Documentation : eTicket Configuration


[Updated 26 June 2008] Mail Handling

An important aspect of eTicket is the handling of incoming emails. There are two methods of handling incoming emails, one is the "pipe/alias" method, the second is the "pop3" method.

Each has their pros and cons, the piping method uses realtime processing of incoming emails, the pop3 method does not, however the pop3 method is best suited for people with pop3 email accounts that are not located on the local server, or cannot use the piping method.

The Pipe/Alias method (recommended)

Using this method requires the "pipe.php".

Notice: If you DO USE the pipe method, you DO NOT require a POP3 email account.

Make sure the path to pipe.php on line 1 is correct

Make sure the %config array has the correct settings for mysql (which should have changed after running the install process)

Make sure you upload "pipe.php" in ascii mode (it may need to be in your cgi-bin) and CHMOD it to 755



Setting up aliases in cPanel:
Add a forwarding rule for each email in each of the setup categories to pipe.php. For example forward support@example.com to "|/path/to/pipe.php" (Without the quotes)

Setting up aliases with qmail:
Create/Edit your .qmail-* for the domain you wish to forward and add a forwarding rule to pipe.php For example for support@example.com .qmail-support file should contain |/path/to/pipe.php.

Setting up aliases for sendmail:
Modify your aliases file by adding support: root, |/path/to/pipe.php and run newaliases

Setting up aliases in .procmailrc:
:0 c
* ^To.*support@example.com
|/path/to/pipe.php



Note: "/path/to/pipe.php" should be the full path (eg: /home//public_html/eticket/pipe.php).

Note: Ensure you include the "|" (aka pipe) at the start of the path when using this method.

Note: Windows users may require sendmail.exe to get this to work correctly.

The POP3 Method

Note: You should only use this method if you are unable to use the above method. (ie: If your mailbox is on a different server or you can't setup pipe mail)

This method requires the "automail.php" (automail php script).

You require a POP3/IMAP server, email address, username and password.

The host parameter can use the imap_open options (ie: "mail.example.com:995/ssl" access via ssl on port 995).



By default mail will only be fetched on admin or staff login, to increase fetch frequency you must use a crontab or cronjob.

Setup a cron on the local host:
Add the following to cron file normally in /etc/crontab in linix or unix based systems and adjust the time and path accordingly.
*/5 * * * * root /path/to/php /path/to/automail.php
For windows users in "Scheduled Tasks" add "c:\php\bin\php.exe c:\path\to\automail.php"

Setup a cron on a remote host:
Below are example on how to spawn automail.php from a remote server. Adjust the time and path accordingly.

# if your server supports curl:
0 * * * * curl -s -o /dev/null http://www.example.com/path/to/automail.php
# if your server supports fetch:
0 * * * * fetch -o /dev/null http://www.example.com/path/to/automail.php
# if your server supports lynx:
0 * * * * lynx > /dev/null -dump http://www.example.com/path/to/automail.php
# if your server supports wget:
0 * * * * wget -q -O /dev/null http://www.example.com/path/to/automail.php



There has been some concern over security of this file, as repeated access can cause problems. With this in mind, we advise that you rename, password protect or limit access to this file.

For example, placing this in your .htaccess file and creating a .htpasswd file, it will be password protected:


   <files "automail.php">
   AuthUserFile /home/home/.htpasswd
   AuthType Basic
   AuthName "Automail"
   require valid-user
   </files>




You can then use "http://user:pass@hostname/dir/automail.php" in the cron as per above.

Or you can limit the file to your IP address:



   <files "automail.php">
   Order Allow,Deny
   Deny from all
   Allow from 127.0.0.1
   </files>


Note: Users can still use open.php to open a new ticket without sending any emails should you decide to use neither of the above methods.

Languages

The language file is "lang.php", by default is "English".

However, you are welcome to modify the language file by replacing the phrases.

eg: define('LANG_FATAL_ERROR','Fatal Error'); would become define('LANG_FATAL_ERROR','Erreur Mortelle'); in french.



The idea is that once a language file for your language you will not need to create another one.

Themes

As osTicket's HTML code is so deeply included in the core code its difficult to fully template eTicket at the moment.

The solution is to use "themes" to style your helpdesk to suit you.

It can also be used to make language changes to existing themes which you can share with others.

Enable/Disable Captcha

Although its not recommended, due to potential spam, you can disable captcha by simply removing "captcha.php". The rest of the script will recognise that this file is missing and will not look for it or use it.

If the security image/captcha is not working for you chances are that you don't have PHP compiled with GD