Using SSL POP3 (Google Apps/Gmail) with Kayako SupportSuite

Matt G — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:02:25 +0000

Many of us need to run Support Software to keep on top of client needs and requests, as well as remove some of the burden from our support staff.

Because of this need, we are using Kayako SupportSuite for our helpdesk application. While setting it up, we noticed that the latest release has a little bit of an issue with fetching mail using google’s pop3 service.

We haven’t looked into the problem too much, but we have noted that there is mention of it on the Kayako Forums that other users are experiencing the same difficulties.

Of course, we made sure our PHP installation was indeed compiled with SSL and IMAP and IMAP-SSL support, but this still did not fix the problem. So far, this is the only “solution” given by the Kayako support representatives.

Well, we actually wanted it to work, so we dug a little furthur into it. As it turns out, it’s not actually Kayako’s fault that this doesn’t work, but merely a not-so-great implementation of SSL/POP3 in PHP. Kayako could work around this, and are aware of the problem so we assume it will get fixed in future releases.

We did get IMAP SSL working using the Kayako fetching script, but IMAP is not perfect for support queues. So, we still wanted to get POP3 working. No matter what was tried, we could not get it to work.

Then, an ephinany hit – we also use Microsoft Small Business Server on our Intranet, and we ran into this problem previously with Exchange server not being able to communicate with SSL enabled mail hosts.

So, we introduced the same hack that we did on the Microsoft Exchange Server, to our Kayako SupportSuite Linux Server.

We used Stunnel.

Elegant? No. Best Solution Ever? No. Does it work? So far, flawlessly.

It’s very easy to setup, and get going. Here is what we had to do under Gentoo Linux.

First we made sure our use flags were proper

# emerge -pv stunnel

Which outputs this

net-misc/stunnel-4.21-r1 USE=”ssl tcpd -ipv6 (-selinux)”

This looks fine, we need tcpd, and ssl. Now we install stunnel.

# emerge stunnel

Then we have to configure some options, which are very straight forward

# nano /etc/stunnel/stunnel.conf

Now we make the file look like this

setuid = stunnel
setgid = stunnel
pid = /var/run/stunnel/stunnel.pid
socket = l:TCP_NODELAY=1
socket = r:TCP_NODELAY=1
output = stunnel.log
client = yes
debug = 7

[pop3s]
accept = 127.0.0.1:1109
connect = pop.gmail.com:995

[smtps]
accept = 127.0.0.1:259
connect = smtp.gmail.com:465

Save and exit the file. These lines will make the SMTP-SSL server listen on localhost port 259, and connect out to gmail at port 465. The POP-SSL will be listening on localhost port 1109, connecting out to gmail on port 995.

That’s it for the stunnel configuration. You can start it up like so.

# /etc/init.d/stunnel start

Now add it to your defaults so it will auto start

# rc-update add stunnel default

So, we’re done with the stunnel configuration. Now we’ll need to configure Kayako so make use of this.

Login to your Kayako Administration Interface
Click on Settings on the left menu
Click on CPU Optimization & Server
Scroll down to “SMTP Settings” and make sure it’s the following:Enable SMTP: Yes
SMTP Host: 127.0.0.1
SMTP Port: 259
Use SMTP Authentication: Yes
SMTP Username: youraddress@gmail.com (or youraddress@yourdomain.com)
SMTP Password: yourpassword
Click Update Settings.

Now we’re done with the SMTP setup, so we’ll have to setup your email queues with the proper information. We’ll assume you’ve already read the Kayako documentation on email queues and will not go into them here.

Still in the Kayako Administration Interface Click Mail Parser on the left menu
Now click on Manage E-mail Queues from the dropdown menu
Click on your Email Queue (for example: support@yourdomain.com) or create a new one
Scroll down to Login Information and ensure these settings are configured:Host: 127.0.0.1
Port: 1109
Username: youraddress@gmail.com (or youraddress@yourdomain.com)
Password: yourpassword
Configure any other options for your email queue.
Scroll down and click on Update to save your changes.
Repeat with any other email queues changing the email address/password for each account.

Now you are finished the Kayako configuration. You should be able to run your administrative cron script to check for new mail. Check the Scheduled Tasks -> Task Log to verify that your mail is being fetched. If you don’t know what we’re talking about here, you haven’t read the Kayako documentation, and should do so now.

We’ve been using this for a few weeks now and haven’t had an issue. It’s cronned to check mail every 2 minutes, and we have the added benefit of Google Apps archiving all incoming mail for us automatically before Kayako picks it up for delivery.

Hope you like the tutorial, we welcome feedback in the comments.

Ubuntu Server LTS 8.04 VMWare VMTools Howto and Tutorial

Matt G — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 05:57:26 +0000

You may have some difficulty with Ubuntu Server and VMWare Tools. Here’s how we got it working in the end:

start vm
# sudo mount /cdrom
# cd /cdrom
# cp *.tgz /tmp
# cd /tmp
# apt-get install build-essentials
# apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`
# tar xzvf vmtools
# cd vmtools
# perl vmware-install.pl

That’s it. You might want to modify your console settings so you can get 1024×768 from VMWare Workstation, but it’s not really required if you’re just SSH’ing to it.

Adding TinyMCE to your ProjectPier or ActiveCollab Installation

Matt G — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 20:59:14 +0000

Many of you are project managers, and may be using Activecollab or ProjectPier.

We were tired of their lame editor, so we decided to add TinyMCE into our installed version, both for ease of client use, and internal use.

The instructions are very simple.

1. Go to ProjectPier, grab the latest version (or svn)

2. Install ProjectPier as you would normally

3. Install any custom patches or addons to project pier.

4. Download TinyMCE

5. Uncompress TinyMCE, and enter the newly extracted directory. You will see a javascript directory. Rename this to tiny_mce.

6. Copy your newly renamed “tiny_mce” directory to the root of your ProjectPier installation.

# cp -R tiny_mce /var/www/yoursite/htdocs/projectpier/

7. Now, this is the only “complicated” part. Go into your ProjectPier installation directory, and then enter the applications directory. Like this.

# cd /var/www/yoursite/htdocs/projectpier/
# cd application
# cd layouts

8. Now you’re going to want to edit three files

# nano administration.php dashboard.php project_website.php

9. Now in these files, you’re going to want to add the include for tiny_mce. Add the following code after the last “add_javascript_to_page” line at the top of each file and then you are done.

10. That’s It! You are finished adding TinyMCE to your Project Management Installation! It should look something like this.

Enjoy!

Matt Gibson » Linux

Using SSL POP3 (Google Apps/Gmail) with Kayako SupportSuite

Ubuntu Server LTS 8.04 VMWare VMTools Howto and Tutorial

Adding TinyMCE to your ProjectPier or ActiveCollab Installation