members by clicking on client names from the queried list to add them to the CAB. Upon completion of the CAB membership, select the minimum number of approvals from the CAB required in the Minimum Approvers popup menu. Location Approver Roles To add a position that will be responsible for approvals for one or more locations, click on Setup > Change Management > Approver Roles > Location Approver Roles. Then Click on the New button to bring up a panel that will allow for a new location approver to be added inside the Approver Role Name cell.

CHAPTER 8 Change Management 46 Assign Approver Roles Before approval processes can be set up, Approver Roles must be assigned to clients under the Approver Roles tab for each Location and Department. Assign Location Approver Roles Go to Setup > > Change Management > Location Approvers and then select an existing location and click Add Role. Select a previously created Approver Role and use the Client Lookup function in the Approver Name field to select the proper client to link to the role. Click Save to record the approver role. Assign Department Approver Roles Go to Setup > Change Management > Department Approvers and then select an existing department and click Add Role. Select a previously created Approver Role and use the Client Lookup function in the Approver Name field to select the proper client to link to the role. Click Save to record the approver role. e-mail recipients for any approval/denial that is made. Click Save to create your new process. Add Approval Steps Select the Approval Steps tab and click the New button. Use the Step No. popup menu to select the step number of this approval step. An approval process may have an unlimited number of steps. In the Step Name field give the process a descriptive name. In the Approver Type field, use the radio buttons to select which type of approver will handle the step. Selecting CAB, Location or Department approver types results in a popup menu for the selection of the specific approver role or CAB to link to the step. Selecting Client as the approver type requires the lookup of a specific Client to assign to the step. Tip: While an approval process may have an unlimited number of steps, ALL steps must be approved for the overall process to be approved. A single unapproved step halts the process and leaves the process unapproved. Define Request Types Supported Approval Processes Now that Approval Roles have been added and assigned, the next step is to create an approval process. First go to Setup > Change Management > Approval Processes and click on an existing Approver Process or click the New button. These actions will open an Approval Basics window. In this window, enter a new Process Name and Description in the appropriate fields. Use the popup menus to select the desired E-Mail Reminder Interval for approvers. Select the An approval process is triggered whenever a ticket is created with a specific Request Type. To define which specific request types will trigger a given Approval Process, click on the Request Types Supported tab. Click the Edit button to expose a list of all request types that are not yet linked to an Approval Process. Check off the request types to link to the current process, then click Save. Remove linked request types by either unchecking them from the list in edit mode, or by using the trash can icon in the

CHAPTER 8 Change Management 47 linked request types list. Approval Status Types Approval specific Status Types should be added and defined in order to use the approvals functionality of WHD effectively. These status types will be used by the WHD to automatically control the status of tickets that require an approval they will not be selectable in non-approval tickets. Common naming conventions for these status types are: Approved, Pending Approval and Denied. When a ticket is created that requires approval, the WHD application will automatically set the status of the ticket to Pending Approval, if we assume the common naming conventions above are used, and lock the ability to change that status until the ticket goes through the approval process and is either Approved or Denied. After the approval decision has been made, no matter the outcome, the status will unlock and become available for status changes by techs. Assign Approval Status Types Next, in the General Settings panel of the Setup > Tickets > Status Types > Options screen several settings must be made in order to assign the new status types. Use the popup menu for Needs Approval Status Type to select Pending Approval, or whatever you chose to name that status. Use the popup menu for Approved Status Type to select Approved, or whatever you chose to name that status. Use the popup menu for Approval Denied Status Type to select Denied, or whatever you chose to name that status. Click Save to save the settings. Add Approval Status Types Under Setup > Tickets > Status Types > Status Types, create a new status types by clicking the New button in the Type Editor panel. Approval Status Types have now been configured to allow for the automated handling of ticket status by the WHD application. Enter Approved, or another appropriate entry, into the text box that says New Status Type at the top of the panel. Enter a description in the field provided and use the checkboxes to enable any variables desired and click Save. Repeat for the Pending Approval and Denied statuses. Using Approvals Ticket Creation Now that approval processes have been correctly set up, utilizing this powerful tool is simple. When a client logs in and creates a new ticket and selects a request type that has been assigned to an approval process, a notification in a large blue field denotes that This Request Type requires approval.

CHAPTER 8 Change Management 48 This is the only difference between opening a ticket that requires approval and one that does not. Upon saving the ticket, an e-mail is sent out to the approver assigned to the Step 1 Approver Role for the approval process triggered by the ticket s request type. that will ask to confirm their vote. If a yes vote, the ticket status will be changed to Approved. If a no vote, the ticket status will be changed to Declined. Also, if a no vote is cast, the approver is given an Explanation text box where they may provide any reasons for declining the request. There is a Visible to Requestor check box below that will allow the explanation to be viewable by the requestor. Once the vote has been cast, and any desired explanation has been entered, click Save to submit the approval process. A window will appear asking for confirmation of the vote from the approver. Clicking Confirm will complete the approval process. Approver Action Now that the ticket has been created there are two ways in which an approver may view and respond to the approval request: Via E-Mail Via the Client web interface E-Mail Approvals When a ticket has been created that has an approval process assigned to it, an e-mail will be sent to the approver s e-mail and will contain the option of responding Yes or No to the request. Client Web Interface Approvals Another way in which the approver may view and approve or decline approval requests is through their own client web interface. When an client who has been set up as an approver logs in, they will have an Approvals button at the top of their interface. Here they will be able to view New Approvals and vote on each new request, as well as view Old Approvals listed when that button is clicked. Clicking either option will send them to a WHD web page In the New Approvals window, the approver can select, vote and enter explanation values just as with the e-mail process of approving requests. You may also select Visible to Requester to share the denial explanation as a note in the ticket. Click Save to submit approvals.

CHAPTER 8 Change Management 49 In the Old Approvals window, the approver can review past approval requests. The ticket request details can be seen in the Details column. The buttons More or Less can be used to adjust the amount of the detail visible. The Show Notes button may also be selected to make the request denial explanation visible. Approval Step information may be viewed by mousing over the red buttons in the Approval Step column. Requester Action In order to know if the request has been approved or denied by the approver, the requester must log back in and click on the History icon to view the ticket history and look to see if there has been a status change to approved or denied for that ticket.

Chapter 9: FAQs 50 FAQ Search Search existing FAQs by going to the FAQs button in the menu bar. FAQs can be filtered by number, category, location, model, approval, expiration, and question/answer text. A FAQ is edited by clicking on its hyperlinked number, and the search results list is sorted by clicking on a column name. Attachments linked to each FAQ are downloaded by clicking on the file name link. A direct URL to a FAQ is available by right-clicking on the External Link arrow image. The audience option controls who can see the FAQ Everyone means the FAQ is visible to Clients and Techs, while Techs Only makes the FAQ private, and can be further limited to specific Tech Groups, Locations and Departments. A link to another FAQ can be added by using the Insert FAQ Link button. New FAQ Create a new FAQ entry by clicking on the New button at the top left or bottom right of the search results list. A FAQ must have a category and contain both a question and answer. Answers can include HTML hyperlinks and formatting, or use BBCode tags. FAQs can be linked to specific models locations and departments and contain one or more file attachments. A FAQ must be Approved to be visible by Clients only an Administrator can approve a FAQ. It is also possible to create new FAQ directly from a tech note within a ticket. The Create FAQ button uses the ticket s request type and request detail for the FAQ category and question, and uses the tech note as the FAQ answer. FAQs added this way are always created as unapproved. Creating a FAQ from the note also saves the tech note entry. Import FAQs FAQs can be imported using the template available at Setup > Data Import > Import FAQs. The template can be saved as either tab or comma delimited text, and must supply the three required values for each FAQ.

CHAPTER 9 FAQs 51 RSS Feed An RSS feed of public FAQs is also available at the following URL: http://myserver.com/helpdesk/webobjects/helpdesk.woa/wa/ FaqActions/rss?type=atom Public FAQ Access Web Access FAQs that are available to Everyone and are approved can be accessed by anonymous users by connecting to the following URL: http://myserver.com/helpdesk/webobjects/helpdesk.woa/wa/ FaqActions/viewAll Clicking on the subject of the RSS entry opens the corresponding FAQ in its own window. FAQs that are linked to specific Locations or Departments are not accessible using the public URL.

