Introduction

This manual is intended for use by OTOBO agents. The chapters describe the usage of the OTOBO software as an agent user.

Login to Agent Interface

The agent interface is available at the following location.

Note

You have to replace <OTOBO_HOST> with your domain.

https://<OTOBO_HOST>/otobo/index.pl

You need an agent account to be able to use OTOBO. If you have no account yet, please contact your administrator.

Agent Login Screen

If you forget your password, click on the Lost your password? link, and follow the instructions there.

Request New Password Screen

After a successful login, the agent dashboard will be displayed.

Agent Interface

Dashboard

After login to the agent interface, the agent dashboard will be displayed. This dashboard is a collection of widgets, which display customized important information for each agent.

Agent Dashboard

The dashboard is the main page of the system, where you can get an overview of tickets and other things related to ticket activity. It is designed to be the starting point for an agent’s daily work. By default, it provides a quick summary of the tickets that are pending, escalated, new or open, and more information.

One of the most important features about the dashboard is that is completely customizable. That means that you can configure each part as you want, showing or hiding elements. It is even possible to relocate these elements within the same column by clicking on and dragging the header of an element, and dropping them elsewhere. Each element is named widget. The system has some widgets ready to use out of the box, but the modular design of the dashboard screen is prepared to integrate custom widgets easily.

The content of this screen is arranged in two main columns, on the left column you normally can see information about tickets classified by their states like: reminder, escalated, new, and open. On each of these widgets you can filter the results to see all of the tickets that you are allowed to access, tickets you have locked, the ones that are located in agent defined queues, among other filters. There are also other kind of widgets in this column and they are all described below.

Contents

Dashboard

Dashboard Content Widgets

Dashboard Sidebar Widgets

Dashboard

The dashboard is the main overview screen for agents. Use this screen to get full overview about the most important things: ticket lists, appointments, statistics, news.

Dashboard Header

The header consists of three parts.

Avatar image

The Personal Menu and the Logout possibilities.

Toolbar icons

Icons with numbers indicating some ticket actions with the number of related tickets. The icons and search boxes are not activated by default.

See also

Icons and search boxes can be activated in settings under Frontend → Agent → Toolbar.

The last icon is the chat availability status.

See also

System configuration ChatEngine::Active needs to be activated to use this feature.

The chat availability status icon is a three-way switch, and can be changed by clicking.

Empty circle: unavailable for chats.

Empty circle with tick sign: available for internal (agent to agent) chats.

Filled circle with tick sign: available for internal (agent to agent) and external (customer to agent, public to agent) chats.

Note

The chat availability status will be changed from external chats to internal chats each time an agent logs in to OTOBO again.

Main menu

The main menu of the agent interface.

The dashboard displays so called widgets. A widget is a box, that consists of a header, a filter and a data table. Each widget can be moved with drag and drop, and can have own settings.

Dashboard Widgets

Each ticket widget has own filter for displaying:

My locked tickets: tickets which are locked by the current agent.

My watched tickets: tickets that the agent has in his/her watched list (requires Ticket::Watcher setting to be turned on).

My responsibilities: tickets that the agent is set as responsible (requires Ticket::Responsible setting to be turned on).

Tickets in My Queues: tickets which are in queues selected in Personal Preferences.

Tickets in My Services: tickets that are assigned to services selected in Personal Preferences.

All tickets: all tickets in this kind of widget.

The numbers indicate the number of tickets in each filter term.

To add new widgets:

Click on the Settings widget in the right sidebar to expand it.

Select the widgets you want to add.

Click on the Save settings button.

To remove widgets:

Click on the Settings widget in the right sidebar to expand it.

Deselect the widgets you want to remove.

Click on the Save settings button.

See also

You can also remove a widget, if you hover the mouse over the widget header and click on the × on the top right corner to close the widget.

To move widgets:

Click on the widget header and hold down the mouse button.

Drag the widget to the desired position.

Drop the widget by releasing the mouse button.

Widgets can have own settings. To configure a widget:

Hover the mouse over the widget header.

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner.

Change the number and set the visible columns by drag and drop.

Click on the Save Changes button.

Widget Settings

Note

The order of visible columns can be set by rearrange the columns in the Visible columns field.

Dashboard Content Widgets

Note

The widgets can be different depending on the installed packages and system configuration settings.

The Reminder Tickets widget lists the pending tickets. Pending tickets are set for later work by the agent, and the reminder time is going to expire soon.

Reminder Tickets Widget

The Escalated Tickets widget lists the escalated tickets. Escalated tickets are after the time set in service level agreement, and therefore needs to be worked on them immediately.

Escalated Tickets Widget

The New Tickets widget lists the recently created tickets. New tickets are not handled by an agent yet.

New Tickets Widget

The Open Tickets widget lists the open tickets. Open tickets represent the current work done by the agent.

Open Tickets Widget

The Running Process Tickets widget lists the process tickets, that are started, but not finished yet.

Running Process Tickets Widget

The Ticket Queue Overview widget gives an overview as a ticket count matrix, where the rows represent queues and the columns represent the ticket states. Each cell displays the number of tickets in a defined state that belongs to a particular queue.

Ticket Queue Overview Widget

The Events Ticket Calendar widget displays tickets in a calendar, but this widget does not work out-of-the-box.

To display the tickets in this calendar, the following settings need to be set by an admin user:

Create the following dynamic fields:

Object

Type

Name

Label

Ticket

Date / Time

TicketCalendarStartTime

Calendar Start Time

Ticket

Date / Time

TicketCalendarEndTime

Calendar End Time

Navigate to Frontend → Agent → View and select a view to add the dynamic field to.

For example add these dynamic fields to New Phone Ticket screen and New Email Ticket screen to set the dates at ticket creation time, or to Ticket Free Fields screen to set the dates for existing ticket in the Miscellaneous → Free Fields menu item of the Ticket Zoom screen.

Ticket::Frontend::AgentTicketPhone###DynamicField

TicketCreateStartTime → 1 – Enabled

TicketCreateEndTime → 1 – Enabled

Ticket::Frontend::AgentTicketEmail###DynamicField

TicketCreateStartTime → 1 – Enabled

TicketCreateEndTime → 1 – Enabled

Ticket::Frontend::AgentTicketFreeText###DynamicField

TicketCreateStartTime → 1 – Enabled

TicketCreateEndTime → 1 – Enabled

Add more queues to DashboardEventsTicketCalendar###Queues setting (default is Raw queue only).

If the dynamic fields contain values for the tickets, the tickets are displayed in the widget.

Hover the mouse over an entry to see the details of the ticket, or click on it to open the ticket in the Ticket Zoom screen.

Events Ticket Calendar Widget

Dashboard Sidebar Widgets

The following widgets are located on the right sidebar. There is a Settings widget to turn other widgets on or off, and some information widgets also displayed here.

The Settings widget lists all available widgets on the screen.

Settings Widget

To turn on or off a widget:

Expand the Settings widget in the right sidebar by clicking on its header bar.

Modify the checked state of a checkbox.

Click on the Save settings button.

The 7 Day Stats widget displays the number of created and closed tickets in the last seven days.

7 Day Stats Widget

The Upcoming Events widget displays entries from the Calendar.

Upcoming Events Widget

The Out Of Office widget displays the agents, who are currently out of office. This information can be set in the User Profile module of the Personal Preferences.

Note

If currently no agents are out of office, this widget is not displayed.

Out Of Office Widget

The Latest updated FAQ articles widget displays the FAQ articles, that are updated recently.

Latest Updated FAQ Articles Widget

The Latest created FAQ articles widget displays the FAQ articles, that are created recently.

Latest Created FAQ Articles Widget

The Logged-In Users widget displays the currently online agents and customer users.

Logged-In Users Widget

The OTOBO News widget displays news from an RSS feed.

See also

To change the RSS feed source, see DashboardBackend###0410-RSS setting.

OTOBO News Widget

The Appointments widget displays the appointments for today, tomorrow and for this week.

Click on the Add Appointment button to open the New Appointment dialog.

Appointments Widget

Personal Menu

Use this menu to customize your profile in OTOBO. The personal menu is available via your avatar in the top left corner.

All settings changed in this menu affect only your profile, and does not affect the behavior of OTOBO for other agents.

Contents

Notifications

Personal Preferences

User Profile

Change password

Google Authenticator

Avatar

Language

Time Zone

Out Of Office Time

Notification Settings

My Queues

My Services

Ticket Notifications

Appointment Notifications

My Chat Channels

Miscellaneous

Skin

Overview Refresh Time

Screen after new ticket

Advanced

Logout

Notifications

Use this screen to get an overview of notifications. The notification overview screen is available in the Notifications menu item of the Avatar menu.

If unread notifications are in this screen, a flag icon with number also indicates the number of unread notifications in the toolbar.

Notification Web View Screen

Notifications can be filtered by clicking on a state name in the header of the overview widget. There is an option All Notifications to see all notifications. The numbers after the state names indicate how many notifications are in each state.

To limit the number of displayed notifications per page and adjust visible columns:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Select the maximum number of notifications displayed per page and set the visible columns by drag and drop.

Click on the Submit button.

Note

The order of visible columns can be set by rearrange the columns in the Visible columns field.

Personal Preferences

Use this screen to set personal preferences in OTOBO. The personal preferences screen is available in the Personal Preferences menu item of the Avatar menu.

This overview screen consists of three modules.

User Profile

Notification Settings

Miscellaneous

Preferences Modules

Each module consists of widgets, which have two columns. In the first column is the setting, and in the second column is a description for the setting.

Note

Do not forget to apply the changes by clicking on the tick icon in the right part of the widget.

User Profile

This is the agent profile, where the account related settings can be changed.

Change password

In this widget the current password can be changed. To change the password, all fields must be filled.

Change Password Widget

Current password

Type your current password for security reasons, if you want to change it.

New password

Type your new password here.

Verify password

Type your new password again to avoid misspelling the new password.

Google Authenticator

See also

System configuration PreferencesGroups###GoogleAuthenticatorSecretKey needs to be activated to use this feature.

This is a two factor authentication token described in RFC6238 to improve the account security. Google Authenticator is a mobile application to generate tokens, but any other generator application can be used.

Google Authenticator Widget

Shared Secret

This is a string to use for token generation. It must contain only uppercase letters (A-Z) and numbers (2-7). Click on the Generate button to generate a secret.

Warning

Make sure that you add the shared secret to your generator application and the application works well. Otherwise you will be not able to login anymore without the two factor token.

Avatar

Here can be changed the image used as avatar image in Ticket Zoom screen and in the main menu.

Avatar Widget

It is not possible to upload an avatar image directly in OTOBO. You have to register your email address on Gravatar to use this feature. Otherwise the first letters of first name and last name will be displayed.

Language

Use this widget to set the language for the OTOBO user interface.

Language Widget

Only those languages are listed by default, in which OTOBO is translated more than 95%. To see all available languages, click on the refresh icon next to the drop-down list.

See also

Translation status of incomplete languages are low, but you can help to improve the translation. See the developer manual for more information about translating OTOBO.

Time Zone

Each agent has to set the timezone of the current location to get proper date and time calculation in OTOBO.

Time Zone Widget

Select the location where you are currently in.

Out Of Office Time

With this widget agents can inform other agents about absence. This is useful for resource planning and workload balancing.

