File Release Notes and Changelog
Release Name: 0.95
Notes:
LIBERUM HELP DESK
-----------------
Version: 0.95 (beta)
Date: 04/23/01
Please view CHANGELOG.TXT for changes in this version.
Liberum Help Desk, Copyright (C) 2001 Doug Luxem
Liberum Help Desk comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
Please view the license.txt file for the full GNU
General Public License
WEB: http://www.liberum.org
SUPPORT: http://www.liberum.org/support.html
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CONTENTS
I. ABOUT
II. REQUIREMENTS
III. INSTALLATION
IV. DATABASES
V. EMAIL
VI. AUTHENTICATION
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I. ABOUT
Liberum Help Desk is a "free", web-based help desk
solution. By "free", not only does the software cost $0 to
use, but it is also open software. You are free to change
and redistribute Liberum Help Desk as put forth in the
license.
Features:
* Web-based, no proprietary clients
* Works with most web browsers
* Can utilize NT authentication or a separate
database of user accounts for granting access
* Easily customized to fit your needs
* Users can submit and update problems
* Email support for user and rep notification
* Problems classified by CATEGORY, DEPARTMENT,
PRIORITY, and STATUS
* Problems can automatically be assigned to reps
based on category
* Automatically page support reps about high
priority problems
* View reports on problem categories, work done by
support reps, and departments submitting problems
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II. REQUIREMENTS
The requirements for installing and using Liberum Help
Desk are:
* Windows NT 4.0 or greater
* IIS 4.0 or greater with ASP support
* MS SQL Server (not required, but provides better performance)
* For email support: IIS SMTP or Exchange server installed
locally, or JMail or ASPEmail installed (see section on email)
* CPU and MEMORY to run IIS and SQL
* 1 MB of hard drive space for web pages
* 5+ MB for SQL database
* Web browser
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II. INSTALLATION
1. Extract web pages to a location on your web server
For example, "C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\helpdesk"
2. Edit SETTINGS.ASP in the root of the help desk. In this
file you will need to configure the database settings.
Set "DBType" to the type of database you wish to use.
(See the section III on databases to configure them.) For
SQL, set the server name and database along with username
and password if needed. If you are using Access, enter
the full physical path to the Access database in AccessPath.
The Access database in located in the /db directory of the
help desk.
3. Open up your web browser and browse to the admin directory
of the help desk (http://your.webserver.com/helpdesk/admin)
The default administrative password is:
admin
After logging in, go to 'Configure Site'. Read the help
available on the page for information on the settings.
4. Start using the help desk!! A few thing you will want to
look at are setting up support reps (after they have logged
in once), configuring the categories, departments, statuses
and priorities. If you are using email, you can also configure
the messages sent to users and reps. All of this can be done
from the admin pages. Also, don't forget to change the admin
password!
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IV. DATABASES
There are two choices as to what types of databases you can use
as a backend to Liberum Help Desk: MS SQL Server and Access.
The Access database will be easier to setup; however, it will not
provide the same performance as using MS SQL Server.
Access:
To use the Access database, open SETTINGS.ASP in the root of the
help desk set the DBType equal to 3 and enter the path to
the database in AccessPath (the database is located in the db
directory).
You will need to give the IUSR_MACHINE account CHANGE (or MODIFY)
rights to the db directory and the helpdesk.mdb file. If you are
using NT Authentication (see Sect. VI), then you will need to give
all user accounts those rights.
The database was designed in Access 2000, and you will only be
able to edit it with Access 2000 (however, there should be no
need to edit it).
SQL:
To use MS SQL Server as the database for Liberum Help Desk, do
the following:
1. Open Query Analyzer (a tool shipped with SQL Server) and
open the helpdesk.sql file located in the db directory.
2. Edit the FILENAME properties of the data and log files to
suit your server and then execute the script.
3. Open SETTINGS.ASP and set DBType equal to 1 and then set
the SQLServer, SQLDBase, SQLUser and SQLPass variables.
(You can use integrated security instead of SQL security.
