Hi,

We just wanted to voice or concern and dismay re the impending deprecation of the Support requests feature.

Appreciate it's somewhat basic and that there's more advanced alternatives on the market but for many small communities like ours, all we need is a basic solution and that's exactly what Invision provides. This is the primary reason we upgraded to the commerce package and we will be removing this from our subscription once the feature is removed.

Like many, we are entirely non-profit, maintained by a small team of volunteers. The prospect of having to install & maintain another third party COTS application just to meet our basic ticket requirements is not welcome, same for paying for a third party hosted application that will likely require some integration. - No thanks. 

At the very least, Invision could create a method whereby a simple contact form submits a topic in a designated forum whereby site staff can reply. The user could then respond to their support topic via email. This would at least provide some basic functionality. I think it's fair to say that a "Contact Form" of sorts is a basic requirement of any website and it's a shame that the related support requests feature is being deprecated.

We will probably resort to using a basic contact form + mailbox for support requests, but in the past I have found this to be a much less effective of keeping support requests organised and the lack of integration with Invisions interface will be a major drawback.

Thanks

 

Edited December 10, 20231 yr by Canal World

44 minutes ago, Canal World said:

At the very least, Invision could create a method whereby a simple contact form submits a topic in a designated forum whereby site staff can reply. The user could then respond to their support topic via email. This would at least provide some basic functionality. I think it's fair to say that a "Contact Form" of sorts is a basic requirement of any website and it's a shame that the related support requests feature is being deprecated.

This can be already setup. You can link the contact us form to a forum creation URL of your choosing. You would simply need to allow guests to post there and enable that only topic creators (and staff) can see their topics. Then you have this available to you and essentially, a ticket system in a forum.

This is what I used to do before moving and using commerce. Having it all on the front end makes it a little easier, and it can also help staff members who don't have access to ACP.

20 minutes ago, Dean_ said:

This is what I used to do before moving and using commerce. Having it all on the front end makes it a little easier, and it can also help staff members who don't have access to ACP.

As an alternative, you can use Pages to create a new support system based on same idea with tickets as on Commerce.

On 12/10/2023 at 2:16 PM, igniteyourfeelings said:

As an alternative, you can use Pages to create a new support system based on same idea with tickets as on Commerce.

Yeah, until they scrap pages too 😄

As mentioned by some other here, you could indeed create basic support via the use of pages if needed. I have even seen some people who have just used forums for this purpose, by creating a forum where members can see only their own topics.

We certainly appreciate that some users will miss the features than this offered, of course. And we will try and point people in the right direction where we can. If you have anything further to add regarding the deprecation of this (or indeed any other item), please feel free to discuss in the topic provided here. You will see this has however been discussed quite at length.

 

2 hours ago, Callum MacGregor said:

Yeah, until they scrap pages too 😄

Just for clarification, Pages is getting a substantial update for v5 and is a core part of our community platform strategy.

2 hours ago, Matt said:

Just for clarification, Pages is getting a substantial update for v5 and is a core part of our community platform strategy.

Thank you for the clarification.

On 12/18/2023 at 2:13 PM, Callum MacGregor said:

Yeah, until they scrap pages too 😄

I'll just quote the official statement they did a few months ago : 

• ”We will help anyone that uses the support desk feature to find an alternative and plan a migration.
• We will create and strengthen native APIs to enable apps like Zendesk and Helpscout to access your community data for use in custom fields, etc.
• We will work with you to help migrate your data. Please contact us if you'd like to learn more about migrating support data to another service.”

They already thought about replacement for ticket system and as i saw on a few different community they already start using 3rd party website for the support section.

And, if you don't want to use Pages, you can get in contact with one of the providers to create an app for your desire.

Now that we are very near release, is there a recommended path/setup for those of us that use Support Requests in V4? I’d prefer to stay in the Invision Community space as much as possible (opposed to a seperate software). I will handle email with an auto-responder.

I won’t be switching to V5 until our major custom app gets updated so I have a bit of time.

Thanks!

As long as you’re on v4 you can just keep using it, for IC5 you can use a forum with permissions to only view own topics in combination with the IC5 assigned topics feature, or you could use a 3rd party application like https://www.ic-essentials.com/files/file/93-support-ticket-system/

IPSv5 already has a third-party option for a built-in support system. Its developer is an IPS employee, guaranteeing future updates and the rest. You can find it here at this link.

I now use my private messages as my support system and connect my profile send message link to the contact us button.

Ha, @Daniel F post came while I was typing.