Out Of Office Time Widget

Active

The function can be turned on or off.

Start

The first day of absence.

End

The last day of absence.

Notification Settings

These settings are for customizing personal notifications.

My Queues

In this widget some queues can be selected as preferred queues. Tickets in this queues will be displayed under the Tickets in My Queues filter of the ticket widgets, and notifications will be sent, if new tickets are available in one of the selected queues.

In Queue View only those queues will be displayed under My Queues filter, that are selected in this widget.

In case of owner or responsible selection, only agents are listed by default as potentially owner or responsible, who are set the queue as preferred queue in this widget.

My Queues Widget

Select one or more queues from the drop-down list.

My Services

See also

System configuration Ticket::Service needs to be activated to use this feature.

In this widget some services can be selected as preferred services.

In Service View only those services will be displayed under My Services filter, that are selected in this widget.

My Services Widget

Select one or more services from the drop-down list.

Ticket Notifications

In this widget can be selected the methods used for any kind of ticket notifications.

Ticket Notifications Widget

The possible methods are Email, Web View or SMS.

Appointment Notifications

In this widget can be selected the methods used for appointment notification.

Appointment Notifications Widget

The possible methods are Email, Web View or SMS.

My Chat Channels

See also

System configuration ChatEngine::Active needs to be activated to use this feature.

In this widget some chat channels can be selected as preferred external chat channels. You will be notified about external chat requests in these chat channels.

In Manage Chats screen only those chat channels will be displayed under My Chat Channels filter, that are selected in this widget.

My Chat Channels Widget

Select one or more chat channels from the drop-down list. An agent needs to select in which chat channels want to be available. Customers will only be able to create a new chat request on a certain channel if at least one agent with owner permissions has selected this channel in their preferences and is set as available for external chats by the chat availability icon in the Dashboard header toolbar.

Miscellaneous

These settings are for change of visual appearance of OTOBO.

Skin

In this widget can be selected the skin, that OTOBO should wear.

Skin Widget

Select a skin from the drop-down list.

Overview Refresh Time

It is possible to make overview screens automatically refreshed after a period of time.

Overview Refresh Time Widget

Select a refresh interval from the drop-down list.

Warning

Refreshing the overview screens too often can cause performance issues on large systems with many agents.

Screen after new ticket

Select, which screen should be shown after a new ticket has been created.

Screen After New Ticket Widget

Select a screen from the drop-down list.

Advanced

In this module can be configured some system configuration options.

Advanced Preferences Screen

To modify a setting:

Use the tree navigation in the left sidebar to find the desired setting.

Modify the value.

Click on the tick button in the right side of the setting widget.

Advanced Preferences - Tree navigation Screen

The modified settings have a gray border on the left.

To reset a setting:

Click on the reset icon in the top right corner of the setting widget.

Logout

Use this menu item to leave OTOBO and go to the login screen.

Note

Clicking on this menu item will logout the agent without confirmation.

Customers

Use this menu to get overview screens for customers and customer users. Both customers and customer users can be managed here.

Contents

Customer Information Center

Manage Customer Tickets

Customer Information Center Content Widgets

Customer Information Center Sidebar Widgets

Customer User Information Center

Manage Customer User Tickets

Customer User Information Center Content Widgets

Customer User Information Center Sidebar Widgets

Customer User Administration

Manage Customer Users

Customer User Settings

Customer Administration

Manage Customers

Customer Settings

Customer Information Center

Customer information center is a dashboard, which displays all relevant tickets and customer users of a customer. This dashboard has the same purpose as the agent dashboard: to see all relevant information at a glance.

Use this screen to access the customer dashboard. The dashboard is available in the Customer Information Center menu item of the Customers menu.

Manage Customer Tickets

Clicking on the Customer Information Center menu item will open a search dialog to search for a customer or a customer user. At least two characters need to be entered here.

Customer or Customer User Search Dialog

Note

Usage of wildcards (*) is also possible. Enter two asterisks (**) to list all customers or customer users.

After a customer or a customer user is selected, the Customer Information Center dashboard will be opened. The dashboard contains many widgets.

Note

The order of the widgets can be rearranged by drag and drop, and the widgets can be removed with the close icon on the top right corner of each widget.

See also

See chapter Dashboard for more detailed explanation of managing widgets.

Customer Information Center Dashboard

Customer Information Center Content Widgets

The Customer Users widget is used to list all customer users belong to the customer. It is possible to add or edit customer users, see the details and create tickets directly from the widget.

Customer Users Widget

To add a new customer user:

Click on the Add Customer User button in the top of the widget.

Fill in the required fields.

Click on the Save button.

To edit a customer user:

Click on the pencil icon in the last column of the table.

Modify the fields.

Click on the Save or Save and finish button.

To see the details of a customer user:

Click on the name of a customer user.

See the customer and all relevant tickets in the Customer User Information Center.

To create new ticket for a customer user:

Click on the Create link in the Phone Ticket or Email Ticket column.

Follow the instruction in New Phone Ticket or in New Email Ticket screen.

To search for tickets of a customer user:

Click on the numbers in the Open or Closed column.

Find the needed ticket in the new screen.

The following widgets display tickets related to a customer.

Each ticket widget has an own filter for displaying:

My locked tickets: tickets which are locked by the current agent.

Tickets in My Queues: tickets which are in queues selected in Personal Preferences.

All tickets: all tickets in this kind of widget.

The Reminder Tickets widget lists the pending tickets. Pending tickets are set for later work by the agent, and the reminder time is going to expire soon.

Reminder Tickets Widget

The Escalated Tickets widget lists the escalated tickets. Escalated tickets are after the time set in service level agreement, and therefore need to be worked on them immediately.

Escalated Tickets Widget

The New Tickets widget lists the recently created tickets. New tickets are not handled by an agent yet.

New Tickets Widget

The Open Tickets widget lists the open tickets. Open tickets represent the current work done by the agent.

Open Tickets Widget

Customer Information Center Sidebar Widgets

The following widgets are located on the right sidebar. There is a Settings widget to turn other widgets on or off, and some information widgets are also displayed here.

The Settings widget lists all available widgets on the screen.

Settings Widget

To turn on or off a widget:

Expand the Settings widget in the right sidebar by clicking on its header bar.

Modify the checked state of a checkbox.

Click on the Save settings button.

The Company Status widget displays the number of tickets of the current customer categorized by state.

Company Status Widget

The Customer Information widget displays information about the current customer.

Customer Information Widget

See also

Customer information can be changed in Customer Administration.

Customer User Information Center

Customer user information center is a dashboard, which displays all relevant tickets and customers of a customer user. This dashboard has the same purpose as the agent dashboard: to see all relevant information at a glance.

Use this screen to access the customer user dashboard. The dashboard is available in the Customer User Information Center menu item of the Customers menu.

Manage Customer User Tickets

Clicking on the Customer User Information Center menu item will open a search dialog to search a customer user. At least two characters need to be entered here.

Customer User Search Dialog

Note

Usage of wildcards (*) is also possible. Enter two asterisks (**) to list all customer users.

After a customer user is selected, the Customer User Information Center dashboard will be opened. The dashboard contains many widgets.

Note

The order of the widgets can be rearranged by drag and drop, and the widgets can be removed with the close icon on the top right corner of each widget.

See also

See chapter Dashboard for more detailed explanation of managing widgets.

Customer User Information Center Dashboard

Customer User Information Center Content Widgets

The Customer IDs widget is used to list all customers to whom the customer user belongs to. It is possible to edit the customer and see the details directly from the widget.

Customer IDs Widget

To edit a customer:

Click on the pencil icon in the last column of the table.

Modify the fields.

Click on the Save or Save and finish button.

To see the details of a customer:

Click on the name of a customer.

See the customer users and all relevant tickets in the Customer Information Center.

To search for tickets of a customer:

Click on the numbers in the Open or Closed column.

Find the needed ticket in the new screen.

The following widgets display tickets related to a customer user.

Each ticket widget has an own filter for displaying:

Assigned to customer user: tickets which are assigned to the customer user.

Accessible for customer user: tickets which are accessible for customer user.

My locked tickets: tickets which are locked by the current agent.

Tickets in My Queues: tickets which are in queues selected in Personal Preferences.

All tickets: all tickets in this kind of widget.

The Reminder Tickets widget lists the pending tickets. Pending tickets are set for later work by the agent, and the reminder time is going to expire soon.

Reminder Tickets Widget

The Escalated Tickets widget lists the escalated tickets. Escalated tickets are after the time set in service level agreement, and therefore needs to be worked on them immediately.

Escalated Tickets Widget

The New Tickets widget lists the recently created tickets. New tickets are not handled by an agent yet.

New Tickets Widget

The Open Tickets widget lists the open tickets. Open tickets represent the current work done by the agent.

Open Tickets Widget

Customer User Information Center Sidebar Widgets

The following widgets are located on the right sidebar. There is a Settings widget to turn other widgets on or off, and some information widgets also displayed here.

The Settings widget lists all available widgets on the screen.

Settings Widget

To turn on or off a widget:

Expand the Settings widget in the right sidebar by clicking on its header bar.

Modify the checked state of a checkbox.

Click on the Save settings button.

The Customer User Information widget displays information about the current customer user.

Customer User Information Widget

The Customer Information widget displays information about the current customer.

Customer Information Widget

See also

Customer user information can be changed in Customer User Administration.

Customer User Administration

A record of who your company deals with requires more information about that individual: physical location for shipping and billing purposes, as well as contact information for email and phone contact.

OTOBO offers a great way to save individual information about contacts within organizations which your company serves. You can add as many personal connections into OTOBO as needed.

Use this screen to add a customer user to the system. A fresh OTOBO installation contains no customer users by default. The customer user management screen is available in the Customer User Administration menu item of the Customers menu.

Customer User Management Screen

Manage Customer Users

Warning

A customer user can only be added to the system when at least one customer exists. Create a customer in Customer Administration first.

Note

Adding or editing a customer user is possible only by using database back end. Using external directory services like LDAP will disable the customer user management functionality.

To add a customer user:

Click on the Add Customer User button in the left sidebar.

Fill in the required fields.

Click on the Save button.

Add Customer User Screen

Warning

Customer users can not be deleted from the system. They can only be deactivated by setting the Validity option to invalid or invalid-temporarily.

To edit a customer user:

Click on a customer user in the list of customer users.

Modify the fields.

Click on the Save or Save and finish button.

Edit Customer User Screen

To find a customer user:

Enter a search term to the search box in the left sidebar.

Click on the magnifying glass icon in the right part of the field or hit an Enter.

Note

If several customer users are added to the system, use the search box to find a particular customer user. Only the first 1000 customer users are listed by default.

The customer user permissions can be controlled by adding a customer or a customer user to groups. This can result a complex matrix of permissions. The effective permissions for a customer user can be checked in the bottom of the Edit Customer User screen.

Effective Permissions for Customer User Widget

See also

Customer group support needs to be enabled to use this feature. Please contact your administrator.

Note

Only administrators can add customer users to groups.

Customer User Settings

The following settings are available when adding or editing this resource. The fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory.

Note

These are the default fields available for the internal database table.

Title or salutation

Some name prefix can be added here like Mr., Dr., Jr., etc.

Firstname *

The first name of the customer user.

