Client Portal
The customer-facing helpdesk experience — opening tickets, checking status, browsing the knowledge base, registering an account, and managing their profile.
What Is the Client Portal?
The client portal is the public-facing part of Deskuss — what your customers see when they visit the helpdesk URL. By default it lives at /deskuss/ on your WordPress site.
From the portal, a customer can:
- Open a new support ticket
- View the status of their existing tickets
- Reply to tickets (by email or directly on the portal)
- Browse the knowledge base for self-service answers
- Register a permanent account
- Manage their profile and password
Customers do not need a WordPress user account to open a ticket. The portal is designed to be accessible to anyone with an email address — they receive a signed, single-use link in their inbox that grants them access to view and reply to their ticket. Registration is an optional convenience for repeat customers.
Portal Navigation
The portal has a simple top-of-page navigation, with three items by default:
- Home — the portal landing page (open a new ticket, check status, browse KB)
- New Ticket — the new-ticket form
- Tickets — the customer's ticket list (only shown when they're logged in or have an active session)
The portal's header also shows the customer's name and avatar (when logged in), and a logout button. Staff links are hidden from clients.
Opening a New Ticket
The new-ticket form is at /deskuss/open.php. Here's the customer journey, step by step.
Click "Open a New Ticket"
From the portal home or the nav, the customer clicks the button to start a new request.
Pick a department
Departments appear as a dropdown. Picking one narrows the form to that department's custom fields (if any are configured).
Fill in name, email, subject, message
The four core fields. All required. If the customer is logged in, the name and email are pre-filled from their profile.
Add attachments (optional)
Drag-and-drop or click to browse. File-type allowlists and size limits are configured in Settings → Tickets (default 25 MB per file).
Pass the CAPTCHA (if enabled)
CAPTCHA is configured in Settings → Tickets → CAPTCHA. Without it, a spammer can flood your queue with garbage tickets in minutes.
Submit
Deskuss creates the ticket, fires the auto-responder, and emails the customer a copy with their auth link. They land on the "Thank you" page (customizable in Manage → Pages).
Auth Tokens (Guest Access)
This is one of Deskuss's most useful features. When a customer opens a ticket as a guest, they receive an email containing a signed, single-link URL like:
https://example.com/deskuss/view.php?auth=8f2c1a0b...Clicking that link gives them full access to that specific ticket — view, reply, attach files, and reopen — without needing to register or log in. The token is:
- Bound to the email address — the same link won't work for anyone else
- Bound to the ticket — grants access only to that one ticket, not the customer's other tickets
- Long-lived — by default the token never expires, so customers can revisit old tickets anytime from the original email
- Revocable — staff can invalidate a token at any time from the ticket view
Auth Token Settings
Tokens are configured under Settings → Tickets → Auth Tokens (see Settings Reference → Tickets):
- Include in "Ticket Received" email — sends the auth link in the new-ticket notification
- Include in staff reply emails — sends a fresh auth link in every agent reply
- Token length — default 64 hex chars
- Allow guest ticket view — master switch; turning this off requires every customer to register
How Tokens Are Signed
Each token is a one-way HMAC over (ticket_id, user_email, ticket_created_at) using your site's secret salt. Deskuss verifies the signature on every page load — there's no row in the database to leak.
Viewing a Ticket
Once a customer has a ticket — whether they opened it as a guest or via their account — viewing it is the same experience. The page is a scrollable thread:
- Header: ticket number, subject, status badge, priority, department
- Thread: original message and every reply, in chronological order
- Reply box: rich-text editor, file upload (no internal-note toggle for clients)
- Sidebar: assigned agent, SLA due time, ticket history
Replying to a Ticket
There are three ways a customer can add a message:
- Reply on the portal — open the ticket in their browser and use the reply box. Supports rich text, attachments.
- Reply by email — simply hit "Reply" on the notification email. The reply is captured by Deskuss's email piping (if configured) and added to the thread.
- CC additional recipients — staff can add collaborators (CC) to a ticket; everyone on the CC list can reply too.
Account Registration
Two paths exist for getting a customer into Deskuss:
- Guest (no account): The customer opens a ticket by filling out the form with their name and email. They receive an auth token by email and can view / reply to that ticket forever via the signed link.
- Registered account: The customer signs up via the Register link, confirms their email, and gets a permanent login. They can see all of their past and future tickets in one place.
To enable registration, go to Settings → Users → Registration and turn on Allow public registration. You can also choose to require email confirmation before accounts are activated.
Registration Flow
Customer submits the form
Name, email, optional phone. A confirmation email is sent with a one-time link valid for 24 hours.
Customer clicks the link
The link is a signed token bound to the email address. Clicking it activates the account and logs them in.
Existing tickets get linked
If the customer previously opened a ticket as a guest using the same email, that ticket — and any future ones — will be visible from their account dashboard automatically.
Profile & Password Reset
Registered clients can manage their account at /deskuss/profile.php:
- Name — appears in every new ticket they open
- Email — used for auth tokens; changing it triggers a confirmation flow on the new address
- Phone — optional contact info
- Time zone — controls when "today" and SLA due-dates appear in the portal
- Notification opt-out — granular toggles per event
Password Reset
Deskuss delegates authentication to WordPress for all client accounts. To reset a password:
- Visit
/deskuss/login.phpand click Lost your password? - WordPress's standard reset form takes the email and sends a reset link
- Customer clicks the link, sets a new password, and is redirected back to
/deskuss/tickets.php
Knowledge Base Browsing
From the portal home, customers can search or browse the knowledge base. The KB is fully covered in its own guide — see Knowledgebase. From the customer's side, the most important things to know are:
- The KB home is a list of categories and featured articles
- Search runs over article titles, bodies, and keywords
- Articles can be public, registered-only, or staff-only
- "Helpful / not helpful" voting helps you identify gaps
Custom Pages (Landing, Thank-You, Offline)
Beyond the default landing, the portal has a few other editable pages. From Manage → Pages in the staff control panel, you can customize:
- Landing — the home page content
- Thank-you — shown after a ticket is submitted
- Offline — shown when the helpdesk is set to offline mode
- Registration — sign-up page content
- Banner — top-of-portal announcement (e.g., for scheduled maintenance)
See Filters & Pages → Site Pages for the full editor reference.
Email Notifications (to Clients)
Clients receive emails for:
- Confirmation of a new ticket they opened (with their auth link)
- Any new reply from staff
- Tickets being closed or reopened
- SLA breach warnings (configurable per-department)
Each notification can be turned off from the customer's profile. Templates and routing are configured in Email Setup.
FAQ for End Users
Where do I find my ticket number?
It's in the subject line of every notification email, prefixed with [#1234]. You can also see it in the URL when you open the ticket.
I lost the original email — can I still see my ticket?
If you registered an account, yes — log in and your ticket list will show every ticket ever opened from your email. If you were a guest, click the most recent notification email you have (the auth link works for all your tickets, not just that one). If you have nothing, contact your support team and ask them to look you up by email — they can re-issue an auth link.
Can I attach more files after submitting?
Yes. Open the ticket and use the reply box's attachment area. Anything you add goes into the same thread and is visible to the staff handling it.
Why does the form ask for a department?
Departments route your ticket to the right team. Pick the one that best matches your question. If you pick the wrong one, staff can transfer it for you.
How do I delete my account?
Email your support team and ask for account deletion. They'll anonymize your record (replacing your name and email with a redacted marker) and confirm the request.