Chapter 10: Parts & Billing 52 The Web Help Desk Pro version can be used to track parts, inventory and billing on tickets. This functionality is enabled by default, but can be disabled by going to Setup > Parts & Billing > Parts & Billing Options > Parts & Billing Enabled. Disabling the feature will hide the main Parts icon, the ticket detail Parts & Billing tab, billing preferences and the billing reporting option. Billing Preferences Inventory Alerts can be turned on for each specific part in the Part editor at Parts > New [or edit an existing part] > Inventory Alerts Enabled. When alerts have been enabled, a secondary field appears that allows for the Inventory Alerts Threshold to be set. This will set the number of inventory units that will trigger an inventory alert to be sent. The Inventory Alert Interval is not editable in this editor, and is set at Setup > Parts & Billing > Inventory Alerts. In the Location Info editor if you check the field that allows for that location to Store Parts, then the Inventory Alert Recipients field will appear and allow the appropriate e-mail addresses to be entered for that location. These will override the default recipients set in the Inventory Alerts editor. Invoicing Options Specify company contact information and tax rates for labor and parts. Define what the main Billing Entity will be Department or Location. The contact information of the Client Admin for the ticket s billing entity will be displayed on any PDF invoices generated for a ticket. In addition, the Administrative Contact for the billing entity is able to view all tickets for the location or department they are linked to. (see Chapter 13: Client Interface for more information on Client Admins). Inventory Alerts The Inventory Alerts editor can be found at Setup > Parts & Billing > Inventory Alerts. In this editor, you can set the Alert Interval. The Alert Interval indicates the frequency with which e-mail alerts will be sent when inventory levels are below the threshold set for each part. The Default Inventory Alert Recipients refers to the individual who will receive the alerts by default if no other recipients are set at the location level. The Location Alert Recipient Overrides are set at each location at Setup > Location & Departments > Locations & Rooms > [Edit Location] > Location Info. You can also decide which Client contact information is displayed on the invoice the client s Location address, or the client s personal address.

CHAPTER 10 Parts and Billing 53 Use the Logo tab to upload your company logo for display on invoices. The logo is scaled to 3 inches in width by the PDF generator, but the file should be high resolution for best results. Rates & Terms Billing Rates Define billing rates to use in your tickets. At Setup > Parts & Billing > Rates & Terms >Billing Rates you can define as many billing rates as required. For invoicing purposes, a rate can be defined as a travel rate by enabling the Travel Rate checkbox. If you offer support to your client locations based on pre-defined service time blocks, and have enabled this functionality at Setup > Parts & Billing > Invoicing Options > Invoicing > Enable Location Service Time Blocks, you can select the check box Subtracts from Time Blocks that will cause the work time for tech notes using the rate to be deducted from the ticket location s service time block balance. Managing Parts Parts List Parts are added to the Web Help Desk one by one or as an imported TSV (tab separated values) file. To view parts in the system or add new parts, click on the Parts icon. Parts may be searched by number, description or manufacturer. Billing Terms Define terms options for your invoices. Create as many billing terms as you need for your requirements. To add a new part, click on the New button at the top left or bottom of the parts search results list. A part must have an alphanumeric Part Number, a Manufacturer (defined in Setup > Assets > Manufacturers & Models), Description and both cost types. Click Save to add the new part. Tax Rates Define tax rates to be applied to invoices. A tax rate can be applied to parts, labor and shipping. There is a global option to apply discounts before taxes are calculated. Note that all defined tax rates are applied to an invoice. The part detail view also shows a history of when inventory was added for the part.

CHAPTER 10 Parts and Billing 54 Importing Parts To import a list of parts, download the template at Setup > Data Import > Import Parts. Every column must have a value for each row for the import to successfully complete. The columns are: Part Number (alphanumeric) Manufacturer Name Part Description Our Cost Customer Cost After adding data to the template, be sure to save as tab delimited text, then use the Choose File button to select the file on your computer. Click the Save button to upload the file and import the parts list. Click on the Inventory tab above the search results. For each part you wish to add inventory, provide a storage Location and a count to be added. Any rows where the count is zero are ignored. Negative values are allowed for the part count if you need to make inventory adjustments. Click the Save button at the bottom of the inventory add list to complete the inventory update. Inventory can also be zeroed for all parts at a specific location using the Zero Inventory For popup. Tip: If there are no Locations available in the location popup, you must go to Setup > Locations & Departments > Locations & Rooms. Select a location from the list, then enable the Store Parts checkbox. Importing Inventory Inventory may also be added using a delimited text file at Setup > Data Import > Import Inventory. Download the import template, then supply the following required values: Part Number (alphanumeric) Location Name Count Tip: Do not delete the header row of the template, or you will receive an error message. Also, make sure that your costs do not contain any commas (i.e. 1,999.00) or currency symbols. Do not use Excel s currency number formatter on your prices. When importing parts, the application synchronizes values for any existing parts. This makes importing an easy way to quickly update pricing information. Any part number that doesn t exist in the database will be added during the import if Add New Entities is checked. Adding Inventory Inventory is added directly via the web interface, or can be imported from a file. Before adding inventory, make sure the corresponding parts are already added. To add inventory using the web interface, go to Parts > Inventory, then search by part number, description or manufacturer for the parts you wish to add inventory. If no search criteria are provided, all parts are returned. Do not delete the first row of the template, or you will receive an error message. After adding data to the template, save as a tab delimited text, then use the Choose File button to select the file on your computer. Click the Save button to upload the file and import the inventory. Using Parts Use parts in a ticket by clicking on the Parts & Billing tab of a ticket detail. Search for a part to add to the ticket by number, description, manufacturer or model. Selecting the part from the search results adds a new line item to the part list for the ticket with a default quantity of one. You can select a larger quantity and override the default price listed if required. If one or more line item parts is defective, you can mark down the number of DOA parts for the line item. The cost of the DOA parts is removed from the ticket, and will show up in a separate area in your billing reports. You can remove an entire parts line item and return the parts back to inventory by clicking on the trash can icon on the right. Changes in the Parts & Billing tab are not finalized until you click the

CHAPTER 10 Parts and Billing 55 Save button. Additional fields available include Billing Terms, PO Number, Shipping, Discount and a Tax Free option. Tax Rates are defined at Setup > Parts & Billing > Rates & Terms > Tax Rates. If you update your rates, tickets created prior to the update retain their original rate. To update an old ticket with the new rates, click the Refresh Tax Rates button. Service Time Blocks If you offer support to your client locations based on predefined service time blocks, you can enable this functionality at Setup > Parts & Billing > Invoicing Options > Invoicing > Enable Location Service Time Blocks. You must have the Location specified as your Billing Entity to see this option. To use time blocks at a location, go to Setup > Locations & Departments > Locations & Rooms > Location List > [Edit Location] and check the box Service Time Blocks Enabled. Once enabled, blocks of service time can be allocated to each location at Setup > Locations & Departments > Locations & Rooms > Location List > [Edit Location] > Service Time Blocks. Create a new time block by clicking on the New button. Time blocks are created in days, hours or minutes. A time block can be set to expire at a specific date and time. Invoicing Generate a PDF invoice or quote directly from a ticket by clicking on the Download button at the top of the Parts & Billing view of a ticket. The default PDF type is Invoice, but you may select either Quote or Ticket from the popup menu as the description for the PDF. The document is generated by the application and downloads directly to your browser. All relevant contact information, tech notes and billing line items are included. The time block list for a location shows the creation date, expiration date (if applicable), creator, block amount and usable time. For non-expiring time blocks, the Time Block and Usable Time values should be the same. For an expired block, the usable value may be lower than the block value depending on how much time was used before the block expired. The location total is the sum of the usable time values for all blocks. Tickets created for a location with at least one service time block will automatically deduct time used in the ticket s tech notes. Tickets created before time blocks were first added

CHAPTER 10 Parts and Billing 56 will not count against the location service time. If you want to count an older ticket against a location s service time, go to the Parts & Billing tab of the ticket and enable the Count Against Location Service Time checkbox in the Billing Details tab. Likewise, tickets created after time blocks were added for a location can be excluded from counting against the location by unchecking the option. current tech note time values of all relevant tickets. The service time available for all locations is shown at Setup > Locations & Departments > Locations & Rooms > Location List. The amount of service time available for a location is displayed within the Ticket Details of a ticket under the location popup. If the value is negative, it will display in red. If a tech note with time is added for a ticket who s location has negative service time available, saving the note will trigger an alert message in the Notes section of the Ticket Details panel as a reminder of the time deficit. Tip: Re-saving a tech note does not re-deduct the note time from the total service time available. The time used for a location is dynamically calculated based on the

