On this page, you will find a list of the frequently asked questions about WATS and the associated answers organized per section. If you don’t find the answer to your question here, it is the right time to head up to the contact form, we will be happy to answer your question shortly.
Notifications
What notifications can I set in WATS?
You haveĀ 6 notifications options :
- Admin notification when a new ticket is submitted : when this option is enabled, all admins will receive a mail when a new ticket has been submitted.
- Admin notification for all tickets when a ticket is updated : when this option is enabled, all admins will receive a mail when any ticket is updated. If you have many admins, this can result in a lot of emails as any update will result in an email to all admins. So it might not be convenient for all situations.
- User notification for ticket originator and updaters : when this option is enabled, the ticket originator and all users who have updated the ticket will receive a notification when a ticket is updated.
- Local user profile notifications options to bypass global options : by default, when you activate a global notification option, it will be active for all users. When this option is set, it allows you to go under each user profile in the admin and deactivate for a specific user an option that was globally enabled.
- Per ticket custom mail list for update notification : this option allow to set a custom distribution list for ticket updates on a per ticket basis.
- Ticket notification rules for new ticket, ticket update and due date : this option allows to trigger notifications based on a set of criterias.
How ticket notifications rules are working?
You can define ticket notifications rules for new ticket, ticket updates and also at regular interval before and after a due date. Each rule can include a ticket product, ticket priority, ticket type and ticket status that you associate with a mailing list (list of emails that you specify), ticket author, ticket updaters, ticket owner and admins. When a ticket matching those defined rules is raised or updated, a mail is sent out to the designated mail distribution list. This is useful for alerts on specific tickets if you want to send notifications about specific tickets to some group of persons and some other to another group.
For instance, if you have different teams taking care of different products or different teams to address tickets based on their priority, with these rules, you can fire new ticket notifications selectively.
Can I customize the mail notification content?
Yes, you have absolutely full control over the mail notification content. By default, it is formatted in a specific way with most of the interesting fields but you can completely override this to include other specific details or modify the format thanks to the action filters.
I don’t receive any notification when a ticket is submitted or updated?
First, make sure that you have activated the notification options on the WATS options page. Then go to your profile and make sure that local profile notifications options are also active. If still it doesn’t work, then either it is rejecting emails because they come unauthenticated, either your mail server isn’t properly configured.
To check if the mail server is rejecting your email, set the email address under the WordPress general options to an yahoo.com or gmail.com address. These are usually identified as external address and won’t be rejected by the mail server.
If you still don’t receive any email, then ensure that your webserver has an underlying mail server or mail relay configured. Most of the hosting services will offer you a server with a mail relay service. But if not, then you can use the WP mail SMTP plugin to force WP to use an external SMTP server that you will configure.
Ticket submission
Does WATS support email piping for new ticket submission?
Yes, you just need to set the mail server name, port, user and password and WATS will regularly connect to it to check for new emails. Once a new mail is received, a new ticket will be generated. With this feature, you just need to provide a the right email address to your customers and they can use it to submit tickets by email. WATS will generate tickets from plain/text emails without attachments. WATS doesn’t pipe emails as ticket update. All emails will result in a new ticket.
How can I add the frontend submission form?
Just add the following shortcode to a post or a page :
[WATS_TICKET_SUBMIT_FORM]
I have included the shortcodes for frontend submission form and ticket listing into a page but these don’t get converted into a form, have I missed something?
You are currently using the free release of WATS which doesn’t include the frontend submission form and ticket listing features. You should order the premium release to get these.
When I click on the “submit ticket” button in the frontend submission form, the form reloads but the ticket isn’t submitted, what happened?
The submission in the frontend is performed through an AJAX process which doesn’t reload the page. So if the page reloads, it is probably because the AJAX code wasn’t loaded properly. Please make sure that the wp_footer() call is included in your footer.php theme file.
Is it possible to hide some fields in the frontend submission form?
Yes, you can hide the ticket type, status, priority, product or category fields if you don’t want your users to select these. In the style.css file of your active theme, just add a “display:none” css property to the class associated to the div enclosing the field you want to hide. Then when the ticket is submitted, the key will be set to the default value if the field is hidden. This is the best way to prevent the user from setting the value and then set it to the default value you prefer.
For instance, if you want to hide the ticket priority field, add this code :
.wats_select_ticket_priority_frontend { display:none; }
Is it possible to completely remove one key that I don’t need?
Yes, if you don’t want one key to be used at all, then just deactivate it in the options page. The associated field won’t be present in any form and no value will be associated to the ticket for this key.
Is it possible for an admin to submit a ticket on behalf of a user?
Yes, just enable the call centre option. This will allow admins to modify the ticket author field in the ticket edition page. This is useful if a user calls in and you want to submit a ticket in the system on his behalf.
Is it possible for users to submit tickets without any registration?
