We are building a hosted version of SimpleTicket that will allow companies or IT support shops to create a SimpleTicket install within minutes. Here is a peak:
Above you can see the ‘draft’ service levels. We plan to offer two types of SimpleTicket installs. The first is for internal support departments and the second is for IT support companies (like our own Architel).
We are still working out the details, but here is what the signup page might look like once you have selected a plan.
July 18, 2006 |
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Tags: SimpleTicket , simpleticket , opensource , troubleticket , hosted | Bookmark on del.icio.us | Digg It
We realized that we needed to update the customer view of SimpleTicket before we released the new backend. These wireframes were whipped up today. Let us know what you think. We are still thinking through a few issues (password recovery, login, account creation) and we are not certain this is how it will all turn out, but it will give you a glimpse into our thought process:
Most users will only see this view once. After they login they set their cookie and they only see the Create New Ticket page.
We decided to include three things in this view: 1) login, 2) password reminder, 3) create an account. Hopefully this isn’t too much for one page, but we wanted to keep it very simple - fewer pages, less navigation.
We removed priority settings. We have been using SimpleTicket internally for six months and less than 1% of users actually set the priority. We still have priority for internal use - i.e. by the engineers, but that is really for their uses.
This page is the default view for most users after they login for the first time.
This page starts out with a list of a users open tickets. If the user clicks on the “open ticket” link the Ticket detail opens and allows the user to view the ticket history, close the ticket (i.e. really close it), escalate the ticket to a manager, or close the view. Of course the user can still update the ticket with additional information. Note the two feed icons. Users can get an RSS feed for all of their tickets - i.e. so each time they are updated they get a notice in their newsreader. Users can also limit their feed to a specific ticket.
In our new closed ticket view, works just like open ticket view, but the users can reopen tickets if they wish. We have lots of users not happy that their ticket was closed - this gives them an easy way of re-opening it.
We now allow the user to update any of their information themselves. No more tickets asking us to update their information!
July 18, 2006 |
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Tags: SimpleTicket , simpleticket , opensource , troubleticket , wireframes | Bookmark on del.icio.us | Digg It
The following issues remain and are being working on related to the ticketing features:
- Search pagination and search RSS (RSS is working for all other pages)
- Attachment option
- Sidebar items (statistics, FeedTools)
- Notifier testing
- Admin section still needs work (admin and manager roles)
The customer listing, creation and editing is completed. We believe that the admin, frontend and server should be completed by the end of this week. There will be tweaks and edits required next week as well as completion of statistics. So looks like we will have a brand new ticketing application with shiny and clean code ready for release next week.
July 12, 2006 |
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Tags: SimpleTicket , simpleticket , opensource | Bookmark on del.icio.us | Digg It
I just checked into the SimpleTicket project site and got the following update:
Ticket updating now works and is integrated into the trunk code. The ticket update pattern isn’t as nice as with the realigned model that we wanted to implement but it is still quite sleek, much nicer than before.
We came back to something more simple as putting that much abstraction without using it would have been really confusing for any developer coming onto the code after me.
We’ll leave the code for that way of updating in a branch so that anyone who want’s to follow that path later can without difficulty.
We’ve redone the authentication code as the plugin that we used was too big for our needs and wouldn’t adopt the pattern we will be using for clients (as they login with their email).
We still need to make ticket creation and updating nice looking and add validation.
Then we’ll go on to finish the ajax pending and contacted ticket warnings and finish all the remaining little things to do. Then we’ll go for the Customers/Users and the admin.
And finally stats that should be easier to implement as creation time, time spent, engineer and ticket id are all in one table (the ticket_updates table).
Everyone is comfortable with the July 15th date for completion. Woot!
July 8, 2006 |
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I noticed a few comments from Ward and Vince regarding the status of SimpleTicket as an open source project. To Ward’s question, “…does this mean that SimpleTicket is no longer open source?” Absolutely not, we are committed to keeping SimpleTicket open source using the GPL.
To Vince’s answer, “…he took it back in house to develop.” The hard part about building software is deciding what to build. In the end we need SimpleTicket for our business and we must have certain features. One day I looked at the demo version and it looked nothing like the software we had intended, instead it was circa 1999 radio buttons. I proposed to the two most active non-Architel developers that they continue the project with their vision and we would continue a different project using our vision. They decided they would rather complain than to continue their own version of the project.
To meet our deadlines (we had missed our May deadline working with the community) we hired coders to complete the second version of SimpleTicket. Once it is released we would love to start building a community around the project. Ward, we would love to have you on board. But just as I said to the other developers, I don’t want you to waste your time on code that will never find its way into SimpleTicket. By working together we can make sure that we all get what we want. Go ahead and wait for the new code and if you like it and want to get involved please give me a call or send me an email.
July 6, 2006 |
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Tags: SimpleTicket , Rails , Architel , Ajax , Ajaxian , Biginjapan , simpleticket , rubyonrails , bij , podcast , podserve , alexleverington | Bookmark on del.icio.us | Digg It
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