suggestions of Helpdesk software, request tracking - public domain or low cost

Mon Jul 10 13:39:23 PDT 2006

trm at eskimo.com wrote:
>   I am seeking suggestions of Low cost or public domain Helpdesk software
> which is web based and also sends out email messages was needed.
> 
>   Examples would be:
>   - troubleticketexpress.com
>   - perldesk.com
> 
> 
>   Please provide suggestions, and some features you like about the
> Helpdesk software. Please do not provide critics of other persons
> suggestions.

Request Tracker, aka RT3
http://bestpractical.com/

Pros: Actually works in the manner you might expect out of the box so to 
speak. Configurable with multiple queues, access level, privileges. 
System can accept email tickets, email responses update ticket, sends 
reminders, etc. Apache1/2, mod_perl1/2, Mysql/Postgres/Oracle supported 
as well. Also supports fastcgi so you use other web servers if you're 
inclined. Under active development, 3.6 was releases last month, and has 
been around for ten years. Pay for support available and there is an 
O'Rielly book.

Cons: concurrency sucks, wouldn't use with more than 15-20 users. Needs 
80+ perl modules so plan on cpan-ing your server. Perl dependencies can 
be brittle as I've broken parts of it a time or two when updating 
modules for something else. DBAs have bitched about RT's schema and 
indexes which is probably why concurrency sucks. HTML/CSS has to be 
edited manually. Access control is powerful and makes no sense the first 
five times.

I only have experience with 3.4 (Linux, Apache2, mod_perl2, mysql5) and 
haven't tried the new 3.6 which is supposed to address a number of the 
shortcomings I mentioned. Overall RT works better than most of the 
alternatives IMHO though it is not without its warts.

Ramin