django-helpdesk

django-helpdesk - A Django powered ticket tracker for small businesses.

… image:: https://github.com/django-helpdesk/django-helpdesk/actions/workflows/test.yml/badge.svg?branch=main :target: https://github.com/django-helpdesk/django-helpdesk/actions/workflows/test.yml :alt: Tests

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Copyright 2009-2026 Ross Poulton and django-helpdesk contributors. All Rights Reserved. See LICENSE for details.

django-helpdesk was formerly known as Jutda Helpdesk, named after the company which originally created it. As of January 2011 the name has been changed to reflect what it really is: a Django-powered ticket tracker with contributors reaching far beyond Jutda.

Complete documentation is available in the docs/ directory, or online at http://django-helpdesk.readthedocs.org/.

Demo Quickstart

django-helpdesk includes a basic demo Django project so that you may easily get started with testing or developing django-helpdesk. The demo project resides in the demodesk/ top-level folder.

You will need to install the uv package manager to simplify setting up the demo: https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/

If you have not already created a virtual environment then run this command: uv venv

Running The Demo Project To start up a demo project server, run this command:

make rundemo

then pointing your web browser at http://localhost:8080 (log in as user admin with password Pa33w0rd, defined in the demo.json fixture file).

Docker Compose or with docker compose::

cd dockerized
./setup.sh
docker compose up

See dockerized documentation <./docs/dockerized.rst>_ for instructions on creating your first superuser. Login at https://localhost

Raw Docker or with docker::

docker run -d --name helpdesk-db -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=changeme -p 5432:5432 postgres:17
docker build --file dockerized/Dockerfile -t demodesk ..
docker run -d --name demodesk --network host \
    -e DJANGO_HELPDESK_SECRET_KEY=changeme \
    -e POSTGRES_HOST=localhost \
    -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=changeme \
    demodesk
docker exec -it demodesk python3 /opt/django-helpdesk/dockerized/manage.py createsuperuser

Login at http://localhost:8080 then create a queue in the admin panel

For more information and options, please read the demo/README.rst file.

NOTE REGARDING SQLITE AND SEARCHING: The demo project uses sqlite as its database. Sqlite does not allow case-insensitive searches and so the search function may not work as effectively as it would on other database such as PostgreSQL or MySQL that does support case-insensitive searches. For more information, see this note_ in the Django documentation.

When you try to do a keyword search using sqlite, a message will be displayed to alert you to this shortcoming. There is no way around it, sorry.

Installation

• |dockerized_icon| For dockerized installation, refer to dockerized documentation <./docs/dockerized.rst>_.

• |django_icon| To integrate with an existing Django application, follow the guidelines in installation documentation <./docs/install.rst>_ and configuration documentation <./docs/configuration.rst>_.

… |dockerized_icon| image:: src/helpdesk/static/helpdesk/img/icon512.png :height: 24px :width: 24px :align: middle

… |django_icon| image:: src/helpdesk/static/helpdesk/img/django-logo-positive.png :height: 24px :width: 60px :align: middle

Developer Environment

Front-end Dependencies

Before you get started, make sure you have the following installed:

- ``node`` – `Command-line JSON processor <https://docs.npmjs.com/downloading-and-installing-node-js-and-npm>`_
- ``yarn`` – `JavaScript package manager <https://classic.yarnpkg.com/en/>`_
- ``npm`` – `Node.js package manager <https://www.npmjs.com/package/npm>`_


Build Dependencies
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The project uses the modern `uv` package manager: https://docs.astral.sh/uv/
There are a number of options that make life a lot easier in the Makefile.
To see option for the Makefile run: `make`

Follow these steps to set up your development environment to contribute to helpdesk:
 - check out the helpdesk app to your local file system::

    git clone https://github.com/django-helpdesk/django-helpdesk.git

 - Install the `uv` package manager::
    https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/

 - install a virtual environment ::

    uv venv

 - install the requirements for development::

    make develop

 - you can install optional dependencies using the --group option. The `make develop` script installs test dependencies.

    # This installs pinax teams dependencies for production
    uv sync --all-extras --group teams
    # This installs pinax teams dependencies as well as test
    uv sync --all-extras --dev --group test --group teams


If you prefer working within an activated virtual environment instead of using the `uv` tool
then you can use the normal command after the above step for creating the virtualenv to activate it::

    source .venv/bin/activate

 - or depending on your shell it might be:
    . .venv/bin/activate

The project enforces a standardized formatting in the CI/CD pipeline. To ensure you have the correct formatting run::

    make checkformat

To auto format any code use this::

    make format

Testing
-------

From the command line you can run all the tests using: `make test`

To run specific tests then run quicktest.py with arguments in an activated virtualenv or use this:
    uv run quicktest.py <arg>

See `quicktest.py` for usage details.

If you need to create tests for new features, add your tests in a test file to the `tests` module::

 - from an activated virtualenv use::
    python quicktest.py helpdesk.tests.test_my_new_features -v 2

 - whether a virtualenv is activated or not you can use this command::
    uv run quicktest.py helpdesk.tests.test_my_new_features -v 2

Upgrading from previous versions
--------------------------------

If you are upgrading from a previous version of `django-helpdesk` that used
migrations, get an up to date version of the code base (eg by using
`git pull` or `pip install --upgrade django-helpdesk`) then migrate the database::

    python manage.py migrate helpdesk --db-dry-run # DB untouched
    python manage.py migrate helpdesk

Lastly, restart your web server software (eg Apache) or FastCGI instance, to
ensure the latest changes are in use.

You can continue to the 'Initial Configuration' area, if needed.

Contributing
------------

We're happy to include any type of contribution! This can be:

* back-end python/django code development
* front-end web development (HTML/Javascript, especially jQuery)
* language translations
* writing improved documentation and demos

For more information on contributing, please see the `CONTRIBUTING.rst` file.


Licensing
---------

django-helpdesk is licensed under terms of the BSD 3-clause license.
See the `LICENSE` file for full licensing terms.

Note that django-helpdesk is distributed with 3rd party products which
have their own licenses. See LICENSE.3RDPARTY for license terms for
included packages.

.. _note: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/databases/#substring-matching-and-case-sensitivity