Lastname *

The last name of the customer user.

Username *

The username of the customer user to login to the system.

Password

The password of the customer user. This will be auto-generated if left empty.

Email *

The email address of the customer user.

Customer *

The customer company the customer user belongs to. Select a customer from the list. Customers can be added in Customer Administration.

Phone

The phone number of the customer user.

Fax

The fax number of the customer user.

Mobile

The cellphone number of the customer user.

Street

The street name of the customer.

Zip

The zip code of the customer.

City

The headquarter city of the customer.

Country

The country of the customer user.

Comment

Add additional information to this resource. It is recommended to always fill this field as a description of the resource with a full sentence for better clarity, because the comment will be also displayed in the overview table.

Validity *

Set the validity of this resource. Each resource can be used in OTOBO only, if this field is set to valid. Setting this field to invalid or invalid-temporarily will disable the use of the resource.

Customer Administration

Use this screen to add customer companies to the system. A fresh OTOBO installation contains no customers by default. The customer management screen is available in the Customer Administration menu item of the Customers menu.

Customer Management Screen

Manage Customers

Note

Adding or editing a customer is possible only by using database back end. Using external directory services like LDAP will disable the customer management functionality.

To add a customer:

Click on the Add Customer button in the left sidebar.

Fill in the required fields.

Click on the Save button.

Add Customer Screen

Warning

Customers can not be deleted from the system. They can only be deactivated by setting the Validity option to invalid or invalid-temporarily.

To edit a customer:

Click on a customer in the list of customers.

Modify the fields.

Click on the Save or Save and finish button.

Edit Customer Screen

To find a customer:

Enter a search term to the search box in the left sidebar.

Click on the magnifying glass icon in the right part of the field or hit an Enter.

Note

If several customers are added to the system, use the search box to find a particular customer. Only the first 1000 customers are listed by default.

Customer Settings

The following settings are available when adding or editing this resource. The fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory.

Customer ID *

The internal name of the customer. Should contain only letters, numbers and some special characters.

Customer *

The name of this resource. Any type of characters can be entered to this field including uppercase letters and spaces. The name will be displayed in the overview table.

Street

The street name of the customer.

Zip

The zip code of the customer.

City

The headquarter city of the customer.

Country

The country of the customer. Choose a country from the list.

URL

The web page or other URL of the customer.

Comment

Add additional information to this resource. It is recommended to always fill this field as a description of the resource with a full sentence for better clarity, because the comment will be also displayed in the overview table.

Validity *

Set the validity of this resource. Each resource can be used in OTOBO only, if this field is set to valid. Setting this field to invalid or invalid-temporarily will disable the use of the resource.

Calendar

When working with customers, resource planning and scheduling can be a complex task. Appointments enable you to meet your customers where and whenever needed.

OTOBO supports this requirement with calendars. Calendars allow management of appointments and resources inside the ticket system. You can connect your tickets to scheduled tasks and make them available to all users to see. This feature adds transparency to show your team's workload and prevent users from promising resources which are not available.

Contents

Calendar Overview

Agenda Overview

Resource Overview

New Appointment

Appointment Settings

Repeating Appointments

Calendar Overview

Use this screen to get an overview of the added calendars. The overview screen is available in the Calendar Overview menu item of the Calendar menu.

Note

There are no calendars added by default. Please contact your administrator to add one ore more calendars.

No Calendars Found

This overview works the same like usual calendars. Different time periods and timelines can be selected to view appointments, and it is possible to jump between different periods.

Calendar Overview Screen

Check or uncheck the checkboxes in the Calendars widget to show or hide appointments in a specific calendar.

Calendars Widget

To view appointments in external calendar applications:

Click on the Copy public calendar URL icon in the last column of Calendars widget to copy the URL to clipboard.

Open your external calendar application.

Insert the URL into your external calendar application.

Note

If several calendars are added to the system, use the filter box to find a particular calendar by just typing the name to filter.

Within the calendar overview, an agent is able to display, create, edit and/or delete appointments of different calendars, depending on their permission level to the related calendars. Such appointments can be created or edited via drag and drop within this screen.

To add a new appointment:

Click on the Add Appointment button in the left sidebar.

Fill in the required fields.

Click on the Save button.

See also

The Appointment dialog is explained in New Appointment chapter.

Appointment Dialog

To edit an appointment:

Click on an appointment in the calendar overview.

Modify the fields.

Click on the Save button.

Edit Appointment Dialog

To copy an appointment:

Click on an appointment in the calendar overview.

Click on the Copy button.

To delete an appointment:

Click on an appointment in the calendar overview.

Click on the Delete button.

Click on the OK button in the confirmation dialog.

Agenda Overview

Within the agenda overview, an agent is able to display the appointments of all available (accessible) calendars in a table-like overview. This overview is designed to have a detailed list of upcoming appointments in a structured table. Like in Calendar Overview appointments can be created, edited or deleted.

Note

There are no calendars added by default. Please contact your administrator to add one ore more calendars.

No Calendars Found

This overview supports a monthly, weekly and daily point of view on available appointments.

Agenda Overview Screen

Resource Overview

Note

Rother OSS TODO: This feature will be included in one of the next OTOBO releases. If you need it beforehand, please contact sales@otobo.de, we will find a solution.

Upgrade Dialog

New Appointment

Use this menu item to add new appointments to calendars. New appointments can be also added by clicking on the Add Appointment button either in Calendar Overview or in Agenda Overview screens. It is also possible to drag over a range of the calendar widget to setup a rough time span. Right after that, a dialog appears where the data can be inserted.

Appointment Dialog

Appointment Settings

The following settings are available when adding or editing this resource. The fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory.

Title *

The name of this resource. Any type of characters can be entered to this field including uppercase letters and spaces. The name will be displayed in the overview table.

Description

Add additional information to this resource. It is recommended to always fill this field as a description of the resource with a full sentence for better clarity.

Location

If the location contains a value, a related link icon will show up next to the field which by default links to Google map to get a better picture of the location.

See also

This link is configurable through the system configuration option AgentAppointmentEdit::Location::Link.

Calendar *

Select the calendar to whom the appointment will be added to.

Resource

Note

Rother OSS TODO: This feature will be included in one of the next OTOBO releases. If you need it beforehand, please contact sales@otobo.de, we will find a solution.

Start date

The start date of the appointment.

End date

The end date of the appointment.

All-day

This checkbox indicates that the appointment takes place on the whole day. If it is checked, time of the start date and the end date will be disabled and set to 00:00.

Repeat

Define appointment recurrences and will be described separately, see Repeating Appointments below.

Notification

Define time periods an appointment notification should be sent before the appointment start.

See also

Appointment notifications can be set in admin interface. Please contact your administrator.

Ticket

Tickets and other objects can be linked to the appointment with this search field.

Note

Usage of wildcards (*) is also possible. Enter two asterisks (**) to list all tickets.

Repeating Appointments

If appointments need to be created in a recurring manner, it is possible to setup detailed information about the occurrences of an appointment.

To create repeating appointments:

Select Start date and End date (or check All day).

Select from the pre-defined frequencies of the occurrences or choose custom settings.

Choose either a date to repeat until or an amount of times to repeat.

Repeating Appointments

After all decisions are made and the settings are saved successfully, the appointment will be marked as recurring appointment. The parent appointment will be marked with circle-arrow-symbol and the child appointments with a chain-symbol.

Repeating Appointments Overview

Future changes to the parent appointment will affect the children automatically, without any further message. If an agent is about to change one of the child appointments, a message will ask what would they like to update.

Edit Repeating Appointment

If All occurrences going to be updated, the behavior will be the same as with the update of the parent appointment. All options (including the recurring settings) are changeable.

If Just this occurrence will be updated, it is not possible to change the repeating settings, but a related message and a link to the parent appointment will be provided.

The enabled repeating option will be additionally displayed in the tool-tip of the related appointments.

Tickets

A ticket is similar to a medical report created for a hospital patient. When a patient first visits the hospital, a medical report is created to hold all necessary personal and medical information on him. Over multiple visits, as he is attended to by the same or additional doctors, the attending doctor updates the report by adding new information on the patient’s health and the ongoing treatment. This allows any other doctors or the nursing staff to get a complete picture on the case at hand. When the patient recovers and leaves the hospital, all information from the medical report is archived and the report is closed.

Ticket systems such as OTOBO handle tickets like normal emails. The messages are saved in the system. When a customer sends a request, a new ticket is generated by the system which is comparable to a new medical report being created. The response to this new ticket is comparable to a doctor’s entry in the medical report. A ticket is closed if an answer is sent back to the customer, or if the ticket is separately closed by the system. If a customer responds again on an already closed ticket, the ticket is reopened with the new information added.

Ticket Zoom Screen

Every ticket is stored and archived with complete information. Since tickets are handled like normal emails, attachments and contextual annotations will also be stored with each email. In addition, information on relevant dates, employees involved, working time needed for ticket resolution, etc. are also saved. At any later stage, tickets can be sorted, and it is possible to search through and analyze all information using different filtering mechanisms.

Contents

Queue View

Small Queue View

Medium Queue View

Large Queue View

Queue View Bulk Actions

Service View

Small Service View

Medium Service View

Large Service View

Service View Bulk Actions

Status View

Small Status View

Medium Status View

Large Status View

Status View Bulk Actions

Escalation View

Small Escalation View

Medium Escalation View

Large Escalation View

Escalation View Bulk Actions

New Phone Ticket

New Email Ticket

New Process Ticket

Search

Templates

Filters in use

Additional filters

Ticket Zoom

Ticket Menu

Article Overview

Article Zoom

Linked Objects

Ticket Information

Customer Information

Queue View

Use this screen to view tickets in specific queues. The Queue View screen is available in the Queue View menu item of the Tickets menu.

This screen has three different views: small, medium and large. You can change the views with the buttons in the right side of the widget: S means small, M means medium and L means large.

Queue View Widget Header

Each view has a filter in the top of the widget to list tickets only in a specific queue or tickets in My Queues set in Personal Preferences.

There are also filters to view All tickets or only Available tickets.

All tickets

This option lists all tickets in the selected queue.

Available tickets

This option lists only open tickets which are available for working with them.

Small Queue View

This view lists tickets in a table format.

Small Queue View Screen

To limit the number of displayed tickets per page:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Select the maximum number of tickets displayed per page.

Click on the Save button.

To set the displayed columns and adjust order of columns:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Move columns from Available Columns to Visible Columns or vice versa.

Rearrange columns in Visible Columns by drag and drop.

Click on the Save button.

Note

Use the filter box to find a particular column in Available Columns by just typing the name to filter.

It is possible to sort tickets by a specific attribute, but not all attributes can be used for sort.

To sort tickets:

Click on a column header to sort tickets by the selected attribute.

Click on the column header again to change the sort order.

It is possible to filter tickets by a specific attribute, but not all attributes can be used as filter. The filterable attributes are marked with a filter icon in the column header.

To filter tickets:

Click on the filter icon in the column header.

Select a value for the filter.

Note

Multiple filters can be set. Active filters are marked with a bold filter icon in the column header and a trash icon is displayed in the widget header. Click on this trash icon to remove all active filters.

This view has an own menu to manage tickets. Select a checkbox in the row of a ticket to see this menu.

