Contents

Logging In
Changing your Password
Managing Trouble Tickets
Editing a Trouble Ticket
Adding Trouble Tickets
Searching Trouble Tickets
Managing the Knowledge Base
Adding Knowledge Base Articles
Managing Downloads
Managing Announcements
User Manager
Department Manager
Permissions
Customizing the Look

Logging In

Navigate to the Operators Login Page this should be;

<installed URL>/operator

Enter your username and password, the password is case sensitive, then click on login.

Changing your password

If you login using a password of "password" the system will prompt you to change your password. If you do not wish to change your password (un-recommended) then click on any of the icons on the top of the screen to exit the password page. Please note that you will continue to be prompted every time you login.

If you wish to change your password (recommended) the enter a new password in the first field and confirm it in the second then click "Set Password"

Only users with access to User Manager can trigger a change of password, click here for help on how to trigger a password change.

Managing Trouble Tickets

This is the Heart of the Big Fat Helpdesk, you will see the bars across the screen, Open Tickets, Review Tickets and Closed Tickets. By clicking on these headings the bar will expand to display any tickets current in the chosen category.

The tickets are then listed, grouped by each operator, then by their priority. You tickets are always at the top.

Assigning Trouble Tickets     

If a ticket has not yet been assigned you can assign it to yourself by clicking on the "Pick up #?" button, alternatively you can assign a one or a group of tickets by checking the box on the left of the tickets rows then clicking on the assign button.

A new page is displayed if you have permission you you given the option to select a department to assign the ticket to, this is used when a request has come to the wrong department and needs to be redirected.
Once you have chosen a department a list of the users in that department appears, select a user from the list and click on move tickets to assign all the checked tickets to this user.

Open, Hold, Close Trouble Tickets

The option to open, hold or close a ticket is very useful, not only does it contribute to an organized helpdesk, it instantly informs both you and your customer of the current status of the request.

Open Tickets - Tickets Currently being worked on

Hold / Review Tickets - Tickets awaiting review by a senior member or awaiting a response from a third party.

Closed Tickets - Responses that have been solved.

To change the status of tickets simply check the boxes next to the tickets you wish to alter, then click on the status you wish to convert them to.

Editing Trouble Tickets   

To edit a trouble ticket click on either the subject of the ticket or to open a collection check the required tickets boxes and click on the edit button.

for more information editing trouble tickets click here

Dump to Knowledge Base    

If you receive a particular request from lots of different people you may decide that it would be worth creating a Knowledge Base Article for the problem.

To save typing time creating a new article from scratch, you can select tickets using the the checkboxes and click on the "Dump" Icon, the body of the tickets will then be automatically entered into the create article form.

For more information on creating Knowledge base articles click here

Editing a Trouble Ticket

The edit trouble ticket window allows you to change the status of the editing ticket by clicking on the icons in the top right hand corner.

To attach a comment to a ticket enter your text into the "post a message" textbox, if you want to send a copy of your comment to the customer, ( assuming email is configured and and the customer has supplied and email address ) check the "Email Customer?" checkbox and click on "Post Message" else just click on "Post Message".

Adding Trouble Tickets

To create a new trouble ticket click on the Add Ticket Icon at the top of the screen and complete the form.

Department - Select the department that should receive the trouble ticket

Name - Enter the name of the customer you are creating the ticket for.

Email Address - Enter the email address of the customer you are creating the ticket for

Subject - Enter a brief description of the problem

Description - Enter more details of the problem

Priority - Select the level of urgency for this problem

Click on the "Post" button to create the ticket, this action will also email a confirmation to the provided email address (if configured).

The ticket can now be found in the "open" section of manage tickets.

Search Tickets

To search for tickets click on the Search Tickets Icon at the top of the screen and complete the form

Ticket ID - Enter the Reference Number (Ticket ID) of a ticket to select an individual ticket

Keywords - Enter keywords separated by spaces to return all tickets containing these keywords.

Client Email Address - Enter all of part of a customers email address to return all tickets related to them

Click on the "Perform Search" button to return results.

click here to learn more about managing these results

Knowledge Base

To edit the Knowledge Base click on the Knowledge Base Icon on the top of the screen.

Searching the Knowledge Base

To search the knowledge base for keywords enter them into the search field, clicking on "Search" will return all articles containing the keywords you provided.

Managing Categories

To create a new knowledge base category enter the name of the category in the create new category field and click on the "create" button

Once the category has been created you can delete it by clicking on the delete icon or rename it by clicking on the edit button.

Clicking on the name of the category will open that category and allow you again to create more categories within it. This process is infinite however you should be aware that your clients may not want to surf through hoards of categories.

Managing Articles

Any Articles that exist in a category are listed at the bottom of the category they are listed in, these can be deleted by clicking on the delete icon, or opened for editing by clicking on the edit button.

Add Article

To add Articles to the Knowledge Base, click on the Add Article Icon on the top of the screen and complete the form.

