Thanks to our beta users and particularly to Hideto, we have been getting some great feedback on the first 3 beta versions of JV-HelpDesk 2.4 Pro. The feedback has helped us improve JV-HelpDesk immensely for use with organizations. With this we have released the 4th and hopefully the final beta of 2.4 version today. Beta user can download this beta from "Download Files" section in our Help Desk system. We have introduced major improvements in beta-4 and please read on to know more about them with screenshots.

Comprehensive Permission Based Matrix 

With 2.4 beta-4 we have introduced an exhaustive permission based matrix. Admin can configure this matrix to allow or deny various ticket action permissions to different types of users. Actions include view ticket, view custom fields in ticket, edit ticket, delete ticket, close ticket, reply to ticket, edit ticket status, edit ticket priority, edit ticket status, edit ticket visibility, edit ticket type, edit reply, delete reply, mark reply as confidential, up vote ticket, follow ticket etc... The different types of users to whom these actions can be configured include:

1. Ticket owner, Assigned Staff Member and Any Other Staff member for Private Tickets.
2. Ticket owner, Assigned Staff Member, Any Other Staff member, and Any Other Registered User for Public Tickets.
3. Ticket owner, Assigned Staff Member, Any Other Staff member, and Any Group Member for Group Tickets.
4. Administrators will be able to do all actions from front-end and back-end for tickets.
5. All permissions will be denied for guests.
6. If the ticket is closed, then only the View Ticket and View Custom Fields permissions are applicable as configured, and all other permissions will be denied irrespective of the permission settings.

All staff members can view group tickets and post replies to group tickets that are not assigned to any staff member. The ticket will be automatically assigned to the staff member when he/she replies to it the first time, or when he/she self assigns the ticket. Once the ticket is assigned, the above matrix permissions will apply!

Other Changes in 2.4 beta-4 

1. When replies in a ticket are sorted with newest at the top, we have added the "Post a Reply" button immediately below the ticket description. This way the user does not need to scroll down to the bottom to reply to the ticket
2. In "Download Files" in front-end, the default view will be to show all recent files. Additionally a category filter has been provided at the top which which users can filter by category and view the files in them anytime. Those categories to which they do not have access will be disabled for selection.
3. We have introduced a new option to use short URLs or original long URLs in ticket notification emails. It will be set to Short URLs by default, but you can always configure it to use Long URLs if you have email clients that block emails with short URLs.

We hope you like the new features introduced in 2.4. Looking forward to your feedback and on releasing 2.4 GA soon.