FITS Compliant Web Based Helpdesk - ** RELEASED **

[Edu-IT]

Been a while since we used this software, we still using my little helpdesk due to NTLM function, when we first setup and new user entered their active directory username and password they should be presented creating a new user dialog and that create a new user in OPSD, not sure if that changed recently but it same function that works with moodle and LDAP.

 

Update look go so far and hoping this be time to finally move off my little helpdesk.

It's definitely changed from MLH days then. I used to use MLH and know what you mean.

 

You're right the latest update is good! Just wondering where the pretty graphs are though.

[plexer]

I must be getting old then, you need to create/allocate an initial helpdesk admin but having to create a uaername for each ldap us er would be madness.

 

Ben

[Edu-IT]

I must be getting old then, you need to create/allocate an initial helpdesk admin but having to create a uaername for each ldap us er would be madness.

 

Ben

Try logging in to an account that exists in AD but doesn't exist in the helpdesk. OPSD doesn't automatically create an account within the software for users it finds.

Edited February 18, 2011 by Edu-IT

[vikpaw]

Yes you do Ben? I had this conversation with Ozan recently. The user needs to exist within the helpdesk (username and email address) but you don't need to specify a password as it'll use their AD password to log them in.

 

Where have the pretty graphs gone?

That's how I do it. The instructions for setting it up require you to create the first admin account that way cos after you can't login with any previous admins. All subsequent users need precreating, there's a KB on how to export a csv from AD. I'll create all mine before upgrading if it's a problem.

I had an issue getting into user management on a previous beta, maybe it's linked.

Edited February 18, 2011 by vikpaw

[vikpaw]

In the words of Sam Beckett: "Oh Boy!".

 

So i'm on Beta v2.0.4063.32169 , and in light of the problems that dfergusson had, i'm thinking i'll upload a load of users by csv before doing the upgrade.

 

So i make my csv out of data in sims, upload it and get successful response. Full list of users added, and it tells me they have to go and reset password before they can log in, even though i'm using ldap. Fair enough i think, maybe it will just work.

 

Go to another machine and log on as another user. Can't. Go to reset page and get weird error. Try to log in as me, and can't. Ok, maybe it's because i'm already logged in. Log in as administrator, okay, that works. Try to log a call, and attach png of error. Get message the file type must be of type " " - It's blank. Besides that, i'm uploading a .png which is already in my allowed list, both .png and .PNG so just to be sure, i rename the file to .txt as i know that's allowed by default. Same issue.

 

Hmm.

Go back to my machine and look at user lists. There are no users listed either active or inactive. Hmm, but if i got to bulk upload page, i still see a massive list or reports saying xxx user added. Ok so that worked. Hang on, i've included myself and the other techs in that list. DOH! Now what?

 

Log off and back on. Nope, i can't log in now Luckily there is a backup admin account. Log in as him, and all users are now in active users list. Go to edit my user and delete, but there's no delete button. ARGH!

 

Now what, it's created users that have the same login name and email as my original group of staff / admins. That shouldn't be possible should it?

 

I'm getting crazy errors on the users page now, that weren't there until i clicked on something.

That looks scary.

 

It gets worse. If i go to log a call for another user, all names are being listed twice. Yikes.

Really not sure what to do. Not backing stuff up yet, so got no rollback, short of most recent snapshot which was before i started setting up all my SLAs and Queues, and extra staff accounts.

 

Think that's my only choice, short of hacking in the users db, but that could royally fluff it up.

 

Anyone else having problems. I'm thinking maybe to upgrade to the most recent release, as it can't get any worse...?

[ICTNUT]

In the words of Sam Beckett: "Oh Boy!".

 

So i'm on Beta v2.0.4063.32169 , and in light of the problems that dfergusson had, i'm thinking i'll upload a load of users by csv before doing the upgrade.

 

So i make my csv out of data in sims, upload it and get successful response. Full list of users added, and it tells me they have to go and reset password before they can log in, even though i'm using ldap. Fair enough i think, maybe it will just work.

