• Installing M2 Help Desk Ultimate 2
• Migrating tickets from M1 Help Desk Ultimate (version 1.*.*) for Magento 2
• Migrating from M2 Help Desk Ultimate (version 1.*.*) for Magento 2 (version 2.*.*)
• Setting up cron
• Uninstalling M2 Help Desk Ultimate
• Compatibility
• Introducing M2 Help Desk Ultimate 2
• Glossary
• On Frontend
• Enabling Agent's Card on Frontend
• On Backend
• Reports
• Integrations 
• Troubleshoot

Magento 2 Help Desk Ultimate 2 effectively arranges operations with customer tickets. Tickets can be submitted by customers from the My Account area, contact form, email, or by the admins from the Back-end by assigning tickets to individual departments or support agents. Additionally, the module automates recurring tasks, including those of changing ticket status, reassigning the agent/department, adding tags to tickets and more.   

API documentation link

Installing M2 Help Desk Ultimate 2

Command Line Installation

1. Backup your web directory and store database
2. Download the Help Desk Ultimate 2 installation package
3. Upload contents of the Help Desk Ultimate 2 installation package to your store root directory
4. In SSH console of your server navigate to your store root folder:

cd path_to_the_store_root_folder

run the following commands:

php bin/magento module:enable Aheadworks_Bup 
php bin/magento module:enable Aheadworks_Helpdesk2 
php bin/magento module:enable Aheadworks_Helpdesk2GraphQl
php bin/magento module:enable Aheadworks_Helpdesk2Report (optional - more details in the report section)

then:

php bin/magento setup:upgrade

after:

php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy -f

     5. Flush store cache; log out from the backend and log in again

Composer Installation

If you are installing an extension from Aheadworks for the first time, you need to add our composer repository to your Magento store:

1. Login to your ssh console and navigate to your store folder:

cd path_to_the_store_root_folder

Run the following command:

composer config repositories.aheadworks composer https://dist.aheadworks.com/

After the command was executed successfully, you can use the composer to install the products.

To install the extension:

2. Login to your ssh console and navigate to your store folder:

cd path_to_the_store_root_folder

3. Run the following command to install the latest version of the extension:

composer require aheadworks/module-helpdesk

if you need to install a specific version, run this command:

composer require aheadworks/module-helpdesk:<version>

When prompted, enter Public Key (Username) and Private Key (Password):

Both Public Key (Username) and Private Key (Password) can be found in My Projects and Licenses in your personal account on our site:

Run the following command to install Help Desk GraphQl:

composer require aheadworks/module-helpdesk-graph-ql

4. Enable the extension:

php -f bin/magento module:enable Aheadworks_Bup
php -f bin/magento module:enable Aheadworks_Helpdesk2
php -f bin/magento module:enable Aheadworks_Helpdesk2GraphQl

Next, register the extension:

bin/magento setup:upgrade

Recompile your Magento store if you are in the Production mode:

bin/magento setup:di:compile

To verify that the extension is enabled, run the following command:

bin/magento module:status

Next, clean the store cache:

bin/magento cache:clean

On the Back-end: log out and then log in.

composer require hyva-themes/magento2-aheadworks-helpdesk2

To upgrade the extension:

5. To update or upgrade an extension:

Download the file of the updated extension. Take note of the module-name and version. Export the contents to your Magento root.

If a composer package exists for the extension, run one of the following.

Update per module name:

composer update aheadworks/module-helpdesk

Updater per version:

composer require aheadworks/module-helpdesk:<version>

Run the following commands to upgrade, deploy, and clean the cache.

php bin/magento setup:upgrade --keep-generated 
php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy 
php bin/magento cache:clean

Migrating tickets from M1 Help Desk Ultimate (version 1.*.*) for Magento 2

The version 1.2.0 of Help Desk Ultimate for Magento 2 introduces the ticket migration tool. The tickets accumulated with Help Desk Ultimate for Magento 1 can be flawlessly migrated to Magento 2.

To migrate the tickets, follow the steps below:

1. Magento Data Migration Tool is required to be installed prior to starting the migration.
   The migration script relies heavily on the Magento Data Migration tool. Understanding how it works will be useful during the migration process.
2. Backup the Magento 2 databases before the migration to have an opportunity to revert any changes.
   Ticket migration might involve rewriting database tables, backup is advised.
3. Tickets can only be migrated from the M1 Help Desk Ultimate 3.x.x version. If you have the previous versions installed, do not attempt migrating tickets on your own.
4. Department website is defined by the Magento 1 extension settings. Store and Website IDs should concur.
   If departments are set to all store views, then they will be assigned to all Magento 2 store views.
5. Department gateway password cannot be migrated.
6. Ticket statuses are migrated according to the following pattern:
   New + Open > Open;
   Closed > Solved;
   Waiting for a customer > Pending. 
7. Ticket priorities are migrated according to the following pattern:
   Urgent + ASAP > High;
   To do > Normal;
   If Time > Low.
8. Order information related to the ticket will only be migrated if there is an order with the same increment_id in the Magento 2 database.
9. Help Desk agents in the migrated tickets are identified by an email address. If there are no admin users created with the same Magento 2 email address, then the migrated tickets will have the name of the Help Desk agent. However, these tickets will not be assigned to an agent.
10. Customer information is migrated in full, except for the cases when there are no customers with the same email address on the Magento 2 store.
11. Help Desk Ultimate for Magento 1 tickets can contain HTML tags that will be deleted upon migration.
12. Tickets deleted from Magento 1 cannot be transferred to Magento 2.

bin/magento migrate:data -r vendor/magento/data-migration-tool/etc/aw_hdu3/config.xml

Migrating from M2 Help Desk Ultimate (version 1.*.*) for Magento 2 (version 2.*.*)

Migration can be performed by this command:

bin/magento aw-helpdesk2:run-migration

Possible options:

--limit (-l) [number] - limit number of tickets migrated in one running (default value is 1000)

--clean (-c) - truncate help desk 2 database tables before migration

Examples:

1)

bin/magento aw-helpdesk2:run-migration -c

Perform migration (1000 tickets by default) with database clean up.

