PHPJunkyard support forum

Hi,

I looked all over before posting here. I cannot seem to find if this is an available option in Hesk.

Can staff reply to client tickets through emails?

I got it working so clients can reply to tickets through email, but was wondering if this can be done the other way around, staff replying to clients through the notification emails.

Thanks
Chad

I'm afraid not and this is also not something planned for HESK, at least not in any near future.

The reason is there is no easy way of authenticating staff email addresses - I could easily send an email that would show as it has been sent from your address. If HESK allowed staff replies I could open a ticket then reply to myself and the ticket would show as if staff replied.

To setup something like this one would need to authenticate staff emails using PGP keys/certificates/origin IP address etc...

Besides, if your customers use email and if staff uses email to communicate back, why use a help desk in the first place

Hello,

I agree with Cirego. It is useful if staff cen reply be email because it is fast wasy.
HESK help to collect all tickets from cleints, create reports from collected data, manage load of work of staff, maintain history of ticket in one place uder one ID so it is easy to follow the issue and many other functionalities...
Summarize HESK is very good tool to administrate helpdesk and email functionality built in it cause our (staff) work easiest and more efficient.
So please consider possibility to create reply on tickets directly from mail.

Br.
Karol

Did you read my reply? It's not that I don't want to add such a feature, it is just a huge security risk unless you use things like private certificates and keys.

Hello,
I didn't understand what do you mean under certificates and keys.
It is not clear for me.
Br.
Karol

The problem is: if your email is "you@yourdomain.com" I can easily send an email that looks like it was sent from your address "you@yourdomain.com" so if Hesk allowed staff replies by ticket I could easily open a ticket then reply to it using your email and it would look like you replied to the ticket.

Hi,
Maybe the mail address and IP could determine who is the staff member because access to their mailboxes are protected by password. So only staff can answer on someone tickets, noone else.
Maybe I didn't catch the real problem. Please let me know where I am wrong.
I imagine:
1. Customer made a ticket
2. Staff reply on it from email with subject which consist ticket ID.
(only customer and staff can know the ticket ID)
3. System see that reply is form staff (based on email address) so added it to the ticket and reply to customer.

So only in situation that someone know the ticket ID and know the mail address someone of the staff could sent some untruth message to pretend to be a staff person.
Do you mean this kind of situation which cause this risk?

Br.
Karol

This would work providing you use the same IP address to always send mail, but would still allow abuse within the company itself (employee 1 sending mail as employee 2) - I know, it's far fetched, but indeed doable and as such cannot be included officially in HESK as it is a risk.

That said, it shouldn't be hard to create a modification for Hesk to allow this for you if you wanted it internally, but why use a help desk in the first place then if you prefer to do all communication over email?

Klemen, loved your reply here. So true! And it just irks me how little appreciation people have for all you have done in coding this script that can be had for little to no cost. I can't believe you even coded in customer email replies - wow!

I'd like to add, that I've tried other Ticket systems, (like Joomla's Huru Help Desk, to name one) and nothing comes close to the simplicity of use that Hesk has. What few features it didn't have, you've now programmed in, to where the script is now on par with the big guys. And geesh, people are even complaining about updates! Who ever heard of that? Honestly, I hope you don't sour from the experience and just throw up your hands. So I am here to say, HERE IS A WELL DESERVED THANK YOU FROM ALL OF US WHO APPRECIATE ALL YOUR HARD WORK.

Klemen wrote:That said, it shouldn't be hard to create a modification for Hesk to allow this for you if you wanted it internally, but why use a help desk in the first place then if you prefer to do all communication over email?

Hi,
I appreciate Clemen work and his patient, especially for people like me

As I wrote:
HESK help to collect all tickets from cleints, create reports from collected data, manage load of work of staff, maintain history of ticket in one place uder one ID so it is easy to follow the issue and many other functionalities...
Summarize HESK is very good tool to administrate helpdesk and email functionality built in it cause our (staff) work easiest and more efficient.
For example:
1.If staff could answer by email with add attachments by copy and paste some screenshots it is more fast and easiest then make screenshot, save it to file and add as attachment.
2.Staff is not working all the time on their desks and their are on some area of the office but can check emails by mobilephone and answer on ticket from mobilephone.
3. etc...

That is why I would like to use possibility to make answer by email for staff.
So please let me know on priv how to modify Hesk to has this functionality. I want ot use it internally in our company. If it is not possible please let me know.

Br.
Karol

@Lisaweb

Oh, thank you for the kudos and kind words, didn't expect that here

I truly appreciate constructive criticism and feedback. As with any software HESK may work perfectly in some cases while others may find it completely useless - but that is their problem, not mine I plan to keep working on HESK, it's just hard to find enough time (as you probably know I do it all non-professionally, in my free time)!

@Karol

Don't worry - I didn't take any of your posts or comments in a bad way, just trying to get a better understanding of the situation and explain why some features are left out on purpose.

As for modifying HESK to allow staff replies I am afraid modifications like this are out of the scope of my support. For such modifications your best bet is to hire a PHP coder to help.