SmarterTrack/WHMCS Addon Module

The WHMCS Module for SmarterTrack is an all-in-one client management system that is popular with WHM/CPanel users. With this module, you can completely override the basic support system inside of WHMCS, allowing you to use SmarterTrack to manage support tickets, live chats and knowledge base articles. This will also allow your support staff to manage your clients within the SmarterTrack interface without having to jump back and forth between WHMCS and SmarterTrack.

The WHMCS module is an open source module developed in PHP and can be used with both installed and hosted solutions of SmarterTrack.

NOTE: The WHMCS module provides a one-way sync from WHMCS to SmarterTrack. Any changes made within SmarterTrack will NOT be reflected in WHMCS.

Jump To:
Package Goals
Download and Installation
Configuring SmarterTrack
General Tips
Custom Fields
ChangeLog

Package Goals

The primary goal for the SmarterTrack/WHMCS module is to eliminate the multi-platform maintenance for customer support agents in a business. Agents can maintain support issues inside of SmarterTrack without having to worry about WHMCS at all. The WHMCS module provides the following:

• The ability to override the knowledge base links within WHMCS to redirect to SmarterTrack’s knowledge base articles.
• The ability to provide live chat support links within WHMCS that will pop up a SmarterTrack live chat within the WHMCS interface.
• The ability to override the “contact us” email to start a ticket within SmarterTrack rather than an email to a chosen email address. The ticket will also have a different comment added to it that states it was submitted via Sales Acquisition. You get to specify which department these tickets are automatically submitted to.
• Full email ticket support, including:
  • Including / excluding departments based on settings within SmarterTrack
  • Full custom field support
  • A comment added to every ticket submitted to show it was created through WHMCS
  • Customizable auto-responders with the ability to direct ticket links to WHMCS rather than SmarterTrack
  • View all tickets on the support tickets page and all open tickets on client area page
  • Restrict users from closing tickets based on settings set in SmarterTrack
•  Help phone number and / or email address to be displayed on error page.
• Full email / username and password support. This means that whenever a client changes their email or password in WHMCS, the change will also reflect within SmarterTrack.
• A page in the management interface of WHMCS for syncing SmarterTrack and WHMCS users. (SmarterTrack uses the client’s email address for the username).
• Full open source module with language string overrides, a custom style sheet and custom client template pages that can all be modified to serve a company’s needs.

Download and Installation

WHMCS 7+
Download Addon Module Version 3.1 (Use only with SmarterTrack 13.x+ and WHMCS 7.5+)

WHMCS 6+

Download Addon Module Version 3.0 (Use only with SmarterTrack 12.3+ and WHMCS 6.0 and 7.0)

WHMCS 5 and earlier

Download Addon Module Version 2.2 (Use with SmarterTrack 10.5.5507 to 12.2.6074 and WHMCS 5)
Download Addon Module Version 1.3 (Use with SmarterTrack 8.5.4703 to 10.5.5507 and WHMCS 5)

Follow these steps to install and activate the WHMCS module:

