Ticket Assistant — Guide

In two minutes

Ticket Assistant is a side panel: you open it next to your ticketing tool and keep in it the things you retype every day — standard replies, contact numbers, procedures. Click, copy, paste.

1. Open the panel from the extension icon.
2. + at the top creates a section. Pick the type: texts, contacts, procedures or forms.
3. Add entries inside the section. Each one has its own Copy button.
4. The entries you use most rise to the top on their own; the star pins the ones you always want first.

When the collection becomes a team thing, a shared file keeps it aligned on every computer: that's Synced sections.

Tabs

Tabs keep contexts apart — for example Help Desk, Telephony, Contacts. You can keep up to five active.

• Number of active tabs — ⚙ → Tabs. Tabs beyond the chosen number don't disappear: they stay hidden with their data and come back if you raise the number.
• Rename — double-click the tab name.
• Reorder — ⚙ → Tabs → Reorder tabs.

Section types

The type is chosen at creation and decides what fields the entries have.

Contacts: pasting a list

Inside a Contacts section, + Multiple takes a pasted list of names and numbers — from a spreadsheet, from an email — and creates the contacts in one go. It does not read Excel files: it reads the text you paste.

Copy, pins, order, search

• Copy puts the entry on the clipboard and raises its usage counter.
• The star pins an entry above all the others.
• Ordering — entries normally sort themselves by number of uses. The ⇅ button in the section header switches to manual order and lets you drag them.
• Search — enabled per section (Enable search bar in the section window) and filters names and contents as you type. On contacts and procedures it is always on.
• Resetting counters — in the section's edit window.

Forms and placeholders since 5.4

This is the type built for closing tickets fast. Write the variable parts in double braces:

Dear {{name}}, request {{ticket}} has been taken in charge.
Dear {{name}}, ticket {{ticket}} was resolved by {{engineer}}.
Work on {{ticket}} completed, nothing outstanding.

The app works out the fields by itself — in the order they appear, without duplicates — and puts them in a bar at the top of the section. You fill them once and every entry is ready: the preview is filled in and Copy hands you the complete text.

• A field left empty stays visible as {{field}} in the copied text, and the entry is marked in red. A visible gap beats a sentence quietly missing a word.
• Clear empties the fields for the next ticket.
• The values stay yours even on synced sections: they are never published and they survive every feed update.

Synced sections

A source is a JSON file someone publishes and the others subscribe to. Sections coming from a source update on their own and stay read-only, so nobody breaks the shared wording by accident.

The three kinds of source

Adding one

1. ⚙ → Manage sources → + Source
2. Choose URL or File / NAS; for the second, Pick folder… (recommended) or Single file…
3. If you picked a folder, the app lists the .json files it finds inside and you say which one is the feed.
4. Network path — optional, but fill it in: write the UNC path (\\NAS\Shared\Support) and it travels with the export, so a colleague finds it ready to paste.
5. Choose which tab the sections should land in.

When it refreshes

• When the panel opens, but no more than once every 12 hours per source: the panel opens and closes all day, the file doesn't.
• After an error it always retries, even if the last read was recent.
• Refresh on the source, or ↻ inside the section, reads it right away.
• The Sync on switch pauses automatic updates for that source.

What the ↻ colour means

Detaching from a source

• Make it mine (inside the section, next to Refresh now) detaches that section: it becomes yours, editable, and stops receiving updates.
• Detach on the source does the same for all its sections at once and removes the source.
• Remove deletes the source and its sections.
• The ✕ on a synced section's row only hides it: it comes back at the next update.

Publishing a feed

No hand-editing of JSON required.

1. Open the tab holding the sections you want to share.
2. ⚙ → Export and import → Export as sync feed.
3. It asks whether to protect it with a password (see Encrypted feeds).
4. Choose where to save it: with the system save dialog you can write straight into the network folder, no Downloads detour.

Before writing, the app runs the file back through its own validator: if it comes out, it is by construction accepted by Add source.

What does not go into a feed

• Incomplete entries — a feed needs a name and a text (or the problem, for procedures). The app tells you how many it left out.
• Local images, if you publish to a single file: there is nowhere to put them. With a folder source they go into img/ and get published.
• Sections from other sources: you don't republish someone else's feed.
• Counters and pins: they belong to whoever reads.

The layout to use on the share

\\NAS\Shared\Support\
├── feed.json
└── img\
    ├── spooler.png
    └── vpn-otp.png

Editing together

The install code

Every installation has a code — TA-0000-0000-0000 in shape — at the bottom of the ⚙ menu; one click copies it.

It is stored in Chrome's synced storage, so it follows you to the other Chrome browsers where you are signed in with sync switched on. Where sync is off — a managed profile, or a browser with no account — the code stays on that PC only. And in every case uninstalling the extension deletes it: no browser storage survives an uninstall. So do not rely on it lasting by itself — keep a way to put it back.

Two ways to get it back:

• Type it in again. ⚙ → Manage sources → a source → Editors → Change, and paste the old code. It is also written in the feed's own editor list, if you had added yourself.
• Keep it in your backup. Export everything asks first, with a tick box Include the editor code (off by default). The code goes into the file sealed, never in clear text, and a line edited by hand is rejected instead of being trusted. When you import that backup, the preview offers to take the code back.

Who can edit

The feed carries the list of allowed codes. If yours is in it, a padlock appears next to the pencil on the source.

