Search ticket replies

[kjavitz]

I am actually very surprised given its wide use that WHMCS search tickets feature does not include a search replies feature, it only searches the original ticket message.

 

We really really need this feature, and we need to have the ability to set "search replies" checkbox (which does not yet exist) by default.

 

Is there something I'm missing, or is this feature missing? Please help add this feature ASAP.

[sentq]

check this workaround here http://forum.whmcs.com/showthread.php?113854-What-does-the-Filter-Search-tickets-actually-do&p=463611#post463611

[kjavitz]

thank you - I did see that post before posting this thread. The solution there is not satisfactory for our needs. We need it integrated to the usual ticket search, not a separate form.

[brian!]

We really really need this feature, and we need to have the ability to set "search replies" checkbox (which does not yet exist) by default.

 

Is there something I'm missing, or is this feature missing? Please help add this feature ASAP.

if you really really need it, then you're going to have to really really pay a developer to write it for you!

 

i'm sure that WHMCS appreciate your feedback - but in practical terms, you can't make feature requests here... well you can, but it's pointless.

 

if you were thinking along the lines of 'wouldn't it be great if WHMCS could have x feature one day...', then that's perfect for a feature request and by all means go to feature request site and submit it - if it gets enough votes, they may or may not add the feature... but even if they do, it would likely be months or years before it is.

 

however, the minute that you start to think 'I really really need this feature NOW', then forget about making a feature request - go to Marketplace and pay a developer to write it for you... you'll get exactly what you want and a hell of a lot quicker than waiting for a feature request to be implemented.

 

I wish it were different, but that's just the practicalities of the current situation.

 

of course, it's entirely possibly that WHMCS may add this feature in v6.3.2, v6.4 or v7 - who knows? are you prepared to wait to find out??

 

thank you - I did see that post before posting this thread. The solution there is not satisfactory for our needs. We need it integrated to the usual ticket search, not a separate form.

I intentionally limited the report to not query both tables because I didn't want to waste time writing/testing a feature that, for all I know, WHMCS might shortly add themselves... and also for a quick fix, it was easier to do as a report than an addon.

 

you could modify the query to search both tables if you needed it to... or modify the sidebar filter to send the search terms to the report instead - if it were searching two tables, then it's output could easily be designed to echo the table option shown in supporttickets.php and support the existing search features.

 

but as I said previously - you either wait for WHMCS to change the search options, or you pay for a custom solution... the choice is yours.

[kjavitz]

Hi,

 

thanks I would love to have this added, but the supporttickets.php (and it seems 90% of the files) are ioncube encrypted. Maybe I'm wrong. Do you know where the query and code is that does support ticket searches so we can modify and add this feature?

 

Or perhaps there is some way to get the unencrypted files for development, do the marketplace people get that?

[brian!]

thanks I would love to have this added, but the supporttickets.php (and it seems 90% of the files) are ioncube encrypted. Maybe I'm wrong. Do you know where the query and code is that does support ticket searches so we can modify and add this feature?

I think that the minute you decrypt the files and modify the code, you break your WHMCS license agreement... in fact, simply decrypting might be enough to break the license.

 

besides, even if you could decrypt and modify the code to expand the search, there'd be no guarantee that WHMCS would continue to function.

 

to be honest, I don't know where the code is - I could hazard a guess, but I don't really need to... what WHMCS John said, along with the output of supporttickets.php, was enough to tell me that the current search is just querying the one database table... and I wouldn't need to see their code for querying a table as that's simple to do.

 

although, it would be a lot simpler if more of the admin area pages used templates instead of having the content coded within the encrypted PHP files, but perhaps with v7 that might change... though I doubt it, and it won't happen before then.

 

Or perhaps there is some way to get the unencrypted files for development, do the marketplace people get that?

I seem to recall that you could previously obtain an unencrypted version of the code from WHMCS - but I think you needed to pay $75 and sign a NDA... whether that is still an option, I don't know... perhaps one of the WHMCS support guys will confirm either way.

 

as to whether the developers have unencrypted versions - I don't know... some might, though if they didn't get them from WHMCS, they won't admit to it!

 

it certainly won't be an automatic entitlement to be given one that's for sure!

 

experienced developers will know the hooks, API, PHP etc well enough to code around the encrypted code - for example, instead of trying to modify supporttickets.php, they may just create a new ticket search page for you to use... creating new pages isn't really the issue, whether in the admin area or, as I did, via a report - it's getting the SQL query correct and they won't need to see WHMCS encrypted code to do that.

 

I suspect it would be cheaper to pay a developer for a custom solution rather than obtain a decrypted version of WHMCS.

[kjavitz]

yes I agree, I wasn't saying I am going to try and decrypt it that would be a bad idea. Thanks for all your input. I have contacted a few developers, and it seems the best they can do is add a separate search form.

 

really it's too bad so much of WHMCS is encrypted, it's really only necessary to encrypt a few key and not often used files. That is what we used to do before we open sourced our rental system for Magento.

 

if we do end up paying a developer I'll put it to github or something so other people can benefit.

[brian!]

really it's too bad so much of WHMCS is encrypted, it's really only necessary to encrypt a few key and not often used files. That is what we used to do before we open sourced our rental system for Magento.

I couldn't agree more.

 

their default position seems to be: if the client doesn't need to edit it, they don't need to see the code... i'd much prefer to see it where only essential files were encrypted.

 

if we do end up paying a developer I'll put it to github or something so other people can benefit.

that's good of you - i'm sure others in a similar situation will appreciate the gesture.