[Cerberus Helpdesk - Support Center] Most Popular Articles

Where can I find the official documentation?

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 01:26:15 GMT

The Cerberus Helpdesk 4.0 official documentation can be found here:
http://wiki.cerb4.com/wiki/Main_Page

What are the server/system requirements for Cerberus Helpdesk 4.0?

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:59:08 GMT

These are the requirements for hosting Cerberus Helpdesk 4.0 on your own server:

Minimum:

Windows or Unix-derivative (e.g., Linux, Solaris, BSD, MacOSX)
PHP 5.1.4 or newer

With extensions:
Session, PCRE, IMAP, MailParse, mbstring, SimpleXML, GD

With php.ini settings:
File_Uploads = On
Memory_Limit = 16M
MySQL 3.23 or newer

Recommend:

Linux (Debian)
PHP 5.2.2 or newer

With extensions:

Session, PCRE, IMAP, MailParse, mbstring, SimpleXML, GD

With php.ini settings:

File_Uploads = On
Memory_Limit = 32M
MySQL 5.0 or newer

How can I change the ticket masks to a different format?

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:56:49 GMT

Ticket masks obscure your internal ticket IDs. This is important because:

Market competitors can measure your helpdesk e-mail volume by sending you e-mail every couple days and plotting how many other messages have been generated.
Your community tools are more secure if your internal IDs aren't provided. It's a lot harder to guess a random mask (with ~1.38 trillion combinations by default) than to simply add or subtract from a known valid ID.
Masks are portable. Ticket masks allow so many combinations to reference a ticket that you have a fair assurance of uniqueness when you combine multiple helpdesks into one or perform imports. A good example of this is moving tickets from Cerberus Helpdesk 3.x to 4.0. If you did any evaluation testing in 4.0 then your internal ticket IDs will likely have consumed some IDs that were used by your original data. This means any original tickets that you import will end up with a different internal ID than they used to have. This shouldn't matter unless you're giving that ID to customers as a reference (which by now we hope you understand is a bad idea!).

As long as your preferred ticket mask format can guarantee a fair amount of uniqueness on generation, meaning multiple masks can be tried until a unique one is found, then you can change the ticket mask format to anything you like.

In the file cerb4/api/Application.class.php, near line 247, you will find:
static function generateTicketMask($pattern = "CCC-CCCCC") {

$pattern is the format of the ticket mask. At this time, the mask cannot exceed 16 characters in length. You can use the following tokens:

L - Random letter
N - Random number
C - Random letter or number
Y - Current year (4-digit)
M - Current month (01-12)
D - Current Day (01-31)

It's important to re-state that your ticket mask pattern should have an amount of randomness to it. Your helpdesk may receive a lot of mail in a very short time period, so purely date-driven masks won't be sufficient.

There's also another caveat: Make sure your ticket mask doesn't produce an entirely numeric number (i.e., without dashes, etc). The helpdesk can use internal IDs and masks interchangeably on most functionality, so if your mask looks like an ID you will run into trouble.

It's possible for support for more pattern tokens to be added, you can make suggestions from the project portal.

Forward-compatibility notice: This process may become a configuration setting from the GUI in a future update. It will depend on how often people seek to change the default mask pattern.

How do I set up a cronjob to ping the /cron page automatically?

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:57:37 GMT

In Linux, you can use various command-line tools to ping a webpage from your crontab.

lynx --source "http://localhost/cerb4/cron"
wget -O - --quiet "http://localhost/cerb4/cron"

In Windows:

You can download a binary version of wget here.
Set up a scheduled task to run:c:\wget\wget.exe --spider "http://localhost/cerb4/cron"

NOTE: if you are not using the mod_rewrite plugin for friendly URLs, then the above examples all change "cerb4/cron" to "cerb4/index.php/cron".

Keywords: cron, scheduled tasks, job

How much does Cerberus Helpdesk cost?

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:59:16 GMT

Cerberus Helpdesk is deployed as either an online service (hosted by us) or a standalone application (hosted on your hardware). The functionality of both versions is identical.

The product will operate in a free, non-expiring mode by default which has the following limitations:

Limited to 3 users.
A Cerberus Helpdesk tagline will be appended to all outgoing mail.

An owned license doesn't have these restrictions.

Discounts are available for small companies, educational institutions, non-profits and open-source projects.

The latest price sheet can be found here:
http://www.cerberusweb.com/purchase.php

Keywords: pricing, price, purchase

How do I add my company logo to the top of the helpdesk?

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:37:25 GMT

To personalize your helpdesk/add your logo: 1) Log in to your desk 2) Go to Helpdesk Setup 3) Under the 'System' tab, there will be an entry for Logo URL: 4) Enter in the URL to your desired logo

Can I use Cerb4 to check a Gmail account through POP3?

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:56:31 GMT

Absolutely!

