This file will guide through the basics of installation and operation of Jitbit's Web Based Help Desk software. Thank you for reading it.
Contents:
1. OVERVIEW
2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
3. INSTALLING HELPDESK
4. UPDRADING HELPDESK
5. QUICKSTART
6. Autologin-feature (authentication API)
7. Windows-integrated authentication
8. Helpdesk URL
9. UNINSTALLING HELPDESK
10. Integration with Jitbit CRM
11. API & Email API
Thank you for choosing Jitbit HelpDesk - web based help desk software. Jitbit HelpDesk is a web based help desk solution ("ticket system"), designed to assist help desks to deliver outstanding customer service. Jitbit HelpDesk is an ASP.NET 4.0 web-application with access from client computers via a web browser.
Jitbit offers both hosted and self-hosted versions of the software. This installation manual is about the self-hosted edition "for your server".
Tickets (aka "issues") are the main entities in the help-desk system. Tickets are submitted by users and organized into categories for convenience.
Jitbit Help-Desk has three user roles:
User - is a regular user who submits support tickets to the system.
Technician - is a user who is permitted (by an administrator) to handle tickets in one or more categories. A technician receives email notifications about every new ticket in a category. NOTE: To make a user a technician you have to "grant" him permissions to handle tickets in some category. This is done through the category editing form in the admin section.
Administrator - changes system settings, assigns users to categories (thus making them technicians), creates categories, adds/deletes users etc. NOTE: By default an administrator does not get notified of new issues in the helpdesk system, unless he is assigned as a "technician" to some category.
Jitbit HelpDesk requires a server running one of the following operating systems:
Since Jitbit HelpDesk is browser based, there is no particular requirement for the client operating system. A variety of popular browsers can be used for client access to Jitbit HelpDesk including:
The following components are required to be installed on the server hosting Jitbit HelpDesk:
To enable the required features on Windows 2008 server and above, do this:
How to setup SQL SQL 2005/2008:
MS SQL Server 2005/2008 "Express edition" is a free edition of MS SQL Server. It is available for download from the Microsoft web site. Jitbit HelpDesk uses SQL-authentication, so MS SQL 2005/2008 has to be installed with the "Mixed Mode" authentication mode (!), with an SA-password specified ("SA" is a built-in "system administrator" user, whos password must be specified explicitly during installation).
Microsoft .NET Framework, Internet Information Services (IIS) and SQL Server 2005/2008 "Express Edition" are all available at no charge from Microsoft if you do not already have the required components installed.
Jitbit HelpDesk can be installed in TWO WAYS:
Choose one of the following options
Jitbit Helpdesk comes with a default administrator user.
Default username: "admin", password: "admin"
Don't forget to change that default password!
To upgrade your helpdesk to the latest version:
As of version 7.1.0 Jitbit Help Desk uses ASP.NET MVC for some of it's operations. So upgrading from earlier versions requires you to update your "web.config" file with the new settings that were not there before (they're marked with "MVC" comment in the new web.config). And also removing all the "location" tags form the "web.config".
Please note, that starting from version 5.5 the helpdesk is using .NET Framework 4.0 (previous versions were using 3.5). Upgrading requires two more extra steps:
<httpRuntime requestValidationMode="2.0" />
Also please note that NET Framework 4.0 uses a different method of sending emails via SMTP protocol. If you use an SMTP server via SSL, you may have to change your SMTP port from 465 to 587.
By default Helpdesk searches only within tickets subject and text. Since version 7.4.2 you can increase the search performance and enable searching within ticket replies (comments) as well by installing Full-Text Search components on your SQL Server.
If you had Full-Text Search installed from the start and you've upgraded to version 7.4.2 or above, you don't need to do anything, it just works.
If you're not sure whether or not you have it installed, run this query on your server:
SELECT FULLTEXTSERVICEPROPERTY('IsFullTextInstalled')
If it returns "1", you're all set up. If it returns "0", you need to install Full-Text components. Here are the steps you should take:
Full-Text Components are optional, nothing will break without them, but installing them will improve the search speed and quality dramatically.
After Jitbit HelpDesk has been successfully installed, open your web-browser and navigate to the location where Jitbit HelpDesk is installed (e.g. "http://myserver/HelpDesk").
Unless you changed the installation scripts, Jitbit Help Desk installs with two predefined users: admin (password "admin") and client (password "client"). CHANGE THESE DEFAULT PASSWORDS BEFORE USING HelpDesk. Use these default users only to login for the first time and start using it.
Most pages in Jitbit HelpDesk web application have a link "get help for this page" at the bottom of the page. Clicking this link provides the most relevant in-depth information about the current page.
Jitbit HelpDesk supports "autologin" feature which allows users to be pre-authenticated automatically (by your parent website for example) without entering their username and password. The "autologin" feature is targeted at developers and administrators, who integrate the HelpDesk software into their existing SQL-powered websites and applications. If the user is already authenticated on your parent website (for instance) there are two options:
MD5(username + email + shared-secret)
. The "shared secret" is specified in the admin panel. Remember to specify a "strong" secret, at least 10 characters (the longer the better).
Starting from version 1.9 Jitbit HelpDesk supports Windows-integrated authentication and integrating with your existing Active Directory (AD) user's catalog. To enable Windows-integrated authentication edit the web.config file and un-comment this two lines:
<authentication mode="Windows"></authentication> <identity impersonate="true"/>and comment the above tag which enables "Forms" authentication. Also remember to check if Windows-integrated authentication is enabled in IIS directory where HelpDesk is installed, and anonymous access is disabled.
If you plan using Windows-authentication under IIS 7 - you will need "Windows authentication" role service installed. Installation instructions. Also note that you have to disable anonymous authentication in IIS for the helpdesk app.
PLEASE NOTE: that when Windows-authentication is enabled, Jitbit HelpDesk automatically adds a domain-user into HelpDesk database when he logs in for the first time (if he is properly authenticated with his Windows-account). Also HelpDesk will try to connect to your domain-controller and populate the user's email from Active Directory.
If you're installing via the "setup.exe" you'll be prompted for a Widnows username to add to Helpdesk "administrators" role. If not - there's a setting in the web.config file:
<add key="WindowsAdminUsername" value="DOMAIN\Username"/>
All outgoing email notifications about various ticket events contain a hyperlink to a ticket. The URL in those links is being initialised when Helpdesk starts and it is taken from the URL of the very first request to the app.
For example, if you recycle the application pool and make the first request to http://localhost/helpdesk, this URL will be used in all email notififcations from Helpdesk until you recycle the app pool again.
There is a way to override this behaviour by setting a desired URL in the AppURL setting in web.config. Open the web.config file in the root directory of helpdesk and find or add "AppURL" setting inside the <appSettings> section. Like this:
<appSettings>
<add key="AppURL" value="http://support.yourcompany.com" />
</appSettings>
Automatic uninstallation is available only if you have installed Jitbit HelpDesk using the automated "setup.exe" installer. If you have installed the application manually - you have to manually uninstall it.
To uninstall Jitbit HelpDesk select "Start - All Programs - Jitbit HelpDesk - Uninstall Jitbit HelpDesk". The application will be removed from your system.
PLEASE NOTE: the database is NOT uninstalled during the automated uninstallation procedure.
If you have both Jitbit CRM and Jitbit Help Desk installed, it is possible to integrate the two systems and enable:
Setting up the integration is easy:
The helpdesk app includes a "RESTful" web-service for integrating with other apps. The service address is: http://servername/helpdesk/API.svc
API docs can be found here: http://www.jitbit.com/web-helpdesk/helpdesk-API/
Email API manual can be found here: Email API