Chapter 11: Reports 57 Sample Reports The Web Help Desk includes a set of nine sample reports you can use right away. The sample reports are also useful as examples for learning how to build your own. A report can be run directly from the list view by clicking the play triangle. To generate a printable web view in a popup window, use the print view button. To create a PDF suitable for download and printing, use the PDF button in the report row. The reporting module uses a plugin architecture with additional plugins planned for future releases. Currently, three report plugins are available: Ticket Report, Billing Report (visible only if Parts and Billing is enabled), and Composite Report. The Ticket Report plugin facilitates reports that have all the information available in previous versions of the Web Help Desk, but with the added power of being able to choose the categories used to define the report axes. It also allows specific items in report categories to be filtered so that the report focuses on a subset of category items for instance, only those tickets assigned to Joe Admin and Sally Tech. New categories are available as well, including Ticket Creator, Alert Level, Alert Condition, and custom fields. Creating Reports Ticket Report Tutorial We will use the Ticket Report plugin to generate the report. We ll set its Chart Type to Pie Chart, its Category to Status and its time range to the current month, and we ll include a table that displays the chart data in text format. We ll also set a Technician filter to limit the tickets included in the report to those assigned to the current user. To begin, log in to the Web Help Desk as an administrator or as a tech with permission to view reports, and navigate to Reports > Reports. Click the New button to define a new report. In the Report Basics tab, enter the Report Name Individual Technician Report Current User and set the Report Type to Ticket Report. Leave the Report Group blank for now. Click Save. After selecting the report type, the Report Details and Report Filters tabs will appear, providing settings specific to Ticket Reports. Click the Report Details tab. Ticket reports are defined by four sets of options: categories, metrics, time range, and filters. If Parts and Billing is enabled, the Billing Report plugin can be used to generate billing reports like those of earlier Web Help Desk versions, but with more categories to choose from and with the ability to apply filters. The Composite Report plugin enables you to group several sub-reports into a single report that can be generated with a single click. Categories determine which values various dimensions of the report will represent. We want to display a pie chart with

CHAPTER 11 Reports 58 slices representing the number of tickets in each status type, so we will set the Pie Slice Category to Status. Metrics determine which ticket attribute will be used to calculate the length of bars or size of pie slices, and determines which attribute will be included in the table. We want to display a pie chart that shows the ticket count for each status type, along with a table showing the status counts: the ticket was opened, the date it was last worked on, the date it is scheduled for work, or the date it was closed. We will select Date Opened. We now have defined a report that includes a pie chart with slices representing the number of tickets in each status type, for all tickets opened during the current calendar month. It also includes a table that displays the status count. Click Run Report to see how the report looks so far. Statistics depend upon the tickets in your help desk, but you should see something like this: The Time Range filters the tickets included in the report to those that occur within a given time period. Limiting the report with a time range can significantly increase the report s performance. Time ranges can be Relative or Specific. Relative time ranges are given as amounts of time prior to the present. Specific time ranges are given as fixed dates and times. We want our report to include only those tickets that were opened during the current month, so we will use a Relative date range. If we wanted to include tickets opened within the past 30 days, we could set the From time to 1 Month ago and select Use exact date and time. However, we want to include only those tickets opened during the current calendar month. To do this, we will set the From time to 0 Months ago and select Round back to beginning of time periods. (If we were to have set the From time to 1 Months ago, instead of 0 months ago, the time would be determined by going back one month from the present and then going back to the beginning of that month resulting in tickets for the current month plus the previous month). Adding a Filter The report shows statistics for all tickets opened during the current calendar month, but we want to limit it to only those tickets assigned to the user generating the report. To do this, we will add an Assigned Tech filter that includes only the Report User. Tip: Date Worked On is a unique date attribute as it looks specifically at Tech Notes created during the specified date range and not ticket dates. Ticket reports using this date attribute will include data based on all tech notes in the date range regardless of who created them, however all work time is attributed to the assigned tech on the ticket. In addition to specifying the time range, we need to specify the date attribute that it will apply to. We could use the date Click the Report Filters tab. Since no filters have been added yet, the list will be empty. Click New to add a filter. Set the Filter Attribute to Assigned Tech. When the Filter Attribute is selected, a list of possible values for the attribute will appear in the Values cell. Select Report user. This is a special value that represents the current user of the Web Help Desk who is running the report. Keep the Filter Type set to Inclusive; otherwise, the filter will allow all values except those that are selected.

CHAPTER 11 Reports 59 Select the table data options to include in the report: Click Save to save the filter settings (and the other report settings). Click Run Report again to see the report with the filter applied. Click the Run Report button to generate the table. This time the report includes only those tickets assigned to the current user, and a text box appears at the bottom to show that the filter has been applied. Displaying Detailed Table Data In our example report we ve generated a pie chart and a simple table that displays the values in the chart. Ticket reports also include the option of displaying detailed, multivalued table data. To generate the table, the report must use the Table Only option for the Chart Type. Go back to the Report Details tab and select the Table Only option. Tip: Report tables include hyperlinked data that open a ticket list displaying the specific tickets used in calculating the value. This is a good way to verify that the report is generated using the expected tickets. Click Cancel to return to the report list. Select the Unassigned Report Group filter to see your report. The report can be edited by clicking the report name, or the report can be run by clicking the Play, Print View or PDF buttons.

CHAPTER 11 Reports 60 Ticket Reports on Other Categories Creating ticket reports for tech groups, locations, location groups, departments, department groups and request types is nearly identical to the procedure for creating a technician ticket report. Wherever we set a category or filter to Technician in the technician ticket reports, we simply replace it with the desired category: Tech Group, Location, Location Group, Department, Department Group or Request Type. Look at the construction of some of the Sample Ticket Reports for further examples. month, we will set the From: period to 0 Months ago and select Round back to beginning of time periods. We also will set the Date Attribute for Time Range to Date Worked On: At this point, we can click Run Report to see a side-by-side comparison of the billing totals for each technician. Tip: to group request sub-types together within a single entry for their parent type, create a filter that includes the parent request type. For example, if there are request types for Hardware and Software, and each have subtypes that you do not wish to appear as separate lines in the report, create an inclusive Request Type filter that includes the Hardware and Software request types. The report will then show a single line for Hardware that includes all tickets with subtypes of Hardware, and a single line for Software that includes all tickets with subtypes of Software. If we wish to focus the report on a single technician, we can select the Report Filters tab and create an inclusive Technician filter: Billing Report Tutorial Log into the Web Help Desk an administrative user or a tech with permission to view reports and go to Reports > Reports. Click New to create a Billing Report with the name Technician Billing Report. Leave the Report Group blank, then click Save. Now the report includes an entry for only the selected technician, with a text box indicating the filter is in effect: Select the Report Details tab. Set the Category to Technician. (Note that Billing Reports have only one category setting and do not have any metrics settings.) To make this report calculate work time billed during the current calendar Save the report and return to the ticket list view. Select the

CHAPTER 11 Reports 61 Unassigned Report Group filter to see your report. The report can be edited by clicking the report name, or the report can be run by clicking the Play, Print View or PDF buttons. added to the group by selecting the check boxes. In the lower portion of the pane, reports can be deleted from the group by clicking on the small trash can icon. When all reports are selected as needed, click Save to complete the process of setting up the Report Group. Billing Reports on Other Categories Creating billing reports for tech groups, locations, location groups, departments, department groups and request types is nearly identical to the procedure for creating technician billing reports. Wherever we set a category or filter to Technician in the technician billing reports, we simply replace it with the desired category: Tech Group, Location, Location Group, Department, Department Group or Request Type. Creating Report Groups To facilitate organization and help control access, WHD has included the Report Groups function. Report Groups control access to created reports by Tech and Location Group which ensures that each Tech is only presented with the reports concerning their scope of work. Group Options First, set up the Group Options of the new Report Group. Click on any Report Group listed at Reports > Report Groups under Group Name or, in the case of adding a new group, click New. In the Group Options panel, select either the All or Specific radio button in the Tech Groups and Location Groups sections. If Specific is selected, a list of all the Tech and/or Location Groups available to assign to the Report Group is provided. Use the check boxes to determine which groups and which locations are to receive the report(s) and click Save. Included Reports Next, choose which reports should be visible in the Report Group. Go to Reports > Report Groups > Group Options. A report can only be assigned to one Report Group. Click on the Edit button to get to the edit pane of the Group Options window. In the upper portion of the pane, reports can be Creating Report Schedules To further facilitate the distribution of reports, WHD has included the Report Schedules function. Using this function allows for reports to be automated and scheduled to fit your needs. Schedule Details First, set up the Schedule Details of the new Report Schedule. Go to Reports > Report Schedules and click New. This will bring up the Schedule Details panel in edit mode. Enter a descriptive name in the Schedule Name field and click the check box Enabled to turn on the scheduled report function. Set up the scheduled interval in the Interval section in the case below the report will be generated weekly, every week, on Monday at 12:00am. Enter a message to be included in the report e-mail if desired dynamic tags for report list and timestamp are available. Next, use the Client Lookup function to assign the Client Recipients that should receive the report non-clients may be added to the distribution by adding e-mail addresses in the Other Recipients E-Mails field at the bottom of the panel. Click Save when done.

