So for many years we’ve used our own internal helpdesk system, not because I believe in reinventing the wheel, they simply didn’t work the same way our business does.
I started of assembly programming on both Atari ST and Amiga, have done VB, C#, am a certified PHP Engineer (you can look me up on their site),
So I would like to think I am good at what I do, I have strong OOP skills, and I know most of the guys who work for and have been lead programmers for Zend.
I started a project I would like to release as open source for MSPs. I will probably approach it with a free model woth paid support.
Yes it started out as a ticket system with the ability to add customers, sites, assets, etc. It can also create tickets from emails if the queues are set up right.
Currently working on adding documentation, such as the ability to link passwords to assets, upload documents relating to assets etc.
Just a quick update, this project hasn’t been put on the back burner. Zend Framework and Zend Expressive (which the project is developed in) has been handed over to the Linux Foundation and is being migrated to the Laminas Project (https://getlaminas.org/), we are just waiting for the tools to become available to migrate the repositories of which the target is the end of the month.
Once migrated to Laminas and has been tested we will be back on track.
The framework it was written in (Zend Expressive) was migrated to Linux Foundation and rebranded as Laminas/Mezzio so there was a bit of a delay as the github repos where abandoned and recreated under Laminas so that caused some headache having to halt the project until that had been done, which thankfully now has and I’ve migrated the code. I want to stick with the framework since it’s heavily worked on by the same guys working on PHP.
Currently having issues with myself now where have two versions of the project now, one all-in-one type and one where the backend/api is seperate from frontend/gui which makes a lot easier to integrate with pretty much anything but have issues if backend is hosted on seperate domain with cross domain posts and things (api.example.com and helpdesk.example.com for example are classed as seperate domains). hosting as example.com/api/ and example.com/gui/ would be ok.
There’s also a few additional features trying to integrate such as asset management, warranty management, passwords, licenses management etc. and ensure all data is encrypted at the same time.
I’ll update as soon as I have something, dragging out a bit longer than I would like but trying to ensure it’s done right.
As for me for several years I’m using FreeScout. It is an open source help desk. So personally I don’t think we need to develop some other helpdesk from scratch.
What makes this software (the free version) better than say Spiceworks help desk or any other open source or free software?
I run a very small side hustle I.T business. Why should I choose this?
Who are you targeting. I.E your customer avatar?
+10 hell yeah points for open sourc’n this software. This is the way of the future, especially against government actors.
Personally there are a ton of these help desk Suttons free. You’re better off picking the most popular open source one and forking it…
UPdating it, fixing the bugs, and adding things current customers want, But has not been implemented. I.E bringing old php version to new or adding a feature set. Using a better database. Etc.