2) 

bin/magento aw-helpdesk2:run-migration -c -l 500

Perform migration (500 tickets) with database clean up.

In order to migrate next bulk of tickets, run command again (without -c option)

in/magento aw-helpdesk2:run-migration -l 500

Setting up cron

The Help Desk Ultimate 2 extension uses cron to insert emails from the gateway into tickets and to send notification emails to customers.

If you have already configured cron jobs for your Magento installation, then you can skip this step, otherwise refer to the instructions below:

In the SSH console of your server, run the following command: 

crontab -e

And insert the following line:  

*/3 * * * * php -c <ini-file-path> <your Magento install dir>/bin/magento cron:run
*/3 * * * * php -c <ini-file-path> <your Magento install dir>/update/cron.php
*/3 * * * * php -c <ini-file-path> <your Magento install dir>/bin/magento setup:cron:run

More on setting up cron job for a Magento store: Magento user guide.

Uninstalling M2 Help Desk Ultimate

Since Magento introduced declarative Database you need to be very carefull when uninstalling or disabling the module.

Manual Removal

1. Run command: 

bin/magento module:uninstall --non-composer Aheadworks_Helpdesk2

It will remove data patches including sample data so you can install it again in future

1. Disable extension: 

bin/magento module:disable Aheadworks_Helpdesk2

1. Run setup upgrade: 

php bin/magento setup:upgrade

It will remove module related tables from the system

1. Remove module files manually: 

app/code/Aheadworks/Helpdesk2

Automatic Removal (via Composer)

1. Disable the module by executing the following commands:

php bin/magento module:uninstall Aheadworks_Helpdesk2

Compatibility

Introducing M2 Help Desk Ultimate 2

The Help Desk Ultimate 2 extension for Magento 2 helps arrange a customer support center in a web store and facilitate communication between customers and the Support team over the issues about the products and services.

Customers can submit issues via email or Contact form, support tickets with files, indicate CC contacts, communicate with agents and rate their performance. Help desk agents interact with customers in a similar way. Furthermore, the module allows the following:

• Configuring ticket automation
• Arranging canned responses
• Specifying patterns to ensure that spam emails are not converted into tickets
• Updating ticket status and priority
• Automatic rating of ticket priority weight 
• Reassigning tickets to other agents and departments
• Configuring ticket escalation
• Adding fields to Contact form to require additional information on tickets
• Leaving internal notes to tickets
• Employing additional customer attributes to make notes about the customer/ticket (integration with M2 Customer Attributes)
• GraphQL support (included in the package)

Integrations:

• Customer Attributes
• RMA
• Coupon Code Generator
• Advanced Reports

Glossary

• Automation - a scheme with a set of conditions that dictates how the extension should behave on certain occasions;
• Email gateway - an email address associated with the Help Desk Ultimate 2 extension, used to receive customer inquiries and send emails to both customers and administrators.
• Email template - a predefined email message;
• Canned response - a prearranged generic response to an issue, available as a quick reply to a ticket, due alterations made.
• Help desk agent - an admin user eligible to reply to help desk tickets;
• Ticket - a customer inquiry submitted via the contact form, the 'Help Desk Ultimate' section, or direct email to the extension's gateway;
• Ticket thread - a block containing all customer and help desk agent messages regarding the ticket;
• Ticket escalation -  a procedure that results from the pre-established set of parameters that moves a customer's complaint, challenge or concern to either a more senior representative or one that initiates a related process;
• Email Rejection Pattern - a pattern of a string to filter the email into SPAM when found in the header (body or footer) of the email.

On Frontend

My Support Tickets

To submit a ticket from the Storefront, go to My Account → My Support Tickets.

This is where customers can browse tickets and created new ones. The page shows a grid with the following columns:

• ID - the identification number of the ticket (assigned automatically) 
• Subject - the subject of the ticket, active link to the Ticket page
• Order - the ID of the order the ticket relates to, active link to the Order # page (can also be accessed from My Orders)
• Request Type - the type of the request (Storefront Department label)
• Latest Update - the date of the latest update to the ticket status 
• Status - the status of the ticket:
  • Waiting for a customer -  waiting for the customer's reply
  • Open - waiting for the administrator's reply
  • Closed - the ticket issue was resolved
  • New - the ticket is created

Click on the subject of a ticket, to access the Ticket page.

Ticket Page on Storefront

This is where customers can read the ticket thread, send replies from, close the ticket, rate the performance of the Agent and Escalate the ticket to the Supervisor.

The page is made of three sections: Ticket Controls, Ticket Message, Ticket Thread.

Ticket Controls

The Ticket Controls section notifies the Customer of the following:

• Request Type
• Status
• Rating
• Agent

Rating allows customers to assess the performance of the Agent towards the resolution of the issue in the ticket. Rating can be updated anytime until the ticket is closed.

When the Customer is not satisfied with the quality of support he/she can escalate the ticket to the Head Agent (Supervisor). To do so, they click on the Escalate to Supervisor button. A popup will emerge prompting the Customer to explain why he/she is not satisfied with the support service and submit the request. Alternatively, the Customer can cancel the request and close the popup.

On successful escalation of a ticket, a corresponding message is added to the ticket thread, both on the Front- and Back-end. Furthermore, an email is sent to the Head Agent (Supervisor), notifying of the escalation and providing information on the ticket. The subject of the ticket in the email is an active link to the Ticket View page on Back-end. The ticket, when escalated, has its priority weight increased noticeably. These tickets are moved to the top of the Tickets grid on Back-end.