CHAPTER 11 Reports 62 Schedules. This will bring up a list of when the scheduled report was run. Dates of the report s creation and transmission are listed in the Dates field. A description of what transpired is noted in the Action field and more information can be obtained by mousing over the envelope icon on the right side of the row. Tech Recipients To define the technicians to include in the report distribution, click on the Tech Recipients tab. Click the Edit button to bring up the list of technicians that can be added to the distribution. Use the check boxes to select those technicians who should receive the report. Click Save when done. Creating Survey Reports Surveys are a useful feedback tool from client users. For more information on the creation and reporting of surveys, see the Survey Reports section in Chapter 12: Surveys and Messages. Included Reports Next, define the reports to include in the distribution. To do this first click on the Included Reports tab, then click Edit to bring up the list of reports that can be added to the distribution. Use the check boxes to select the reports that should be included in the distribution. Click Save when done. History Finally, the history of Scheduled Reports can be viewed by clicking on the History tab under Reports > Report

63 Chapter 12: Surveys and Messages Managing Surveys Surveys are used as a feedback tool from your client users. A survey can be linked to a specific ticket for a single client, or can be used as a general questionnaire sent to a number of clients. Survey Manager Surveys are created and managed at Setup > Surveys. In Setup > Surveys > Survey Options, the Default Survey popup menu defines which, if any, survey will be used by default for tickets who s request type has Default Survey for the survey option. To add a question to a survey, click on the New Question button. Enter the question in the specified text area, then select the answer type. The options are: Text (text field) Multiple Choice (check boxes) Single Choice (radio buttons) Popup menu For the non-text options, possible answers are supplied in the Answer Options field, separated by a semicolon. Additionally, an explanation field can be added to each question so the client can add further information. Questions can be reordered by changing the Display Order value. Tip: The diagram above shows the relationship between the Default Survey defined in the Survey Manager settings and the Survey selection in a request type. If the Survey Manager default is set to None, no survey will be offered for tickets with a request type using the Default Survey selection. To create a new survey or edit an existing one, click on the Surveys sub module. Click on the New button or on the name of an existing survey to edit the survey details. Each survey must have a title, and may also have a description for techs, client greeting, thank you message and e-mail invitation message. If you don t want the survey sent on every closed ticket, set the Survey Frequency value to something higher than 1. Sending a Survey Ticket Survey Recall that a specific survey is linked to a ticket based on the request type of the ticket. If a ticket has a survey linked, an invitation to take the survey is sent to the client when the ticket is closed as part of the closed ticket e-mail. Of course, a client cannot be required to take a survey, but incomplete surveys always remain available.

CHAPTER 12 Surveys and Messages 64 search for one or more clients you wish to send the survey. After searching, check off the clients you wish to include, then click on the Send Survey button at the top of the search results list. Tip: The image above is an example of a survey invitation in a closed ticket. Note how the invitation text uses replacement tags from the survey s E-Mail Invitation Message to personalize the feedback text. In addition to receiving an e-mail invitation with a direct link to the survey, a client can access a ticket s survey via the web interface. In the client s History view, any closed tickets with an incomplete linked survey will have a Take button on the right side of the row, while completed surveys will have a View button. A Survey Selector window will popup with survey settings which allow you to select which of your saved surveys to send. In addition, you can set the subject for the e-mail to be sent. The settings also tell you how many client recipients will be included in the mailing. When the client clicks on either the e-mail invitation link or the Take button, the survey will open in their web browser. The survey cannot be saved unless all questions requiring a response are answered. Viewing Survey Results Ticket Detail View One way to view the results of a ticket survey is from the detail view of a closed ticket. If a closed ticket has a completed survey, a survey results button will be available at the top of the ticket. Clicking on this button opens a popup window displaying the client s answers. General Surveys A survey does not need to be linked to a ticket. You can create a questionnaire for the purpose of collecting any information you wish. Once created, an e-mail invitation with a link to the survey can be sent to any number of clients. To send a general survey, create the survey just as you would one to be used for tickets. Next, go to Clients > Search Clients and Survey Reports To view summary data regarding both ticket and general surveys, go to Reports > Survey Results. Survey reports can be generated by name, date, technician, client and request type. Each survey question is displayed graphically with a pie chart showing answers by percentage. To view the individual responses to any question, click on the Responses link

CHAPTER 12 Surveys and Messages 65 following each question. All surveys found by the report are listed in a table below the graphs. To view all the answers given by a client on the survey, click on the date/time in the survey search results list. If the survey is linked to a ticket, you can view the ticket by clicking on the hyperlinked ticket number. Using a survey report is the only way to view the results of a general (non-ticket) survey. Administrators can also create messages targeted to any group, while technicians must have permission to access the editor and can only create messages targeted to techs. To create a new message, click the Create Messages tab and then the New Message button in the upper left hand corner of the panel. Messages Messaging is a utility you can use to post information to technicians and clients. A message shows up as a sticky note in the web interface and can be targeted technicians, clients or both. Creating Messages A list of all messages is available to administrators by going to Messages > View Messages. Either New Messages or All Messages can be selected. Message text can include HTML tags for formatting or creating links as well as inserted FAQ links. If the message is targeted to techs, the audience can be further refined to include only certain tech groups. A message can be Locked which means it cannot be removed from the read messages list. Messages can be scheduled to start and stop at a specific date and time. If no expiration date is provided, the message remains available indefinitely. Viewing Tech Messages When a new tech message is available, an alert is shown in the Messages icon in the top bar. A red number will appear in the icon to alert you to the new message. A more detailed list of all messages is available to administrators by going to Messages > Create Messages. The list shows the message, target audience, which techs have read the message (if applicable), and the scheduled start/stop dates if any. Clicking on the Message icon will open a message viewer window. New messages appear under the New Messages

CHAPTER 12 Surveys and Messages 66 tab, while read messages that have not been deleted appear under the All Messages tab. All new messages are automatically moved to the All Messages tab after viewing. To delete a message, click the small x at the upper left. Messages with a lock cannot be deleted. Viewing Client Messages Messages targeted to clients may be viewed by taking the alert link on the login page. License Key Expiration Message The Web Help Desk uses a message to alert Administrators when support on your license key is due to expire. A message is created once a week for the month preceding the key expiration. License keys always expire at the end of the month. Input a new key at Setup > General > License. The alert link opens a Public Message View window. If the client doesn t click the public message link at the login screen, all messages will be shown to the client after they login. The client will not be allowed to create a new ticket until they click the Done button at the bottom of the message list.

