Starting with osTicket 1.8.1, we started the adventure of making osTicket more extensible by introducing plugins. The first two areas we’ve worked with are authentication sources and file storage. So far we’ve supported Active Directory and HTTP pass through authentication and are working toward authenticating end users and even using social media sources like Google for authentication.

Active Directory Authentication

This seems to be the most popular plugin thus far. We’ve not heard too much out of it; so I should assume that it doesn’t work at all or that it’s relatively simple to use. If you’d like a more in depth article, Neil has a great write up in the forum.

Attachment Storage

Another historic difficulty for osTicket has been file storage. There are lots of arguments for files to be stored in varying places. With osTicket 1.7, we decided to move the attachments into the database, partly because of security related issues with setting up and securing file system folder. We feel this gives the best overall experience. There are hurdles no matter where the files are stored. But, we know there are restrictions, opinions, even cost savings to be had, based on where attachments are stored. So starting with 1.8.1, we started supporting storing attachments outside the database. Currently we support storing them on a file system accessible to the web server as well as in Amazon S3.

Migrate your Files

Moving the attachments out of your database is now a cinch. Download and install the storage plugin of choice. Configuration for the file system plugin is really simple: after installing, click on the plugin by name (“Attachments on the Filesystem”), and enter the directory in your web server where the files should be stored. Hit the save button and your done — that is, if you get a green bar. Once you do get a green bar, go to Settings -> Tickets and instruct the system to store files there by default. Then, if you have console access to your server, you can migrate all your files out of the database if you would like:

php setup/cli/manage.php file migrate --backend D --to F --limit=20

This command will migrate 20 files from the database (“D” backend) to the file system (“F” backend). Use –help to get more detailed info for the file cli command. We hope to soon add an app to the admin panel to manage files via the web interface.

Thoughts?

So, if you’d like to use Active Directory, LDAP, or Apache to authenticate your users, or if you’d like to move your attachments out of your database, drive by the osTicket.com site and download the updates and plugins right away.

Cheers,