Ticket Message

The Ticket Message section allows the Customer to post replies to the Agent. To support a reply with a file, the Customer clicks on the Attach Files active icon in the left corner of the section. To submit the reply or to close the ticket, the Customer uses the Post Reply and Close Ticket buttons respectively.  

Ticket Thread

The Ticket Thread lists all messages as written by the Customer and Agent with respect to the given ticket. The messages are arranged by the date of sending (in descending order). Attached files appear as file names, active links to the files.

Submitting a Ticket

Help Desk Ultimate 2 for Magento 2 introduces three ways of submitting tickets by the Customer: via email, Contact form and Create New Ticket form.

Create New Ticket form

To create a ticket on the Front-end, the Customer goes to My Account → My Support Tickets and clicks on the blue Create Ticket button below the grid. The Customer is redirected to the Create New Ticket page.

The Create New Ticket page prompts the Customer to enter the following information:

• Request Type - the type of the issue (the drop-box contains the names of the departments as they are assigned to the store-front)
• Order - the ID of the order to relate to the issues (the drop-box contains orders previously created by the Customer)
• Subject - the subject of the ticket to identify the issue
• CC recipients - the emails of the people to receive a copy of the ticket (multiple emails can be indicated, separated with comma)
• Message - the text of the issue
• Attachments (optionally) - files to support the issue (Add file active link)

On completing the fields, the Customer click on the Submit Ticket button to submit the ticket. Alternatively, the Back button takes the Customer to the My Support Tickets page and erases the data from the form.

The Customer can access the Create New Ticket page from the Order # page. The Customer does that by clicking on the Submit Ticket active link next to the Reorder link. The Create New Ticket page will get opened in the new browser tab. The Order field will have the number of the corresponding order.

Contact Us Form

Another option for a customer to submit a ticket is the native Magento Contact Us form. The extension fetches all the messages customers leave in the Contact Us form and inserts them into tickets.

The Contact Us form comes with the same fields as the Create New Ticket form, though the Order drop-down is hidden from guest customers.

Direct Email

Additionally, the Customer can submit tickets by emailing messages directly to the Help Desk Ultimate 2 gateway(s).

If a message is sent from the address, used on registration of the account, Help Desk Ultimate 2 will 'recognize' the customer and automatically associate the message with the ticket within the given customer account.

If automatic notifications are enabled, customers can directly reply to notification emails sent by the Admin.

Enabling Agent's Card on Frontend

The BUP (Backend User Profile) module, which comes as part of the Help Desk Ultimate 2 pack, allows enabling the Agent's Card on the Frontend and in emails to customers. 

The module adds the Additional User Information tab to the User Information block in System → All Users → User/Add New User. The tab shows the following configuration options:

• User Status - set to Active to enable the Agent's Card on Front-end and in emails. 
• Sort Order - the order of the Agent's Card on the list of cards, if multiple agents are assigned to the Customer/Department
• Display Name - the name of the Agent to be displayed to the Customer in the Agent's Card
• Email -  the email of the Agent to be displayed to the Customer in the Agent's Card
• Phone Number - the phone number of the Agent to be displayed to the Customer in the Agent's Card
• Image - the photo of the Agent to be displayed to the Customer in the Agent's Card
• Additional Information - any further information on the Agent to be displayed to the Customer in the Agent's Card

Agents' cards appear on Ticket pages (on the Front-end), and in email notifications which are sent to the Customer as part of the communication about tickets. 

On Backend

Configuring Help Desk Ultimate 2

To configure the extension, go to Stores →  Configuration →  AHEADWORKS EXTENSIONS →  Help Desk 2.

General Settings

Two parameters are available here:

• Primary Department - set the Primary department. When the Department selector is disabled on the Front-end, all new tickets are automatically assigned to the Primary department.
• Enable Ticket Customer Rating - set to Yes to allow customers to rate tickets either from emails or My Account. Rating is possible within 15 days since the latest change of the status of the ticket.

Backend Ticket Page Settings

Tweak how much of information on tickets and orders of a customer the Admin is to find within the two blocks of the Ticket View page on the Back-end:

• Display X tickets in Customer Tickets block * - the number of tickets to be displayed in the Customer Tickets block (5, by default)
• Display X orders in Customer Orders block * - the number of orders to be displayed in the Customer Orders block (5, by default)
• Order Statuses are displayed in Customer Orders - select the statuses of orders to appear in the Customer Orders block (All Statuses, by default)
• Default tab in the ticket view - select the preferred tab as the default in the ticket view: All, Discussion, Notes or History

Frontend

The configuration options here primarily consider file attachments and submitting tickets via the native Magento 2 Contact form.

• Enable Contact Form Integration - set to Yes to enable submitting tickets via the native Magento 2 Contact form and page both for logged-in and guest customers.
• Allow Customer to Attach Files - set to Yes to allow customers to attach files to ticket messages sent via the web-form (for email attachments refer to the settings of the Gateway). 
• Max Upload File Size (Mb) - indicate the maximum file size of an attachment. Leave empty or 0 to allow uploading files of any size.
• Allow File Extensions - specify the types of files to be allowed as attachments to ticket messages. Use commas to separate file types.

Ticket Escalation

Set up how ticket escalation is to take place:

• Allow Ticket Escalation - set to Yes to enable ticket escalation
• Supervisor Email(s) - indicate the email address of a senior Help Desk representative to receive escalated tickets (multiple addresses are separated with commas) 
• Email Template to Supervisor - select the template of a ticket escalation notification

Managing Departments

Here you can organize departments to sort the flow of tickets according to the issue in focus, and thereby optimize the work of the Help Desk team. Departments may have different agents and managers. The Admin can further set-up permissions for various user-roles to access and edit tickets in the departments.