67 Chapter 13: Client Interface Clients log into the application at the same login panel that technicians use. The Web Help Desk creates a sample client account at installation. To access the account, login as client/ client for the e-mail address/password. By default, clients are sent to the Request module. If assets are assigned to the client and the selected request type requires a model, a list of the client s assets is displayed in the My Assets box. An asset is selected by clicking on its hyperlinked number. Help Request Tip: If you don t want your clients to see the Location and Room fields because they aren t applicable to your implementation, make sure all of your Locations are deleted at Setup> Locations & Departments > Locations & Rooms > Location List. Clients create new tickets at the Help Request module. The specific request type selected determines the following: Default priority (if visible) Subject and Request Detail visibility Request Detail requirement Custom Fields displayed Attachments enabled Model/Asset requirement To change these options for a specific request type, go to Setup > Tickets > Request Types > [Edit Request Type] > Request Detail Required and Use Models Selecting an asset adds it to the Ticket Assets box. Any number of assets can be added to the ticket. Additionally, several options at Setup > Tickets > Ticket Options affect a client s ability to select an asset and location: Lock Ticket to Client Location Disables the location popup so that only the client s profile location can be used for a ticket. Ticket Must Use Assigned Asset Client must specify an asset on the My Assets list. Asset Number Lookup for Client Enables an asset search field so that clients can lookup an asset to use in the ticket by number. Assets can be searched by number, serial number or network name. Room Required Client must select a room. Include Room Assets in Client Asset List Adds assets for rooms in which the client is assigned to the My Assets list.

CHAPTER 13 Client Interface 68 If the asset in question is not listed, or you are not using asset management, the model can be entered manually in the form. If the model is not listed in the system, or the request does not apply to a specific model, the client may choose the Not Applicable/found option from the model popup. Clicking the Save button submits the request. If all required information was provided, the ticket is added to the database and the client receives a Thank You for submitting. The application will attempt to send an e-mail confirmation to the client s account if enabled at Setup > Tickets > Ticket Options > Auto-Reply to Client. Approvals If the client has been designated as an approver, and has one or more approvals assigned, the Approvals module of the client interface will be visible. Approvals can be searched by either New Approvals or Old Approvals. History All help requests submitted by a client are visible in the History module of the client interface. History can be searched by ticket number, status or request detail. To view the details of a help request, click on its hyperlinked ticket number. To view New, or current, Approvals, click on the New Approvals widget in the upper left hand corner of the Approvals panel. Tickets that are not Closed or Cancelled can have Client Notes added or additional files attached (if enabled). Closed and cancelled tickets are view-only by default, but the reopening of closed tickets can be enabled at Setup > Tickets >Status Types > Clients Can Reopen Closed Tickets. Tickets can be cancelled using the Cancel Ticket button on the upper right corner of the ticket detail. An e-mail response is generated for all updated and cancelled tickets. Tickets that are current and that are pending the completion of an approval processes by the client are listed in this window. The list may be sorted by ticket number, date, client or request type by clicking on the column header of that name. Additional information such as the ticket Details, Approval Process name, the Approval Step name and My Vote (Where the client would either approve or deny the request.) are also available in the columns on the right side of the panel. The Approval Process name has a + sign on the left hand side of the button that allows for the process to be expanded to show the required steps in the process. Approval Steps can be moused over to show such information as creation date, approver and status of that request. To view Old, or previous, Approvals, click on the Old Approvals widget in the upper left hand corner of the Approvals

CHAPTER 13 Client Interface 69 panel. Profile Clients can update their user profile based on the permissions defined at Setup > Clients > Client Options > Client Permissions. Tickets that are old and that have gone through completion of an approval processes by the client are listed in this window. The list may also be sorted by ticket number, date, client or request type by clicking on the column header of that name. Additional information such as ticket Details, the Approval Process name, and the Approval Step name are also available in the columns on the right side of the panel. The Approval Process name has a + sign on the left hand side of the button that allows for the process to be expanded to show the steps completed in the process. Approval Steps can be moused over to show such information as creation date, approval date, approver and status of that request. FAQs Clients can search your FAQ library, filtering their search by model, category, and question/answer text. Any attachments are displayed under the answer text. Clients can rate the effectiveness of each FAQ by selecting a rating value from 1 to 5 stars in the Vote popup menu. The average of all votes is dynamically re-displayed. Client Admins Locations and Departments can have one or more Client Admins defined. A Client Admin is a client that has administrative rights for the location and/or department. At a minimum, the Client Admin can view all tickets for clients at the Location or Department assigned. A client can be assigned as a Client Admin to multiple Locations and Departments. In addition, the Client Admin may also be able to edit other client s tickets and create tickets for other clients depending on the options specified at the Location/Department level. Users can also access FAQs anonymously. For more information on anonymous FAQ access, see Chapter 9: Public FAQ Access. Client Admins are also able to see the costs associated with a ticket (if Parts & Billing is enabled and set to view costs in the Location Editor) and to download PDF invoices for closed tickets., Each location or department can be assigned one or more Client Admins normally a Client account

CHAPTER 13 Client Interface 70 that can view all tickets for the location, as well as create tickets for themselves or other clients at the location (if enabled). Client Admin Roles Client Admin Roles can be used to define which Request Types are available to a Client Admin assigned to the role. Each new Client Admin Role can have ANY combination of request types available to that role. However, each client can ONLY be assigned one Client Admin Role. The client who has been assigned a Client Admin Role will be able to view and edit ONLY those request types that have been assigned to their role. The History view of the client interface will only display tickets that are of the request type assigned to the role. To create a new Client Admin Role, go to Setup > Clients > Client Admin Roles and click New. Next, assign the client to the newly created Client Admin Role in the Client Info editor at Clients > Search Clients > [choose specific client] > Client Info. The Client Info editor has a field called Client Admin Role that will have a popup menu to select any of the Client Admin Roles available those that have not been assigned to other clients. There, a new Role Name can be created such as the Restricted Client Admin example below and a list of Request Types Supported appear in checkbox form. Select from the list those request types that involve the new Client Admin Role in the example below, the client is only responsible for the request types related to Hardware. Click Save and the new role will be created. Finally, each location or department can be assigned one or more Client Admins normally a Client account that can view all tickets for the location, as well as create tickets for themselves or other clients at the location (if enabled). In this case, the newly created Restricted Client Admin can be added as a restricted Client Admin under either a Location Info or Department Info editor panel. As shown below, the contact restricted by the Client Admin Role can be added

CHAPTER 13 Client Interface 71 in addition to an unrestricted Client Admin. The Role column denotes the Client Admin Role assigned if no role has been created for that contact, None will be displayed. It is possible as well to have two or more separately defined Client Admin Roles assigned to the location or department in this manner as well as additional non-restricted Client Admins. Logout Clients exit the application by clicking on the Logout button. Upon logout, they have the option of re-entering the application by selecting the Return to Login button. The client interface sample below shows the History view of the example Guy, Restricted when he or she is assigned to a location as a Client Admin without a role. As shown, Guy, Restricted can view tickets from any request type available to the location for all clients including themselves. Tip: If Allow Automatic Login is enabled at Setup > General > Authentication, and the client has enabled this option on the login screen, they will still be prompted for their password on their next login attempt if they use the Logout option. To avoid the password prompt, the client should close the browser window instead of using the logout button. When Guy, Restricted is assigned to the Restricted Client Admin Role at a location, ONLY the Hardware request type tickets assigned to the location are visible. He or she would also see any other Hardware related tickets that have their request type assigned to that location, as well as all tickets assigned to themselves.

Chapter 14: Deployment Considerations 72 Memory Sizing and JVM Options The main deployment factor to consider is the number of concurrent users you expect your application to support. Tech sessions are much more memory intensive than Client sessions, so use the estimated number of concurrent Tech sessions to determine which type of deployment will work for your needs. Supporting less than 20 Techs On a 32 bit OS, the WHD must use a 32 bit Java Virtual Machine (JVM). The maximum memory a 32 bit JVM can address varies slightly by operating system, but 1600 MB is a good common max value. This max should be able to support 10-20 concurrent Techs without a problem. Always make sure you have enough physical memory in your machine to support both the 1600 MB for the JVM as well as the server OS and any other services you run on the machine. You set the memory for the JVM by editing the <WebHelpDesk>/ conf/whd.conf file s MAXIMUM_MEMORY option. The default value is 512 MB. Supporting more than 20 Techs If you need to support more that 20 simultaneous Tech sessions, we suggest moving to a 64 bit OS and a 64 bit JVM. On a 64 bit JVM you are free to increase the max heap memory to multiple gigabytes in size by editing the <WebHelpDesk>/conf/whd.conf file s MAXIMUM_MEM- ORY option. Always make sure you have enough physical memory in your machine to support both the JVM size as well as the server OS and any other services you run on the machine. A 64 bit JVM is available by default on Mac OS X 10.5 for Intel. You can invoke it by adding the following argument to the /Library/WebHelpDesk/conf/whd.conf file s JAVA_ OPTS option: WebObjects on Mac OS X Server Another option available on Mac OS X Server is a multiple instance WebObjects deployment. WebObjects deployment is supported on Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 Server only. WebObjects deployment is not supported on 10.6 Server. The following details how to configure the WHD to run under WebObjects using the Monitor tool: 1. Install the Web Help Desk, then run the following deployment script in the Terminal (as root or sudo): /Library/WebHelpDesk/bin/UpdateWebObjectsConfiguration 2. In Server Admin, start the Web and the WebObjects services. Enable the Monitor by checking Turn Monitor On. You can leave the default ports. With a web browser, connect to the 3. Monitor tool at http://yourserver.com:56789. Click on the Site tab. Provide a valid URL to Adaptor (this is only used for links in the Monitor tool). We suggest using Round Robin as your load balance scheme and setting the Receive Timeout value to 300. Click the Update Adaptor Settings button to save. JAVA_OPTS= -d64 For other operating systems, you must install your own 64 bit JVM (Java 5 or Java 6), then update the JAVA_HOME option in the <WebHelpDesk>/conf/whd.conf file to point to your Java installation.