To do this, set DBType equal to 2 and you don't need to set
SQLUser or SQLPass. You should also consider using NT
Authentication for the site then--see Sect. VI)
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V. EMAIL
There is no direct way to send email from ASP pages in IIS
without some intermediary. Liberum Help Desk support three
different types of "intermediaries" to send mail: CDONTS, ASPEmail,
and JMail. Collaborative Data Objects for NT Server (CDONTS) is
Microsoft's method for sending email from ASP applications and
it can only use the IIS SMTP Service (or Exchange) that is installed
on the web server. ASPEmail and JMail are third party components
that will allow sending mail to any remote SMTP server.
To use CDONTS, you must install the IIS SMTP service. If you
with to use Exchange Server, then the IIS SMTP service must be
installed before the Exchange IMS so CDONTS is installed.
(CDONTS is only installed with the IIS SMTP service). If you
don't want to run an SMTP server on the local web server, then
use ASPEmail or JMail.
To use ASPEmail or JMail, download the components from the web
and install on it on your web server. ASPEmail is available at
http://www.aspemail.com and JMail is available at
http://www.dimac.net. Both have versions that are freely
available.
After setting up an email component, make sure to set the
help desk to use that component from the administrative menu.
For ASPEmail or JMail, you will also have to set an SMTP server
address (CDONTS doesn't need one because it will only use the
local server).
Pager Support:
Liberum Help Desk does support alpha-numeric pagers; however,
they must be addressable via an email address (most pager
services provide this). To use pagers, set a pager priority
level from the site configuration page. Any problems created
at this priority level or higher will page the rep to which it
is assigned. Transferring a problem will also page the new rep
if the priority is at the pager level or higher.
Reps can add or change their pager address by selecting
Edit Information from their main menu after you have set a
Pager Priority level.
Email Messages:
You can configure the email messages sent to users or support
reps. Select Configure Email Messages from the administrative
menu. The email messages are:
User - New: Sent to the user when a new problem is entered
in their name.
User - Update: Currently not used.
User - Closed: Sent to the user when the problem is closed.
Rep - New: Sent to the support rep when a problem is
assigned to them.
Rep - Update: Sent to the support rep when a user adds
more information about the problem.
Rep - Close: Currently not used.
Rep - Pager: Sent to the rep's pager address if paging is
enabled.
The message support various variables that can be used in the
message. These variables have information about the problem,
user, support rep or the help desk. All variables are enclosed
in square brackets [ ]. See the help available on the Edit
Message page for information on what variables are available.
|--------------------------------------------------------------|
VI. AUTHENTICATION
Three types of authentication methods are supported by Liberum
Help Desk: Database, NT Authentication, and External Authentication.
The most common type of authentication used is Database. This will
hold the username and password in the help desk database and users
log in via a web page created by Liberum. They will also be allowed
to create their own accounts.
NT Authentication work in an NT domain environment where you
already have accounts set up. You must configure IIS for NT
Authentication. To do this, open the Internet Service Manager and
browse to the helpdesk directory in the web site. Right-click
on the directory and select properties. Select Edit from the
directory security tab and then deselect anonymous logon and select
basic and/or integrated authentication.
External Authentication can be used if you have some other method
already programmed for authenticating users. After authenticating
users with your other method, there are three ways to get the
authenticated username to the help desk: by form data, a query string,
or a session variable. The name of the form field, query string
or session variable must be 'lhd_ext_uid' and submitted to logon.asp.
Here is an example using the form method:
<form method="post" action="http://webserver/helpdesk/logon.asp">
<input type="hidden" name="lhd_ext_uid" value="username">
<input type="submit" value="Logon to the help desk">
</form>
A query string example would be:
<a href="http://webserver/helpdesk/logon.asp?lhd_ext_uid=username">
Please note, using external authentication is fairly insecure as
anyone could create a url or form to logon to the help desk and bypass
your authentication.
After choosing an authentication method, you need to set the correct
option in the site configuration off of the administrative menu.
Changes:
v0.95 (04/23/01)
New:
* Most everything has changed!!
* Impoved authentication and user management
* Removed global.asa, configuration is now done in
settings.asp and by web-based forms
* Added a user knowledge base
* Fixed overflow error in admin reports
* Printer friendly pages for problem details
* Added error handling
* Added support for remote SMTP servers by using
JMail and ASPEmail
* Impoved handling of ADO connections
* Lengthened session timeouts on problem entry pages
* Added support for pagers
Issues:
* A lot of new stuff, so there might be some new
problems too
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