When you install the plugin, three new tag groups are added tickets_priority, tickets_reason and tickets_status. Add tags to these groups (at /tag_groups) to add tickets to each ticket type.
Tickets are added in the āedit topicā UI (see screenshot below).
You can create topics or PMs with tickets via the api using is_ticket and a tags[] for each ticket tag (learn more)
There are four site settings you need to look at. To access quickly, go to ADMIN > SETTINGS on your instance and search for tickets.
tickets enabled: Enable tickets on topics (requires tagging to be enabled).
tickets icon: set the font-awesome class of the tickets icon
tickets include group: default group to include on private messages with tickets (on Global Legal Empowerment Network forum this is a helpdesk group).
tickets redirect assigned: redirects the user from the āassigned topicsā route in their profile to Tickets dashboard filtered by tickets assigned to them.
allow staff to tag pms needs to be enabled if you wish to use tickets on PMs.
This list pulls together bug reports and feature requests that have come up in this discussion below and in the active usage of this plugin by @tobiaseigen and colleagues on the Global Legal Empowerment Network. @angus has agreed to schedule some time regularly to try to chip away at this list via https://discourse.angusmcleod.com.au/c/work/l/agenda, but can always use help!
Bugs:
Hijacked link to a userās assigned tickets appears to not work for usernames that have mixed case.
Ticket tags showing up in print view, also for those without access to ticket system
Features weād like to add:
Add ability to indicate the user (or users) a ticket is about.
Add columns on tickets dashboard for date ticket was created and date created, date of last activity.
Hijack search on tickets dashboard to allow searching for tickets by keyword
Add to tickets dashboard default filters and options to quickly see only tickets assigned to me or only open tickets
Add ability to monitor overall health of ticket system (time to resolution, open tickets, etc)
(low priority) Add āSettingsā button in /admin/plugins (details)
(low priority) Allow ticket system and ticket tag groups to be renamed (requested by @GeertClaes)
Requested features that are low priority/hard/likely not to be added:
add TICKET options to topic menu at bottom as well as topic title edit.
notify user of number of open tickets assigned to user every time they log in
automated system messages are always tickets marked low, waiting
ticket PMs are sent to group messages archive by default so they donāt clutter group messages inbox
typically when we create a ticket, we set the status tag to #waiting. If there were some way to change this status to #underway when someone replies, that would be a big helpā¦ if not, we can rely on the ticket dashboard if it shows activity so we know someone has replied and we need to take action.
for sake of transparency, would be interesting to indicate in a whisper when ticket tags are added or changed, following the example of the assign behavior.
on the flag interface itās possible for moderators to āclaimā spam posts. Maybe this is a model we can follow for tickets? This would speed things up - right now the flow is to unassign then assign.
Other discourse functionality that would help
bulk select and update ticket priority, status, reason, group, assignee (if not on the UI, then command line queries?)
Awesome! So glad to see this ticket plugin become a reality. Angus has done some terrific work here, and has been very patient with my feature requests and feedback. He deserves a medal.
I hope more communities decide to use this plugin, and help to make it even better by contributing use cases, feedback and code. I am also hoping to see some improvements to other discourse features to make tickets even more awesome.
Weāve been using it on our site for a few weeks already and it works well, though I have yet to properly roll it out to my team. As that happens Iāll be able to give more feedback on whatās working and what needs improvements from our point of view.
For right now, hereās my wish list:
improved functionality on topic and message lists for selecting and bulk updating, to e.g. change category, add/remove tags, create ticket, mark solved, open/close, reassign, change priority, change status, etc. (discussed elsewhere)
solved plugin: Allow staff to select OP to be solution, if no replies.
solved plugin: Prevent staff from selecting whispered replies as solution, as risks exposing private conversation. (discussed elsewhere)
āticket system heathā statistics, e.g. number of tickets by status, time to completion, ratio of tickets by status, charts showing above over time. Not sure where this should live - is the dashboard extendable through plugins?
automatic ticket updates when reply is sent (e.g. change status tag to waiting/underway, add reminder for assignee with interval based on priority, etc)
automatic assignee based on ticket reason
automatic tickets based on group or group email
automatic solved/unsolved based on ticket status
default filters and options on dashboard to more quickly see only tickets assigned to me, or only open tickets etc.
not directly related but a common ticket task for our helpdesk: UI method for merging users, with ability to choose which email address is primary and which is secondary. (discussed elsewhere)
In case youāre wondering, here are some notes on the api method we use for creating tickets. We use it to create a new ticket for each new member as they join, for the purposes of onboarding and welcoming them, and when reaching out to members for feedback when they download resources from our resource library. We also use it when inviting lists of people (e.g. event attendees) to join the network, instead of email.