1. Download and extract the proper version of the WHMCS module you need. NOTE: Ensure the module you download is valid for both the WHMCS and SmarterTrack versions you are using.
2. Place the contents of the the module package in a SmarterTrack folder within your WHMCS directory, which is found at ...modules/addons/*SmarterTrack*.
3. As a security measure to authenticate the integration between SmarterTrack and WHMCS, an API Access Key must be present in both installations. To add an API Access Key to WHMCS, find and open the configuration.php file within the WHMCS directory. Add an entry of $api_access_key = "KEY"; where KEY equals any string of characters (e.g., $api_access_key = "abc123"). The exact value for the API Access Key entered here will be added within SmarterTrack in later steps. NOTE: If an API Access Key is already configured, use this key to authenticate SmarterTrack instead of adding a new one.
4. Log into the WHMCS management interface.
5. Hover over the Setup tab and click on Addon Modules.
6. Locate SmarterTrack Help Desk in the list of modules and click Activate. (The SmarterTrack Help Desk module will only appear in this list if the contents of the WHMCS module have been moved to the WHMCS directory, as detailed in step 2.)
7. Click Configureand complete each configuration setting:
   1. SmarterTrack Help Desk URL - Enter the complete URL of the SmarterTrack help desk, excluding the closing ‘/’ (e.g., Enter ‘https://portal.yourdomain.com’ instead of ‘https://portal.yourdomain.com/’). For installed versions of SmarterTrack, enter the URL set up for accessing the help desk from a Web browser. For Hosted SmarterTrack sites, use the base URL that contains the smartertrack.com domain (e.g., http://example.smartertrack.com).
   2. Administrator Name - Enter the username of one of the SmarterTrack Administrators.
   3. Administrator Password - Enter the password associated with the Administrator username. 
   4. Use SmarterTrack KB - Enable this option to override the default WHMCS knowledge base with the KB system within SmarterTrack. When users click on a KB article link, they will be redirected to the SmarterTrack Web portal, as the articles are not imported into WHMCS.
   5. Override Pre-Sales ‘Contact Us’ - Enable this option to override of the 'Contact Us' link within WHMCS. This allows any emails/tickets generated when a user clicks the link to be generated within SmarterTrack versus WHMCS.
   6. Default Department for ‘Contact Us’ - If overriding the 'Contact Us' link, enter the department name within SmarterTrack that will be used for 'Contact Us' submissions.
   7. Hidden Departments - List any departments that should not be visible to clients, separated by commas.
   8. Help Phone Number - Enter a telephone number that will display on any error pages, should errors occur.
   9. Access Control - This option is used for determining which WHMCS administrator roles have access to the admin page of the SmarterTrack Help Desk module. This permission will allow the members of that role to sync the current WHMCS clients as users within SmarterTrack. In most cases, Full Administrator should be selected. To view or adjust the members in each of these administrator roles, go to Access Control > Setup > Staff Management > Administrator Roles. 
8. When each setting has been completed, click Save Changes. 
9. Hover over the Addons tab and click SmarterTrack Help Desk. 
10. Click Synchronize Clients to sync all of the current clients within WHMCS to the Users/Organizations section within SmarterTrack. NOTE: Before performing this sync, it is best to delete all current users within SmarterTrack. Users synced from WHMCS will be given the Registered User role and can be found in the Everyone are Registered Users sections of Users/Organizations. In addition, any client that is added to WHMCS after a sync has been performed will be automatically synced as a SmarterTrack user. 
11. Verify that at least one admin-level WHMCS user is configured with API Access. This user will be used to authenticate the integration when configuring SmarterTrack. API Access can be granted under Setup > Staff Management > Administrator Roles by configuring a role to have 'API Access'. 

Configuring SmarterTrack for WHMCS

Follow these steps to configure SmarterTrack for use with the WHMCS module:

1. Log into SmarterTrack as a System Administrator.
2. Click on the Settings icon.
3. Expand the Configuration folder and click Connected Services.
4. Under the Integrationtab, complete each setting for WHMCS:
   1. WHMCS Username - Provide the username of an admin-level user within WHMCS who has API Access.
   2. WHMCS Password - Provide the password associated with the admin username.
   3. WHMCS API Key - This is a security feature used to authenticate the integration between SmarterTrack and WHMCS. Enter the exact API Access Key that is configured in the configuration.php file found within the WHMCS directory. For example, if the following line is present in the configuration.php file: $api_access_key = "abc123", enter abc123 in this field.
   4. WHMCS URL - Provide the complete URL of your WHMCS control panel.
   Click Save.