Bulk

Bulk action for the ticket, multiple attributes can be changed (see below).

Unlock

Unlock a ticket to give it back to the queue.

Zoom

Open the Ticket Zoom screen to see all details of the ticket.

History

A new window will be opened that displays the history of the ticket.

Note

New note can be added to the ticket.

Close

Close this ticket.

Quick Close

Close this ticket by one click.

Move

The ticket can be moved to an other queue.

Medium Queue View

This view lists tickets in a list view format.

Medium Queue View Screen

To limit the number of displayed tickets per page:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Select the maximum number of tickets displayed per page.

Click on the Save button.

Hover the mouse over the ticket row, and a floating menu will appear. The floating menu has the same menu items that are already explained in the Small Queue View section.

Floating Menu of Medium Queue View

Large Queue View

This view lists tickets in a detailed format.

Large Queue View Screen

To limit the number of displayed tickets per page:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Select the maximum number of tickets displayed per page.

Click on the Save button.

Hover the mouse over the ticket row, and a floating menu will appear. The floating menu has the same menu items that are already explained in the Small Queue View section.

Floating Menu of Large Queue View

Queue View Bulk Actions

Multiple attributes can be changed in this screen at the same time.

Queue View Bulk Action Screen

Service View

See also

System configuration Ticket::Service needs to be activated to use this feature.

Use this screen to view tickets in specific services. The Service View screen is available in the Service View menu item of the Tickets menu.

This screen has three different views: small, medium and large. You can change the views with the buttons in the right side of the widget: S means small, M means medium and L means large.

Service View Widget Header

Each view has a filter in the top of the widget to list tickets only in a specific service or tickets in My Services set in Personal Preferences.

There are also filters to view All tickets or only Available tickets.

All tickets

This option lists all tickets in the selected queue.

Available tickets

This option lists only open tickets which are available for working with them.

Small Service View

This view lists tickets in a table format.

Small Service View Screen

To limit the number of displayed tickets per page:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Select the maximum number of tickets displayed per page.

Click on the Save button.

To set the displayed columns and adjust order of columns:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Move columns from Available Columns to Visible Columns or vice versa.

Rearrange columns in Visible Columns by drag and drop.

Click on the Save button.

Note

Use the filter box to find a particular column in Available Columns by just typing the name to filter.

It is possible to sort tickets by a specific attribute, but not all attributes can be used for sort.

To sort tickets:

Click on a column header to sort tickets by the selected attribute.

Click on the column header again to change the sort order.

It is possible to filter tickets by a specific attribute, but not all attributes can be used as filter. The filterable attributes are marked with a filter icon in the column header.

To filter tickets:

Click on the filter icon in the column header.

Select a value for the filter.

Note

Multiple filters can be set. Active filters are marked with a bold filter icon in the column header and a trash icon is displayed in the widget header. Click on this trash icon to remove all active filters.

This view has an own menu to manage tickets. Select a checkbox in the row of a ticket to see this menu.

Bulk

Bulk action for the ticket, multiple attributes can be changed (see below).

Unlock

Unlock a ticket to give it back to the queue.

Zoom

Open the Ticket Zoom screen to see all details of the ticket.

History

A new window will be opened that displays the history of the ticket.

Note

New note can be added to the ticket.

Close

Close this ticket.

Quick Close

Close this ticket by one click.

Move

The ticket can be moved to an other queue..

Medium Service View

This view lists tickets in a list view format.

Medium Service View Screen

To limit the number of displayed tickets per page:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Select the maximum number of tickets displayed per page.

Click on the Save button.

Hover the mouse over the ticket row, and a floating menu will appear. The floating menu has the same menu items that are already explained in the Small Service View section.

Floating Menu of Medium Service View

Large Service View

This view lists tickets in a detailed format.

Large Service View Screen

To limit the number of displayed tickets per page:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Select the maximum number of tickets displayed per page.

Click on the Save button.

Hover the mouse over the ticket row, and a floating menu will appear. The floating menu has the same menu items that are already explained in the Small Service View section.

Floating Menu of Large Service View

Service View Bulk Actions

Multiple attributes can be changed in this screen at the same time.

Service View Bulk Action Screen

Status View

Use this screen to view tickets in specific states. The Status View screen is available in the Status View menu item of the Tickets menu.

This screen has three different views: small, medium and large. You can change the views with the buttons in the right side of the widget: S means small, M means medium and L means large.

Status View Widget Header

Each view has a filter in the top of the widget to list tickets only in a specific state.

Small Status View

This view lists tickets in a table format.

Small Status View Screen

To limit the number of displayed tickets per page:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Select the maximum number of tickets displayed per page.

Click on the Save button.

To set the displayed columns and adjust order of columns:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Move columns from Available Columns to Visible Columns or vice versa.

Rearrange columns in Visible Columns by drag and drop.

Click on the Save button.

Note

Use the filter box to find a particular column in Available Columns by just typing the name to filter.

It is possible to sort tickets by a specific attribute, but not all attributes can be used for sort.

To sort tickets:

Click on a column header to sort tickets by the selected attribute.

Click on the column header again to change the sort order.

It is possible to filter tickets by a specific attribute, but not all attributes can be used as filter. The filterable attributes are marked with a filter icon in the column header.

To filter tickets:

Click on the filter icon in the column header.

Select a value for the filter.

Note

Multiple filters can be set. Active filters are marked with a bold filter icon in the column header and a trash icon is displayed in the widget header. Click on this trash icon to remove all active filters.

This view has an own menu to manage tickets. Select a checkbox in the row of a ticket to see this menu.

Bulk

Bulk action for the ticket, multiple attributes can be changed (see below).

Unlock

Unlock a ticket to give it back to the queue.

Zoom

Open the Ticket Zoom screen to see all details of the ticket.

History

A new window will be opened that displays the history of the ticket.

Note

New note can be added to the ticket.

Close

Close this ticket.

Quick Close

Close this ticket by one click.

Move

The ticket can be moved to an other queue.

Medium Status View

This view lists tickets in a list view format.

Medium Status View Screen

To limit the number of displayed tickets per page:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Select the maximum number of tickets displayed per page.

Click on the Save button.

Hover the mouse over the ticket row, and a floating menu will appear. The floating menu has the same menu items that are already explained in the Small Status View section.

Floating Menu of Medium Status View

Large Status View

This view lists tickets in a detailed format.

Large Status View Screen

To limit the number of displayed tickets per page:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Select the maximum number of tickets displayed per page.

Click on the Save button.

Hover the mouse over the ticket row, and a floating menu will appear. The floating menu has the same menu items that are already explained in the Small Status View section.

Floating Menu of Large Status View

Status View Bulk Actions

Multiple attributes can be changed in this screen at the same time.

Status View Bulk Action Screen

Escalation View

Use this screen to view tickets in specific escalation time periods. The Escalation View screen is available in the Escalation View menu item of the Tickets menu.

This screen has three different views: small, medium and large. You can change the views with the buttons in the right side of the widget: S means small, M means medium and L means large.

Escalation View Widget Header

Each view has a filter in the top of the widget to list tickets only in a specific escalation time period.

Today

Tickets, that have a deadline today.

Tomorrow

Tickets, that have a deadline tomorrow.

Next week

Tickets, that have a deadline on the next week.

Small Escalation View

This view lists tickets in a table format.

Small Escalation View Screen

To limit the number of displayed tickets per page:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Select the maximum number of tickets displayed per page.

Click on the Save button.

To set the displayed columns and adjust order of columns:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Move columns from Available Columns to Visible Columns or vice versa.

Rearrange columns in Visible Columns by drag and drop.

Click on the Save button.

Note

Use the filter box to find a particular column in Available Columns by just typing the name to filter.

It is possible to sort tickets by a specific attribute, but not all attributes can be used for sort.

To sort tickets:

Click on a column header to sort tickets by the selected attribute.

Click on the column header again to change the sort order.

It is possible to filter tickets by a specific attribute, but not all attributes can be used as filter. The filterable attributes are marked with a filter icon in the column header.

To filter tickets:

Click on the filter icon in the column header.

Select a value for the filter.

Note

Multiple filters can be set. Active filters are marked with a bold filter icon in the column header and a trash icon is displayed in the widget header. Click on this trash icon to remove all active filters.

This view has an own menu to manage tickets. Select a checkbox in the row of a ticket to see this menu.

Bulk

Bulk action for the ticket, multiple attributes can be changed (see below).

Unlock

Unlock a ticket to give it back to the queue.

Zoom

Open the Ticket Zoom screen to see all details of the ticket.

History

A new window will be opened that displays the history of the ticket.

Note

New note can be added to the ticket.

Close

Close this ticket.

Quick Close

Close this ticket by one click.

Move

The ticket can be moved to an other queue.

Medium Escalation View

This view lists tickets in a list view format.

Medium Escalation View Screen

To limit the number of displayed tickets per page:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Select the maximum number of tickets displayed per page.

Click on the Save button.

Hover the mouse over the ticket row, and a floating menu will appear. The floating menu has the same menu items that are already explained in the Small Escalation View section.

Floating Menu of Medium Escalation View

Large Escalation View

This view lists tickets in a detailed format.

Large Escalation View Screen

To limit the number of displayed tickets per page:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Select the maximum number of tickets displayed per page.

Click on the Save button.

Hover the mouse over the ticket row, and a floating menu will appear. The floating menu has the same menu items that are already explained in the Small Escalation View section.

Floating Menu of Large Escalation View

Escalation View Bulk Actions

Multiple attributes can be changed in this screen at the same time.

Escalation View Bulk Action Screen

New Phone Ticket

Use this screen to create tickets based on phone calls. The phone ticket screen is available in the New Phone Ticket menu item of the Tickets menu.

New Phone Ticket Screen

The following settings are available when adding this resource. The fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory.

Customer user *

The person, to whom the ticket is created for.

Note

Usage of wildcards (*) is also possible. Enter two asterisks (**) to list all customer users.

To queue *

The queue, where the new ticket will be placed to.

Service

The service category of this ticket.

See also

This field is available if Ticket::Service is enabled.

Service Level Agreement

Select one of the Service Level Agreements if available.

Owner

The owner is an agent, who actually works with the new ticket.

See also

Enable Ticket::Responsible setting to set an other agent as responsible for the ticket.

Responsible

Select an agent responsible for the ticket.

Subject *

The subject of the ticket like the subject of an email.

This might be helpful

This field is not visible by default, but it displays related FAQ articles based on the keywords entered in the Subject and/or the Text fields. Clicking on a FAQ article opens the FAQ Zoom screen.

The related FAQ articles are displayed as the agent types, so the list of suggested FAQ articles is updated after any word typed into the Subject and/or the Text fields. The suggested FAQ articles are sorted based on the number of matched keywords.

Options

It is possible to add other objects like customer users or FAQ articles to the ticket.

Text *

The body text of the first article of the ticket.

Attachments

It is possible to add attachments to the ticket. Click on the field to add an attachment, or just drop some files here.

Next ticket state

New tickets are in open state by default. Select an other state if you want to change it.

Pending date

Select a date and time as reminder for the ticket. If the pending time is reached, the ticket can be escalated.

Priority

New tickets have 3 normal priority by default. Select an other priority if you want to change it.

Time units (work units)

Enter any amount of time units for time accounting.