When installed, by default, Help Desk Ultimate 2 shows only the General Issues department. This department will be used to store all tickets submitted to the Help Desk until other departments are created and the General Issues department is reconfigured.

Departments are created and managed in Customers → Help Desk 2 → Departments.

Departments Grid

The Departments grid accumulates departments into a grid of the following columns:

• Name - the name of the department (active link to the Edit [Department Name] Department page);
• Gateway - the email address to fetch messages from for the given department
• Status - the status of the department (Enabled, Disabled);
• Visibility - the store view the department is visible on;
• Sort Order - the order of the department on the list of departments as it will appear on the Storefront

Create/Edit Department

To edit a department, click on its name in the Departments grid. To create a new department, click on the Create New Department button in the top right of the page. You will get redirected to the Edit/New Department Page, which has six sections of configuration options: General, Storefront Labels, Gateway, Help Desk Agent, Storefront Required Information and Permissions.

General Settings

The general section allows specifying the basic attributes of a department:

• Status - set to Enabled to enable the department on the storefront
• Visible on - select the store views for the department to be displayed on
• Name - suggest the name for the department (for internal identification purposes);
• Allow Guests to Submit Request Type - set to Yes to allow guest-users to submit tickets to the department (when No is selected guest-customers see the “Please, log in to submit this request type” message on selecting the given department in the Contact Us form)
• Sort Order - indicate the whole numeric to define the order of the department on the list of departments on the Storefront 
• Send from email - define the specified email (sender) of the email notifications. 

Storefront Labels

The Storefront Labels section allows setting up a name of the department to be displayed on the Storefront. Only one name can be assigned per store view.

Gateway Settings

The Gateway section has only one configuration option Gateway. This is where you can select an email gateway for the department. The assigned email gateway will be used to send ticket-related notifications to customers and convert all the incoming emails into tickets. 

Help Desk Agent

Specify the store users to make up the staff of the department:

• Primary Agent - select the agent to be assigned tickets by default (Unassigned by default)  
• Agents - assign the agents to the department (Unassigned by default) 

The agents here are users of the store. Learn more on creating users in a Magento 2 store in the Official Magento 2 Manual.

Storefront Required Information

Add more fields to the ticket submission form to inquire for more information specific to the issues the department is to solve.

The section shows a list of extra fields. The Admin can shuffle the list, add, delete and edit query fields. To add a field, click on the Add Option button at the bottom of the section. To delete a field, click on the bucket icon next to the field name. To edit a field, click on the name of the field on the list. The following configuration options will get available:

• Option Type - select the type of the field: Text/Field or Select/Dropdown 
• Required - tick if the field is mandatory 
• Option Title - the name of the field 

Permission Settings

The Permissions section allows bringing user roles to conformity with their to their responsibilities within a department:

• Roles who can view tickets in that department - define the users of which roles can look through the tickets assigned to the department;
• Roles who can update tickets in that department - defines the users of which roles can reply to the tickets assigned to the department and to change the statuses of the tickets;

Learn more on creating and assigning user roles in a Magento 2 store - User Roles / Official Magento 2 Manual.

Gateways

This is where you can browse, delete, create and configure email gateways/webhook gmail gateways for use within the extension.

An email gateway/webhook gmail gateway can be used to:

1. Send email notifications and ticket updates to both customers and Help Desk agents;
2. Collect and insert all the incoming emails into the tickets. Instead of using the contact form, customers can create tickets right from the emails sent to the email gateway.

Thus, an email gateway is an email address used by the extension to receive and send messages. It can be a simple Gmail account or a company email. If you are not sure about your email gateway settings, contact your email provider.

Gateways Grid

The Gateways grid accumulates information on the gateways into the following columns:

• Name - the name of the gateway, active link to the Edit Gateway page
• Gateway Host - the email server through which every incoming or outgoing email passes
• Status - the status of the gateway: Enabled or Disabled
• Email - the email address from which the emails are to be fetched into tickets
• Default Storeview for New Tickets - the store view to receive tickets from the gateway 

Create/Edit Gateway

To add a new gateway, click on the Add New Gateway button in the top right and choose either Email Gateway or Webhook Gmail Gateway. To edit a gateway, click on the name of the gateway in the Gateways grid. 

The following configuration options are available on the Create/Edit Gateway page:

• Enable Gateway - set to Yes to enable the gateway (the status of the gateway will then be Enabled)
• Gateway Name - the name of the gateway (for internal needs)
• Default Storeview for New Tickets - select the store view to welcome by default the tickets fetched from the gateway
• Protocol - select the protocol of the gateway: IMAP or POP3
• Gateway Host - suggest the address of the server of the gateway
• Authorization Type* - select the authorization protocol: Default, Google or Microsoft
• Gateway Email - indicate the email address to be the source of the tickets 
• Login - provide the login to the gateway email
• Password- provide the password to the gateway email
• Topic Name - provide the Topic Name to the gateway email from https://console.cloud.google.com/ (only for Webhook Gmail Gateway)
• Use SSL/TLS - select the security protocol to connect to the email gateway
• Port - indicate the port to connect to the email gateway (depending on the security protocol selected)
• Delete Emails from Host - set to Yes to have customer emails from which the tickets were created deleted from the store. Pay close attention to this setting if you have limited email gateway storage!

If the Default type of authorization is selected for Authorization Type, the Test Connection button at the bottom of the page allows checking the connection to the newly-configured gateway. The Test Connection button is not available if the Google or Microsoft  authorization type is chosen.

* When Google is selected as Authorization Type (OAuth authorization to Google Suite applications), the following two fields substitute the Login and Password fields:

• Client ID - set the identification number of a client as it was generated  for your gateway app in the Google Developers Console;
• Client Secret - set the number of a client secret as it was generated for your gateway app in the Google Developers Console.

Refer to the official Google user guide to learn more on how to create a Google Client ID and Secret.