Server: pop.gmail.com
Port: 995
Protocol: POP3-SSL
User: you@gmail.com
Pass: (your gmail password)

Make sure POP3 is enabled for your Gmail account (Settings->Forwarding & POP3). If you want to import your entire Gmail history, use the 'Enable POP for all mail (even mail that's already been downloaded)' option. Otherwise to just download new e-mail use the 'Enable POP only for mail that arrives from now on' option.

You can set up Cerb4 POP3 accounts in Configuration->Scheduler->POP3.

After updating, I see "Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_SL in ... framework.config.php"

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:03:30 GMT

If you see the following error after you update from Subversion it usually means you had a conflict:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_SL in ... framework.config.php

Conflicts are a situation where both your local copy of a file and the official version of the same file have changes on the same lines.

The best way to resolve a conflict is to edit the affected file and manually merge the changes. Generally this involves choosing the changes to keep, which requires an understanding of the code.

A quick way to resolve a conflict, assuming you don't want to keep your local changes, is to revert the file. You can do this by issuing the following command:
svn revert framework.config.php

This will remove any local changes. It's important to note when doing this to your framework.config.php file that means it will remove your configuration settings. Be sure to make a copy of the file before reverting so you can replace your database connection info.

Once you've resolved the conflict you need to tell Subversion with:
svn resolved framework.config.php

How can I automate the update process from the command line?

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:59:23 GMT

You can automate Cerb4 updates at the shell using a command-line browser, like wget or lynx --source.

From your Cerb4 directory:
svn update
wget -O - --quiet "http://localhost/cerb4/update"
rm -Rf install/

To grant /update access to your script simply add your local IP to the Configuration->General->IP Security section.

Alternatively you can do an override from the AUTHORIZED_IPS_DEFAULTS setting at the bottom of the framework.config.php file. This approach works best when you're hosting several helpdesks since you can just add your local IP to the framework.config.php file from your provisioning (auto-install) script for each client.

Keywords: shell, terminal, CLI, bash, script, automation

How do I make my ticket lists auto-refresh every couple minutes?

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:04:40 GMT

Our development philosophy in Cerberus Helpdesk 4.0 is to keep the application cleaner, simpler and more intuitive by not implementing various tangential preferences when good alternatives already exist.

The best way to automatically refresh a web page at a specific interval is by using a browser plug-in.

Here's a good one for Firefox:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/115

Is my helpdesk restricted to a specific domain or URL?

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:03:15 GMT

Our licensing is very liberal. Cerberus Helpdesk 4.0 is licensed to your company and is not tied to a specific server, piece of hardware or domain name.

You may install the helpdesk on as many domains and servers as you desire as long as its for the use of the licensed company.

That means if your company supports 5 products, you can install multiple helpdesk copies. But you cannot install multiple copies for use by other companies (such as unauthorized reselling).

Help! My ticket masks are spelling suggestive/offensive words!

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:03:41 GMT

We haven't explicitly defined any "bad words" in the mask generation. Some humorous things have come up over the years. Really, anybody with an imagination is going to be able to interpret something the wrong way.

If anybody is that worried about ticket masks, we've made it really easy to modify the available letters for mask generation. The easiest thing to do about it would be eliminating vowels.

That reduces the standard mask pattern from 1.38 trillion combinations to 926 billion -- but hey, you'll live.

In the file /cerb4/api/Application.class.php, around line 472, change:
$letters = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ";

to:
$letters = "BCDFGHJKLMNPQRSTVWXYZ";

Keywords: profanity, vulgar, swear, curse, rainbows, butterflies, gumdrops

How can I migrate only specific tickets from 3.x to 4.0?

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:32:22 GMT

There isn't a simple option for selective importing in the migration tool, but here's an easy workaround:

1. Backup your original database and copy it somewhere safe.

2. Upgrade to 3.6 if you haven't already:
http://www.cerberusweb.com/download/archives

3. You can delete any tickets you don't want imported using the GUI.

4. To not import any closed tickets, you can Issue the following SQL statement against your 3.6 database:
UPDATE ticket SET is_deleted = 1 WHERE is_closed = 1;

5. Follow the normal migration instructions using this new database:
http://wiki.cerb4.com/wiki/ImpEx:Cerb3Export

Will I lose my Cerb4 configuration if I use the ImpEx migration tools?

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:29:48 GMT

We've considered that people often like to do a bit of evaluation and experimentation before importing their real data. The ImpEx migration tools imports tickets, KB articles, contact addresses, contact orgs, and workers as separate xml files; one for each record. We did it this way so things were atomized -- meaning you could play around all you want with Cerb4 and then bring the data in later without overwriting anything. Because it uses standard xml, that also mean you just have to write exporters from other systems and not importers.