After all information is collected and set, click on the Create button to create the new ticket.

New Email Ticket

Use this screen to create tickets and send them to customer users. The email ticket screen is available in the New Email Ticket menu item of the Tickets menu.

New Email Ticket Screen

The following settings are available when adding this resource. The fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory.

To customer user *

The person, to whom the ticket is created for. This will be the To field of the email.

Note

Usage of wildcards (*) is also possible. Enter two asterisks (**) to list all customer users.

Cc

Select other customer users as carbon copy of the email, if needed.

Bcc

Select other customer users as blind carbon copy of the email, if needed.

From queue *

Select a queue, where the new ticket should be placed to. The queue address will be the From field of the email.

Service

The service category of this ticket.

See also

This field is available if Ticket::Service is enabled.

Service Level Agreement

Select one of the Service Level Agreements if available.

Owner

The owner is an agent, who actually works with the new ticket.

See also

Enable Ticket::Responsible setting to set an other agent as responsible for the ticket.

Responsible

Select an agent responsible for the ticket.

Subject *

The subject of the ticket like the subject of an email.

This might be helpful

This field is not visible by default, but it displays related FAQ articles based on the keywords entered in the Subject and/or the Text fields. Clicking on a FAQ article opens the FAQ Zoom screen.

The related FAQ articles are displayed as the agent types, so the list of suggested FAQ articles is updated after any word typed into the Subject and/or the Text fields. The suggested FAQ articles are sorted based on the number of matched keywords.

Options

It is possible to add other objects like customer users or FAQ articles to the ticket.

Text *

The body text of the first article of the ticket.

Signature

The signature assigned to the selected queue. Please contact your administrator to change the signature.

Attachments

It is possible to add attachments to the ticket. Click on the field to add an attachment, or just drop some files here.

Next ticket state

New tickets are in open state by default. Select an other state if you want to change it.

Pending date

Select a date and time as reminder for the ticket. If the pending time is reached, the ticket can be escalated.

Priority

New tickets have 3 normal priority by default. Select an other priority if you want to change it.

Time units (work units)

Enter any amount of time units for time accounting.

After all information is collected and set, click on the Send mail button to create the new ticket and send the email to the selected customer users.

New Process Ticket

Note

This option is available only, if at least one process is deployed in the system.

Use this screen to create tickets from processes. The process ticket screen is available in the New Process Ticket menu item of the Tickets menu.

New Process Ticket Screen

The following setting is available when adding this resource. The fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory.

Process *

A process needs to be selected from the list to continue.

See also

Processes can be defined in the Process Management module of the administrator interface.

After a process is selected, the screen will be refreshed with the first activity dialog of the selected process.

Application For Leave Process Activity Dialog

Note

The fields displayed depend on the process, therefore no explanation is described here for those fields.

Search

Use this screen to search for tickets based on various criteria. The ticket search screen is available in the Search menu item of the Tickets menu.

Search Dialog

The dialog is divided into three parts: Templates, Filters in use and Additional filters.

Templates

This part of the dialog can be used to save a search template for further usage.

To create a new search template:

Click on the Create New button.

Enter a name for the search template.

Add some search criteria.

Click on the Run Search button.

To use a saved search template:

Select a template from the drop-down list.

Click on the Run Search button.

Search Templates Dialog

If only one ticket matches, the Ticket Zoom will be opened. Otherwise you will be redirected to Search Results screen to see all matched tickets.

To delete a saved search template:

Click on the Delete button.

Warning

The template will be deleted immediately without confirmation!

Use the Profile link button to go directly to Search Results screen. This is the permanent link of the search template.

Search Results Screen

Filters in use

This part lists the filters, that are used for the search.

Additional filters can be added in the Additional filters part of the screen, and filters can be removed by clicking on the ⊟ button next to the field.

Additional filters

This part is for adding more filters and selecting the output format of the results.

Add another attribute

Select an extra attribute from the drop-down list to be used in the search.

Output

Select the output format of the result.

You can start the search by clicking on the Run search button.

Ticket Zoom

Use this screen to see the details of a ticket. The Ticket Zoom screen is available, if you click on a ticket in any other screens.

Ticket Zoom Screen

This screen has an own menu and contains several widgets.

Ticket Menu

The Ticket Zoom screen has an own menu.

The menu is extensible and menu items can be grouped into drop-down lists.

Ticket Menu

Back

This menu item goes back to the previous screen.

Lock or Unlock

The name of the menu item depends on the lock state of the ticket.

Lock

If the ticket is unlocked, an agent can lock the ticket and the agent becomes the ticket owner.

Unlock

If the ticket is locked to an agent, the agent can release the ticket and other agents can lock it.

Warning

This menu item has no confirmation window. Lock or unlock the ticket is done immediately.

Print

This menu item opens a PDF file to show the printer friendly version of the screen. You can save or print this PDF file.

Priority

This menu item opens a new window to change the priority of the ticket.

Change Priority Screen

Priority

Select the new priority for the ticket.

Subject *

The subject of the ticket like the subject of an email.

Options

It is possible to add other objects like customer users or FAQ articles to the ticket.

Text *

The body text of the note to be added to the ticket.

Attachments

It is possible to add attachments to the ticket. Click on the field to add an attachment, or just drop some files here.

Is visible for customer

Define, if the note is an internal note or customer can view it.

Time units (work units)

Enter any amount of time units for time accounting.

People

This menu item groups the following menu items together:

Owner

This menu item opens a new window to change the owner of the ticket.

Change Owner Screen

New Owner *

Select the new owner agent from the list. The agent needs owner permission, otherwise the agent is not listed.

Subject *

The subject of the ticket like the subject of an email.

Options

It is possible to add other objects like customer users or FAQ articles to the ticket.

Text *

The body text of the note to be added to the ticket.

Attachments

It is possible to add attachments to the ticket. Click on the field to add an attachment, or just drop some files here.

Is visible for customer

Define, if the note is an internal note or customer can view it.

Time units (work units)

Enter any amount of time units for time accounting.

Customer

This menu item opens a new window to change the customer of the ticket.

Change Customer Screen

Customer user *

The new customer user of the ticket.

Customer ID

Automatically selected based on the customer user.

Communication

This menu item groups the following menu items together:

Note

This menu item opens a new window to add a note as new article to the ticket.

Add Note Screen

Subject *

The subject of the ticket like the subject of an email.

Options

It is possible to add other objects like customer users or FAQ articles to the ticket.

Text *

The body text of the note to be added to the ticket.

Attachments

It is possible to add attachments to the ticket. Click on the field to add an attachment, or just drop some files here.

Is visible for customer

Define, if the note is an internal note or customer can view it.

Time units (work units)

Enter any amount of time units for time accounting.

Phone Call Outbound

This menu item opens a new window to add a note based on an outgoing phone call to the ticket.

Phone Call Screen

Subject *

The subject of the ticket like the subject of an email.

Options

It is possible to add other objects like customer users or FAQ articles to the ticket.

Text *

The body text of the note to be added to the ticket.

Attachments

It is possible to add attachments to the ticket. Click on the field to add an attachment, or just drop some files here.

Next ticket state

Select an other state if you want to change it.

Pending date

Select a date and time as reminder for the ticket. If the pending time is reached, the ticket can be escalated.

Time units (work units)

Enter any amount of time units for time accounting.

Phone Call Inbound

This menu item opens a new window to add a note based on an incoming phone call to the ticket.

This screen is the same as Phone Call Outbound screen.

E-Mail Outbound

This menu item opens a new window to send an email and add the email as article to the ticket. This screen is very similar to an email client screen.

Outbound Email Screen

From

This field is read only and holds the queue address.

To *

This will be the To field of the email.

Cc

Select other customer users as carbon copy of the email, if needed.

Bcc

Select other customer users as blind carbon copy of the email, if needed.

Note

You can select a customer user from OTOBO or any valid email address can be added here.

Usage of wildcards (*) is also possible. Enter two asterisks (**) to list all customer users.

Subject *

The subject of the ticket like the subject of an email.

Options

It is possible to add other objects like customer users or FAQ articles to the ticket.

Text *

The body text of the note to be added to the ticket.

Attachments

It is possible to add attachments to the ticket. Click on the field to add an attachment, or just drop some files here.

Next ticket state

Select an other state if you want to change it.

Pending date

Select a date and time as reminder for the ticket. If the pending time is reached, the ticket can be escalated.

Visible for customer

Define, if the note is an internal note or customer can view it.

Time units (work units)

Enter any amount of time units for time accounting.

Pending

This menu item opens a new window to set the pending time of the ticket.

Set Pending Time Screen

Next state

Select the pending state of the ticket.

Pending date

Select a date and time as reminder for the ticket. If the pending time is reached, the ticket can be escalated.

Subject *

The subject of the ticket like the subject of an email.

Options

It is possible to add other objects like customer users or FAQ articles to the ticket.

Text *

The body text of the note to be added to the ticket.

Attachments

It is possible to add attachments to the ticket. Click on the field to add an attachment, or just drop some files here.

Is visible for customer

Define, if the note is an internal note or customer can view it.

Time units (work units)

Enter any amount of time units for time accounting.

Close

This menu item opens a new window to close the ticket.

Set Pending Time Screen

Next state

Select the closed state of the ticket.

Subject *

The subject of the ticket like the subject of an email.

Options

It is possible to add other objects like customer users or FAQ articles to the ticket.

Text *

The body text of the note to be added to the ticket.

Attachments

It is possible to add attachments to the ticket. Click on the field to add an attachment, or just drop some files here.

Is visible for customer

Define, if the note is an internal note or customer can view it.

Time units (work units)

Enter any amount of time units for time accounting.

Quick Close

Close the ticket by one click.

Process

This menu item opens the New Process Ticket screen to start a process from this ticket.

Note

This option is available only, if at least one process is deployed in the system.

Miscellaneous

This menu item groups the following menu items together:

History

This menu item opens a new window to see the history of the ticket.

Ticket History Screen

Note

If several entries are added to the history, use the filter box to find a particular entry by just typing something to filter.

Print

This menu item opens a PDF file to show the printer friendly version of the screen. You can save or print this PDF file.

Free Fields

This menu item opens a new window to change the free field values of the ticket.

Ticket Free Text Screen

Title *

The title of the ticket.

Link

This menu item opens the standard link screen of OTOBO. Tickets can be linked to other tickets, FAQ articles or appointments. Existing links can also be managed here.

Link Ticket Screen

Link with

Select the other object the ticket should be linked to.

The other fields can be used to find the appropriate object to link, and the fields can be different for each object.

Merge

This menu item opens a new window to find a destination ticket for the current ticket. The articles of current ticket will be moved to the destination ticket, and the current ticket will get the state merged.

Ticket Merge Screen

Merge to Ticket# *

Try typing part of the ticket number or title in order to search by it.

Inform sender

Check this box, if you would like to inform sender about ticket merge. If this box is checked, the following fields must be filled.

From

This field is read only and holds the queue address.

To *

This will be the To field of the email.

Subject *

The subject of the ticket like the subject of an email.

Text *

The body text of the email to be sent.

New Appointment

This menu item opens the New Appointment dialog, and selects the current ticket in the Ticket field for linking.

Move

This menu item is only a drop-down list of available queues. Select a destination queue, if the ticket needs to be moved there.

Warning

This menu item has no confirmation window. Moving the ticket to an other queue is done immediately.

Settings

Click on the gear icon in the right side of the ticket menu to change the article view settings. The following options are available:

Show one article

Only the article is displayed in the Article Zoom widget, which is selected in the Article Overview widget.

Show all articles

All articles are displayed in the Article Zoom widget under each other.

Article Overview

This widget lists all articles of the ticket in a table.

Article Overview Widget

Most of the columns are sortable by clicking on the header. Click again to change the sort order.

There are three possible colors used to mark the type of article.

White: the article is visible for the customer user in the external interface and for agents in the agent interface.

Red: the article is not visible for the customer user in the external interface, but it is visible for agents in the agent interface.

Yellow: the article is a system message and the visibility can be changed in the system configuration.

Note

This widget is not displayed in ticket timeline view.

Article Zoom

This widget displays the details of the article. The widget has an own menu.

Article Zoom Widget

The menu is extensible and menu items can be grouped into drop-down lists.

Mark or Unmark

Use this menu item to mark article as important or to remove the important flag from the article. Important articles have a red information flag in the Article Overview widget.

Print

This menu item opens a PDF file to show the printer friendly version of the current article. You can save or print this PDF file.

Split

Use this menu item to split the article to an other ticket. Select the new ticket type and click on the Submit button.

Article Split Dialog

It is possible to split the article into several type of ticket.

Email ticket

Selecting this will open the New Email Ticket screen and fill in the fields with the current article data.

Phone ticket

Selecting this will open the New Phone Ticket screen and fill in the fields with the current article data.

Process ticket

Selecting this will open the New Process Ticket screen and fill in the fields with the current article data.

Note

This option is available only, if at least one process is deployed in the system.

Forward

Use this menu item to forward the article via email.

Article Forward Screen

From

This field is read only and holds the queue address.

To *

This will be the To field of the email.

Cc

Select other customer users as carbon copy of the email, if needed.

Bcc

Select other customer users as blind carbon copy of the email, if needed.

Note

You can select a customer user from OTOBO or any valid email address can be added here.

Usage of wildcards (*) is also possible. Enter two asterisks (**) to list all customer users.

Subject *

The subject of the ticket like the subject of an email.

Options

It is possible to add other objects like customer users or FAQ articles to the ticket.

Text *

The body text of the note to be added to the ticket.

Attachments

It is possible to add attachments to the ticket. Click on the field to add an attachment, or just drop some files here.

Next ticket state

Select an other state if you want to change it.

Pending date

Select a date and time as reminder for the ticket. If the pending time is reached, the ticket can be escalated.

Visible for customer

Define, if the note is an internal note or customer can view it.

Time units (work units)

Enter any amount of time units for time accounting.

Reply

Use this menu item to compose an answer to the article via email. Reply is created from a response template set in Templates module of the administrator interface.

Compose Answer Screen

From

This field is read only and holds the queue address.

To *

This will be the To field of the email.

Cc

Select other customer users as carbon copy of the email, if needed.

Bcc

Select other customer users as blind carbon copy of the email, if needed.

Note

You can select a customer user from OTOBO or any valid email address can be added here.

Usage of wildcards (*) is also possible. Enter two asterisks (**) to list all customer users.

Subject *

The subject of the ticket like the subject of an email.

Options

It is possible to add other objects like customer users or FAQ articles to the ticket.

Text *

The body text of the note to be added to the ticket.

Attachments

It is possible to add attachments to the ticket. Click on the field to add an attachment, or just drop some files here.

Next ticket state

Select an other state if you want to change it.

Pending date

Select a date and time as reminder for the ticket. If the pending time is reached, the ticket can be escalated.

Visible for customer

Define, if the note is an internal note or customer can view it.

Time units (work units)

Enter any amount of time units for time accounting.

Linked Objects

Tickets can be linked to other objects. Use this widget to see the links between the ticket and other objects.

Linked Objects Widget

New links can be added by the Link menu item of the Ticket Zoom menu. Existing links can also be managed there.

To see the linked object details, click on an entry in this widget.

See also

Change setting LinkObject::ViewMode to Complex to display detailed information about linked objects.

Complex Linked Objects Widget

Ticket Information

This widget contains information about the ticket.

Ticket Information Widget

Customer Information

This widget contains information about the customer.

Customer Information Widget

FAQ

FAQ articles contain answers for frequently asked questions, or they contain common knowledge.

Creating FAQ articles should be done based on customer tickets. A good knowledge base contains all relevant information, that occurs during ticket handling. FAQ articles can be easily attached to new tickets in any ticket or article creation screens. This can help agents to shorten the time when answering a ticket.

Contents

Explorer

FAQ Explorer Content Widgets

FAQ Explorer Sidebar Widgets

New

Journal

Language Management

Manage FAQ Languages

FAQ Language Settings

Category Management

Manage FAQ Categories

FAQ Category Settings

Search

Templates

Filters in use

Additional filters

FAQ Zoom

FAQ Content

FAQ Sidebar Widgets

Explorer

Use this screen to browse through the FAQ articles. The FAQ explorer is available in the Explorer menu item of the FAQ menu.

FAQ Explorer Screen

This screen contains several widgets.

FAQ Explorer Content Widgets

The Subcategories widget lists all categories and displays the number of subcategories and FAQ articles.

To select a category, just click on the name of a category.

If a category contains at least one FAQ article, the list of FAQ articles will display in the FAQ Articles widget. This widget displays some information about the FAQ articles, like Title, Language, State and Validity.

FAQ Articles Widget

To limit the number of displayed FAQ articles per page:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Select the maximum number of changes FAQ articles per page.

Click on the Submit button.

Clicking on an FAQ article will open the FAQ Zoom screen.

FAQ Explorer Sidebar Widgets

The right sidebar lists the recently created, updated FAQ articles, as well as the top 10 FAQ articles.

FAQ Explorer Sidebar

The Latest created FAQ articles widget displays the FAQ articles, that are created recently.

The Latest updated FAQ articles widget displays the FAQ articles, that are updated recently.

The Top 10 FAQ articles widget displays the top 10 articles based on its ratings.

To rate an FAQ article:

Click on the FAQ article to open the FAQ Zoom screen.

Scroll down to the bottom of the screen.

Click on the Yes or No button in the Rating widget.

Any user can rate an FAQ article only once. The number of positive and negative ratings will be displayed in the right sidebar of FAQ Zoom screen.

New

Use this screen to add new FAQ articles to the system. The FAQ add screen is available in the New menu item of the FAQ menu.

Add FAQ Article Screen

The following settings are available when adding this resource. The fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory.

Title *

The name of this resource. Any type of characters can be entered to this field including uppercase letters and spaces. The name will be displayed in the overview table.

Keyword

Add some keywords to make it easily to find the FAQ article.

Category *

Select a category from the available categories.

See also

Categories can be managed on the Category Management screen.

State

Select the state of the FAQ article. Possible options are:

external (customer)

FAQ article is visible for agents and logged in customer users on the external interface.

internal (agent)

FAQ article is visible for agents only.

public (all)

FAQ article is visible for everyone.

Validity

Set the validity of this resource. Each resource can be used in OTOBO only, if this field is set to valid. Setting this field to invalid or invalid-temporarily will disable the use of the resource.

Language

Select a language from the available languages.

See also

Languages can be managed on the Language Management screen.

Attachment

It is possible to add attachments to the FAQ article. Click on the field to add an attachment, or just drop some files here.

Symptom

Add a description here, that explains the current situation.

Problem

More detailed description about the problem.

Solution

How to solve the problem, or what is a workaround to solve it.

Comment

Internal text about the current FAQ article for agents only.

Journal

Use this screen to view the history of all FAQ articles. The FAQ history is available in the Journal menu item of the FAQ menu.

FAQ Journal Screen

To limit the number of displayed FAQ articles per page:

Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the overview header.

Select the maximum number of changes FAQ articles per page.

Click on the Save button.

Clicking on an FAQ article will open the FAQ Zoom screen.

Language Management

Note

This menu item is only available for agents who have administrator privileges.

Use this screen to manage languages available in FAQ articles. A fresh OTOBO installation already contains some languages by default. The language management screen is available in the Language Management menu item of the FAQ menu.

FAQ Language Management Screen

Manage FAQ Languages

To add a language:

Click on the Add language button in the left sidebar.

Fill in the required field.

Click on the Submit button.

Add Language Screen

To edit a language:

Click on a language in the list of languages.

Modify the field.

Click on the Submit button.

Edit Language Screen

To delete a language:

Click on the trash icon in the list of languages.

Click on the Yes button in the confirmation dialog.

Delete Language Screen

FAQ Language Settings

The following setting is available when adding or editing this resource. The fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory.

Name *

The ISO 639-1 code of a language.

Category Management

Note

This menu item is only available for agents who have administrator privileges.

Use this screen to manage categories available in FAQ articles. A fresh OTOBO installation already contains a category by default. The category management screen is available in the Category Management menu item of the FAQ menu.

FAQ Category Management Screen

Manage FAQ Categories

To add a category:

Click on the Add category button in the left sidebar.

Fill in the required fields.

Click on the Submit button.

Add Category Screen

To edit a category:

Click on a category in the list of categories.

Modify the fields.

Click on the Submit button.

Edit Category Screen

To delete a category:

Click on the trash icon in the list of categories.

Click on the Yes button in the confirmation dialog.

Delete Category Screen

FAQ Category Settings

The following settings are available when adding or editing this resource. The fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory.

Name *

The name of this resource. Any type of characters can be entered to this field including uppercase letters and spaces. The name will be displayed in the overview table.

Subcategory of

It is possible to add the new category under an existing one as sub-category. This will be displayed as Parent Category::Child Category.

Permission *

Agent groups that can access articles in this category.

Validity

Set the validity of this resource. Each resource can be used in OTOBO only, if this field is set to valid. Setting this field to invalid or invalid-temporarily will disable the use of the resource.

Comment *

Add additional information to this resource. It is recommended to always fill this field as a description of the resource with a full sentence for better clarity, because the comment will be also displayed in the overview table.

Search

Use this screen to search for FAQ articles based on various criteria. The FAQ search screen is available in the Search menu item of the FAQ menu.

Search Dialog

The dialog is divided into three parts: Templates, Filters in use and Additional filters.

Templates

This part of the dialog can be used to save a search template for further usage.

To create a new search template:

Click on the Create New button.

Enter a name for the search template.

Click on the Add button.

Add some search criteria.

Click on the Run Search button.

To use a saved search template:

Select a template from the drop-down list.

Click on the Run Search button.

Search Templates Dialog

To modify a search template:

Select a template from the drop-down list.

Check the Save changes in template box.

Modify some search criteria.

Click on the Run Search button.

The results will be opened in Search Results screen to see all matched FAQ articles.

Search Results Screen

Clicking on an FAQ article will open the FAQ Zoom screen.

To delete a saved search template:

Select a template from the drop-down list.

Click on the Delete button.

Warning

The template will be deleted immediately without confirmation!

Filters in use

This part lists the filters, that are used for the search.

Additional filters can be added in the Additional filters part of the screen, and filters can be removed by clicking on the ⊟ button next to the field.

Additional filters

This part is for adding more filters and selecting the output format of the results.

Add another attribute

Select an extra attribute from the drop-down list to be used in the search.

Output

Select the output format of the result.

You can start the search by clicking on the Run search button.

FAQ Zoom

Use this screen to see the details of an FAQ article. The FAQ Zoom screen is available, if you click on an FAQ article in any other screens.

FAQ Zoom Screen

This screen has an own menu and contains several widgets.

FAQ Content

The FAQ Zoom screen has an own menu.

Back

This menu item goes back to the previous screen.

Edit

This menu item opens a new window to edit the FAQ article.

Edit FAQ Screen

History

This menu item opens a new window to see the history of the FAQ article.

FAQ History Screen

Print

This menu item opens a PDF file to show the printer friendly version of the screen. You can save or print this PDF file.

Link

This menu item opens the standard link screen of OTOBO. FAQ articles can be linked to other FAQ articles or tickets. Existing links can also be managed here.

Link FAQ Screen

Delete

Use this menu item to delete the FAQ article.

Delete FAQ Dialog

The Symptom, Problem, Solution and Comment widgets show the content of the FAQ article.

It is possible to rate an FAQ article in the Rating widget, whether the FAQ article is helpful or not. To rate an FAQ article, click on the Yes or No button in this widget.

Any user can rate an FAQ article only once. The number of positive and negative ratings will be displayed in the right sidebar.

FAQ Sidebar Widgets

The following widgets are located on the right sidebar.

The FAQ information widget lists all relevant attributes of the FAQ article.

FAQ Information Widget

FAQ articles can be linked to other objects. Use this widget to see the links between the FAQ article and other objects.

Linked Objects Widget

New links can be added by the Link menu item of the FAQ Zoom menu. Existing links can also be managed there.

To see the linked object details, click on an entry in this widget.

See also

Change setting LinkObject::ViewMode to Complex to display detailed information about linked objects.

Complex Linked Objects Widget

Chat

Warning

This feature will be included in one of the next OTOBO releases. If you need it beforehand, please contact sales@otobo.de, we will find a solution.

See also

System configuration ChatEngine::Active needs to be activated to use this feature.

The chat feature allows for chats between agents and customers using the OTRS front end. Once enabled, customers or public users can start chats with agents and vice versa. Finished chats can be archived and attached to tickets, or can be downloaded as PDF by agents, customers and public users.

Each chat is assigned to a chat channel. Chat channels are like chat rooms. Each chat channel is assigned to a certain group which controls the permissions for this channel. If no chat channel is selected when a chat is created, this chat will be created in the Default channel.

Contents

Manage Chats

Start New Chat

Agent to Agent

Agent to Customer User

Customer User to Agent

Public User to Agent

Chat Widget

Chat Integration

Manage Chats

Note

Rother OSS TODO: This feature will be included in one of the next OTOBO releases. If you need it beforehand, please contact sales@otobo.de, we will find a solution.

See also

System configuration ChatEngine::Active needs to be activated to use this feature.

The chat management screen is the central point of the chat feature. Here an agent can manage the chats as well as see and accept open requests. This screen provides a list of chat requests from customer users, public users and other agents, as well as an overview over all active chats.

Use this menu item to manage chats. The chat management screen is available in the Chat menu.

Chat Management Screen

Each chat channel can be filtered with the options in the top of the widget to list All Chat Channels or only My Chat Channels set in Personal Preferences.

Start New Chat

A chat participant can be an agent, a customer user or a public user.

Agent to Agent

To start a chat with another agent:

Use the Logged-In Users widget in the dashboard. Agents who are able to use the chat, will have a chat icon next to their name.

Available Agents

Click on the chat icon next to an agent name.

Write the first message to the Start Chat dialog and send the message.

Start Chat Dialog

After the chat request has been sent to the other agent, watch the chat in the chat management screen. A browser notification is displayed to inform the agent.

My Active Chats Widget

Wait for the answer. The other agent has to accept the chat request with the Open Chat link.

Personal Chat Requests For You Widget

When the other agent accepts the chat request, you can chat now.

Agent to Agent Chat

Agent to Customer User

To start a chat with a customer user:

Use the Logged-In Users widget in the dashboard. Customer users who are able to use the chat, will have a chat icon next to their name.

Available Customer Users

See also

Customer users can also be selected in Customer User Information Center or from the Customer Information widget of the Ticket Zoom screen.

Click on the chat icon next to a customer user name.

Write the first message to the Start Chat dialog and send the message.

Start Chat Dialog

After the chat request has been sent to the other agent, watch the chat in the chat management screen. A browser notification is displayed to inform the agent.

My Active Chats Widget

Wait for the answer. The customer user has to accept the chat request which is displayed in the bottom right corner of the external interface.

Chat Request on External Interface

When the customer user accepts the chat request, you can chat now.

Agent to Customer User Chat

When the customer user closes the chat, it is possible to send the chat via email or create a ticket from the conversation.

Save the Conversation on External Interface

Customer User to Agent

Customer users are not able to start a chat directly with a certain agent, but only to create generic chat requests.

To receive a chat request from a customer user:

A customer user clicked on the New conversation button within the chat window in the bottom right corner of the external interface.

Start Chat Window

A browser notification is displayed to inform the agent. Go to the chat management screen, and open the general chat request with the Open chat link.

General Chat Requests From Customers Widget

Accept the chat request.

Chat Preview Dialog

When an agent accepts the chat request, they can chat now.

Customer User to Agent Chat

Public User to Agent

Visitors of the external interface are also not able to start a chat directly with a certain agent, but only to create generic chat requests. As they are not logged in, they need to add a name to start the chat.

Start Chat Window

The steps are the same as described in Customer User to Agent section, but the chat request is displayed in the General Chat Requests From Public Users widget.

General Chat Requests From Public Users Widget

Chat Widget

The chat widget is the main component when chatting with other people. It provides a history of all messages in the chat as well as a list of possible actions depending on your permission level.

The messages can be sent using the text field of a chat in My Active Chats widget by either clicking the send icon next to the text field or hitting the Enter key. Shift + Enter can be used to insert a new line into the message.

Every chat participant has a colored circle icon before his/her name in the chat widget header, which represents the participant availability.

Green: participant is active (available and online).

Yellow: participant is away (available, but there was no request sent to the server from this user for some time set in ChatEngine::AgentOnlineThreshold).

Pink: participant is inactive (chat request is not accepted yet or participant left the chat).

Red: participant is unavailable (set via availability button).

Black: participant has logged out or session has expired.

The chat widget has some icons in the top right corner.

Chat Menu

The first triangle icon expands and collapses the chat menu. The menu has several menu items.

Phone ticket

Allows you to create a phone ticket to which the current chat will be appended to as an article. After the ticket has successfully created, the chat will get closed automatically.

Append

Allows you to append this chat as an article to a selected ticket. After the article has been created, the chat will get closed automatically.

Invite

Allows you to invite another agent to this chat. You can select from a list of available agents whom you want to invite. Once the agent has invited, a new agent to agent chat request will be sent to this agent. After the request has been accepted, a new internal chat will be established between you and the invited agent. In this internal chat, the invited agent has two more actions available in the advanced actions toolbar: Observer and Participant.

Channel change

Using this link, you can change the channel for this chat. For the selection of the target channel the same rules apply as for initially selecting a chat channel.

Download

Lets you download the complete history of this chat as PDF.

New window

Opens this chat in a separate popup window. You can use this window in the same way as the chat widget and both the widget and the popup can be used at the same time.

Observer

When you have been invited to a chat by another agent, you can decide if you want to join the chat as observer or participant depending on your permission level. Once you click the action from your toolbar, a new chat widget will be added to the list of your active chats which is the chat you have been invited to.

If you join the chat as observer, you will only be able to read what others are contributing to the chat and you will be invisible to customer users or public users. Agents will still receive a message that you joined the chat as observer.

As an observer, you have the possibility to become a participant anytime by using the advanced action toolbar in your chat widget depending on your permission level.

Participant

If you want to contribute something to the chat you have been invited to, you can join it as a participant. Customer users, public users and agents will receive a message that you have entered the chat. As a participant, you can become an observer anytime by using the advanced action toolbar in your chat widget.

The second circle icon allows the agent to set up a personal monitoring for this chat, which is a three-way switch:

Empty circle: no monitoring.

Empty circle with tick icon: only monitor customer user activity.

Filled circle with tick icon: monitor all actions.

When monitoring a chat, browser notifications will show up each time there is a new action in this chat.

Finally the third close icon makes it possible to close the chat by clicking on the X.

Chat Integration

The public chat can be easily integrated into a website with the chat integration configuration and snippet generator.

To configure the chat and generate the code snippet:

Click on the Configure Chat Integration button in the left sidebar.

Customize the texts in the Configuration tab.

Chat Integration – Configuration

Note

All changes made in the Configuration tab will not be saved. Every time you open this dialog, all fields will be reset to default values.

Copy the code snippet from the Integration Code tab and paste it into your website right before the </body> element.

Chat Integration – Integration Code

You can check the result in the Preview tab.

Chat Integration – Preview

Note

The preview uses the real chat module. Other agents have to be available for chatting to preview all features.

If mixed content warning is displayed in the browser console, an administrator has to check that the system configuration setting HttpType is properly set. The website must run on the same protocol for the chat widget to work.

For example, if the website is running OTOBO on SSL, the system configuration option must be set to https.

Reports

Reports are automatically generated statistics. In this menu it is possible to define new statistics, and set these statistics as reports, if needed.

Contents

Reports

Manage Reports

General Report Settings

Automatic Generation Settings

Output settings

Statistics

Statistics

Manage Statistics

General Statistics Specification

Ticket Attributes for Statistics

Reports

Note

Rother OSS TODO: This feature will be included in one of the next OTOBO releases. If you need it beforehand, please contact sales@otobo.de, we will find a solution.

Use this screen to manage reports. A fresh OTOBO installation contains no reports by default. The reports management screen is available in the Reports menu item of the Reports menu.

Reports Overview Screen

Manage Reports

To create a new report:

Click on the Add Report button in the left sidebar.

Fill in the required fields.

Click on the Save button.

You will be redirected to Edit Report screen to edit the report details.

Add Report Screen

To edit a report:

Click on a report in the list of reports or you are already redirected here from Add Report screen.

Modify the fields and the report details.

Click on the Save or Save and finish button.

Edit Report Details Screen

To delete a report:

Click on the trash icon in the list of reports.

Click on the OK button in the confirmation screen.

To run a report immediately:

Click on the Run now link in the list of reports.

Click on the Run now button in the new screen.

View Report Screen

General Report Settings

The following settings are available when adding or editing this resource. The fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory.

Name *

The name of this resource. Any type of characters can be entered to this field including uppercase letters and spaces. The name will be displayed in the overview table.

Description

Add additional information to this resource. It is recommended to always fill this field as a description of the resource with a full sentence for better clarity, because the comment will be also displayed in the overview table.

Validity *

Set the validity of this resource. Each resource can be used in OTOBO only, if this field is set to valid. Setting this field to invalid or invalid-temporarily will disable the use of the resource.

Automatic Generation Settings

Automatic generation times (cron)

Specify when the report should be automatically generated in cron format.

See also

For more information see the Cron article on Wikipedia.

Note

Times are in the system timezone.