1. Padlock closed → open: Chrome asks once for write permission, the app re-reads the file and pauses automatic updates for that source (without this, the next refresh would wipe your work).
2. Sections become editable: + Entry, pencil, bin and reordering come back. Orange ✎ badge and a blue frame.
3. Publish rewrites the file, raises the version and signs it with your code and the date. It sits on the source and also in the top bar, left of the +, with a dot when there are changes to send.
4. Padlock open → closed: back to read-only and sync resumes. With unpublished changes it warns you before discarding them.

Editors opens the list of codes: add a colleague's and it is written into the file at the next publish.

If someone publishes meanwhile

Before writing, the app re-reads the file and compares it with what it saw when you unlocked. If a colleague published, it stops and tells you who and when instead of silently overwriting. You can reload the file — losing your changes — or cancel and put them aside first.

Encrypted feeds since 5.4

A feed can be written inside an encrypted envelope: opening it in a text editor shows nothing readable — not the contacts, not the numbers, not even the section names.

• AES-GCM 256, key derived from the password with PBKDF2-SHA256 at 310,000 iterations, fresh salt and IV on every write.
• The content is authenticated: a tampered file does not open, it does not produce wrong data.

Encrypting a new feed

In Export as sync feed, answer Encrypt with a password.

Encrypting a feed that is already in the clear

Pencil on the source → Protect the feed with a password → choose the password. The app unlocks, encrypts and publishes by itself. You need to be one of the editors, because encrypting means rewriting the file.

Opening an encrypted feed

When you add the source, the app notices by itself that the file is encrypted and asks for the password. If it is missing, the source stops and offers Enter password. The password stays saved on that computer, so the feed can refresh on its own.

Two things to know

• The password is not included in the configuration export: each colleague types it once. A password inside a file that circulates around the company is no longer a password.
• Encryption protects the file, not the computers. Once opened, those sections sit in the clear in the local storage of whoever uses them. It defends the copy on the share — from someone browsing it, from backups, from a USB stick — not the legitimate copy.
• Versions up to 5.3 cannot open an encrypted file. Get everyone updated before you encrypt anything.

Export and import

Everything lives in ⚙ → Export and import.

Import takes an attached file, a file dropped on the window, or pasted JSON. Before touching anything it shows what is in it and lets you choose between Replace and Add.

It recognises: a full configuration, a single tab, a list of sections, a sync feed, and the files of earlier versions.

Appearance and language

• Five themes — Classic, Compact, Light, Soft, Terminal. Compact fits noticeably more entries on screen.
• Background colour, independent from the theme.
• View — Full opens the section over the whole panel, Inline opens it under the list.
• Ten languages: Italiano, English, Français, Deutsch, Español, Português, Nederlands, Polski, Svenska, Română.

Data and privacy

• No account, no sign-in, no analytics, no server run by the author.
• Data lives in the browser's local storage; images in a separate local store, so each save writes a few KB instead of the whole image library.
• The extension connects to the internet only to read the sources you add yourself, and it asks permission for that domain at the moment you add it.
• The install code is a random number: it is not derived from the computer and does not identify a person. It leaves the extension only inside a backup where you ticked the box to include it, and even there it is sealed rather than written in clear text.

Problems and fixes

What's new

5.6 — Accessibility, privacy, fewer permissions

• Privacy and terms page, in the ⚙ menu: what is stored, what never leaves your computer, and the few things you agree to. Works offline like the guide.
• Readable text everywhere: entry previews, usage counters and field labels failed the WCAG AA contrast ratio in four themes. All eleven text/background pairs now pass in every theme.
• Keyboard and screen readers: a visible focus ring on every control, icon buttons announced by name in all ten languages, image thumbnails reachable with Tab, dialogs announced as dialogs, and confirmations spoken instead of only flashing.
• One less way to be detected: the extension no longer exposes any file to the pages you visit. Nothing used it, and it let any site tell the extension was installed.
• External links now open without handing the new page a reference back.

5.5 — The editor code inside the backup

• Export everything now asks first, with a tick box to include the editor code — so a reinstall no longer costs you your editing rights.
• The code travels sealed: it cannot be read by opening the file, and a line someone edited by hand is rejected on import instead of being trusted.
• On import the preview asks before taking the code: a colleague's backup does not silently turn you into them.
• Corrected wording, here and in the app: Chrome's synced storage carries the code only where sync is actually on, and an uninstall wipes it either way.

5.4 — Forms, encryption, locked type

• New section type Forms: {{field}} placeholders, filled once at the top of the section, every entry ready to copy.
• Encrypted feeds with a password (AES-GCM 256 + PBKDF2), with an explicit warning that a lost password makes the file unrecoverable.
• A section's type can no longer change after creation: changing it destroyed the entries' data.
• The install code moved to Chrome's synced storage, and can be recovered by pasting the old one.
• This guide.

5.3 — Folders, shared images, editing together

• Folder sources: the feed and its images travel together, with read permission only.
• Shared editing: install code, editor list inside the feed, padlock to unlock, Publish that rewrites the file preserving identifiers, and a guard against overwriting a colleague.
• Make it mine moved inside the section; Publish also in the top bar.
• Fixed a case where a newly added source appeared twice.

5.2 — Export as feed, reorganised menu

• Export as sync feed: no more hand-edited JSON to publish a tab.
• Settings menu collapsed into a few foldable entries.
• A single pencil to edit a source.

5.1 — Network paths and one importer

• The network path travels with the export: whoever imports finds it ready to paste.
• Files to link panel after an import.
• One importer that recognises the format by itself, with a preview and a choice between Replace and Add.
• Fixed: synced sections ended up in the backup and arrived duplicated on import.

5.0 — Synced sections

• Subscribable sources over URL or file, read-only sections, Make it mine.
• Images moved to a separate local store: far lighter saves.
• Five themes, ten languages, confirmation windows inside the app.