When Google is selected, you can test the connection and verify your Google Account with the Verify Google Account found at the bottom of the page. The button becomes active when the Department is saved. The Verify Google Account button is not available when the Default type of authorization is selected. 

composer require google/apiclient:"^2.0"

https://store_name/admin/aw_helpdesk2/gateway_google/verify/

Click on the Save button in the top right of the New/Edit Gateway page to confirm and save the settings. Upon the subsequent cron launch, first emails (if there are any) will be added to tickets.

Microsoft as Authorization Type

Redirect URL for Microsoft Azure - https://storename/admin/aw_helpdesk2/gateway_microsoft/verify/

* When Microsoft is selected as Authorization Type, the following three fields substitute the Login and Password fields:

• Client ID - set the identification number of a client as it was generated  for your gateway app in the Microsoft Azure (Overview > Essentials);
• Client Secret - set the number of a client secret as it was generated for your gateway app in the Microsoft Azure (Certificates & secrets > New client secret). Client Secret must be copied to a safe place before leaving the page because you cannot copy it twice.
• Tenant ID - set the Tenant ID of a client as it was generated  for your gateway app in the Microsoft Azure (Overview > Essentials).

Save your configurations before testing.

When Microsoft is selected, you can test the connection and verify your Microsoft Account with the Verify Microsoft Account found at the bottom of the page. The button becomes active when the Department is saved. The Verify Microsoft Account button is not available when the Default type of authorization is selected. 

In order to use Microsoft authentication you need to install OAuth client: 

composer require league/oauth2-client

Topic Name Configuration (for Webhook Gmail Gateway)

To determine the Topic Name, follow the next steps:

1. Go to Console Google Cloud > More products > Analytics > Pub/Sub > Topics

2. On the Topics page, click the Create Topic button

3. Fill in the Topic ID field and then click the Create button

4. Go to Console Google Cloud > More products > Analytics > Pub/Sub > Subscriptions

5. Click on the Subscription ID active link

6. Within the Subscription page, navigate to the Edit tab.

7. On the editing page, choose the following options:

• Delivery type = Push

• Enter the Endpoint URL in the specified format:

8. Afterward, proceed to set up permissions for the Gmail API.

Go to Console Google Cloud > APIs & Services > Library > Google Workspace > Gmail API

9. On the Gmail API page, click the Enable button

10. To set up permissions, go to Console Google Cloud > More products > Analytics > Pub/Sub > Topics

11. For the specified topic, click the View permissions button from More Actions menu

12. On the Permissions tab, click the ADD PRINCIPAL button

13. Within the opened window, configure the necessary permissions. Ensure the following permissions are applied to the gateway email:

• Editor 

• Owner

• Pub/Sub Admin

• Pub/Sub Editor

• Pub/Sub Publisher

• Pub/Sub Subscriber

• Pub/Sub Viewer

Additionally, you need to set the Pub/Sub Publisher role for the email - [email protected] (you can read more about this here)

14. Go to Console Google Cloud > More products > Analytics > Pub/Sub > Topics. The Topic Name value will be needed when creating a gateway in the admin panel.

Quick Responses

Help Desk Ultimate 2 for Magento 2 enables agents with canned responses, that is prearranged replies to some generic pre- or after-sales issues. Go to Customers → Help Desk 2 → Quick Responses to browse, add, delete and edit quick responses.

Quick Responses Grid

The Quick Responses page features a grid with the following columns:

• ID - the identification number of the response;
• Title - the name of the response, active link to the Edit Quick Response page;
• Status - the status of the response (enabled/disabled);
• Created On / Updated On - the dates of creation / last modification of the response;
• Sort Order - the order in which the responses will feature in the dropbox on the Ticket View page.

Create/Edit Quick Response

To edit a response, click on the title of the response. To start a new response, click on the Add Quick Response button in the top right of the page. You will be redirected to the Create/Edit Quick Response page. 

The following configuration options are available on the page:

• Is Active - set to Yes to enable the quick response for use
• Sort Order - indicate a whole numeric to tell the order of the response in the dropbox on the Ticket View page
• Title - provide the response with a title
• Quick Response Content - write down the text of the response

Once done, click Save in the top right or Save and Continue Edit to return to composing the response without page reload.

Automations

Automations are Help Desk rules which regulate the use of automatic actions against some pre-set conditions. Automations are meant to save time on routine ticket management operations, including those if changing ticket status, sending email notifications, and operating ticket updates. Automations take place on cron launch.

Go to Customers → Help Desk 2 → Automations to browse, add, delete, and automations.

Automations Grid

By default, the Automations grid lists eight rules. These rules are built against a ticketing event each and define automatic emailing of notifications upon reaching a certain event. These automations help mark out those tickets which need prompt replies, and instantly notify customers once the issue is reported.

The grid shows data within the following columns:

• ID - the identification number of the automation
• Status - the status of the automation (Enabled / Disabled)
• Name - (active link) the name of the automation
• Event - the trigger event for the automation
• Priority - the priority (0 is the highest one) of execution of automations in case of overlapping conditions thereof

Automation rules work in compliance with the following pattern:

1) Cron prompts the event and launches the rules of automation;

2) The extension checks if any of the tickets match the conditions of the event;

a) If the conditions of the event are met, the extension launches the action of automation;

b) If the conditions of the event are not met, the extension stops executing the automation and does not trigger it up until the next cron launch.

3) The extension stops executing the rule and does not trigger it up until the next cron launch

Create/Edit Automation

To edit automation, click on the name of thereof in the grid. To create an automation rule, click the Create New Automation button. You will be redirected to the Create/Edit Automation page.

