OUTLOOK HELP DESK 3.0 – Service Provider edition

User Manual for Web forms

Microsoft Exchange 2000 or 2003 Server

Crow Canyon Systems, Inc.

http://www.crowcanyon.com

support@crowcanyon.com

This User Manual describes setting up the Web interface on Exchange 2000 and 2003. For Exchange 5.5 Server, see UserManual_30SP_Web55.htm

Overview

Setting up Web pages for users in your company

Setting up Web support forms for customers

Screen Shots

Overview

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

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.

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.

Windows 2000 Server:

Windows 2003 Server:

After creating the virtual directory, right-click it, and go to Properties. Set the Directory permissions and Directory Security as follows.

Virtual Directory tab (Windows 2000 & 2003):

Go to the Directory Security tab, under “Anonymous Access and Authentication Control”, press Edit. Check Basic Authentication only.

Windows 2000 Server:

Windows 2003 Server:

That completes the setup in Internet Information Services Manager.

Go to the “helpdesk” directory. Find the global.asa file. Open this in Notepad, then find the lines that say:

Sub Session_OnStart

On Error Resume Next

Set Session("AMSession") = Nothing

' CHANGE THE LINE BELOW IF YOUR HELP DESK FOLDER IS NOT RIGHT UNDER ALL PUBLIC FOLDERS

' EXAMPLE, IF YOUR HELP DESK FOLDER IS UNDER AN "IT Department" FOLDER:

' Session("FolderPath") = "Public Folders/All Public Folders/IT Department/Help Desk"

Session("FolderPath") = "Public Folders/All Public Folders/Help Desk"

' CHANGE THE TWO LINES BELOW TO MATCH YOUR ENVIRONMENT

Session("EmailDomain") = "YOUR EMAIL DOMAIN"

Session("ServerName") = "YOUR EXCHANGE SERVER NAME"

End Sub

If the Help Desk folder is NOT one level under “All Public Folders”, then change the Session(“FolderPath”) line to match the correct path, adding however many levels you need.

The two lines below that need to be changed. Replace YOUR EMAIL DOMAIN with the email domain used on the Exchange server, for example:

Session(“EmailDomain”) = “crowcanyon.com”

Replace YOUR SERVER NAME with the NETBIOS name of your Exchange server, then save and close global.asa.

Users accessing the Web forms need only be Domain Users. They also need the “Log on Locally” right to the OWA server. They should already have this if they use OWA. If not:

Under Start/Programs/Administrative Tools, open Local Security Policy then go to Security Settings/Local Policies/User Rights Assignment. If the OWA server is a Domain Controller, the “Log on Locally” right also needs to be granted in Domain Controller Security Policy (Start/Programs/Administrative Tools). In the Domain Controller Security Policy screen, go to Windows Settings/Security Settings/Local Policies/User Rights Assignments.

Our recommendation is to create a group – “OWA Users” or “HelpDesk Users” – and grant the right to this group, then add users to the Group.

Users need the Write permission on the system <%winnt%> directory on the Exchange Server, usually C:\WINNT. This is for writing temporary MAPI profiles (.mmp files). If you do not want to grant the Write right to the system directory, a registry setting allows you to change the location. This is explained in Microsoft article Q166599:

If the following registry key is present (on the Exchange Server), the .mmp files will be created there instead of the \Winnt directory:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows Messaging Subsystem

To create the registry entry, do the following:

Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe) and go to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows Messaging Subsystem

On the Edit menu, click Add Value.

Type the following values:

String Value: ProfileDirectory Value Data: Path to the directory you want the temporary files to be created in.

Example: C:\MyComputer\Temporary.

If the registry key/value is not present, the .mmp files are created in the Winnt directory.

In NTFS security on the HelpDesk directory in the file system, users need Read & Execute and List permissions. This is usually already on the file directory as generally these rights are granted to Everyone on new directories by default.

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:

They can call in, and the Support staff creates a new Help Desk Ticket in Outlook.
They can email in a support request, which is then converted to a new Help Desk Ticket by the Outlook Help Desk scripts.
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.

Modifications to the Support forms

The forms can be used with the slight modification mentioned above, but you probably will want to modify the forms so that they match the format of your Web site. The forms we provide are meant as samples to guide your Web developer in how to set this up. With these samples, a Web developer should know what is needed to customize these forms for your situation. Other fields can easily be added so that the email has even more information in it. Also, certain Support pages can be for certain products or certain customers, and with hidden fields, this can be conveyed to the email. When the new Ticket is generated from the email, it will carry this information along. In this manner, some of the support information can be recorded without the user entering it in.

For example, you may have two support sites, http://your web site/support-ProductA and http://your web site/support-ProductB. These go to two different versions of the support.asp. With a hidden INPUT field in the form on support.asp, you will already know when the Ticket is created which product the Support Request is for. That is one example of the flexibility a good Web developer can build into these pages.

Please contact us for more details and assistance on setting up the Web-based Support forms.

Example of Web support form for Customers:

Screen Shots of Web-Based Outlook Help Desk 3.0

The Web Interface to Outlook Help Desk runs as a virtual directory on the Exchange Server. This is for users with Exchange mailboxes, not external customers. Users log on and are then presented with a menu. The web interface allows users to create new tickets and view existing ones. It uses the same lists as the Outlook form and it pulls the user information from Active Directory (or Exchange Directory on Exchange 5.5), like the Outlook forms.

Network Logon screen
When first starting the web interface, users login with the standard network logon screen (again, this is for users with Exchange mailboxes, not customers):

Menu Page
After logging in, users are given a menu screen:

Submit a Ticket, similar to the Outlook ticket form, using the same lists:

After Ticket is submitted: Users get a screen confirming creation of a new ticket.

View Help Desk folder
The list can be sorted by clicking on the column headings:

View Assigned Help Desk Tickets list. The list can be sorted by clicking on the column headings:

View an Assigned Ticket (read-only)

Logon screen:
If the user cannot log in automatically, they are given the screen below to login. The system should, in most cases, be able to log them in with just the one network login screen, but if not, they can enter in their Exchange Alias (not the email address) on this page. The Alias of a user can be seen in Active Directory Users and Computers, on the Exchange General tab in the Properties pages for that user.

New Features in version 305F, Web pages

Uses the new login.asp to eliminate the double login.

After the ticket is submitted, it gives a success message instead of just returning to the menu with no indication of success or failure.

Red arrow icons in the menu are now better-looking blue arrows in circle icons .

No longer need menu.asp, framemsg.asp and framemsg2.asp files.

No longer need to change login.inc or default.asp. Instead, changes are made to the Global.Asa file. Two or three lines are modified in the Global.asa, and nothing is changed in the login.inc or default.asp files: