Does loginshare really prevent unauthenticated users?

[rustymonkey]

Hi,

I'm new to kayako, and am getting it set up on our site. I have a couple of requirements re. ticket submission:
1) users that have phpbb accounts on our site should automatically be able to submit tickets (by mail or web) and view ticket status
2) users without phpbb accounts should be able to submit tickets by mail or via the web (captcha to prevent spam).

Unfortunately, it seems to me (and I was told the same by a support technician at kayako) that this is not possible. i.e. that as soon as loginshare is enabled, attempts to access kayako by users without accounts will either:
a) result in the creation of useless kayako accounts if configured for unauthenticated ticket submissions (useless because kayako authenticates users via loginshare and the phpbb, and these kayako accounts aren't valid accounts)
b) result in emails that tell the user that they must first create accounts in order to submit a ticket

I was hoping that there might be some other way of satisfying my requirements and was wondering if anyone had any experiences that might help out. e.g. another option could be:
c) users without an account are allowed to submit tickets, but are not given a means of accessing the tickets via a web interface (i.e. all ticket communication is over email). I couldn't find a means of configuring this approach...

Thx for any assistance.

-Rusty

EDIT: I just noticed that there is another significant problem with loginshare described at:
LoginShare issues

If that one isn't going to be resolved in the short term, it might make the whole issue moot--it's not worth deploying loginshare if it's going to result in customers not receiving their emails.

[craigbrass]

I answered this in your other thread.

[rustymonkey]

Craig,

You wrote:

"You can force registered only by going Staff CP -> Users -> Groups -> Guest and setting Submit Ticket and Register to No."

I'm not quite sure I understand how this helps solve the problem. i.e. This allows me to disable Guest ticket submissions, but that's _not_ what I'm trying to achieve--what I'd like to achieve is to be able to accept guest ticket submissions (via web (captcha) or e-mail), and for those submissions work correctly. Unfortunately, what I've found is that when Guest submissions are enabled and loginshare is used, Kayako generates bogus accounts for the Guest submissions (bogus in the sense that they are created in the kayako directory and hence invalid, since loginshare authenticates via my phpbb directory).

Thanks for any further help you can offer.

-Rusty

[craigbrass]

You are misunderstanding the purpose of LoginShare. LoginShare does NOT create accounts in the system it is connecting to and was not designed to. It was only designed to pull the account information.

[rustymonkey]

Hi,

Actually, your description of loginshare matches my understanding of it: it authenticates users via a pre-existing directory (phpbb, in my case).

My issue is that I'm looking for a way for Guest users (i.e. users that don't have accounts on phpbb) to submit tickets (via web or mail), but when I configure the system to allow this, kayako creates accounts in _it's own_ directory (i.e. not in the php directory--which is useless considering that loginshare is enabled). [EDIT: I realize that loginshare isn't designed to _write_ to third party directories--what's confusing is why Kayako is writing to its own directory if loginshare is enabled.]

What I would have expected in both the web ticket and e-mail ticket scenario is that Guest submissions would work, and instead of being provided with a non-functional account in the Kayako directory, the user would be told that:
-If they want to access the ticket online, they have to register their email address via our phpbb link
-Communications in relation to the ticket would work perfectly fine over e-mail--even if the user doesn't register

Am I making sense?

-Rusty

[craigbrass]

Well a user needs an account before a ticket can be created for them so if the user tries to submit a ticket as a guest, it creates them an account.

I don't think Kayako ever planned the LoginShares to do anything else.

[rustymonkey]

Yeah, that's my point

I don't understand the logic in such a design. If loginshare isn't enabled, creating user accounts for Guests makes perfect sense, but if loginshare is enabled, then why should the system create useless accounts that don't work?

From my perspective, when loginshare is enabled, the workflow for Guest accounts should be modified slightly. e.g.:

Loginshare/Guest Ticket:
-User submits (validated by captcha) --> system replies to user with message indicating reception (nothing else: no links, no username/pw) --> Agent responds --> user receives email and optionally replies...

In contrast with a Guest Ticket / no loginshare:
-User submits (validated by captcha) --> sername and password is created in the system + system replies to user with message indicating reception including link to access the ticket online + username/pw for access to webticket --> Agent responds --> user receives email and optionally replies...

Thx.

-Rusty

[craigbrass]

Hmm, don't work as in they can't login using the details?

[rustymonkey]

That's right--when loginshare is active, the authentication directory is an external directory (phpbb's directory in my case), so the password that is automatically created by Kayako (in Kayako's directory) for a Guest account doesn't work, returning an error that the username/password is invalid.

I'm still hoping that there's a solution to this...

-Rusty

[craigbrass]

I think an option needs adding to say users should be allowed to login if they have an account on Kayako but not on the third party database.

[rustymonkey]

OK, so I guess my original understanding of the limitations of the system is correct: when Kayako is set up to authenticate users against a third-party directory, Guest ticket submissions do not work correctly.

Hopefully someone else has a workaround.

-Rusty

[Edit: I don't think that your idea of allowing logons via the Kayako directory is the right solution--that means having 2 possibly conflicting directories. A simpler solution would be to:
-have an option for Guest users to make automated account creation optional (and adjust the workflow accordingly)
-forcibly disable the above option when loginshare is enabled]