By canadrian on

I would like an easy way to track issues with my site. As in: "Help, I can't upload items larger than 2mb to the gallery!" A main issue, and a string of dialogue between myself and the user. I thought Case Tracker might be a good way, but... whoa! What the?

  • What is the difference between a project and a case?
  • Why are projects necessary before you can have cases?
  • When telling a user to submit a "support ticket" type thing, what are they supposed to submit?
  • What on Earth are the definitions of "Resolved-Staging," "Resolved-Production," and "Tested Staging?" Why is this better than "New," "In Progress", and "Fixed?"
  • Is this module even designed with end-user interaction in mind, or is it meant for sole use by admins?

I'm not attacking this module. I'm just thinking something has gone way over my head here, and I'm trying to figure out how this complexity is useful in the context of "Help, I can't upload items larger than 2mb to the gallery!"

Can someone enlighten me?

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

Hory’s picture

Hory commented

1) A project is a node of any type (which you can choose) which will support cases. Cases are observations made with regards to that project, which include details such as "priority" and "type" of observation.
2) "Project" is used as a name for types of nodes which support case tracking. Any node type can become a project, if you choose it.
3)
4) I'm not sure of those definitions either, but it doesn't matter, as you can delete them and set your own, if you believe they make more sense, from Administer / Content Management / Case States.
5) This module wasn't designed solely for use by admins, but rather for (teams of) users which cooperate on certain projects.
3) And now, the answer to the third question. It is my opinion that this module wasn't designed specifically to be used as a single, site-wide, beginner <-> expert, ticket support system. I think you could theoretically push it in that direction by having a single public project, but I haven't personally used it that way.

morbus iff’s picture

morbus iff
they/them
commented

I am the maintainer of Case Tracker. Hory is right on all your other points, save for #3.

If you'd like to create a "helpdesk" type of system, where a user:

  • never sees any sort of Project.
  • never sees any other case he didn't submit

then do this:

  • create a "Helpdesk" project. since this will be the only project in the system, case creation will automatically default to this project, and you won't see any "Choose project" type of information on case creation.
  • Give your users ONLY the ability to submit cases, and "show cases user tab". This will stop them from seeing the master "Case Tracker" menu item (which shows things by projects and cases, regardless of whether they submitted them, and is granted by the "access casetracker" permission).
  • Users will see a) cases they created, b) cases you assign to them (irrelevant in your scenario) by going to users/[theirID]/cases. They won't be able to see any other case (unless they happened to guess a node URL, which is entirely possible, so you may want some more added protection there.)

http://www.disobey.com/
http://www.gamegrene.com/
Developer of Drupal's GameAPI

http://www.disobey.com/

morbus iff’s picture

morbus iff
they/them
commented

As for the definitions from #4, those are simply default definitions for website projects. In most cases, development of a website includes a staging server (where everything is tested) and a production server (where things are actually viewable to the public). The default case states simulate this workflow. As Hory said, however, these states are configurable by you, and you can certainly change them however you'd like.

http://www.disobey.com/
http://www.gamegrene.com/
Developer of Drupal's GameAPI

http://www.disobey.com/

canadrian’s picture

canadrian commented

Thanks for the reply! Since Drupal's email notification system is a bit strange (issues send email pings, but don't show up in the main tracker, and other posts go in the tracker but never send email pings), I sometimes forget to check back on my questions! ;)

I think this is almost exactly what I'll do, except I'll probably leave most cases viewable to all site members (excepting ones regarding personal issues). That way users can check to see if there is an existing case for their issue before they post a new one. Or something - I'll do some more playing around. Anyway, thanks again for your prompt response!

----------
"Being tired is like playing mind games with some of the pieces missing."
- Canadrian

I am a proud member of the ElectricTeaParty.net online community.

socialnicheguru’s picture

socialnicheguru commented

So I could setup a feature request queue as part of the hepdesk.

Instead of using the Contact or Feedback form, i can use case tracker so I can track the responses in the system.

Is there an easy way for me to then take cases that are answered and put them into the drupal FAQ module.

I know I might have to just cut and paste, but I wanted to ask.

Thanks,
Chris

http://SocialNicheGuru.com
Delivering inSITE(TM), we empower you to deliver the right product and the right message to the right NICHE at the right time across all product, marketing, and sales channels.

socialnicheguru’s picture

socialnicheguru commented

I like the helpdesk example above.

What if I created a Marketing-helpdesk just so that all of our marketing people can enter their issues there.
If i setup seperate cases for customers, I would like to have customers enter their own projects automatically.

so i wonder if the drop down that asks "which project" can be restricted by role and user so only a person with either a customer role or a specific user who i can assign?

Can an organic group have a project or case assigned to it excuslively. For example, if i setup an organic group for a cooking club. I would like to use case tracker to keep all the feedback, questions, issues that the members of that club might have. How would I do that.

I am thinking that case tracker is a great way to track questions and route them to individuals within a group to take care of them.

Thanks for your insight.

Chris

http://SocialNicheGuru.com
Delivering inSITE(TM), we empower you to deliver the right product and the right message to the right NICHE at the right time across all product, marketing, and sales channels.