is_ticket = 1
tags[] = tag1 each on a separate line, use ticket tags and any additional tags to help find messages later (note square brackets - required!)
target_usernames = should always contain helpdesk group accessible to the staff in charge of ticket follow-up. Can contain an email address instead of username to create staged users (handy for sending bulk invites and making them tickets for follow-up)
Agreed I should have started with that This looks very promising, and your wish list contains several things that Iād probably get to if we get to use this properly here
I am super excited to see this. I currently have my own custom made (mock) ticketing system. It basically converts any PM into a ticket upon user request, adds a ticket number, organizes all tickets under a custom appointed user (@TICKETS) for easier tracking, and notifies admins. We do tagging/assign via discourse options. But this is more elaborate, if you keep developing this I will jump in and try it out
Interesting! It sounds like youāve got a āsupportā use case there, letting a user create a ticket. This system was designed more for internal use for managing tasks and assignments. @tobiaseigen What do you think about allowing users to create tickets?
Our site is a marketplace. Tickets are used between users for managing transactions. Basically, user A strikes a deal with user B via PM. When ready, they click a button converting the PM into a ticket. The PM is assigned a ticket number, and admins are notified. The first one to assign it to him self gets it and manages the transaction.
Do you mean allow users to see and use the tickets interface and see ticket tags on tickets? And see the tickets dashboard?
I can see a use case for it, and also can see it maybe being useful in our community. Assigned and solved is already visible to users. Letting them see the ticket details about their tickets is potentially interesting. But I donāt see the need to let them change ticket tags.
If you just mean letting users create tickets but then not see the ticket interface, ticket tags and ticket dashboard, maybe there is a use case for this too. The API can already make tickets while adding messages, so an external form could do it. Maybe a new group setting could enable auto tickets with default ticket status, priority and reason. E.g. include @tickets and the message is made into a ticket.
Interesting. Can you share a screenshot of what your tickets look like? Generally, if you have screenshots that illustrate what you are doing I think that would help us to understand your need better and if/how it fits in with this plugin.
Ticket number: I guess the ticket number could just be the topic ID. Displaying that would be easy, I suspect. I also agree displaying a ticket number would be helpful, as well as in any email notifications about the ticket in the subject line etc. The ability to search by ticket number on the tickets dashboard might also be helpful. But again this is for a different use case than yoursā¦ more of a helpdesk need for quickly finding a ticket, for example when talking on the phone with someone about their ticket.
This already works - messages that are tickets appear in user inboxes. They are identifiable with tags in the message list. So if users had access to tickets, theyād be able to see the ticket tags. They could also click through to the tickets dashboard, to see only their tickets, which I think would also be handy for them.
@angus I remember when we made a strategic decision to put tickets in the /admin/tickets route instead of /tickets. I guess if giving users access to tickets were to become a thing, weād want to move it.
Much of what you are describing is available through this plugin or could be. I think @angus would welcome your contributions to this plugin. I know one area we want to prioritize next is performance reports (I was calling it ticket system health) which is described above somewhere.
Another is functionality for bulk updating tickets from filtered lists. This is still fairly nascent in discourse. But as the number of tickets grows it will be needed.
I mainly need this feature to award admins for their work, vs. using it to measure actual response times/etc. (although that is useful info, also). Our site pools all the income and splits the profit among admins. Obviously, who works more gets a bigger share.
Thanks to the great work of @mbcahyono weāve upgraded our (mock) ticket plugin. It now features site-wide notifications for open tickets, and a dedicated ticket area for ticket holders.
Nice! I like the use of a notification about open tickets. Seems to me this should be a proper discourse notification though. Also, it would be handy to have a quick link to display only open tickets on the dashboard.
We also have it as a notification, but weāve encountered āoh I must of missed itā and āit got lost with other notificationsā responses from users, who neglected open tickets because of those reasons. So, thatās why we have a site-wide banner. We do three way tickets, so to keep the other party waiting to a minimum, we remind users about their tickets in a bold way
Iām not sure if Iām missing something, but this doesnāt seem to be working for me, Iāll list what isnāt working right for me.
The redirect to the ticket dashboard doesnāt seem to follow caps cases; it takes me to admin/tickets?filters=assigned%3Akankuro instead of admin/tickets?filters=assigned%3AKankuro which results in no tickets being shown.
The tags donāt stick for any of the fields after refreshing or changing pages.
Iām not getting any sort of PM or notification to tell when there is a new ticket, not sure if this is intentional or if there is supposed to be some sort of alert to let people know when they have a new ticket.
All Iāve done is installed the plugin, enabled it, added tags to the tag groups, and created a new group with all mods called āhelpdeskā and added that to tickets include group.
search on tickets dashboard to allow searching for tickets by keyword
This looks very promising, and your wish list contains several things that Iād probably get to if we get to use this properly here
