Outlook Help Desk 3.0 includes two types of Web-based forms:

1) For users in your company to submit and view Help Desk Tickets. The forms are set up as a virtual directory under Internet Information Server (IIS) on an Exchange server running Outlook Web Access (OWA). Users need to have an Exchange mailbox to login. Once logged in, users (including Help Desk staff) can submit and view tickets. After being submitted, the tickets are read-only in the Web interface. Changes to the tickets can be made through Outlook.

Note: The newly revised web pages (version 305E) no longer require a double-login. The user just has to put in the username and password, and then has access to the menu. For other changes in 305E, see New Features.

2) For customers, Web support forms that do not require a login or Exchange mailbox can be made part of the support pages at your company's web site. Customers can simply fill out the form and press Submit, and our scripts will convert the form to a new Help Desk ticket.

Setting up Web pages for users in your company

You will need Exchange 2000 or 2003 with Outlook Web Access. Also, you need to have Outlook Help Desk 3.0 set up in the Exchange Public Folders before using the Web-based forms. Clients just need a Web browser.

The WebFiles30SP-2K.Zip file is provided upon purchase of Outlook Help Desk. If you do not have it, and have purchased the Outlook Help Desk, please contact us.

I. SETUP OF VIRTUAL DIRECTORY ON SERVER

1. Create a "helpdesk" directory under the Inetpub/wwwroot directory on your OWA server. Unzip WebFiles30SP-2K.Zip, then copy the files, except the User Manual, into this new Inetpub/wwwroot/helpdesk directory.

1. Go to Administrative Tools/Internet Services Manager (Internet Information Services Manager in 2003). Create a virtual directory by right-clicking "Default Web Site", and choosing New/Virtual Directory ("Default Web Site" is under "Web Sites" in 2003). In the wizard that comes up, give it the name (alias) of "helpdesk" and point it to the Helpdesk directory you created in Step 1. Then choose the defaults to finish the wizard.

Setting up Web support forms for customers

Outlook Help Desk provides Web-based Support forms that can be added to your Web site to allow customers to submit support requests.

The "Web pages for users" described in the section above are a web application similar to Outlook Web Access that gives users with Exchange mailboxes a way to enter and view tickets without using Outlook. Users must login with a Windows account. Their contact information is pulled from the Exchange or Active Directory. The web ticket is structured and puts the information into a new Help Desk ticket field by field. This web application can also be used to view assigned and unassigned tickets.

Another way to use the Web is to create a simple Web form that customers can fill out without logging in. When the form is submitted, a script creates an email out of the web form and sends it to the Help Desk folder. Our email conversion script on the Help Desk folder then converts the email into a new Help Desk ticket.

The advantage to this is that customers do not need a Windows accounts. They can simply go to the support form on your website and fill out a ticket. The web form can run on any web server. This is a good way to service outside customers. They can come to your Web site and fill out a support ticket, and you will receive it in the Help Desk folder as a new Ticket. The information from the Web form will go into the body of the Ticket (not the individual fields) as field/value pairs. The Web forms rely on the customer to correctly fill out the contact information. They do not query Active Directory or Exchange public folders for the customer information.

With these Web forms, external customers have another way to contact the Support team. In Outlook Help Desk, customers have a variety of ways to enter support requests:

1. They can call in, and the Support staff creates a new Help Desk Ticket in Outlook.
2. They can email in a support request, which is then converted to a new Help Desk Ticket by the Outlook Help Desk scripts.
3. They can fill out the Support form on your Web site, which is then sent as an email to the Help Desk folder and converted to a new Help Desk Ticket.

Set up of Support forms

To set up these Web forms, a "Support" form is created as another page in your Web site. It should have the same look and feel as your other Web pages and be integrated into the site, perhaps by a "Click here for Support" link.

The Support page has a form with a number of fields (you can arrange this anyway you like, from very simple to more complex). The form has a Submit button that creates an email out of the form fields and sends this to the Help Desk folder. We have sample pages to help you set this up. The pages are in SupportForms.Zip (in WebFiles30SP-2K.Zip):

support.asp - the Support page

SendMessage.Asp - the page that sends the email

You will need to change lines 14 & 16 in SendMessage.asp:

 If Request("Email") <> "" Then

.From = Request("Email")

 Else

     .From = "support@company.com" ' LINE 14: ANY INTERNAL SMTP ADDRESS

 End If

 .To = "helpdeskfolder@company.com" ‘LINE 16: SMTP ADDRESS OF HELP DESK FOLDER

The "Any Internal SMTP Address" in line 14 is used when customer does not fill in the email field on the support.asp. It should be the address you want on the email message when the customer leaves it blank, something like helpdesk@company.com

Line 16 is the SMTP address of the Help Desk folder. The folder needs to be mail-enabled and have an SMTP address. Also, it must have permissions set so that Anonymous is a Contributor so external customers can submit emails to the folder.