CHAPTER 14 Deployment Considerations 73 7. If you want to capture log files, provide an Output Path. Note that the directory you designate must be writable by the appserver user. 4. Click on the Hosts tab. Provide the DNS name or IP address of the server using Mac OSX as the of type option. Click the Add Host button. If this is the only host that will be running the application, you can use 127.0.0.1 as the host address. 8. Provide Additional Arguments to specify the max JVM heap size for the application instances. Each instance can handle up to 1600m, but in general, we find values of 256m to 384m are sufficient (you will be running multiple instances). The format is: -Xmx256m 5. Click on the Applications tab. Add an application called Helpdesk (Note: you can use another application name if you wish). Click the Add Application button. 9. Click the Push All button to save all settings, then click on the Applications tab again. You should see your application listed. 6. Configure the new application. Use the Path Wizard button for the Mac OSX path field to lookup the following path to the application startup file: Click the 10. Detail View button. Add the optimal number of instances for your server based on the max JVM memory setting you specified in the application configuration. Remember to leave enough free memory for your System and any other services you are running on the machine. You ll also need to leave an additional 64 MB free for the Daemon application which we ll add in a moment. Click the Add button create the instances. /Library/WebHelpDesk/bin/webapps/helpdesk/ WEB-INF/Helpdesk.woa/Helpdesk

CHAPTER 14 Deployment Considerations 74 You can use an additional argument of -Xmx64m for the memory setting. If for some reason you find you need a higher setting, feel free to increase the value and restart the instance. Push all to save. 11. The instances should startup on their own -- you can speed up the process by clicking the green start button in the ALL INSTANCES row for the Start/Stop column. You can force the page to refresh by clicking the blue hyperlink Refresh Now text below the application name. 15. Go to the Detail View for the Daemon application and add 1 (ONE) instance of the Daemon. It s important that you have only a single instance, as multiple instances will cause problems with e-mail ticketing and alert e- mail generation. The Web Help Desk is now configured to run under WebObjects using the Monitor tool. 12. At this point you should be able to connect to your application by going to the following URL: http://myserver.com/cgi-bin/webobjects/helpdesk.woa If you didn t name your application Helpdesk, make sure to substitute the appropriate application name in the URL. 13. Click on the Applications tab and add a new application called Daemon. This application will have a similar configuration to Helpdesk, but the Path to the application startup file is: /Library/WebHelpDesk/bin/webapps/WHDReminder- Daemon/WEB-INF/WHDReminderDaemon.woa/WHDReminderDaemon 14. Provide an Output Path if you are capturing log files.

CHAPTER 14 Deployment Considerations 75 Clearing JVM Heap Memory Most WHD deployments will eventually fill up the JVM Heap Memory which may result in degraded performance. To solve this problem, periodically restarting the WHD to clear the heap memory is suggested. The procedure for doing this will vary by the platform that WHD is hosted on. Mac OS X First, you must install WHD version 8.4.6.8 or later. 1. As the root user, Copy the /Library/WebHelpDesk/bin/ com.macsdesign.restartwebhelpdesk.plist file into your /Library/LaunchDaemons folder. 2. Then execute this command: launchctl load com.macsdesign.restartwebhelpdesk.plist Choose an application to run -- the choice does not matter, so you can choose the first in the list. 3. You can verify that the plist was loaded successfully with this command: launchctl list To unload the LaunchDaemon, use this command: launchctl unload com.macsdesign.restartwebhelpdesk.plist The plist file provided is configured to restart Web Help Desk each night at 1AM. You can change the schedule by editing the StartCalendarInterval property in the plist. See the Mac OS X documentation for details. Tip: This launch daemon works only with the standard Tomcat deployment of Web Help Desk. WebObjects Monitor deployments should use the Monitor tool to configure automatic restarts. When scheduling with the Monitor, make sure to uncheck Is Graceful to force the instances to restart. Give the task a name. Windows In order to schedule the WHD application for a nightly restart on Windows to clear the JVM heap memory, you will need to create two Scheduled Tasks in Control Panels. Stop Scheduled Task Choose Start > Control Panel > Scheduled Tasks > Add Scheduled Task to start the Scheduled Task Wizard.

CHAPTER 14 Deployment Considerations 76 Choose a Daily time to run the task. Start Scheduled Task Next, create a second Scheduled Task to restart the WHD application. Follow the same steps above, but use the Run command net start webhelpdesk as the final step. Schedule the start at least one minute later than the stop command to ensure that the service has completely stopped before attempting to restart. Linux/Solaris For Linux and Solaris installations, create a nightly cron job that calls the stop/start scripts as root or using sudo. The following commands would need to be called: Check off the open advanced option when Finished. /usr/local/webhelpdesk/whd stop /usr/local/webhelpdesk/whd start Configuring WHD for HTTPS Setting HTTPS_PORT and URL_HTTPS_PORT in whd.conf In order to enable HTTPS with Web Help Desk, you must first configure the port it will listen to for HTTPS requests and the port it will use in URLs it generates that point back to itself. Change the Run command to be net stop webhelpdesk. Enabling HTTPS and initializing the Java keystore To enable Web Help Desk to listen to HTTPS requests, you must un-comment the HTTPS_PORT setting in <WebHelpDesk>/conf/whd.conf by removing the pound character (#) at the beginning of the line. By default, browsers use port 443 for SSL connections. If you use a different port, you will need to include it in URLs to Web Help Desk. For example, if your whd.conf file contains the line HTTPS_PORT=8443 then you would connect to Web Help Desk with the following URL: https://localhost:8443 After setting HTTPS_PORT, restarting Web Help Desk will create a new Java keystore at <WebHelpDesk>/conf/keystore.jks containing a self-signed certificate.

