Switching Modules Off

Switching modules off

Added in 4.3.0, from #217. Developers: Module availability — developer guide · Design and what comes next: Module availability — design.

If your organisation doesn't use part of FreeITSM, you can switch that module off for the whole installation. It disappears for everybody — not hidden from a few people, but gone from the product until you switch it back on.

Where: System → Modules → Availability, at the top of the page. One switch per module.

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What "off" means

Say you switch Tasks off. Then, for everyone — administrators included:

Where	What happens
Menus	No Tasks tile in the waffle, on the home page, in the sidebar or in the ⌘K palette
Its own pages	Opening a Tasks address takes you back to the home page
Other modules	No Link to… → Task on a ticket, no task pills, no Link task on the right-click menu; no related tasks on a contract; no Raise task in Morning Checks; task names in a project plan are plain text, not links
The self-service portal	The same idea for the modules the portal shows: the Help Centre (Knowledge), Training (LMS), My equipment (Assets) and the Catalogue (Forms) disappear with their module, along with their dashboard panels
The REST API	Every Tasks endpoint answers 403 module_disabled, whatever the API key is allowed to do
Workflows	Workflows triggered by a task event don't run; a Create a task step is skipped and the run says why; the editor stops offering Tasks triggers and actions for new workflows
Scheduled jobs	Task repeats don't run. System → Background jobs shows the job as switched off rather than overdue
Notifications, search, Watchtower	Task notifications, task search results and the Tasks card are not shown

A switched-off module's address or endpoint says "Tasks is switched off for this installation." — not "you don't have access", so nobody goes looking for a permissions problem.

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Nothing is deleted

Switching a module off changes nothing in your data. Its records, its settings and everyone's access grants stay exactly as they were. Switch it back on and everything returns, for the same people.

What happens to things that would have happened while it was off:

• Scheduled work is skipped, not saved up. Training reminders, domain checks and task repeats don't run while their module is off, and switching it back on doesn't send a backlog.
• Webhook deliveries wait. Any already queued when Workflows is switched off are sent once it is back on.
• Notifications come back. Ones about a switched-off module are hidden, not deleted, and reappear with it.

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Ticket features

Under the modules, Ticket features switch off parts of Tickets on their own. Tickets keeps working without any of them — nothing blocks closing a ticket, and assignment never depended on the rota.

Feature	When it is off
CSAT	No survey is sent — on closing, from the button, or in a chat. The CSAT page and the Request feedback button go. An old survey link opens a page saying "We're no longer collecting feedback. Thank you." and records nothing; a customer replying with a digit in chat is treated as an ordinary message
SLA	No clocks, list pills or SLA panel; no breach checks, warnings, emails or sla.* workflow triggers; the REST API's /tickets/{id}/sla answers module_disabled; the Pauses SLA option on statuses and Watchtower's paused too long go. The business calendars stay on Tickets → Settings → SLA, because web chat uses them for its opening hours
Time tracking	Recording time goes from every ticket, the right-click menu, the phone layout, the settings and the REST API — whatever each company's own time-tracking setting says. Entries already logged are kept, and the AI write-up and knowledge-gap scoring stop counting them
Duty rota	The rota page, its button and its settings go; the War Room bot stops answering who is on call; Projects stops counting rota shifts as desk hours

Switching SLA back on

You're asked one question: send what was missed, or skip it?

• Skip (the usual choice): any ticket that passed a warning or a breach while SLA was off is recorded as already announced, quietly. Nothing is sent for the off period; everything from now on is sent as normal.
• Send: those warnings and breaches go out on the next check, all at once — useful if a team wants to work through them.

The clocks themselves are worked out from each ticket's history, so the time shown stays true either way — the off period counts as time passing.

Tickets and System are always on

Tickets is what everything else hangs from, and switching System off would lock every administrator out of the switch. Both show Always on.

Upgrading changes nothing

Every module is on unless an administrator switches it off. FreeITSM only records the modules that are off, so an upgrade, a Database Verification run or a fresh install never switches anything off.

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Availability is not access

	Availability	Access
Decides	whether the installation uses a module at all	who may use it
Applies to	everybody, administrators included	individual analysts and teams
Set in	System → Modules → Availability	System → Modules → the access table (Module Access Control)

The Effective access checker on the same page shows a switched-off module as Switched off for the whole installation, whatever the person's grants say.

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Good to know

• Checklists off: a rule that a ticket cannot be closed without a checklist stops applying, because nobody could attach one. Tickets can be closed as normal.
• Knowledge off: Ask AI on a ticket and the web chat's AI answers stop too, because they answer from the knowledge base. Web chat visitors still reach a person.
• Tasks off, Projects on: a project's plan is made of tasks, but it belongs to Projects - so plans, the timeline and capacity keep working inside Projects. What goes is the Tasks module: the board, standalone tasks, and tasks on tickets, contracts and Morning Checks. Task names in a plan are plain text rather than links to the board.
• Calendar off: Assets, Software, Domains, Projects and Leases stop adding their dates to the calendar. A ticket's own Schedule is part of Tickets and keeps working.
• Existing workflows on a switched-off module still open in the editor and save. They just don't run.

Not yet covered: a "what depends on this?" preview before switching something off — see the design page.

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See also: Module Access Control · Module availability — developer guide · Module availability — design