Offering faster response times using WHMCS support ticket system using Virtualmin

Hello, folks:
I’ve tried to get support from WHMCS on this, but they say that any control-panel related stuff I need assistance on is not something they’ll help with.
So, that being said, hear is what I need assistance with.
I don’t mind calling the cron script pop.php that checks every five minutes if a new email is in the support mailbox etc.
However, it takes at least 5 minutes per sent email to appear.
When for instance, I email whmcs themselves, instnat support tickets are created, none of this waiting about.
I want to accomplish the same thing for all departments in WHMCS (using the Virtualmin control panel) to do it.
So I’m thinking of seein if I can call pipe.php vs pop.php if possible.
Does anyone have any experience in this particular area, calling one method of support vs another?
I know you can setup cron jobs and not use a pop.php script.
But what I want to do is call pipe.php or whatever that one script is, I want users to be able to receive instant auto-responders, etc.

I have three users under my main server owner under the /homes folder:
billing.khinton (intended for the billing department:
sales.khinton
intended for sales related stuff, and of course,
support.khinton (intended for support tickets from registered clients).
But how to call the pipe script so that instant responses are sent instead of this "wait every 5 minutes per support ticket etc?)?
I want users to believe I have a robust system.
Not som:
“Hey! I don’t like this 5 minute delay option. Fix it, now!”
You know how some users can be.
if they don’t get instant emails from a system…
But anyway, I’m trying to figure out how I’ll get method 1 (not method2) wich requires the pop script to work properly.
I think running the pipe.php script should be fine, thorugh curl or other means.
Hope I’m clear enough on what I need help doing exactly.
Thanks!

Howdy,

Well, I’m not familiar with the specifics there – I hadn’t used (or configured) the WHMCS support system previously.

However, the term “pipe script” to me refers to a script that email is piped directly into as soon as it’s received by the server.

It’s not something you would call from cron (or curl), but it instead sounds like it would be the delivery destination.

You can setup a pipe destination in Virtualmin by going into Edit Mail Aliases -> Add an alias to this domain -> Advanced mode, and in the “Alias Destination” dropdown, choose “Feed to Program” – and then for your program, give it the full path to your pipe script.

Does it sound plausible that the pipe script you’re referring to can be used that way?

-Eric

Eric, I will try to provide you with as much information as I know regarding the script.
It is a script called pipe.php.
The way php cli is setup, it is not aware of the Ioncube loader, even thoguh somehow your isntaller makes it work for whmcs anyways.
So, calling the script as shown in the following forum post I found that discusses this same issue with php -q appears not to work.
Hear’s the thread link I’m refering too.
http://www.virtualmin.com/node/13966
Even after reading it, I am still unclear.

At least for now, to make the 5 minute cron script work, I’ve created the mailboxes billing, sales, and support respectively.
They live under the khinton user under /homes and show up as
mailboxuser.khinton
So billing.khinton, sales.khinton, and support.khinton respectivly.
The pipe script lives at:
/home/khinton/domains/billing.keithnet.us/public_html/pipe/pipe.php
I’m sure the templates_c folder refferenced near the bottum fo the forum post I linked to here probably is set to 600 or whatever.
All I want to do is have emails directed at:
billing, sales, and support likewise get handed to WHMCS strate away so it can do what it needs to.
In terms of those respective departments, those support, sales, and billing departments already exist.
Right now, traditional mailboxes as I said are configured above.
A cron job task executes every five minutes, and due to php cli shipped in Virtualmin itself being unaware of IOnCube on a global basis for every single virtual server, php -q cannot be called.
Right now, in my cron job, I execute the script externally in cron like:
/usr/bin/curl http://billing.keithnet.us/pipe/pop.php
That script, every five minutes in tern, logs into the mailboxes I setup above and checks for new mail, and if it finds one sent to it from a user, triggers whmcs.
But I want WHMCS to respond instantly to users, rather htan the 5 minutes.
Also, one less cron task taking up CPU time is prefered.
Maybe I’m just stubbern like the user in the email pipe forum, but I refferenced the page so you could see for yourself.
Do you think simply spesifying:
/home/khinton/domains/billing.keithnet.us/public_html/pipe/pipe.php would do?
Rhonald here uses the cron method, as described above, not pipe.php.
I believe that for instnat response, pipe.php must, absolutely be called.
Not the pop.php script that checks traditional non-alias mailboxes, as you most sertinly don’t want that cron to execute more than 5 minutes toa avoid mailbox flooding.
Even so, do you think I have any hope of making this work?
Or should I just stick to the 5 minutes lag in receiving a response from WHMCS in user mailboxes?
Thanks!

The way php cli is setup, it is not aware of the Ioncube loader, even thoguh somehow your isntaller makes it work for whmcs anyways.
So, calling the script as shown in the following forum post I found that discusses this same issue with php -q appears not to work.

Well, remember that when PHP code is run from a website, it uses the php.ini file located in $HOME/etc/php.ini.

That’s not the php.ini file that’s used when the PHP CLI tool is run.

All you’d need to do there is tell your system-wide php.ini file in /etc to load the ioncube loader, and then that should work well for you.

-Eric

Eric, i have ioncube loader references loaded into the /etc/php.ini,
zend_extension = /usr/local/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_5.3.so
zend_extension = /home/domain/public_html/directory/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_5.3.so

still the crons do not work, even when i call php program before the cmd,
fatal: execvp /home/domain/public_html/directory/pipe/pipe.php: Permission denied It complains that Ioncube is already loaded.

so for me curl works fine. I wont be able to respond within 5 minutes anyhow and I dont send automatic replies for a reason.


There was a client sending an newsletter to her clients per email. 1 of them was on holliday and also had automatic reply. In no time the box was full as they kept sending messages to eachother: “Im not here now.” and “Thanks for your email”. hehehe ::evil grin::