CHAPTER 14 Deployment Considerations 77 Tip: If you leave the DEFAULT_PORT setting enabled, Web Help Desk will allow HTTP as well as HTTPS connections. Most likely, you will want to disable HTTP requests, by inserting a pound sign (#) in front of the DEFAULT_PORT setting, or you will want to enable HTTP to HTTPS redirection. (See Enabling HTTP-to-HTTPS Redirection.) Generating Web Help Desk URLs to a different port (Optional) If you have configured your Web Help Desk application to be accessed through a port other than the web service port configured by HTTPS_PORT (e.g., if you are using an Apache rewrite directive to forward requests for port 80 on to the Web Help Desk port), you should uncomment the URL_HTTPS_PORT setting in whd.conf and set it to the port you wish Web Help Desk to use in any URLs that point back to itself. a graphical user interface for administering the keystore. The keystore holds one or more keypairs. A keypair consists of a private key and a certificate. Each keypair is given a unique name, or alias, and an optional password. The embedded Tomcat server used by Web Help Desk requires its keypair to be given the alias tomcat and, by default, the password changeit. If a different password is used, the new password must be given to Tomcat via the KEYSTORE_ PASSWORD setting in whd.conf. The keystore itself also has a password, which Tomcat requires to be identical to the keypair password. If you do not uncomment URL_HTTPS_PORT, then HTTPS_PORT will be used for all links generated by Web Help Desk that point to itself. Certificate configuration overview By default, Web Help Desk uses a self-signed certificate, causing web browsers to prompt the user whether to trust the certificate. This section explains how to configure Web Help Desk to use a signed certificate that will be recognized by browsers automatically as a valid certificate. When a browser submits an HTTPS request to Web Help Desk, the SSL protocol requires Web Help Desk to respond with a certificate to prove the authenticity of the server. The certificate contains a public key used for encryption and a digital signature by a Certification Authority (CA) that tells the browser who verified the authenticity of the server. Web browsers are pre configured to trust several CAs whose validity has been established by the browser manufacturer, such as VeriSign, Thawte, GeoTrust, and GoDaddy. If a browser does not recognize the certificate s CA, it asks the user whether to trust the certificate. Once trust has been established, the browser uses the public key to encrypt information it sends to Web Help Desk, and Web Help Desk decrypts it using its private key. Similarly, Web Help Desk uses its private key to encrypt information sent to the browser, and the browser uses the public key received in the certificate to decrypt it. Web Help Desk keeps its keys and certificates in a Java keystore at <WebHelpDesk>/conf/keystore.jks. The opensource utility Porteclé ( POR-tuh-CLAY, French for keychain), which comes bundled with Web Help Desk, provides When a new keypair is created using Porteclé, it is given a self-signed certificate. To replace the self-signed certificate with a certificate signed by a CA, a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) must be generated for the keypair and submitted to the CA. The CSR contains the public key and the name of the server, in a format defined by the PKCS#10 standard (typically given the filename extension.p10 or.csr). After verifying the applicant s identity, the CA replies with a certificate that can be used to replace the selfsigned certificate in the keypair. This CA Reply (or CSR Reply) is typically given as an X.509 Certificate file (.cer,.crt,.pem, or.der) or as a PKCS#7 file (.p7b). It is possible for a trusted CA to delegate to another CA. In this case, the certificate returned by the delegated CA will itself be signed by the trusted CA, resulting in a certificate

CHAPTER 14 Deployment Considerations 78 chain. Certificate chains may be of any length. The highest certificate in the chain, the root certificate, should be a selfsigned certificate, signed by the trusted CA. Each certificate in the chain must imported into the keystore so that the complete chain can be sent to the browser. If the CA Reply does not include the chain certificates, they must be added to the keystore manually before the CA reply. The certificates must be imported in order of dependency i.e., the root certificate must be added first, then the next chained certificate that was signed by the root certificate, and so on, down to the CA reply. Existing Certificate later in this chapter. Creating a new Keypair After launching Porteclé, select File > Open KeyStore and open <WebHelpDesk>/conf/keystore.jks. (This file is created automatically when Web Help Desk is started with the HTTPS_PORT setting uncommented in <WebHelpDesk>/ conf/whd.conf. If it does not yet exist, simply uncomment the HTTPS_PORT setting and restart Web Help Desk.) Upon selecting the keystore, you will be prompted to provide the keystore password. The default password is changeit. If you have not yet obtained a certificate for your server, you should use Porteclé to generate both a keypair and a CSR to send to the CA, and then to import the CA Reply certificate. If you do already have a certificate, you will need to import it and the primary key into the keystore. Since Porteclé does not allow you to import a primary key by itself, you will need to combine it with its certificate in a PKCS#12 file (*.p12 or *.pfx). In each case, the keypair must be aliased as tomcat, and both it and the keystore must be protected by the password specified with the KEYSTORE_PASSWORD setting in whd.conf. After opening the keystore, you should see a keypair entry with the alias tomcat. This keypair was created automatically by Web Help Desk. You will need to replace it with a new keypair that is configured for your domain. First, delete the existing tomcat keypair by right-clicking and selecting Delete: The following sections explain both ways of getting a certificate into the keystore: using Porteclé to generate a new certificate (below), and in the Importing an Existing Certificate section later in this chapter. Generating a new certificate This section explains how to create a new certificate, generate a certificate signing request (CSR), and import the CA reply. If you already have a certificate, skip to Importing an

CHAPTER 14 Deployment Considerations 79 Next, create a new keypair by selecting Tools > Generate Key Pair. You will be prompted to choose an algorithm and key size. Choose 1024-bit RSA. Configuring Web Help Desk for HTTPS 6 Tip: Many browsers, including Internet Explorer, are known to have problems with DSA certificates. RSA is more widely and consistently supported. You will now be prompted to provide the x509 distinguishedname attributes for your certificate: The Validity attribute specifies the number of days you want your certificate to be valid. Typical validation periods are 6, 12, or 24 months. (See your CA for options and pricing.) The most critical attribute is Common Name (CN). This must match exactly the full domain name for the site to be used with the certificate. For example, if your help desk will be hosted at support.mycompany.com, your CN must be support.mycompany.com, not merely mycompany.com. (However, some CAs support wildcard certificates, where *.company. com matches any subdomain of company.com.) The Organization Unit (OU) may be anything that helps distinguish this certificate from others for your organization. Organization Name (O) should be the legal name for your organization. Locality Name (L) and State Name (ST) should be the unabbreviated city and state/province/region/ territory of your organization. Country (C) should be the two letter ISO 3166 country code for your country. Email (E) is generally optional, but may be used by your CA as the address to which the certificate will be mailed. See your CA vendor for further information. After clicking OK, you will be asked to provide an alias for the new keypair. IMPORTANT: Web Help Desk expects your keypair or certificate to use the alias tomcat:

CHAPTER 14 Deployment Considerations 80 Generating a CSR Now you can create the certificate signing request (CSR) by right-clicking on the keypair and selecting Generate CSR: Finally, you are asked to provide a password for the keypair. IMPORTANT: Web Help Desk requires this password, and the password used for the entire keystore, to match the KEYSTORE_PASSWORD parameter in <WebHelpDesk>/conf/whd.conf. By default, this password is changeit. If you use a different password, you must update the KEYSTORE_PASSWORD setting. Give a name for the CSR that will help you remember the domain it will validate: After successfully providing the keypair password, you should see the new keypair aliased by tomcat: This will be the file you will send to your CA to request your certificate. The CA should return an x.509 certificate in DER (*.cer, *.crt), PEM (*.pem, *.cer, *.crt) or PKCS#7 (*.p7b, *.p7c) encoding. Importing CA Chain & Root Certificates Before importing your certificate into the keystore, you should check whether the certificate vendor requires you to include any other certificates to complete the certificate chain. To import a certificate, select Tools > Import Trusted Certificate:

CHAPTER 14 Deployment Considerations 81 Locate each of the certificates (if any) provided by your CA and import them into the keystore. Importing the CA Reply certificate After installing any required root certificates, right-click the tomcat keypair and select Import CA Reply: If you have an existing certificate that you would like to use with Web Help Desk, you will need to import your private key as well as your certificate chain. It will not work to import the certificate using Porteclé s Tools > Import Trusted Certificate option, as it will not include the private key. The PKCS#12 standard specifies a keystore format that is used for transferring private keys and certificates. PKCS#12 files typically use the extension.p12 or.pfx. If you already have your private key and certificate bundled in this format, you can import it directly into Porteclé. (See Importing a PKCS#12, below.) If you do not have a PKCS#12 (.p12 or.pfx) file, you can use the OpenSSL pkcs12 command to generate one from a private key and a certificate; or, if your certificate is on a Windows server, you can export a PKCS#12 file from the Microsoft Management Console. Locate the certificate returned by your CA and import it into the keystore. IMPORTANT: If your certificate is in Base64-encoded format (*.pem and sometimes *.cer), you may get an error when importing the certificate if it contains anything besides the certificate itself. If this is the case, make a copy of the certificate that includes only the lines starting with -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- and ending with -----END CERTIFICATE-----. After importing your certificate reply, Porteclé should report that the certificate was imported successfully. If when attempting to import the CA Reply, Porteclé gives you an error that the certificate cannot be trusted, you are likely missing a root certificate. To determine which certificate you need, temporarily import your CA Reply as a Trusted Certificate, rather than a CA Reply certificate, and examine the Certificate Details. Locate the Issuer property. You will need to obtain a certificate from your CA that matches this property and then import it into Porteclé as a Trusted Certificate. Once you have imported this Configuring Web Help Desk for HTTPS 9 certificate into Porteclé, as well as any other certificates needed by its Issuer, you can delete your own trusted certificate and re-import it as a CA Reply to your keypair. Importing an existing certificate Creating a PKCS#12 Keystore from a Private Key and a Certificate OpenSSL provides the pkcs12 command for generating PKCS#12 files from a private key and a certificate. OpenSSL is open source and can be downloaded from http://openssl. org. The private key and certificate must be in PEM format (i.e., base64-encoded, with ----BEGIN CERTIFICATE---- and ----END CERTIFICATE---- headers and footers). Use this command to create a PKCS#12 file from your private key and certificate: openssl pkcs12 -export \ -in <signed_cert_filename> \ -inkey <private_key_filename> \ -name tomcat \ -out keystore.p12 If you have a chain of certificates, you should first combine the certificates into a single file and use it for the input file, as shown below. The order of certificates must be from server certificate to the CA root certificate (see RFC2246 section 7.4.2). cat <signed_cert_filename> \ <intermediate.cert> [<intermediate2.cert>]... \ > cert-chain.txt openssl pkcs12 -export \ -in cert-chain.txt \ -inkey <private_key_filename> \ -name tomcat \ -out keystore.p12