Yes, you have three ways to achieve this :
- by enabling ticket submission by email
- by enabling frontend ticket submission for unregistered users
- by enabling the shared guest user feature : with this feature, users will need to authenticate through a dedicated account. They will have access to the ticket creation page in the admin (and only it) to submit tickets.
Ticket update
How can I update a ticket and post follow-up details?
You can update tickets through the single ticket page in the frontend. There, you can leave some notes, modify the owner, the priority, the type and the status of the ticket.
You can also post a note through the comments page in the admin by replying to an existing comment on a ticket. Then, in the admin, you can update the ticket keys in the ticket edition page.
The access to the different areas (frontend and admin) will depend on the user role capabilities. To make it simple, subscribers (lowest level) can mostly do everything they need in the frontend but nothing in the admin. Administrator (highest level) can do everything they need on both the admin and the frontend sides.
The ticket meta keys don’t appear in the comment form, what is the problem?
This is usually caused by a non compliant WP theme. You can try to add the line below to your comments.php file, this should fix the issue. Please make sure that the line is added between the form HTML tags, otherwise, it won’t work.
echo apply_filters('comment_form_field_comment',$args['comment_field']);
Why do I get a blank page after updating the ticket?
This is because the ticket is in pending status. Ticket can’t be updated if they are in pending status. They need to be published first. This is achieved through the admin. Another option is to publish them by default when they are submitted, this can be set through WATS options.
Theme
Is it possible to use a custom template for ticket display page?
Yes it is! To achieve this, you need to copy the single-ticket.php and comments-ticket.php files from the WATS theme subdirectory to your active theme directory. The active theme is defined on the admin appearance menu. If you don’t copy the files and you modify directly WATS default templates, when the plugin is updated, you would have to perform again the modifications. So it is better to copy the files to your active theme directory in order to prevent your customizations from being lost upon next plugin update.
Then edit these files to match your current theme layout with the modifications you’d like to see. You can take the single.php template (located in your active theme directory) as a basis and copy the php/html code to WATS single-ticket.php file to adapt it to your theme.
How can I style the meta keys in the single ticket page?
You can set associate some CSS styles to the ticket meta keys in the single ticket page. There is one CSS ID enclosing all the keys : “wats_single_ticket_metas”. And then, you have one CSS ID for all the keys : “wats_single_ticket_priority”, “wats_single_ticket_status”, “wats_single_ticket_type”, “wats_single_ticket_product”, “wats_single_ticket_originator”, “wats_single_ticket_owner” and a CSS class for “wats_single_ticket_custom_field” for the custom fields. The meta key name is always enclosed in a label.
Here is a sample style :
#wats_single_ticket_priority, #wats_single_ticket_status, #wats_single_ticket_type, #wats_single_ticket_product, #wats_single_ticket_originator, .wats_single_ticket_custom_field, #wats_single_ticket_owner { background-color:#E0F0FF; border:1px solid #A3C3FF; width:250px; padding-left:10px; border-radius: 15px; } #wats_single_ticket_priority label, #wats_single_ticket_status label, #wats_single_ticket_type label, #wats_single_ticket_product label, #wats_single_ticket_originator label, .wats_single_ticket_custom_field label, #wats_single_ticket_owner label { font-weight:bold; } #wats_single_ticket_metas { margin-bottom:15px; }
Translations
Why some of the translations are incomplete?
WATS translations are a community contribution. Some are pretty up to date. Some others are a bit incomplete because they haven’t been updated for a while. The translations are regularly updated based on user input.
How can I update an existing translation?
You need to use PoEdit. Then just open the PO file associated to the language you want to update in Po Edit. After that, update the sentences from source files. This will populate new sentences and obsolete old ones. Then, you just need to translate the ones that aren’t yet translated in the right side of the window. When you are done, just save and upload the new files to your site.
How can I make a new translation?
Just make a copy of the french files (these are always the most up to date). Modify the prefix to match the taget language prefix. Then open the file in Po Edit and translate all the sentences to your language.
WATS Premium
What do I get if I order WATS Premium?
By ordering WATS Premium, you’ll get your personal copy of WATS Premium. Then you’ll also get any release of WATS Premium published during one year. New releases include new features and bug fixes. Finally, you’ll get access to technical support from WATS lead developer.
What technical support is provided?
When you order WATS Premium, here is what is included at no additional cost for one year :
- Bug fixing
- Answer to installation, configuration and general usage questions
Here is what is subject to additional fee :
- Theme customization
- Request for new feature
- Support on problems related to third party (server, theme, plugin)
Technical support is provided by WATS lead developer. This is your insurance to get premium support for WATS.
Is there a refund policy?
WATS premium is non-tangible digital good. Therefore, no refund will be issued for it. Once the payment has been made, the order is completed and it cannot be canceled.