The Blesta module

For whoever runs the Blesta install.

The first-party module that puts the desk inside Blesta’s client area and staff area. It is the reference implementation of everything on Writing a platform adapter.

What it adds

For clients, in the client area:

The ticket list and ticket view, opening and replying, with attachments.
The new-ticket form with the department’s own priorities, warnings and custom fields.
“These might help” knowledge suggestions while they type.
The live chat widget on every page, carrying a signed identity so a signed-in client is verified rather than a stranger.
The announcement bar, the status page, the satisfaction question, and the public bug and security report form.
Dashboard cards: open tickets, tickets waiting on you, a chat-in-progress chip.

For staff, in the Blesta admin:

A Support desk dashboard widget: chats waiting and live, unassigned, overdue, opened today, and 30-day first response, each figure linking into the desk.
A panel on the client profile: open and awaiting counts, satisfaction, a running chat, recent chats, and New ticket / Open in desk buttons.

For the desk, it answers the lookups: the account and what they owe, sign-ins, payment methods, contacts, services (including one service in full), invoices, transactions, emails, recipients, and the mass-mail audience filters and audiences.

Installing it

Upload the module to plugins/sixnix_desk/ on the Blesta install and install it in Settings → Plugins. It appears there as Sixnix Desk.
In the desk, create a per-brand API key and copy it.
In the module’s settings, set the desk’s address and that key, and the lookup secret the desk shows for this brand.
In the desk’s brand → Platform, point the lookup base at your Blesta install and paste the same secret.
Press Test on both sides.

Configuring it

The module’s settings page carries the switches worth knowing about:

Which report types this company offers, if any. Nothing ticked offers nothing, and a form posted back with another type is refused.
The status page: the built-in page, a link to another site, or off.
Announcements on every client page: on by default.
The chat widget: embedded automatically unless you turn it off.

Upgrading

Upload the new version over plugins/sixnix_desk/ and press Upgrade in Settings → Plugins. That is what registers new actions, widgets and cards; an upload alone does not.

Coming from a module before 2.0.0? It lived in plugins/support/ and its client-area addresses were /plugin/support/…. Install the new one beside it, copy its settings across (the desk’s address and token, the lookup secret, the report types, the status page choice), then uninstall the old one. Links in emails you have already sent point at the old addresses, so either leave the old plugin installed with its navigation removed until those have aged out, or rewrite /plugin/support/* to /plugin/sixnix_desk/* at the web server.

Match the module version to the desk: new desk features that touch the client area usually need the matching module. The desk degrades gracefully with an older one (a block it cannot answer for is simply not shown), but a new form field with an old module means the field is not there.

How it talks to the desk

Everything goes through the module’s own server, never the browser: the API key never reaches a page. The client area calls the module’s ajax endpoints, which relay to the desk with the key, filter the answer to what that client may see, and hand it back.

That relay is also where the company’s own choices are enforced: which report types are offered and which status page is shown, so a form posted straight back cannot reach past them.

When something is wrong

Symptom	Usually
Client area shows nothing	The API key is wrong, or the desk’s address has a typo
Client pane in the desk shows no services	The lookup secret does not match, or the lookup address is unreachable from the desk
Chat appears but the client shows as a stranger	The identity call is failing; check the desk’s address and the key
A block is missing in the client pane	An older module that does not answer for it; upgrade
A new field is missing on the form	Same: upgrade the module

The desk’s Logs → API and Blesta’s own error log are the two places to look, in that order.