Forefront IT Helpdesk

A comprehensive internal IT helpdesk ticketing application built with Flask and MySQL.

Features

• User authentication and authorization
• Ticket submission with file attachments
• Ticket management and tracking
• Internal notes and comments
• Email notifications
• Role-based access control
• Responsive web interface

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• MySQL 5.7+
• pip (Python package manager)
• Gunicorn (for production)
• Nginx (recommended for production)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/rahmanekm/helpdesk.git
cd helpdesk

2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

python -m venv .venv
. .venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Running the Application

Development Mode

For development purposes, you can use Flask's built-in development server:

flask run

The application will be available at http://localhost:5000

Production Mode

For production deployment, it's recommended to use Gunicorn with Nginx:

1. Install Gunicorn:

pip install gunicorn

2. Run with Gunicorn:

gunicorn -w 4 -b 0.0.0.0:8000 wsgi:app

3. Configure Nginx as a reverse proxy (recommended for production):

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your_domain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }
}

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root directory with the following variables:

FLASK_APP=app.py
FLASK_ENV=production
SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key
DATABASE_URL=mysql://username:password@localhost/helpdesk
MAIL_SERVER=smtp.gmail.com
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USE_TLS=True
MAIL_USERNAME=your_email@gmail.com
MAIL_PASSWORD=your_email_password