Book:OTRS 3.0 - Admin Manual/Chapter 11/2

You can use two types of customer backends, DB and LDAP. If you already have another customer backend (e.g. SAP), it is of course possible to write a module that uses it.

Database (Default)
Example 11-1 shows the configuration of a DB customer backend, which uses customer data stored in the OTRS database.

If you want to customize the customer data, change the column's headers or add new ones to the customer_user table in the OTRS database. As an example, Script 11.2 shows how to add a new field for room number.

Now add the new column to the MAP array in Kernel/Config.pm, as shown in Script 11.3.

It is also possible to edit all this customer information via the Customers link in the Agent interface.

Customer with multiple IDs (Company tickets)
It is possible to assign more than one customer ID to a customer. This can be useful if a customer must access tickets of other customers, e.g. a supervisor wants to watch the tickets of his assistants. If a customer can access the tickets of another customer, the company ticket feature of OTRS is used. Company tickets can be accessed via the "Company Tickets" link in the customer panel.

To use company tickets, a new column with the IDs that should be accessible for a customer, has to be added to the customer_user table in the OTRS database (see Script 11.4 below).

Now the new column has to be added to the MAP array in Kernel/Config.pm, as shown in Script 11.5.

Now, the new column for the multiple customer IDs can be edited via the Agent interface, in the section for the customer management.

To ensure that one customer can access the tickets of other customers, add the IDs of these other users into the new field for the multiple customer IDs. Each ID has to be separated by a semicolon (see Example 11-2 below).

LDAP
If you have a LDAP directory with your customer data, you can use it as the customer backend with OTRS, as shown in Example 11-3.

If additional customer attributes are stored in your LDAP directory, such as a manager's name, a mobile phone number, or a department, and if you want to display this information in OTRS, just expand the MAP array in Kernel/Config.pm with the entries for these attributes, as shown in Script 11.6.

Customer with multiple IDs (Company tickets)It is possible to assign more than one Customer ID to a customer, when using an LDAP backend. To use company tickets, a new field has to be added to the LDAP directory that contains the IDs accessible by the customer.

If the new field in the LDAP directory has been created, the new entry has to be added to the MAP array in Kernel/Config.pm, as shown in Script 11.7.

The field for the multiple customer IDs has to be edited directly in the LDAP directory. OTRS can only read from LDAP, not write to it.

To ensure access by a customer to the tickets of other customers, add the customer IDs of the customers whose tickets should be accessed to the new field in your LDAP directory. Each ID has to be separated by a semicolon (see Example 11-4 below).

Use more than one customer backend with OTRS
If you want to utilize more than one customer data source used with OTRS (e.g. an LDAP and a database backend), the CustomerUser config parameter should be expanded with a number, e.g. "CustomerUser1", "CustomerUser2" (see Example 11-5 below).

It is possible to integrate up to 10 different customer backends. Use the customer management interface in OTRS to view or edit (assuming write access is enabled) all customer data.