The Create New Automation page comes in three blocks as follows:

The initial block of configuration options:

• Status - set to Enabled to enable the automation for operation
• Name - suggest the name of the operation
• Priority - indicate a whole numeric value to tell the priority of the automation (for situations when conditions of multiple automations overlap)
• Discard Subsequent Rules - set to Yes to discard the execution of any subsequent rules on execution of the present automation
• Event - select an event to trigger the automation. The following events are available for choice:
  • New ticket from customer - the Customer submits a new ticket;
  • New ticket from agent - the Agent creates a ticket for a customer;
  • New reply from customer - the Customer replies to the ticket;
  • New reply from agent - the agent replies to a ticket;
  • Ticket was assigned to another agent - the ticket is assigned to another agent;
  • Recurring Task - a recurring task that will be executed by the extension upon every cron launch;
  • Order Status Change - the order has its status changed;
  • Order is created - the order contains specified in the Conditions tab Order Status and Product SKU;
  • Ticket Status Change - the event triggers when the status of the ticket is changed;
    • Conditions: New Ticket Status - is one of, is not - New, Open, Waiting for Customer, Closed; Ticket Rating - is one of, is not - None, 1 star, 2 stars, 3 stars, 4 stars, 5 stars;
  • Ticket Was Rated - the event triggers when the ticket was rated by the customer (from My Account or by email).
    • Conditions: Tickets Status - is one of, is not - multi-select: New, Open, Waiting for Customer, Closed; Ticket Rating - is one of, is not - multi select: 1 star, 2 stars, 3 stars, 4 stars, 5 stars.

The Conditions block prompts to specify the conditions for the event to call for the automation. A condition herein is the following pattern:

If VARIABLE + LOGICAL CONNECTIVE + VALUE then...

Each event comes with a specific set of variables, meaningful for the event. Various variables fetch various logical connectives and values, meaningful for the variable.

The connectives are: is / is one of / equals / is equal to / less than / greater than / equals or less than / equals or greater than etc.

Most of the variables are ticket-related. At the same time, there are customer-, customer-group- and order-related variables.

To add a condition, click on the Add button (multiple conditions can be added). To complete the condition, refer to the dropbox on the left hand side and opt for a variable first. The dropboxes of connectives and values will get updated. Complete the condition by connecting the variable with its value.

To delete a condition, click on the Bucket icon on the right to the value drop box. 

In the Actions section, specify which actions are to be taken upon meeting the specified condition(s).

Each event comes with a specific set of actions. Each action fetches a specific set of objects of action.

Actions include sending email notifications to both the Customer and Agent, changing ticket status and its priority, assigning tickets to the Agent, adding tags to tickets, changing department, displaying system message in the System thread and etc.

To add an action, click on the Add button (multiple actions can be added). To complete the action, refer to the dropbox on the left hand side and opt for an action first. The dropbox(es) of action objects will get updated. Complete the action by selecting an object.

To delete an action, click on the Bucket icon on the right to the action object drop box. 

Once done, click Save in the top right or Save and Continue Edit to return to configuring the automation without page reload.

Automation Use Cases

Managing Tickets

Tickets Grid

To browse and manage tickets, navigate to Customers → Help Desk 2 → Tickets. This is where you can find the Tickets grid. The grid supports sorting, filtering and pagination.

The Tickets grid contains explicit ticket-related information, brought into the following columns:

• Rating - the weight of the priority of the ticket (see the calculation rules below);
• ID - the identification number of the ticket, active link to the Ticket View page;
• Last Message - the date and time of the latest message within the ticket;
• Last Replied by - the name of the person who left the latest reply to the ticket;
• Department - the department responsible for the ticket;
• Help Desk Agent - the agent responsible for the ticket;
• Subject - the subject line of the ticket;
• Customer Name - the name of the customer, active link to the customer profile on Backend;
• Order # - the number of the order associated with the ticket, active link to the Order View page;
• Customer Email - the email address of the customer (contact person on the customer side);
• Customer Group - the affiliation of a customer with a particular group;
• Messages - the number of message in the ticket thread;
• Priority - the priority of the ticket;
• Status - the status of the ticket;
• Created On - the date and time when the ticket was created;
• Tags - tag words assigned to the ticket;
• Merge - the ability of combining multiple support tickets into a single unified ticket. 

From the version 2.5.0 it becomes possible to change the status of tickets in bulk via mass-action.

Replying to Tickets

To reply to a ticket or see more information on it, click on the ticket ID in the Tickets grid. You will be redirected to the Ticket View page.

The Ticket View page is composed of the two areas: Ticket Details and Ticket Messaging. 

The Ticket Details area is on the left. It is made up the following tabs:

The Ticket View area is on the right. It is made up of the following three sections: Tickets Controls, Ticket Message, Ticket Thread.

Ticket Controls section

The following information is available within the section:

• Locked - the indicator of the locked ticket.
• Ticket Status - the status of the ticket. Click on the Pen icon to select a different status.  By default, New is the status of the newly-created/submitted ticket.
• Priority - the priority status of the ticket. Click on the Pen icon to select a different priority status. By default, To Do is the priority status of the newly-created/submitted ticket.
• Department - the department the ticket is assigned to. Click on the Pen icon to select a different department.
• Agent - the agent assigned to the ticket. Click on the Pen icon to select a different agent. The dropdown will show only those agents who are assigned to the chosen department. By default, Primary Agent of the department is the agent of the ticket (if the ticket is created from the Front-end)
• External Link - the external URL to the ticket, generated automatically once the ticket is created. Can be copied and shared among the agents or with a third party. One can then view the ticket thread without logging into the system. The link opens a page, the elements of which are the same as those of the Ticket View page on the Front-end.

The Ticket Locking feature is presented with the “lock” icon in the Ticket Controls section. When the ticket is not locked, the icon is substituted with the "No" text.

Click on the icon to lock the ticket. Only that Agent, who is currently assigned to the ticket, will then be able to respond to the ticket, and change its parameters (Priority, Status, etc).