General Tips

• Disable users from changing their passwords within SmarterTrack. This setting can be found within SmarterTrack at Settings > Manage > Brands > Permissions tab > ‘Allow users to change password.’
• Configure the live chat link your departments will use. A live chat icon has been created specifically for this module and can be found within the WHMCS module contents. To use the live chat image, it must be included in the SmarterTrack images folder and added within the live chat link itself.  
• Configure auto-responders for each department in use. The 'View this Ticket Online' variable, which is included by default and used to open the ticket in a new window, will link to SmarterTrack by default. You will want avoid using the variable and create your own link instead. Your link’s target will be the following: *yourdomain*/viewticket.php?tid=#TICKETNUMBER#.

Custom Fields

• Email (Single Line Text) - The email address of the WHMCS user
• Display Name (Single Line Text) - The first and last name of the WHMCS user
• Domains (Single Line Text) -  in WHMCS a drop down list is populated with user's domains. The selected Domain will be sent to track as single line text.
• Product/Domain (Single Line Text) - in WHMCS a drop down list is populated with user's products and domain associated.  Will be sent to track as single line text.

ChangeLog

The following is the ChangeLog for available versions:

Version 3.1 (08-29-2018)
NOTE: Requires SmarterTrack 12.3.x or later

• FIXED: The ability to display SmarterTrack KB articles and redirect users to the SmarterTrack KB system works as expected.

Version 3.0 (10-13-2016)
NOTE: Requires SmarterTrack 12.3.x or later

• FIXED: The ability to sync users from WHMCS to SmarterTrack now works as expected.
• FIXED: Users created from WHMCS can now login to the SmarterTrack portal.
• FIXED: Broken images now display as expected.
• ADDED: All support areas within the Client and Admin area that correspond to support tickets and knowledge base are now managed by this SmarterTrack WHMCS module.
• REMOVED: Any reference to MD5 Password options, as it is required now by WHMCS.

Version 2.2 (03-27-2014)

• CHANGED: Various performance improvements to make synchronizing users faster.
• CHANGED: Settings have been renamed and restructured to be more easy to understand.

Version 1.3 (08-25-2014)

• ADDED: The ability to hide departments from user view when submitting a ticket.
• FIXED: Default Custom Fields 'User Display Name' and 'Email' no longer have an "@" symbol in front of them.
• FIXED: When users are created or synced, proper roles are assigned accordingly.

Version 1.2 (05-20-2014)

• This update corrects an issue where users added through WHMCS may not have proper roles assigned within SmarterTrack.

Version 1.1 (01-24-2013)

• Live Chat Script has been removed from the module for performance reasons. We encourage you to manually add the live chat script now by modifying the template files inside of WHMCS. Please refer to this article on live chat scripts: Adding Live Chat to Website
• Performance has been increased substantially through optimizations in the pages, web requests, and database queries

Version 1.0 (11-16-2012)

• The ability to override the knowledge base links within WHMCS to redirect to SmarterTrack's knowledge base articles.
• The ability to provide live chat support links within WHMCS that will pop up a SmarterTrack live chat within the WHMCS interface. Live chat can be added by modifying the template files inside of WHMCS. Please refer to this article on live chat scripts: Adding Live Chat to Website
• The ability to override "contact us" email to start a ticket within SmarterTrack rather than an email to a chosen email address. The ticket will also have a different comment added to it that states it was submitted via Sales Acquisition. You also get to specify which department these tickets are automatically submitted to.
• Full Ticket support including:
  • Include / exclude departments based on settings within SmarterTrack
  • Full custom field support
  • A comment added to every ticket submitted to show it was created through WHMCS
  • Customizable auto responders with the ability to direct ticket links to WHMCS rather than SmarterTrack
  • View all tickets on the support tickets page and all open tickets on client area page
  • Restrict users from closing tickets based on settings set in SmarterTrack
• Help Phone Number and or Email Address to be displayed on Error Pages.
• Full email/username and password support. This means that whenever a client changes their email or password, the change will also reflect within SmarterTrack.
• A page in the management interface of WHMCS for syncing SmarterTrack and WHMCS users. (SmarterTrack uses the client's email address for the username).
• Full open source module with language string overrides, a custom style sheet, and custom client template pages that can all be modified to serve the Company's needs.