Approval workflows can be created in different ways on OTRS.

There is a simple way to do that using ITSMIncidentProblemManagement.

With ITSMIncidentProblemManagement package, you get a Decision link on ticket menu. Obviously some configurations have to be done in order to this link be shown only for some users like a department manager (we will call this role decision makers now on). This also can be made in different ways.

I’d like to show a way to create those workflows. I made it this days and see to be efficient.

The concept

We have a group called Service Desk which watchs a queue called “ServiceDesk”. This team receives and process all tickets on the system and try to solve them. They also send some tickets to approval when it’s needed.

So we have to create a queue for each decision group. We may have decision makers on IT and decision makers on HR department for example.

We have those queues on the system:

• ServiceDesk
• Ask Approval
• IT Decision Makers
• HR Decision Makers
• Infraestructure specialist
• Applications specialist

When the ServiceDesk identifies a request which needs approval, they send it to the respective decision maker group.

The Decision Maker approves or not the ticket and he or she move it again to the service desk queue.

How to show Decision link only for decision makers?

Decision Makers will be registered on 2 groups: decisionit and decisionhr

Go to the SysConfig and access Ticket -> Frontend::Agent::Ticket::MenuModule

Find Ticket::Frontend::MenuModule###420-Decision and add a key called “Group” with this content: “rw:decisionit;rw:decisionhr”.

And it’s done!

Making it better

To make the decision maker’s life easier, I created a module (and a package) that moves the ticket to a “next defined queue”, in the same screen where the approval is done. In our example, the ticket will be moved back to the ServiceDesk queue.

You can download this package here.

After it’s installation, you may configure it on Sysconfig -> Ticket -> Frontend::Agent::Ticket::ViewDecisionMove

Other ways

I think OTRS is a very flexible (and not high documented) tool. So, if you know another way to make decisions workflows, please share with us

I have just developed my first version of a module called Kernel::System::CustomerAuth::JoomlaSSO

It allows Joomla logged users to access directly OTRS Customer interface (with automatic login) with no need to type user and pw again. OTRS Customer Backend should be the same as joomla for it to work.

Some customizetion are need on Joomla and OTRS side, so it’s not a module yet.

If you are interested on it, contact me please.

My first plugin on wordpress.org

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/private-post-by-default/

Sorry, this entry is only available in Português.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Português.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Português.

Lot of people asked it:

https://otrsteam.ideascale.com/a/dtd/App-for-mobile-devices-like-Android–Blackberry/83263-10369

One guy or company made it!

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.ptitov.megaticket&rdid=com.ptitov.megaticket&rdot=1

Hi,

I’m trying Openpanel, a great new opensource tool that helps developers make a complex server tasks with some mouse clicks.

http://www.openpanel.com/

You can create domains, mail accounts, DNS and other stuff in a “Panel” way. You can create user accounts and allow them to create their own domains, emails and vhosts.

I’m trying it on linode

http://www.linode.com

With Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS (You can deploy this image from linode dashboard. You have a virtual machine running after 5 min max)

After a successful OpenPanel install, I need to make my users vhosts run as Apache process of their own user. This way, their php and other apps could write under their directories and make some personal stuff, as also it gets better to my administration tasks.

Unfortunately, this feature is not yet implemented (but it’s on the roadmap), so I need to create the followin “hack”:

• Install a new MPM apache module:
  sudo apt-get install apache2-mpm-itk
• Write a script that’s create the directives which makes every vhost runs under it’s owner account and put ir under crontab to run every 10 minutes
  sudo pico /opt/apacheexec.sh
  Put the following content on it:

#!/bin/bash
for sites in /home/*/sites/*
do
    user=`echo "${sites}"|cut -d'/' -f 3`
    site=`echo "${sites}"|cut -d'/' -f 5`
    arquivo=`echo "/etc/apache2/openpanel.d/${site}.inc/mpmitkUser"`
    if [ -f $arquivo ]; then
        true
    else
        echo "<IfModule mpm_itk_module>" > $arquivo
        echo "AssignUserId ${user} ${user}" >> $arquivo
        echo "</IfModule>" >> $arquivo
        exec `/usr/sbin/apache2ctl graceful`
    fi
done

• Then, make it executable
  chmod a+x /opt/apacheexec.sh
• Finally, put it to run on crontab
  sudo crontab -e -u root
• Write it:
  */10 * * * * /opt/apacheexec.sh

And we are done!

OTRS is a great software it’s not 100% documentated. I find this tip digging the source code.

Imagine that you want to remove the Priority link from Nav Bar of Level 1 Agente Front end, while he/she is viewing a ticket and you want it to be viewable only for supervisors.

Go to ADMIN-> SysConfig -> Ticket -> Frontend::Agent::Ticket::MenuModule

Then find the parameter you want to hide/remove. In this case, Ticket::Frontend::MenuModule###300-Priority

Add a key called “Group” and the put “rw:group_that_has_access” as the content. To add more groups, separete with “;”. For example: “rw:admin;rw;supervisors”.

This article is only available in portuguese, sorry =\