Departments only available to certain levels of user?

[tooltrainer]

I couldn't find anything on this in my searching, so I'll ask it myself...

I'm setting up a support desk for a product that has 3 levels of support. Level 1 is what everyone gets, and is free. Level 2 is a paid option, and level 3 is a higher priced paid option.

I would like to be able to identify my users as to whether or not they have access to a certain level of support, and show them the appropriate department.

I have their support contract status stored in a MySQL database, so I can read it and react accordingly. If I must, I can edit the Kayako code to incorporate this kind of feature, but I'm really hoping I don't have to as I'm in a time crunch.

Is there an easier way to accomplish what I'm after? Or maybe a different approach all together? Ultimately, what I want to prevent is level 1 users requesting level 3 support. True, we can check them manually to see if they hold the correct contract, but that's time consuming and I'd rather have it be automatic, since we do have the information stored electronically.

Thanks everyone!

Jonathan

[Matthew]

This is not difficult from the web interface:

1. Create 3 different User Groups, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3.
2. Create 3 corresponding template groups.
3. Assign template groups to user groups.
4. Create 3 Staff 'departments', Level 1, Level 2, Level 3. As you create each one, select the template(s) that department will apply to.

What happens is that as your user logs on, their Group is identified by the system and they are shown the appropriate template, which displays only the Department (the level of support), you have determined they should have access to.

Caveat: I'm a newbie and there may be better ways to do this.

Email submissions may be trickier, because you need a mechanism that identifies the sender's user group and then assigns the ticket to the appropriate department. As far as I'm aware, the parser rules don't include that functionality. I don't know how difficult this is to program, but this feature seems so essential that it should be put in there as soon as possible. (see my wish-list, part of the thread here.)

Hope this helps!

[tooltrainer]

Wow thanks Matthew! That does help, though your point about complexity of emails is well taken. I will still play with the above and see if it doesn't get me at least mostly where I need to go. We won't have a massive volume of support tickets right away anyway, so... might be ok.

Thanks!

Jonathan

[tooltrainer]

Great, this works wonderfully! Only bummer is I'll have to manually set the support level for each customer as they register, but that's not really the end of the world.

Thanks again!

Jonathan

[Matthew]

Originally Posted by tooltrainer

I'll have to manually set the support level for each customer as they register.

True enough. You could set it so that registration must be manually verified by you before they can log on, and you'll receive an email.

Glad I could help.

[Aaron]

Matthew you said:

Originally Posted by Matthew

This is not difficult from the web interface:

1. Create 3 different User Groups, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3.
2. Create 3 corresponding template groups.
3. Assign template groups to user groups.
4. Create 3 Staff 'departments', Level 1, Level 2, Level 3. As you create each one, select the template(s) that department will apply to.

What happens is that as your user logs on, their Group is identified by the system and they are shown the appropriate template, which displays only the Department (the level of support), you have determined they should have access to.

I am in a similar sutuation as the original requester. I have already created:
-a Level 1 user group
- a corresponding Level 1 template group and assigned that template group to the Level 1 user group.
-and a Level 1 department and chosen the Level one template that it applies to.

I can login and see the changes I have made (eg don't display download widget...). What I am not getting is I want to refine the content of the knowledge base so it just applies to that Level 1 group. I don't want them seeing the KB. What am I missing?

Thanks Much!
Aaron

[Aaron]

OK, now I went into the staff ctrl panel and went into to edit the specific category of KB articles that I want to be available to my group. I realized I didn't select my new template group from the list. I clicked customize and chose the one I wanted, and clicked update category.
From what I understand is that if I leave default and my new template group checked that this category will appear for default users and users that are set up in my new group, dept? Is that correct?
Because when I go to log in as one of these users, I can see the KB link but when I click on it there are no categories in it. It looks the same as when I first installed the software. It is doing something different than before on my last post, but...
What am I missing?

Thanks,

Aaron

[Aaron]

Ok an update, I figured out why my categories were not showing up in the kb section. I was trying to add sub categories to a template group, without adding their parent categories or top level category. Once I added the parent / top level category as well, the sub category showed up fine in the template group. I think I am getting the hang of this! Pretty cool so far!!
I think I am going to submit this as a bug however. Yes in hindsight it makes sense that of course the sub category won't show up if the way to get to the sub category is not even there, BUT, it didin't give me an alert or warning when I added a sub category without then adding the parent or top level category as well. A more user friendly thing to do would for the software drop you a warning if you forget to add the parent category.

Thanks,

Aaron

[Matthew]

Originally Posted by Aaron

Yes in hindsight it makes sense that of course the sub category won't show up if the way to get to the sub category is not even there, BUT, it didin't give me an alert or warning when I added a sub category without then adding the parent or top level category as well. A more user friendly thing to do would for the software drop you a warning if you forget to add the parent category.

Good idea. Thanks for the progress update. It would be nice if someone were to write a complete all-in-one-post tutorial for things like this, as I've recently done for setting up SLA's. Sounds like you could do it in a pinch now.

[helmishariff]

Originally Posted by Matthew

This is not difficult from the web interface:

1. Create 3 different User Groups, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3.
2. Create 3 corresponding template groups.
3. Assign template groups to user groups.
4. Create 3 Staff 'departments', Level 1, Level 2, Level 3. As you create each one, select the template(s) that department will apply to.

What happens is that as your user logs on, their Group is identified by the system and they are shown the appropriate template, which displays only the Department (the level of support), you have determined they should have access to.

Caveat: I'm a newbie and there may be better ways to do this.

Email submissions may be trickier, because you need a mechanism that identifies the sender's user group and then assigns the ticket to the appropriate department. As far as I'm aware, the parser rules don't include that functionality. I don't know how difficult this is to program, but this feature seems so essential that it should be put in there as soon as possible. (see my wish-list, part of the thread here.)

Hope this helps!

How to assign template groups to user groups.

[tracstar]

I have created templates as stated here to separate staff to specific departments and the view in the staff cp only shows their assigned department, and users are can only see the departments they are set to.

But when you select "new ticket" in the staff cp every department is listed.
Is there a way that they only see the department they are assigned to?

I am I missing a step?

Thanks -JJ

[amj]

Hi tracstar,
No, you're not missing a step. Per this thread: it is currently not possible to restrict it. We shall await for it in the next build.

Restrict staff from viewing certain departments