Practical guide to applying Help Desk permissions

[Chico Gois]

Practical guide to applying Help Desk permissions

In phpBB, a role is a predefined set of permissions.
It is not applied automatically just because it appears in the list.
You must assign the role to a user or group and then save.

1. Recommended structure

For Help Desk, the safest structure is this:

• Extension administration → a_helpdesk_manage
• Support team → moderator roles:
  • Help Desk Supervisor
  • Help Desk Agent
  • Help Desk Auditor
• End users / customers → forum roles:
  • Help Desk Customer
  • Help Desk Read Only

2. Grant administrative access to Help Desk

Use this only for users who will configure the extension.

Path:
ACP → Permissions → Global administrative permissions → Groups’ permissions

How to do it:

1. Select the Administrators group
2. Continue
3. Look for the a_helpdesk_manage permission
4. Set it to Yes
5. Save

Result:
Administrators will be able to access and configure the Help Desk ACP.

3. Apply the support team roles

These roles should preferably be applied to the Help Desk forums.

Path:
ACP → Permissions → Forum moderator permissions

How to do it:

1. Select the team group, for example:
   • Help Desk Supervisors
   • Help Desk Agents
   • Help Desk Auditors
2. Select the Help Desk forums
3. Choose the corresponding role
4. Save

Suggested use:

• Help Desk Supervisor → coordinates the queue, assigns, and manages tickets
• Help Desk Agent → works on tickets day to day
• Help Desk Auditor → monitors the queue and reviews information

4. Apply end-user permissions

This is where the forum roles for users who will open or follow tickets are applied.

Path:
ACP → Permissions → Forum permissions → Groups’ forum permissions

How to do it:

1. Select the group, for example Registered users
2. Select the Help Desk forums
3. Apply the role:
   • Help Desk Customer → to open and view tickets
   • Help Desk Read Only → for read-only access
4. Save

5. Recommended group structure

To keep things organized, the ideal setup is to create these groups:

• Help Desk Supervisors
• Help Desk Agents
• Help Desk Auditors

Then apply them like this:

• Administrators → a_helpdesk_manage
• Help Desk Supervisors → Help Desk Supervisor role
• Help Desk Agents → Help Desk Agent role
• Help Desk Auditors → Help Desk Auditor role
• Registered users → Help Desk Customer role

6. How to verify that everything is correct

The best way to validate the result is by using the Permission masks.

Path:
ACP → Permissions → Permission masks

Test at least:

• an administrator
• a supervisor
• an agent
• an auditor
• a regular user

Important:
Always test in a real Help Desk forum.

7. Ideal application order

Do it in this order:

1. Apply a_helpdesk_manage to the administrators group
2. Apply the team moderator roles to the Help Desk forums
3. Apply the end-user roles to the Help Desk forums
4. Validate everything using permission masks

8. Common mistakes

• Selecting the role and forgetting to save
• Applying a moderator role in the wrong place
• Applying a global permission when it should be forum-based
• Testing with a user outside the correct group
• Assuming that simply selecting the role already grants the permission

9. Practical example

If you have a forum called Support and another called Pre-sales, a good setup would be:

• Administrators → a_helpdesk_manage
• Help Desk Supervisors → Help Desk Supervisor role in the Support and Pre-sales forums
• Help Desk Agents → Help Desk Agent role in the Support forum
• Help Desk Auditors → Help Desk Auditor role in the Support forum
• Registered users → Help Desk Customer role in the Support forum

10. Final summary

• A role does not apply itself
• You must assign and save
• Help Desk administration uses a_helpdesk_manage
• The team uses moderator roles
• End users use forum roles
• The best final check is through permission masks