CHAPTER 14 Deployment Considerations 82 You will be prompted to provide a password for the new keystore, which you will need to provide when importing the keystore into the Web Help Desk Java keystore. Exporting a PKCS#12 Keystore from Microsoft Management Console If you wish to use an existing certificate located on a Windows server, you can export it to a PKCS#12 file using the Microsoft Management Console (MMC): 1. Click Start > Run and execute the command mmc. A Microsoft Management Console window will open. 2. Select Console > Add/Remove Snap-In. 3. Select Add > Certificates > Add > Computer Account > Local Computer > Finish. 4. Expand Console Root > Certificates > Personal. You should see your certificate listed. 5. Right-click your certificate and select All Tasks > Export. 6. Follow the Certificate Export Wizard prompts to export a Personal Information Exchange PKCS #12 (.PFX) file. Check the option to Include all certificates in the certification path if possible, and do NOT check the options to Enable strong protection and to Delete the private key if the export is successful. Take note of the location in which you save the.pfx file. You will import it into Porteclé using the instructions below. Importing a PKCS#12 file into the Web Help Desk keystore Porteclé provides two ways to import contents of a PKCS#12 file into the Web Help Desk Java keystore. The first method is to open the PKCS#12 keystore (File > Open Keystore File ), convert it to a Java keystore (Tools > Change Keystore Type > JKS), and overwrite the existing keystore by saving it as <WebHelpDesk>/conf/keystore.jks. The second method is to open the Web Help Desk keystore file and then import the keypair containing your certificate, using Tools > Import Keypair. You will be prompted to select which keypair in your PKCS#12 keystore to import. Help Desk keystore. You can inspect the certificate chain by double-clicking the certificate to view the certificate details. Use the left and right arrows at the top of the details panel to navigate through each certificate in the chain. If you do not see the full certificate chain, try importing the CA certificates first (Tools > Import Trusted Certificate ), and then import your keypair again. For some reason, Porteclé does not establish trust when a certificate is imported before the certificate that was used to sign it. Sequence is important. Import the root certificate first, then the next certificate in the chain, and so on, until you get to your own certificate. IMPORTANT: Your certificate must be aliased as tomcat. The password for your certificate and for the keystore itself must be the same, and must match the KEYSTORE_PASSWORD setting in <WebHelpDesk>/conf/whd.conf (changeit by default). Enabling HTTP-to-HTTPS redirection HTTP requests to Web Help Desk can be redirected use HTTPS. This is useful if you want your clients to be able to use a regular HTTP URL to connect to your help desk, but also require their connections to be secure. Redirection can be performed by the server or the browser. Generally, serverside redirection is the preferred method. Tip: If you want the security of passing login credentials through HTTPS, but wish to avoid the performance penalty of SSL once authentication is complete, you can configure Web Help Desk to use SSL for the login page only. (See Preferences > General > Server Settings > Use HTTPS.) Server-Side Redirection The Tomcat application server bundled with Web Help Desk supports HTTP to HTTPS redirection. With HTTPS redirection enabled, the Tomcat server will automatically switch any HTTP connection attempts to an HTTPS connection. The redirection is performed server-side, so it is inconspicuous to the user. To enable HTTP to HTTPS redirection, remove the comments around the following lines at the bottom of <WebHelpDesk>/bin/webapps/helpdesk/WEB-INF/web. xml. If your keystore already contains a default, unsigned tomcat certificate, delete it before importing your PKCS#12 file. Be sure that your certificate chain is intact in the Web

CHAPTER 14 Deployment Considerations 83 <security-constraint> <web-resource-collection> <web-resource-name>automatic SSL Forwarding</web-resource-name> <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern> </web-resource-collection> <user-data-constraint> <transport-guarantee> CONFIDENTIAL </transport-guarantee> </user-data-constraint> </security-constraint> NOTE: There should not be a line break between SSL and Forwarding. Be sure that both the DEFAULT_PORT and HTTPS_PORT settings in whd.conf are provided. certificates in your keystore to see if any of them match your certificate s Issuer attribute. If not, you will need to obtain from your CA a certificate that does match. Once you have imported a certificate that matches your own certificate s issuer, as well as any other certificates needed to trust those certificates, delete your temporarily trusted certificate and re-import it as a CA Reply to your keypair. Porteclé Gives an Error About My Certificate Having an Illegal Key Size, or About Needing Unlimited-Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files To add support for large SSL key sizes, you will need to download the unlimited-strength local_policy.jar and US_export_policy.jar files from Sun: http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index_jdk5.jsp You will need to restart Web Help Desk for any changes to take effect. Client-Side (Browser) Redirection An alternative is to disable HTTP connections to the help desk (by commenting out the DEFAULT_PORT setting in <WebHelpDesk>/conf/whd.conf, and provide an HTTPS URL to the help desk in a page served by a web server listening to HTTP requests on port 80. You can make a web page initiate a client-side redirect to the help desk by including the following meta tag in its <head> element: <meta http-equiv= refresh content= 0;URL=https://mycompany.com:8443/ helpdesk/webobjects/helpdesk > NOTE: There should not be a line break in the URL. Troubleshooting Porteclé Says My CA Reply Certificate Cannot Be Trusted Your certificate has been signed by an Issuer that Porteclé does not trust. You must obtain a root certificate (or chain of certificates) from your CA that match the Issuer identity of your certificate, and import them into Porteclé before importing your own certificate as a CA Reply. You can determine the Issuer of your CA Reply by temporarily importing your certificate into Porteclé as a Trusted Certificate rather than a CA Reply, and then examining its Certificate Details. Look at the Certificate Details of other For your convenience they are also attached to FAQ 59 at: http://support.webhelpdesk.com/cgi-bin/webobjects/ Support.woa/wa/FaqActions/view?action=fc0500094aa9 410b&id=1 Copy these files into your JAVA_HOME/lib/security folder. (They should replace existing files of the same names.) Defaults for WHD installations are below: Windows: \Program Files\WebHelpdesk\bin\jre\lib\security\ Mac OS X: /Library/Java/Home/lib/security/ Linux: /usr/local/webhelpdesk/bin/jre/lib/security/ After copying these files into your Java security folder, you will need to restart Porteclé. After importing My Certificate, Web Help Desk Won t Start Check your <WebHelpDesk>/conf/whd.conf file to be sure you have uncommented the SSL_PORT setting, and that your DEFAULT_PORT and HTTPS_PORT settings are not conflicting with any other processes on the server. Also be sure that your KEYSTORE_PASSWORD setting in whd.conf matches BOTH the password of your keystore AND the password of your keypair (by default, this password is changeit).

CHAPTER 14 Deployment Considerations 84 Finally, be sure that your keypair is aliased as tomcat. After Importing My Certificate, Web Help Desk Starts Okay But My Browser Shows a Self-Signed Certificate Check that you are saving your Porteclé keystore to <WebHelpDesk>/conf/keystore.jks. Web Help Desk starts okay, but when I connect I get blank pages or page-not-found error Check whether your private key was generated using the DSA algorithm. DSA keys are known to fail with many browsers, including Internet Explorer. Try using RSA instead. Running in debug mode You may be able to get additional information about the error by running Web Help Desk in debug mode from the command line: <WebHelpDesk>/whd stop <WebHelpDesk>/whd debug Where <WebHelpDesk> is the path to your Web Help Desk program folder.