What is HelpDesk and How it Works?
What is HelpDesk for JIRA?
HelpDesk for JIRA is a tool to build Customers Support System based on JIRA.
Do you have a lot of customers and few JIRA licenses? Leave JIRA licenses to issue assignees only, not for reporters.
HelpDesk for JIRA allows customers to create, view and comment tasks, attach files without JIRA license.
HelpDesk users are JIRA users too, but not licensed.
How it works?
When you install HelpDesk for JIRA you get:
1) HelpDesk mail handler
HelpDesk mail handler allows to:
- create new JIRA issues from mails
- create comments and attachment via mails
- create new HelpDesk (JIRA) users from mails
Unlike built-in JIRA mail handler, HelpDesk mail handler doesn't place a new JIRA user to jira-core-users or jira-software-users groups.
This way a new JIRA user don't take a JIRA license and can't login to JIRA. The user may work by mail or by HelpDesk Customer Portal (see below).
2) HelpDesk Customer Portal - separate custom interface to JIRA database, which include:
- View JIRA issue interface (largely repeats native JIRA view issue interface);
- Create new issue interface;
- Issue lists interface. Issues may be separated by tabs. It could be not only issues reported by current user, but it's always issues which current user have permissions on;
- HelpDesk user sign-up/sign in interfaces;
- HelpDesk users profile interface.
Via HelpDesk Customer Portal users may create and watch tasks, write comments, make attachments. They work directly with JIRA database, but with HelpDesk interfaces.
How it works exactly?
To make this way of work possible you need just one free JIRA license for so-called HelpDesk SuperUser.
Each time, when HelpDesk user create an issue (via mail or via portal), HelpDesk SuperUser take one JIRA license and then release it. HelpDesk needs one license just for the right moment of creation an issue (writing new raw in database).
HelpDesk doesn't need a license for filling in new issues fields, for viewing or commenting issues.