 

Go to another machine and log on as another user. Can't. Go to reset page and get weird error. Try to log in as me, and can't. Ok, maybe it's because i'm already logged in. Log in as administrator, okay, that works. Try to log a call, and attach png of error. Get message the file type must be of type " " - It's blank. Besides that, i'm uploading a .png which is already in my allowed list, both .png and .PNG so just to be sure, i rename the file to .txt as i know that's allowed by default. Same issue.

 

Hmm.

Go back to my machine and look at user lists. There are no users listed either active or inactive. Hmm, but if i got to bulk upload page, i still see a massive list or reports saying xxx user added. Ok so that worked. Hang on, i've included myself and the other techs in that list. DOH! Now what?

 

Log off and back on. Nope, i can't log in now Luckily there is a backup admin account. Log in as him, and all users are now in active users list. Go to edit my user and delete, but there's no delete button. ARGH!

 

Now what, it's created users that have the same login name and email as my original group of staff / admins. That shouldn't be possible should it?

 

I'm getting crazy errors on the users page now, that weren't there until i clicked on something.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9522[/ATTACH]

That looks scary.

 

It gets worse. If i go to log a call for another user, all names are being listed twice. Yikes.

Really not sure what to do. Not backing stuff up yet, so got no rollback, short of most recent snapshot which was before i started setting up all my SLAs and Queues, and extra staff accounts.

 

Think that's my only choice, short of hacking in the users db, but that could royally fluff it up.

 

Anyone else having problems. I'm thinking maybe to upgrade to the most recent release, as it can't get any worse...?

 

Vik, that error your are showing would look like you have a mixture of files, some old and some new. This is error is produced as some opf the components have been upgraded since the last full release and it does not look like these have been fully upgraded when you copied the files over.

 

As for not backing up prior to an upgrade, well I say it over and over make sure you backup it all up first.

 

All others that are having issues accessing the users area I have found 2 issues, 1) if you remove a department that is no longer required but a user is still linked to it, it has ben set as thier primary queue, this will break the users area. 2) When adding new users either one by one or by using the bulk upload tool the default queue is not being set and this then breaks the user area.

 

The good new is that there will be a hotfix for this ready for Monday morning, we are working through the weekend to resolve this.

[ICTNUT]

Try logging in to an account that exists in AD but doesn't exist in the helpdesk. OPSD doesn't automatically create an account within the software for users it finds.

 

OPSD has never auto created account like it did in My Little Helpdesk, this was why the bulk upload tool was added to provide a quick and easy way to add users.

[vikpaw]

Vik, that error your are showing would look like you have a mixture of files, some old and some new. This is error is produced as some opf the components have been upgraded since the last full release and it does not look like these have been fully upgraded when you copied the files over.

 

As for not backing up prior to an upgrade, well I say it over and over make sure you backup it all up first.

 

All others that are having issues accessing the users area I have found 2 issues, 1) if you remove a department that is no longer required but a user is still linked to it, it has ben set as thier primary queue, this will break the users area. 2) When adding new users either one by one or by using the bulk upload tool the default queue is not being set and this then breaks the user area.

 

The good new is that there will be a hotfix for this ready for Monday morning, we are working through the weekend to resolve this.

 

Any suggestions to a fix then? I don't know how the files are screwed up, it's a simple process to Ctrl-A Ctrl-C Ctrl-V. Then replace all.

 

I've only applied 2 upgrades since the last version you gave me which i believe was a FULL one, that allowed me to set up a blank DB.

 

The version i'm on is the only one that allows me to access the users area.

 

I didn't backup, because i didn't think i'd need to considering i was only using basic functionality like adding users via a csv, and setting up queues and SLAs. I know i'm getting too overconfident and a bit cavalier now.

 

I haven't done the upgrade to latest release yet due to fear of losing user access as reported.

 

I'm not sure what you mean about the departments, but i haven't deleted any queues.

Also, when adding users it says that primary queue is not required, so not sure what the default needs to be, i'm guessing it's a backend thing...

 

Previously, prior to the bulk update, i was able to add individual users, by matching their username to AD and it worked fine.

 

I've gone back to snapshot now, losing any setup i'd done, but at least i can log in again.

 

I added some users manually, without LDAP enabled and they work fine. I've imported a small list of users via CSV, and again, after a reboot, they all work fine.

