More Form Field Options in Support Center?

[stevem]

Jeff and team,

I have a couple questions, but will post them in different threads. First, thanks for switching to, or back to vBulletin. MUCH easier to read and navigate.

Other than trying to convince our huge IT group to allow PHP and mySQL apps, one of the things my group would need is the ability to have more flexibility when creating the Support Center submission forms. We're envisioning about six different forms that would need radio buttons, check boxes, drop-down select, multiple drop-down select, the ability to upload multiple files, plus the other form field options. This request is in the JIRA for 3.x and it's CERB-738.

Has this request been addressed?

Thanks,
Steve

[jstanden]

Hey Steve!

I moved your original request into the 4.x roadmap:
http://www.wgmdev.com/jira/browse/CHD-290

The different field types for Contact Forms and the Support Center have come up a couple times. I can definitely see adding this variety to the UI builders -- especially when custom fields are introduced.

In the meantime, you could write those forms in any programming language and generate an e-mail to a helpdesk address. That would give you the ultimate amount of flexibility.

When custom fields are implemented we'll probably also support custom headers like 'X-CerbCustomField5', which would allow your own forms to still have their fields do data-entry automatically (opposed to visibly appending them to the message body).

I don't have a specific ETA for this, but Custom Fields, Mail Rules and Translations are at the top of my TODO list.

Thanks!

[stevem]

In the meantime, you could write those forms in any programming language and generate an e-mail to a helpdesk address. That would give you the ultimate amount of flexibility.

Yes, but the resulting ticket would be very difficult for an agent to read in Help Desk.

When custom fields are implemented we'll probably also support custom headers like 'X-CerbCustomField5', which would allow your own forms to still have their fields do data-entry automatically (opposed to visibly appending them to the message body).

So this means that some form fields could be written directly to the database from the e-mail and show in the ticket as form fields instead of the message body? If so, that is very good. Same thing for multiple attachments - just write them directly in.

[jstanden]

Yeah, you're right.

The multiple attachments from any e-mail form/client already works right now as expected.

We've had a couple ongoing ideas for custom fields writing directly to the database from arbitrary forms and other automated senders.

The more sensible one is writing to the database automatically if the parser detects a certain format of e-mail header. This is really easy to do and won't interfere with future ticket replies.

Another option is appending an attachment with a specific file format that would contain custom field information.

We'd favor the e-mail headers approach.

The only holdup here is just custom fields in 4.0. So we better get cracking. ;)

[jstanden]

Custom fields are in! We'll post a blurb about it on the Cerb4 blog.

[stevem]

Glad to hear it! I'm thinking that I may try to upgrade my little system in January.

Now if I can only get the corporate big-wigs to support PHP and mySQL, I'd be happy, my team would be happy, the 2500 people I support would be happy, and we could have a solution that does not cost $500,000!

[jstanden]

Now if I can only get the corporate big-wigs to support PHP and mySQL, I'd be happy, my team would be happy, the 2500 people I support would be happy, and we could have a solution that does not cost $500,000!

haha! Well, there are a couple other things we're working on which may help there too: virtual machine images, virtual appliances, etc.

Good luck!

[rfarnell]

Any sign of the a 'multi-checkbox' fields? from CHD-290?

Rob

[Hildy]

This feature request has been bumped to the 4.1 release. Please continue to monitor (watch) the issue here: http://www.wgmdev.com/jira/browse/CHD-290