Ticket Message section

The Ticket Message section is where you are suggested to reply to the ticket. 

The section has the following elements:

• WYSIWYG editor, to welcome a reply to the ticket and help format it.
• Canned Response dropdown, to select a quick (pre-arranged) response. All canned responses created on the Quick Responses Page will appear on the list herein. On picking up a response, its text will appear in the text field above. 
• Attach Files active link, to attach files to the response. Unsupported special characters or hieroglyphs in the names of email attachments will get erased from the names. If the whole name is made of such characters, it will be substituted to "file". 
• Reply + Closed button, to save the Agent's reply, move it to the Ticket Thread, send it to the Customer and close the ticket (Ticket Status → Closed).
• Reply + Open button, to save the Agent's reply, move it to the Ticket Thread, send it to the Customer and keep the ticket open, that is on the Agent's side (Ticket Status → Open).
• Reply + WFC, to save the Agent's reply, move it to the Ticket Thread, send it to the Customer and wait for the Customer's reply (Ticket Status → Waiting for Customer).

Ticket Thread section

Find here all the messages which were/are part of the ticket conversation. 

Messages are arranged within the four tabs: All, Discussion, Notes, History. The History tab contains system messages (on yellow background) meant to track every change to the ticket parameters (Status, Priority, Notes, Tags, etc). Notes collects internal notes (on purple background), meant to contain side information regarding the resolution of the ticket, for internal use. Discussion aggregates messages from both the Customer and the Agent(s). The All tab shows all of the above messages. Messages are sorted by the time of creation.

Every message displays the author of the message, the date and time of message creation and the text of the message.

Creating New Ticket

To create a new ticket from the Back-end, click on the Create Ticket button on the Tickets page (Customers → Help Desk 2 → Tickets). You will be redirected to the Create New Ticket page.

The Create New Ticket page contains the following configuration options:

• Subject - specify the issue in brief;
• Department - select the department to be responsible for the resolution of the issue;
• Agent - select the agent to be responsible for the resolution of the issue. Only active agents and Not Assigned are displayed in the Agent dropdown. Only agents, assigned to selected above department, are displayed in the Agent dropdown;
• Store View - select the store view to be associated with the ticket;
• Customer Email - type-in the email of the customer (autocomplete enabled on entering three characters);
• Customer Name - type-in the name of the customer (autocomplete enabled on entering three characters);
• CC recipient - suggest the email of the people to receive the copy of the ticket (and all other subsequent messages within the ticket conversation);
• Status - select the status of the ticket;
• Priority - select the priority of the ticket;
• Quick Response - select the quick response for the ticket while creating it from the backend. Canned Response dropdown, to select a quick (pre-arranged) response. All canned responses created on the Quick Responses Page will appear on the list herein. On picking up a response, its text will appear in the text field above.

• Content - type in and format the text of the issue;
• Attach file - attach files to support the issue.

To send the ticket to the Customer and save it into the Tickets grid, click on the Save button at the top of the page. Click on Reset to clear the fields and start filling them in anew. Click Back to return to the Tickets page and erase the data in the fields.

Merging Tickets

Merging tickets from the Ticket View page 

Steps: 

     1. To combine the tickets click the "Merge" button in the All Customer Tickets block. Once clicked, the checkboxes will become visible; 

     2. Select the tickets and then click on the "Merge with the current ticket" button;

     3. Click the "Confirm and Merge" button within the Merge ticket confirmation window.

For successful merging, ensure that the tickets are in a status other than "Closed." 

The customer of the ticket you close with the merge is added as a CC to the new ticket if it is not the same. If anyone was CC'd on an original ticket, they are also added as a CC on the merged ticket.

Merged tickets receive the status "Closed" and the status of the ticket they are merged into remains unchanged.

Merging tickets from the Tickets Grid page

Steps: 

     1. Upon clicking the "Merge Tickets" button, a popup will appear. Enter the ticket ID into the designated input field (or select one of the following tickets), and then proceed to click the "Merge" button;

      2. Click the "Confirm and Merge" button within the Merge ticket confirmation window;

      3. After merging, the merged ticket obtains “Closed“ status.

Tickets in Customer Profile

Go to Backend → All Customers → Customer → Help Desk Tickets to find the tickets submitted by (created for) the Customer. The tab will show the Tickets grid. This is where you can create a ticket for the Customer too.

Rejecting Patterns

Avoid spam by applying Rejecting Patterns to the Contact Us form, emails, and messages. Rejecting Patterns are Perl regular expressions which define the strings to filter the emails into the Rejected Messages grid when found in the email/message. 

To browse, add, delete and edit patterns, go to Customers → Help Desk 2 → Rejecting Patterns. The page features the Rejecting Patterns Grid and the Create New Pattern button.

Rejecting Patterns grid

The grid accumulates the information on the patterns within the following columns:

• ID - the identification number of the pattern (for internal purposes);
• Title - the name of the pattern, active link to the Edit Pattern page;
• Status - the status of the pattern: Enabled or Disabled;
• Scope - the part of the email/message the pattern belongs to;
• Pattern - the Perl Regular Expression to tell the pattern.

Create/Edit Pattern page

To create a pattern, click on the Create New Pattern button. You will be redirected to the Create/Edit Pattern page. Configure the following options to start a new pattern:

• Title - provide the title of the pattern as it will appear in the Rejecting Patterns grid
• Status - select the status of the pattern (Disabled by default)
• Scope - select the part of the email/message to contain the pattern (multiple parts can be selected) : Headers, Subject and Body
• Pattern - specify the pattern in Perl Regular Expressions syntax

Click on the Save button in the top right to finalize the configuration.

Rejected Messages

If a rejecting pattern is enabled and is found in the incoming email, this email is not converted into a ticket but appears in the Rejected Emails grid. To access the grid, go to Backend → Customers → Rejected Emails. 