 

I've later enabled LDAP, and it got a bit borked, as the ldap_group field is case sensitive just like the usernames for those that don't know, so be warned. Anyway, i fixed that in the db, and now all log in fine.

 

I've since added a user manually and via csv, and they seem to work too. So the only thing that was different this time round, is that i didn't upload a massive csv that had duplicates in it.

 

Is there a way to delete users? If not, can there be one?

Also, is it possible to add custom fields to the user tables? I'd like to record the school / department of the user for future analysis. e.g. Upper School / Science; Primary School / Y3.

 

I'm still getting that AJAX error on users area, even though i can use most functions still.

 

Also when trying to use the email poller, i can put the settings in and click update, but then they disappear from the input boxes. When i hit test, i get the following:

 

Webpage error details

User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.1; FDM; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; InfoPath.2; .NET4.0C; .NET4.0E; OfficeLiveConnector.1.3; OfficeLivePatch.0.0)

Timestamp: Sun, 20 Feb 2011 08:07:39 UTC

 

Message: Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManagerServerErrorException: 'ddlPOP3Queue' has a SelectedValue which is invalid because it does not exist in the list of items.

Parameter name: value

Line: 2

Char: 74672

Code: 0

URI: http://ithelpdesk/ScriptResource.axd?d=qtwWF66r8iGPMTuiKE93nizhdkTS5-5JoE4meNk5Je3Tr44o5Fq5dBatBHVhkOgQhEiOQmRtxR1eEulPR7dC5bva4mD5rAwKtvEunkV-u6nbY4af0&t=ffffffffe43a7b39

 

I'm going to try Friday's Full release now, but please advise on course of action, if my files are not correct. Is there a way to test..?

 

Should i just start again with a blank db. Again?

Edited February 20, 2011 by vikpaw
grammar

[ICTNUT]

Vik,

 

Seeing as you have added duplicate users to your database and that you have issues with files I would say do a clean install using the latest FULL release. This issue surrounding the email poller settings not saving was fixed in the full version.

 

As we will have a fix to the Users area access issue on Monday I would wait and apply that version as it will be the full version including the hot fix.

 

We aim to get this up tonight so that user can apply the update first thing although I am aware that it is half term next week.

 

When adding uses via the bulk upload tool there is no check currently performed to see if a user already exisits in the helpdesk, this has been added to the tracker and will be resolved in a future release, so you need to insure that users already in the helpdesk are remove from your upload file first.

[vikpaw]

Cheers Oz.

 

I've just done an upgrade to my install, and put on Friday's release. All is fine. Email poller saves settings, but wont connect as yet but i'm not sure why, it says it's either a bad connection or timing out.

 

I've just added 2 new users via csv and they work, so perhaps dfergusson's issue was to do with malformed users in an update file...?

 

Would still like to be able to delete users, especially in this testing phase. I'm running out of users for who i know the password

 

I still have that script error on users config pages, to do with AJAX toolkit. i've done a complete replace on files, from the friday release. Doesn't that mean the error is now in the db??

 

Rather than deleting the old files, i copy over - that's correct right? I presume that's why web.config is not part of the files now, so it doesn't get overwritten. Just thinking i might have an old defunct file that is being picked up somehow.

 

Also, can i just check, the files are not written to in usage are they? So in terms of backups, i just need a .bak file from the db, if i'm keeping a backup of all files i download on a different server...?

 

thanks.

[ICTNUT]

Few issues I’ve run into.

 

Users under User Management keep reporting An Error Has occurred.

 

And no new users can use the helpdesk, we use LDAP, all existing users can log in ok.

 

If you goto the event viewer on the web server under the application log you will see some errors and warnings produced by OPSD, can you PM me the error you are getting (may contain sensative information)

 

Also is this a clean install? I note you are still using MLH, did you try to use the exisiting database and upgrade it?

[ICTNUT]

Cheers Oz.

 

I've just done an upgrade to my install, and put on Friday's release. All is fine. Email poller saves settings, but wont connect as yet but i'm not sure why, it says it's either a bad connection or timing out.

 

I've just added 2 new users via csv and they work, so perhaps dfergusson's issue was to do with malformed users in an update file...?

