How to: Install Help Desk Pilot Commercial Edition

Note: We currently recommend you use PHP version 5.2.13 for Helpdesk Pilot. Thank you.

The latest version of Helpdesk Pilot is version 4.4.5 . It takes less than 5 minutes to Install, Configure and have Help Desk Pilot running. You would need access to your web server (FTP/Shell) and a browser of your choice to carry out the installation.

1. Download the zip package from the link provided to you.


2. Unzip Help Desk Pilot files to begin installation


3. Copy or Upload all the files to the location where you wish to setup up Help Desk Pilot as a website. (E.g. /www/helpdesk/ or public_html/helpdesk/)


4. Make sure that the following files and folders are chmodded to 777. (Note: If you are on windows make sure the scripts have write permissions):
   
   
   
   • includes/configure.php
   
   
   • /attachments/
   
   
   • /images/
   
   
   • /lang/
   
   
   • /plugins/
   
   
   • /tickets/


5. Open http://helpdesk/install.php to begin the installation process. This URL depends on the root directory you have uploaded help desk pilot files.


6. Provide accurate information to successfully create Help Desk Pilot Database.


7. Database Host: Provide the MySQL or MSSQL Database Hostname or IP address. E.g. localhost 


8. Database Username: Provide the MySQL/MSSQL username and password which has rights to create database/tables. 


9. Database Password: Provide the database password. If your database username does not have a password, please leave this field blank. 


10. Database Name: Provide a database name. If you receive "Invalid Login" error message, enclose the Database name within two square braces, eg:[dbname]. Create Database: Check Create Database only if you have not manually created database. 


11. Prefix for tables: This adds prefix to all the tables. Usually can be left as default if this is your first installation. If you are installing Help Desk Pilot for the second time (as another copy) on the same database then you need provide a different prefix so that it does not overwrite your existing database. 


12. Administrator Email: Provide a valid email address. This address will be used for password retrieval if you forget your password. 


13. Administrator Username: Provide a username you would like to create to administer Help Desk Pilot.


14. Administrator Password: Provide a password you would like to use to authenticate Help Desk Pilot Administration Interface. You can change this password later at any point of time.


15. Administrator Password: Re-enter the password. 


16. Script Path: Provide the URL at which help desk pilot would be available once installed. Usually it is auto detected.

Once you have completed the form press Install Now button to begin installation. You need to setup a simple cron tab (task) on your server to enable help desk pilot to check for new support email automatically. Most of the web host support setting up a cron tab. If you are on a windows server, they would add a scheduled task to enable this. You would need to setup /cron/mailpilot.php script as a cron tab to run every 2 or 3 minutes. It is highly recommended that you have this cron tab enabled although an alternative method is available. If you cannot setup a cron job on your server then you could enable mailpilot to check for new messages on-demand.