The grid has the following columns:

• ID - the identification number of the ticket (=Ticket ID from Tickets grid)
• Source - Email or the Contact Us form
• From - the Name, if specified, and Email of the addresser
• Subject - the subject of the email/message
• Rejected by Pattern  - the title of the pattern which has filtered this email/message out
• Date - the date of the receipt of the rejected email/message

The grid can be sorted and filtered by columns. Pagination is supported.

Reports

From the Help Desk Ultimate module version 2.3.0 or new, when Advanced Reports for Magento 2 is installed on the store, it becomes possible to overview the statistics.

The extension offers analytical reports to provide you with some meaningful information on the performance of your business.

All Reports can be found under Reports > Help Desk Ultimate 2 by Aheadworks.

To enable Reports go to Stores > Configuration > Aheadworks Extensions > Help Desk 2 Report.

General Settings

The General Settings block allows tweaking Day Start, Day End and Work Days of the Agent, that will be displayed in the report. 

Once done, click Save Config in the top right of the page, or proceed to the next step.

Response & Resolution Time Report

Report can be found under Reports > Help Desk Ultimate 2 by Aheadworks > Response & Resolution Time Report.

The Response & Resolution Time Report shows how much time it takes for an agent to reply on a new ticket. 

This graph features data against such metrics as Average First Response Time, Average Overall Response Time, Average Ticket Resolution Time. 

Average First Response Time - the total time taken by the agent to send the first response during the selected time period divided by the number of tickets whose first responses were sent in the selected time period.

First Response Time is counted since a new ticket is submitted and until it acquires the first response from a Help Desk agent. Automated responses and tickets created by agents are excluded from the calculation. 

Average Overall Response Time - total time taken to respond during the selected time period divided by the number of responses in the selected time period.

Average Resolution Time is the ratio of Total Resolution Time for all tickets closed to the number of the closed tickets.

Total Resolution Time is calculated from the moment the ticket has been submitted and the most recent mark has been closed.

If a ticket is opened and closed multiple times during the specified time period, Total Resolution Time is the total time between the first message from the customer and the most recent time the ticket was closed.

For simple segmentation, the reports come with filtering options. Those include the store view and agent or department group filters.

The date range can be selected in the flexible calendar:

In the provided calendar, you can specify any date or date range either by clicking the required dates or by indicating the interval manually. Once the date has been selected, click Apply to refresh the report page.

Below the graph, you can see the reporting table providing metrics of each Agent. Last line of the table is the value for Average First Response Time, which is calculated as a median.

The values displayed on the table can be filtered by Average First Response Time, Average Overall Response Time and Average Ticket Resolution Time. You can also define which values should be displayed in the chart.

Tag Reports

Report can be found under Reports > Help Desk Ultimate 2 by Aheadworks > Tag Reports.

The Tag Report shows the graph of ticket types on the certain period.  The date when the tickets get reflected in the graph is the date when tag was assigned to the ticket. When we consider a combination of several tags, we take the last date - when the last tag of the subselection was added. 

For simple segmentation, the reports come with filtering options. This includes the store view filter.

The date range can be selected in the flexible calendar:

In the provided calendar, you can specify any date or date range either by clicking the required dates or by indicating the interval manually. Once the date has been selected, click Apply to refresh the report page.

By applying a Tag Name  filter, the graph has the ability to display information regarding each tag individually.

Below the graph, you can see the reporting table providing metrics of ticket types.

The values displayed on the table can be filtered by Period, Updated Ticket and  Ticket Count. You can also define which values should be displayed in the table.

Integrations

• Aheadworks Customer Attributes
• Adobe Commerce Customer Attributes
• RMA
• Coupon Code Generator

Aheadworks Customer Attributes

If Admin Ticket View is selected, in Customers → Customer Attributes → Attribute → Storefront Properties → Display on Forms, the attribute is displayed on the Ticket View Page in a tab called Customer Attributes.  The tab appears in the Ticket Information area. 

The Admin can edit the values of the attribute, and thereby make notes about the customer or the issue.

Adobe Commerce Customer Attributes

If Show in helpdesk ticket is selected, in Stores→ Attributes → Customer→ Attributes page → Storefront Properties → Forms to Use In, the attribute is displayed on the Ticket View Page in a tab called Customer Attributes. The tab appears in the Ticket Information area. 

The Admin can edit the values of the attribute, and thereby make notes about the customer or the issue.

RMA

When RMA version 1.5.0 and later is installed on the store, it becomes possible to convert a ticket to RMA request.

When RMA extension is installed, there is a button Convert to RMA on a ticket page.

If the following option Backend → Stores → Configuration: Close the Ticket When Converted to RMA is set to Yes: after RMA creation a ticket status can be set to Closed. If it’s set to No, after RMA creation ticket status will remain the same. When clicking the button, an RMA creation page is opened and a store admin can follow the same steps as for RMA creation. 

Also when an RMA is created based on a ticket, it will be marked in the following way:

• On a Ticket Page in the messages thread, there is a new system message: The RMA {RMA ID} was created based on the ticket
• On RMA page in the messages thread, there is a new system message: The RMA was created based on ticket {ticket ID}

Coupon Code Generator

Coupon Code Generator extension, when installed along with Help Desk Ultimate by Aheadworks, allows help desk agents generate and send coupon codes directly from the ticket thread.

The extension adds its section to the ticket thread administrator menu. From here help desk agent can select the Coupon Code Generator rule created and reply to the ticket.

The coupon code will be generated automatically according to the rule conditions set and added below the ticket reply, indicating the discount customer gets.

Troubleshoot

Configuring a gateway by using Gsuite (Gmail)

If you click ‘Test Connection’ in the gateway settings in the admin panel and it displays "Cannot login, user or password wrong", then you need to check/enable less secure apps: https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps

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