 

Would still like to be able to delete users, especially in this testing phase. I'm running out of users for who i know the password

 

I still have that script error on users config pages, to do with AJAX toolkit. i've done a complete replace on files, from the friday release. Doesn't that mean the error is now in the db??

 

Rather than deleting the old files, i copy over - that's correct right? I presume that's why web.config is not part of the files now, so it doesn't get overwritten. Just thinking i might have an old defunct file that is being picked up somehow.

 

Also, can i just check, the files are not written to in usage are they? So in terms of backups, i just need a .bak file from the db, if i'm keeping a backup of all files i download on a different server...?

 

thanks.

 

Email Polling what are you connecting to?

 

Yes I have tested the bulk upload and manual creation of users on the demo site and these work fine so i agree I think it is possible that dfergusson may has some unique issue.

 

Deleteing user has always been an issue do to the way that incidents are linked to users, I will add in for Mondays update that if a user does not have any incidents logged for them then you can simply remove them, however if they do then you can override this and remove all the incidents also, effectivley clearing the user and all associated data from the database.

 

This would however affect any metrics produced by reports.

 

As far as the script error goes are you testing on the server itself? If so do you have IE Security turned on? also it is worth adding the helpdesk site to the trusted sites list in IE too.

 

Firefox does not suffer from this, but it is worth it if you can to test with firefox to see if the error is still there.

 

Yes copying the files over making sure you overwrite them should be sufficient however I tend to do the following when I upgrade:

 

Backup the database, a .bak file is fine for this.

 

Backup all the helpdesk files to another directory then remove all files and folders apart from the App_Data folder, leave that there.

 

Then copy in all the upgrade files making sure you overwrite the app_data folder when prompted.

 

This way you can be sure you have the latest clean files.

 

Hope this helps

Edited February 20, 2011 by ICTNUT
double quote remove one

[vikpaw]

I'm trying to connect to our Exchange server:

 

Socket connection has timed out. InnerException message follows: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond 172.16.11.2:110

 

I've used pop in Outlook, so it should work. Any more tips?

 

No user error i can see on firefox, and it works quicker So is there still an issue with default queues when bulk adding users? Should i wait a bit? I am testing on my desktop, XP, IE8, but do some things on the server too.

 

Only other minor thing i can see is that on user management you can't sort ascending, but you can in other areas.

[ICTNUT]

I'm trying to connect to our Exchange server:

 

I've used pop in Outlook, so it should work. Any more tips?

 

No user error i can see on firefox, and it works quicker So is there still an issue with default queues when bulk adding users? Should i wait a bit? I am testing on my desktop, XP, IE8, but do some things on the server too.

 

Only other minor thing i can see is that on user management you can't sort ascending, but you can in other areas.

 

OK as far as exchange is concerned is the server allowed to connect to the exchange server, are there any firewalls in place namely on the helpdesk server that maybe stopping outbound traffic on port 110?

 

Yes FireFox is much quicker than IE7+, and our initial testing of IE9 is WOW is it slow......

 

There is no issue with bulk adding users as we did include the default queue link so by default any users added will have access to all queues.

 

I will get sorting sorted for you for the Monday update.

Edited February 20, 2011 by ICTNUT
typo

[Edu-IT]

Will there be a fix for bug tracker reference 0000273? Also the issue I logged on the OPSD support site?

 

Really do appreciate all the work you are putting in to OPSD Ozan and all the one to one help you gave me last week. Excellent service and for anyone who is thinking about making the move to OPSD, go for it!

[ICTNUT]

Will there be a fix for bug tracker reference 0000273? Also the issue I logged on the OPSD support site?

 

Really do appreciate all the work you are putting in to OPSD Ozan and all the one to one help you gave me last week. Excellent service and for anyone who is thinking about making the move to OPSD, go for it!

 

Yes working on it today

[ICTNUT]

OK v2.0.4067.36889 has been closed and is being tested for release tomorrow, this includes the following fixes:

 

1 - If you remove a queue that is no longer required and a member of tech staff is linked to this queue (primary queue) this will break access to the users section of the admin area. A check has now been icluded and in order to remove a queue not only can it not have any incidents logged against it but no staff can be linked. If it is found that staff are linked a new linked staff icon is diplayed to warn you.