Automatic generation language

The language to be used when the report is automatically generated.

Email subject

Specify the subject for the automatically generated email.

Email body

Specify the text for the automatically generated email.

Email recipients

Specify recipient email addresses (comma separated).

Output settings

Headline

This text will be used as headline text of the report.

Title

The title of the report.

Caption for preamble

The caption for preamble included in the report.

Preamble

The preamble text of the report.

Caption for epilogue

The caption for epilogue included in the report.

Epilogue

The epilogue text of the report.

Statistics

Add statistic to report

Select one or more Statistics to be added to the report. Each added statistics have an own overview and settings screen.

After all information is collected and set, click on the Save or Save and finish button to save the report.

Statistics

Use this screen to manage statistics. A fresh OTOBO installation already contains some statistics by default. The statistics management screen is available in the Statistics menu item of the Reports menu.

Statistics Overview Screen

Manage Statistics

Three type of statistics are available in OTOBO.

Add Statistics Screen

Dynamic Matrix

Each cell contains a singular data point.

Dynamic List

Each row contains data of one entity.

Static

Non-configurable complex statistics.

To create new statistics:

Click on the Add Statistics button in the left sidebar.

Select the type for the new statistics.

Fill in the required fields.

Click on the Save button.

Add General Specification Section

To edit statistics:

Click on a statistics number in the list of statistics.

Modify the fields and the statistics details.

Click on the Save or Save and finish button.

Edit General Specification Section

To import statistics:

Click on the Import Statistics button in the left sidebar.

Click on the Browse… button and select a previously exported .xml file.

Click on the Import button.

Modify the fields and the statistics details.

Click on the Save or Save and finish button.

Import Statistics Configuration Screen

To export statistics:

Click on the download icon in the list of statistics.

Choose a location in your computer to save the .xml file.

To delete statistics:

Click on the trash icon in the list of statistics.

Click on the OK button in the confirmation screen.

To run statistics:

Click on the play icon in the list of statistics.

Review the statistics details.

Click on the Run now button.

View Statistics Screen

To preview statistics:

Go the the edit screen of a statistics.

See the preview.

Change the settings to view different type of graphs.

Change the values of X-axis, Y-axis and Filter with the respective buttons.

Statistics Preview Widget

Note

The preview uses random data and does not consider data filters.

General Statistics Specification

The following settings are available when adding or editing this resource. The fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory.

Title *

The name of this resource. Any type of characters can be entered to this field including uppercase letters and spaces. The name will be displayed in the overview table.

Description

Add additional information to this resource. It is recommended to always fill this field as a description of the resource with a full sentence for better clarity, because the comment will be also displayed in the overview table.

Permissions *

You can select one or more groups to define access for different agents.

Result formats *

You can select, in which format should be able to see the statistics.

Time Zone *

The selected time periods in the statistics are time zone neutral.

Create summation row

Generate an additional row containing sums for all data rows.

Create summation column

Generate an additional column containing sums for all data columns.

Cache results

Stores statistics result data in a cache to be used in subsequent views with the same configuration (requires at least one selected time field).

Show as dashboard widget

Provide the statistics as a widget that agents can activate in their dashboard.

Note

Enabling the dashboard widget will activate caching for this statistics in the dashboard.

Validity *

Set the validity of this resource. Each resource can be used in OTOBO only, if this field is set to valid. Setting this field to invalid will disable the use of the resource.

Ticket Attributes for Statistics

The following ticket attributes can be included in statistics using the X-axis button, if Dynamic Lists statistics are selected.

Number

An auto-increment integer number in the output to show the line numbers.

Ticket#

The ticket number.

Age

The relative age since ticket creation and now.

Title

The title of the ticket.

Created

The absolute date and time with timezone when the ticket was created.

Last Changed

The absolute date and time with timezone when the ticket was changed.

Close Time

The absolute date and time with timezone when the ticket was closed. This field is empty for open tickets.

Queue

The queue in which the ticket is located.

State

The state of the ticket.

Priority

The priority of the ticket.

Customer User

The login name of the customer user of the ticket.

Customer ID

The customer of the customer user of the ticket.

Service

The service of the ticket. If no service is assigned, this field is empty.

SLA

The SLA of the ticket. If no SLA is assigned, this field is empty.

Type

The type of the ticket.

Agent/Owner

The owner agent of the ticket.

Responsible

The responsible agent of the ticket.

Accounted time

Accumulated time of the times stored in the articles.

EscalationDestinationIn

The relative time from the current time to the time of escalation.

EscalationDestinationDate

The absolute date and time with timezone when the ticket is escalated.

EscalationTimeWorkingTime

The time in seconds within the defined working time or service time until an escalation.

EscalationTime

The total time in seconds until escalation of nearest escalation time type: response, update or solution time.

FirstResponse

The timestamp of first response.

FirstResponseInMin

The time in minutes from ticket creation to first response (based on working time).

FirstResponseDiffInMin

The difference in minutes between the specified response time and the actual response time.

FirstResponseTimeWorkingTime

The time in seconds within the defined working time or service time until an escalation of a first response.

FirstResponseTimeEscalation

Defines, whether the ticket has escalated or not.

FirstResponseTimeNotification

Defines, whether the defined escalation notification time is reached or not.

FirstResponseTimeDestinationTime

The escalation time as Unix timestamp.

FirstResponseTimeDestinationDate

The absolute date of a first response time escalation.

FirstResponseTime

The total time in seconds until the first response time escalation.

UpdateTimeNotification

Defines, whether the defined escalation notification time is reached or not.

UpdateTimeDestinationTime

The update time escalation as Unix timestamp.

UpdateTimeDestinationDate

The absolute date of an update time escalation.

UpdateTimeWorkingTime

The time in seconds within the defined working time or service time until an update time escalation.

UpdateTime

The total time in seconds until an update time escalation.

SolutionTime

The total time in seconds until a solution time escalation.

SolutionInMin

The total time in minutes until a solution time escalation.

SolutionDiffInMin

The difference in minutes between the specified solution time and the actual solution time.

SolutionTimeWorkingTime

The time in seconds within the defined working time or service time until a solution time escalation.

SolutionTimeEscalation

Defines, whether the ticket has escalated or not.

SolutionTimeNotification

Defines, whether the defined escalation notification time is reached or not.

SolutionTimeDestinationTime

The solution time escalation as Unix timestamp.

SolutionTimeDestinationDate

The absolute date of a solution time escalation.

First Lock

The absolute date and time with timezone when the ticket was locked first. This field is empty for tickets, that are not locked yet.

Lock

The lock state of the ticket.

StateType

State type of the ticket.

UntilTime

Total seconds till pending.

UnlockTimeout

Time until the ticket is automatically unlocked.

EscalationResponseTime

Unix timestamp of response time escalation.

EscalationSolutionTime

Unix timestamp of solution time escalation.

EscalationUpdateTime

Unix timestamp of update time escalation.

RealTillTimeNotUsed

Unix timestamp of pending time.

Number of Articles

The number of articles in the ticket.

Process

The name of the process in which a process ticket is involved.

Activity

The name of the activity in the process.

Activity Status

The status of the activity in the process.

DynamicField_NameX

The name of the dynamic fields added to the system. The list of dynamic fields is different in each system.

Admin

This menu item opens the administrator interface, which is described very detailed in the Administration Manual.

Note

This menu item is only available for agents who have administrator privileges.

Search

Search function can be used to search everything inside OTOBO. This function looks for the search term in tickets, articles and FAQ articles, as well as in attached documents.

Contents

Search

Search Parameters

Search

Use this menu item to search for something. The Search Results screen is available, if you click on the magnification glass icon in the main menu, enter a search term and hit Enter key on your keyboard.

Search Dialog

If the search has results, a new screen will open.

Search Results Screen

This screen lists all objects that matches the search term. The objects are grouped by type.

To find the desired object:

Select a type in the header of the widget.

Use the filter in the right sidebar to narrow the result.

There is an option All to see all type of object.

Search Parameters

The query string consists of terms and operators. A term can be a single word or a phrase surrounded by double quotes. Operators allow you to customize the search.

Single word

If the query string is a single word (for example quick or brown), then OTOBO searches for all items containing the given word.

If two or more words are given in the query string (for example quick brown), then OTOBO searches for all items containing the word quick or brown.

Phrase surrounded by double quotes

If the query string contains a phrase surrounded by double quotes (for example "quick brown"), then OTOBO searches for all items containing the words in the phrase in the same order.

Wildcards

Use ? to replace a single character, and * to replace zero or more characters (for example qu?ck bro*).

Note

Wildcard queries can lead to performance issues, because many terms need to be queried to match the query string.

Regular expressions

Regular expression patterns can be embedded in the query string by wrapping them in slashes (for example /joh?n(ath[oa]n)/).

See also

The supported regular expression syntax is explained in Regular expression syntax chapter of the Elasticsearch documentation.

Fuzziness

It is possible to search for terms that are similar to, but not exactly like the given search terms, using the fuzzy operator (for example quikc~ brwn~ foks~).

The default fuzziness level is 2, but a level of 1 should be sufficient to catch 80% of all human misspellings. It can be specified as quikc~1.

Fuzziness can be disabled with quikc~0 which will not consider spelling mistakes.

Proximity

A query string like "quick fox" searches the words in exactly the same order, but the proximity search allows that some other words can be included between the given words (for example "fox quick"~5).

This operator specifies the maximum edit distance of words. The phrase quick fox would be considered more relevant than quick brown fox.

Ranges

The query string can contain ranges for date, numeric or string fields. Inclusive ranges are specified with square brackets [min TO max] and exclusive ranges with curly brackets {min TO max}.

Boosting

The boost operator ^ can be used to make one term more relevant than another. For example use the query string quick^2 fox, if you want to find all documents about foxes, but you are especially interested in quick foxes.

You can also use boosts for phrases or groups, for example "quick fox"^2 AND (brown lazy)^4.

Boolean operators

The query string quick brown fox searches for all items containing one or more of the specified words.

The preferred operators are + (term must be present) and - (term must not be present). All other terms are optional.

For example if the query string is quick brown +fox -news then it means:

fox must be present.

news must not be present.

quick and brown are optional.

The well known logical operators AND, OR and NOT (or &&, || and !) are also supported. The query string ((quick AND fox) OR (brown AND fox) OR fox) AND NOT news is identical with the previous example.

Grouping

Changing the precedence with parentheses is possible, like (quick OR brown) AND fox.

Reserved characters

There are some reserved characters which function as operators, and they can not be used in search queries.

The reserved characters are: + - = && || > < ! ( ) { } [ ] ^ " ~ * ? : \ /.

If any of these characters need to be used in search queries, then you should escape them with a leading backslash. For example to search for the term (1+1)=2, you have to use the query string as \(1\+1\)\=2.

See also

More information can be found in the Query string syntax chapter of the Elasticsearch documentation.

Documentation History

2019 - OTRS User Manual - OTRS AG (https://otrs.com)

2020 - OTOBO User Tutorial - Rother OSS GmbH (https://otobo.de)

Published by: Rother OSS GmbH, (https://otobo.de), Oberwalting 31, 94339 Leiblfing, Germany. Authors: OTRS AG (original version), Rother OSS GmbH (https://otobo.de)

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license can be found on the GNU website.

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