Live! Forum

Please post your suggestions for new portal functions. We'll do our best to accommodate viable suggestions.

If posting a feature request, try and be as descriptive as possible so that this can be passed on to our developers who can then take the idea and bring it to fruition.

Thanks,
Simon

This isn't a major point... it's actually fairly minor, but the forum "feels" like it's squeezed into the lower-left corner by the layout you have now.  Not only is there an Eirca page header, there's also a forum header section, so the forums don't start until half-way down my screen, and with that extra menu along the right-hand side, there's a lot of "dead air" (ie, empty space). Perhaps if you combine the Eirca and forum headers, and add the menu up there...

Plus, the color scheme feels unfinished, without any clear demarcation between different sections (ie, post/title/meta/etc), and in some areas the colors render the text illegible. I would recommend going back to the default color scheme, and then just doing subtle tweaks to bring it in line with the Eirca colors.

At any rate, as I said, this is just a minor thing, but it might make the forums feel more "forum-y", and might encourage folks to use 'em more. :)

My second suggestion would be to make your KB content available to resellers for our end-users (at least, those parts that apply to end-user accounts). I don't mean via an iframe or something like that, I just mean the actual text that we can then import into our own KB software.

Finally, make a "Reseller Resources" section that contains links to all currently available items like the above mentioned KB content, the stats download, the demodemo.com freebie, and basically anything else that is for resellers. It's all on the site now, I know, but having links to all of it from one area would be helpful. :)

The reseller resources is one that's coming soon, that part is under my control so I'll be adding that within the next 1-2 weeks.

I agree with you on the forum side of things. I have sent an email to Stiofan so he'll see this post toward the end of the week and he should be able to put something together. The announcements bar definitely doesn't need to be there on the forum, that's now gone (I look functions that take one click to remove :D )

The knowledgebase isn't really compatible with the H-Sphere format though I can certainly say there's no reason for us not to make one for resellers to import for end users. That's something that I can certainly put a check mark against for introduction soon. I'll see if that can also be ported to some sort of txt file (or format) for importing to various KB applications.

Thanks,
Simon

Yeah, I'm not going to be using the built-in H-Sphere KB either, so just a text export file would be the most useful to me... plus, I could then put it in my own words and tailor it to my own client-base.

Thanks for listening (er, reading  ;D)!

About KB : if it could be available in rss feed/xml so we can integrate in our sites - the same also with sever status announcements.

I am not sure how viable an RSS feed would be with the KB. It's ajax powered so wouldn't work. It would need to be flat file format I think.

We'll be looking at that, though, because it would be a very good (free) addition to the end user support options.

The forum is now almost done on the overhaul. Stiofan will have to tweak my work on Friday but it's a step in the right direction.

Ahh, very nice :)  Well done, Simon!

Any more suggestions, anyone?

I will be compiling my final list later today for completion over the next week. Any additional suggestions will be entertained, though, as always.

The new ticketing system has now been provisioned and is being brought in to EIRCA Live. This will make EIRCA Live a truly one-stop port of call for everything support related.

The client section of EIRCA live will include invoicing for dedicated clients, inline ticket management for all clients, integrated cancellation procedures, ordering capabilities, contact management, newsletter management and more.

We will also be introducing the new WAP interface with the updated system, which will allow clients to login to the support center via a PDA or other mobile device to track and create tickets.

I'll post some screenshots later today.

First screenshot is attached. This is a shot of the 'landing page' for the client section.

It'd be great if there is a client search function in the new ticket system since it’s a pain to go through tickets page by page to look for similar addressed items in the past.

Thanks,
Oliver

That feature will definitely make it in to the new support center. It will not be in the first introduction but has been noted as an upcoming feature.

Another screenshot attached

And another..

And one of the ticket view with integrated reply option

We will be going live and closing the door on phase 2 of the overhaul later this evening. Once we have gone live officially, we'll introduce the final stage of the overhaul.

Today we recieved the NOTICE (email ) Introducing the new EIRCA Live! portal.

Good news but - it was shocking to see that the password was displayed in the EMAIL.

Its not good at all to send the PASSWORD in such a newsletter mail.

EIRCA needs to get more secure on this

Siva

Greetings:

The notice wasn't sent in a newsletter, it was sent directly to you via our client center. The support center password is sent in the same way as the password is sent when you first signup, and is also immediately changeable.

The new client area is WHMCS, I thought yout would deploy one from scratch. It is definetely an excellent program, with constants updates and lots of features. One thing I like is that you can easily add new pages/functions for clients (I have done some custom work in the past to lock/unlock and enable/disable privacy protect for Stargate/Directi module).

A problem: I cannot login :)

Greetings:

If you are having problems logging in, please email support@live.eirca.net and we'll have someone take a look at the issue for you.

I would like to make some comments.

Although, WHMCS is great software, there are a few things I do not like as far security is concerned:

- In client area, "My Emails" contain all the mails and passwords in plain text
- Some months ago, some password fields in the database were not encrypted (servers, domains etc.), I hope this has been corrected now (I have to look into an WHMCS installation)


Also, I have one more question about your decision to use a third party hosting software (again). EIRCA is an authority in H-Sphere, how didn't you based on H-Sphere for all these functions since they are builtin. For ticket support, deploying new servers (ok, you are not selling only H-Sphere, but other servers/control panels too), domain registration (won't be there any confusion with WHMCS and built-in H-Sphere functionality) etc. And how easy it is to combine those 2 platforms? Finally, I am not a subscriber at end user support, how do you handle end user support, based on whmcs or h-sphere ticketing system?

This topic isn't really for discussing whmcs or company policy but I will answer these questions as they have been posed.

Whmcs is extremely secure out of the box with lots of encryption, even more so after we have tightened it to our liking and to come in line with our security policies. We didn't just throw it on a machine in hope, it was my only task for quite some time.

H-Sphere is for its own use only and is not a support portal option, it would isolate 60% of our clientbase which is dedicated services.

H-Sphere is used for end user support as the service is based on that platform so it is a logical option.

WHMCS is really a non-issue as far as anything end user level is concerned.

My best advice is to think of the portal as it is: EIRCA Live, much much more than just the ticket center backend.

Just a quick confirmation on passwords: Passwords are indeed encrypted. I am not sure about previous versions of whmcs, but it is definitely in the version being run (and of course all future versions). The passwords are shown in clear text in your browser after being decrypted. Each call to a password parsing is done by way of a decryption.

WHMCS clarifications aside, we'd love to hear any additional suggestions for the portal as a whole before we officially start phase 3.

Phase 3 will being shortly and will include:

• Mobile (WAP) interface for creating and tracking tickets
• Integrated intelligent knowledgebase: Will suggest answers to you as you type your questions in to a ticket. This will help with general "how to" questions.
• Reseller Resource(s) Section
• MRTG for dedicated servers/clusters
• Backup (eVault) controller for dedicated servers/clusters

This is the 2nd largest and final phase, we welcome suggestions for new features and/or modifications

The WAP interface is now at approximately 80, Stiofan should have it completed by next Monday.

The intelligent knowledgebase for shared hosting articles/questions should be done by next Wednesday, with reseller hosting following two weeks later and dedicated server articles two weeks after that.