 

2 - There was an issue found with the email poller (thanks to edu-IT fo this) where the poller would fail if the given conditions were right. This has been fixed.

 

3 - Editing asset locations in the staff area you cause a window to open with no content, this has been fixed.

 

4 - Emails and dropbox were not picking up if the helpdesk was setup has a virtual directory i.e. if the helpdesk was at http://localhost/OPSD/ then it would only pickup http://localhost/. This has been fixed, thanks again to edu-IT for finding this one.

 

5 - Accessing the Resources day view would cause an error, this has been resolved and fixed, thanks to plexer for the heads up.

 

6 - Added the ability to remove users from the helpdesk database. Firstly you cannot remove an admin PLEASE NOTE: Use the user delete option with extreme care. Deleting a user will remove all traces of that user from the database, this includes: all incidents, all audit entries for incidents linked to the user, all notes for incidents linked to the user, all tasks for staff that are linked to incidents linked to the user, the user itself will be removed.

 

Always perform a database backup prior to removing anything from the database.

 

We will be testing live at a couple of schools tomorrow morning (21/02/2011) and provided this is OK will release to the masses for lunchtime. Our own demo and support sites have already been upgraded.

 

Thanks for your patience and continued feedback.

[Edu-IT]

2 - There was an issue found with the email poller (thanks to edu-IT fo this) where the poller would fail if the given conditions were right. This has been fixed.

What were the conditions? I'm curious!

 

Will this require a new poller download then?

 

Thanks a lot Ozan! :-)

Edited February 20, 2011 by Edu-IT

[ICTNUT]

What were the conditions? I'm curious!

 

Will this require a new poller download then?

 

If there was no from email address, if the email address was over 255 characters, if the display email address was different to the actual from email address, if the subject line had more than one ] (right hand square bracket), then the poller would fail.

 

The poller was tested linking to a gmail account with 600 emails in there some of which had the above issues, all were polled in the than 90 seconds with no failures.

Edited February 20, 2011 by ICTNUT

[Edu-IT]

I see! Not sure how my email fell in to any of those conditions though. Can only think that the beginning of my email is capitalised or something by the server. I'll try again after updating!

 

Did you try sending a message to the software from the helpdesk email/reply to email? Were these pulled in to the log?

 

If there was no from email address, if the email address was over 255 characters, if the display email address was different to the actual from email address, if the subject line had more than one ] (right hand square bracket), then the poller would fail.

 

The poller was test linking to a gmail account with 600 emails in there some of which had the above issues, all were polled in the than 90 seconds with no failures.

[vikpaw]

.....Did you try sending a message to the software from the helpdesk email/reply to email? Were these pulled in to the log?

 

I would love this feature as they always reply to the email, or i'd have to remove the update details from the email so they have to log in to see the update.

[plexer]

Ok guys I hold my hands up on this one related to adding users to the helpdesk, you are all indeed quite correct if a user in ad hasn't had an account created in the helpdesk they can't login.

 

I must have a few people that can't login in then because since my initial install of mlh I've never knowingly added any one to the helpdesk.

 

Ben

[vikpaw]

Yep, you know those annoying people that turn up on friday afternoon to say "This hasn't worked for 3 days, i've never had service like this before, it's affecting teaching & learning in the school, will you please have it ready for Monday" and you have no clue what they're talking about. That's them

 

Are you using OPSD Ben, or still on MLH?

[plexer]

Vik: OPSD strangely enough.

 

Ben

[Edu-IT]

I would love this feature as they always reply to the email, or i'd have to remove the update details from the email so they have to log in to see the update.

I'm not sure I understand you?

 

When an email is sent out the reply to email address will be that which is picked up by the email poller. You set this within the settings. Therefore the replies should automatically be fed back into the relevant ticket in the helpdesk.

 

What I found was that if for some reason you sent an email from the helpdesk email, to the helpdesk email, it got deleted but didn't get logged. To be fair the only way this could happen is if you have the helpdesk email address in your email client and forget to change the send from email. It's very specific conditions and chances are it won't affect many people.