Category - Select the category to list this article in. Note if no category are listed here you will need to create one before you can create an article.

Title - Enter the title of the Article, this should briefly explain what the article is about.

Body - Enter the main content of the article.

Click on the "Add Article" button to save the article into the knowledge base, or click on the "reset" button to clear the form.

Manage Downloads

To manage Downloads, click on the Manage Downloads Icon on the top of the screen.

Create New Download

To add a new download to the system compete the top form

Filename - Enter the path to file file you wish to make available for download by your customers, or click the browse button to search your computer.

Description - Enter a description of the file you are making available for download.

To add the download click on the "Upload" button, this file can now be seen in the visitor section under downloads

Manage Current Downloads

At the bottom of the Downloads page is a list of current downloads, from here you can delete the download, by clicking on the delete icon, of alter the description of the download by clicking on the edit icon.

When a download is deleted the system will attempt to remove the file from the "files" folder on your server, however sometimes if may not succeed, in this case the files will need to be manually removed from the server.

Announcements

Announcements can be used to inform clients of impeding events that may affect them.

To manage Announcements, click on the Announcements Icon on the top of the screen.

Adding an Announcement

To add an Announcement complete the top form.

Starts - Select a Date when the event will start.

Ends - Select a Date when the event will end.

Announcement - Enter the information you want to Announce.

Click on the "Post" button to publish the Announcement

Manage Announcements

At the bottom of the Announcements page is a list of current Announcements, from here you can delete the announcement, by clicking on the delete icon, of alter it clicking on the edit icon.

User Manager

To access the User Manager, click on the User Manager Icon on the top of the screen.

Create new User Account

To create a new user account complete the form.

Department - Select the Department the User will be a member of.

Security Level - Select the rank of the user.

Username - Enter a unique username

Email Address - Enter the Users Email Address (not mandatory)

Click on the "Create" button to create the user account.

Managing User Accounts

The User Accounts are grouped into their departments, all the departments are listed at the bottom of the screen. Click on the Edit Icon to expand the chosen department and view its user accounts

From here you can can delete a user account by clicking on the delete icon, change the users security level or email address by clicking on the edit button. Finally you can also reset their password to "password" by clicking on the "Reset Password" button.

Department Manager

Note Only Administrators Can Edit Departments

To Manage Departments click on the Department Manager Icon on the top of the screen.

Create a New Department

To create a new department simply enter a name for the department into the textbox, and click on the "create" button.

Managing Departments

You should see a bars across the screen representing each department you have created in your organization. On the right of the bars you are given the option to delete the department by clicking on the delete icon, or to expand and edit the department mail settings by clicking on the edit button.

Managing Department Email Settings

NOTE: this section may be quite technical, you may need to ask your email provider for help.

By clicking on the edit button next to your chosen department you can modify the email settings for that department.

The first option you are given is if you wish to generate Trouble Tickets from emails sent to a configured email address. If so select "yes", if you don't select "no".

The second option, asks if you wish the helpdesk to send emails to your customers, for example when they create a ticket, the system will send a confirmation email. If so select "yes", if you don't select "no".

If you have selected "no" to the above two options, the helpdesk will have no email function and you do not need to complete any more of this form.

However if you have chosen yes to the either option, you are required to enter an email address to be used for sending emails and receiving trouble ticket request via email.

If you have selected yes to the first option you must enter a POP3 Mail Server Address, Username and password for the above email address.

If you have selected "yes" to the second option, you must first choose whether your connection requires secure SMTP Authentication, if so enter the SMTP Server Address, Username and password for the above email address, if not you only need to enter the SMTP Server Address.

Test your settings by emailing the above email address, then open Manage trouble tickets, if correctly configured, a new ticket will be created in the Open Tickets bar.

Permissions

Note Only Administrators Can Edit Permissions

To edit permissions click on the Permissions Icon on the top of the screen.

This software accounts for five groups of users, Administrators, Managers, Supervisors, Operators and Visitors. These are listed across the top of the page, below each is a checkbox linked to an action that can be performed within the software. A check in a box means the chosen user group CAN perform the chosen action.

NOTE: These permissions apply to all users in groups, no matter which department they are in.

Customizing the Layout

NOTE: You may need some level of web design experience to perform this action

If you wish to edit the layout of the Big Fat Software, to theme it to your website perhaps, navigate to the skin directory. Once there copy the default folder and paste it back under a different name, such as "MySkin".

Within the MySkin folder, lie four key files,

operator_header.tpl - This controls the top section of all the pages used by the Support Team

visitor_header.tpl - This controls the top section of all the pages used by Visitors

overall_footer.tpl - This is common to every page in the Big Fat Helpdesk Software

style.css - This is the style sheet that controls the layout of the pages.

By modifying these files you can easily change the appearance of the Helpdesk, if you are more adventurous try altering other files in this folder.