All imported objects are imported by the scheduler job "Background Importing and Synchronization". The ImpEx tools allow you to import your tickets into a separate group where you can sort them out later as you see fit. In this way the import process will not interfere with your Cerb4 configuration.
For more details see http://wiki.cerb4.com/wiki/ImpEx:Cerb3Export

'java.lang.OutOfMemoryError' when running the Migration Tools

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:44:04 GMT

Try increasing the JRE's heap size when running the migration script:
jre/bin/java -Xmx512m -jar Cerb4-ImpEx.jar cerb3.cfg

If you were in the middle of an export, be sure to clear out the output/ directory before restarting so you don't create duplicate tickets.

How do I cancel my hosted helpdesk service?

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:02:41 GMT

You may cancel your hosted helpdesk service at any time by contacting support at support@webgroupmedia.com or by calling 714-671-9090 (USA).

If I have you host my helpdesk is there a contract?

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:02:30 GMT

Our helpdesk hosting packages are all on a month-to-month basis. There is no minimum commitment and you can cancel service at any time.

How do I change the date format displayed in ticket lists?

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:58:12 GMT

While this will probably eventually be a configurable option (or at least one that's defined in only one place), the current method is to edit cerb4/plugins/cerberusweb.core/templates/tickets/ticket_view.tpl.php. Lines 71, 73, and 75 are the date fields, and you simply need to change
{$result.t_created_date|date_format}
to
{$result.t_created_date|date_format:'%b %e, %Y %H:%M:%S'}
or any other desired format specifiers. For a list of available specifiers, please refer to the Smarty documentation here: http://smarty.php.net/manual/en/language.modifier.date.format.php

Migration out of memory error

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:31:11 GMT

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space

Generally this error means that java has ran out of memory during the migration process. This is usually the result of java getting hung up on a very large file. Since defaults are usually 128m for java, it may have a hard time and bug out during the migration. If that happens, simply run the java tool with the following option:

-Xmx512m

./jre/bin/java -Xmx256m -jar Cerb4-ImpEx.jar cerb3.cfg

KB Import fails with "Input is not proper UTF-8" message

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:39:06 GMT

If your KB import fails as improper UTF-8, it's possible that come of your articles contain invalid, Microsoft-specific, characters.

The first line of the warning (you may need to turn on display_errors in your php.ini file) should tell you what line number in the source xml to find the first problem at. Select that character and do a search and replace on all like characters. You may have to repeat this process a few times, as there are several common MS characters that will break the import:
left double quote (replace with ")
right double quote (replace with ")
right single quote (replace with ')
ellipsis (replace with ...)

Does Cerberus Workstation exist in 4.0?

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:04:20 GMT

At the moment the Workstation concept isn't being translated to 4.0.

The major purpose of Workstation was to give us a place where we could try alternate interfaces and concepts without drastically changing Cerb 3.x.

With Cerb 4.0 we were able to give 9 months of thought to cleaning up all our concepts in the main interface, which deprecated the primary purpose of Workstation.

That's not to say we'll never have another alternative desktop interface for 4.x -- but it would have been a big time-waster developing it in tandem with the 4.0 web interface which was conceptually changing and improving very rapidly. The more dependencies we build in, the earlier, the fewer massive improvements/innovations we can make.

Workstation in 4.0 will really depend on customer demand more than anything.

We start by asking what the 4.x interface doesn't do well enough that leaves the door open for Workstation still? That kind of feedback is very helpful.

How do I stop getting a copy of all /cron output to my e-mail address?

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:55:57 GMT

The smart thing to do in this situation is to redirect any cron output to /dev/null.

You do that like this:

*/1 * * * * command >/dev/null 2>&1

Those new bold parts mean:

>/dev/null (redirect any screen output to null -- silently ignore/destroy it)
2>&1 (combine STDERR and STDOUT for the redirect so you get no screen output from either pipe. In some situations you'd want to only suppress output and still be emailed explicit errors from a shell script, so you'd leave this part off).

Do my customers need to create an account to send in new tickets?

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:01:54 GMT

Using Cerberus Helpdesk 4.0 your customers don't need to create a special account to send you e-mail. They can send you e-mail directly (to sales@yourcompany.com, for example) or they can use a contact form you've created with our Contact Form Builder tool.

If you're worried about spam, the Contact Form Builder will not expose your e-mail address and you have the option of enabling a CAPTCHA (having users type a few letters from an image) to help reduce automated abuse of the form.

Ticket lists fail to finish rendering

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:07:03 GMT

Occasionally (two known instances so far), one of the ticket lists will silently fail to completely render when loading a mail tab, but *will* render completely when you click refresh.

This turns out to be a memory allocation problem, where Cerberus is running out of memory. Increase the available memory to solve this issue.

Can I become a Cerberus Helpdesk reseller?

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:02:49 GMT

Yes! We offer generous discounts to companies with built-in communities who feel they can add value by reselling Cerberus Helpdesk to their users.

To see if you qualify please contact sales by e-mailing sales@webgroupmedia.com or calling 714-671-9090 (USA).