On 1/24/2025 at 8:14 AM, beats23 said:

IPSv5 already has a third-party option for a built-in support system. Its developer is an IPS employee, guaranteeing future updates and the rest. You can find it here at this link.

I now use my private messages as my support system and connect my profile send message link to the contact us button.

Ha, @Daniel F post came while I was typing.

50 euros for something our current software already supports is pretty egregious. I still fail to see the reasoning behind removing it. Even in its basic form it's still valuable. I for one love the fact that commerce support threads can span email chains and don't force you to be a part of the community.

8 hours ago, Sakisan said:

50 euros for something our current software already supports is pretty egregious. I still fail to see the reasoning behind removing it. Even in its basic form it's still valuable. I for one love the fact that commerce support threads can span email chains and don't force you to be a part of the community.

Any website that needs a support system to offer support, must be earning some sort of income to be offering support. €50 as a one time payment which includes future updates and support is more than reasonable for the time and effort @Daniel F put into creating the app. Unless you are one of those people who pay the IPS $200 per year classic fee or IPS cloud service fee, to offer people free service and support, who then expects everything should be free.

Spend money to make lots more money, that's the aim of the game.

2 minutes ago, beats23 said:

Any website that needs a support system to offer support, must be earning some sort of income to be offering support. €50 as a one time payment which includes future updates and support is more than reasonable for the time and effort @Daniel F put into creating the app. Unless you are one of those people who pay the IPS $200 per year classic fee or IPS cloud service fee, to offer people free service and support, who then expects everything should be free.

Spend money to make lots more money, that's the aim of the game.

You're missing the point that the current software offering has this functionality already for a fee. Is commerce's price going to reduce with the reduction in functionality? Or is it going to stay the same + the increase in cost having to go elsewhere for functionality that is being removed?

IPS removed the support system and nothing anyone will say or do will make them return it. You either find an alternative or you live without it. Full stop!

Edited February 9Feb 9 by beats23

40 minutes ago, beats23 said:

IPS removed the support system and nothing anyone will say or do will make them return it. You either find an alternative or you live without it. Full stop!

Not really constructive. I was directed here from the last update as a place to discuss it and trying to shut down discussion isn't helpful.

2 minutes ago, Sakisan said:

Not really constructive. I was directed here from the last update as a place to discuss it and trying to shut down discussion isn't helpful.

There is no discussion here but time wasting. I'll repeat it once more.

IPS removed the support system and nothing anyone will say or do will make them return it. You either find an alternative or you live without it. Full stop!

Just now, beats23 said:

There is no discussion here but time wasting. I'll repeat it once more.

IPS removed the support system and nothing anyone will say or do will make them return it. You either find an alternative or you live without it. Full stop!

That's fine that you might find no benefit to talking about it, but some people do. You don't have to provide negative input into the discussion.

2 minutes ago, Sakisan said:

I was directed here from the last update as a place to discuss it …

Sure. For clarifications and finding alternatives. It is indeed way too late to protest the removal.
For the future: Follow the Deprecation Tracker. https://invisioncommunity.com/deprecation-tracker/

As you can see, this feature removal was announced almost two years ago.

7 minutes ago, Sakisan said:

You don't have to provide negative input into the discussion.

No it's not negative, it's logical. Two separate things 🙃.

Just now, opentype said:

Sure. For clarifications and finding alternatives. It is indeed way too late to protest the removal.
For the future: Follow the Deprecation Tracker. https://invisioncommunity.com/deprecation-tracker/

As you can see, this feature removal was announced almost two years ago.

I was actually aware of that, but I'm not going to check back every few days for updates on it. I'm here after the latest notice in the ACP to see updates and info on migration paths and alternatives. I don't see 50 euros as an alternative, especially nor do I see "use something like Zendesk" as a viable alternative. My work uses Zendesk and it is not a very good product imo. It's also expensive and overkill.

Just now, beats23 said:

No it's not negative, it's logical. Two separate things 🙃.

It's only logical if you're closed-minded. If someone were to come in here and see support and decide to work on porting and maintaining it, then you'd be proven wrong. Hell, I might even do it depending on the code rework status. I've always considered writing plugins for ipb over the years but the code-base has always been a bit overwhelming. Side-effect of it being such an old product that has gone through many versions of itself and programming language support. With 5, it might be in a good place to jump into and work on myself since my day job is PHP anyway. You wouldn't have known that because you were too interesting in shutting down conversation. After looking around at all the other comments on it, it's definitely renewed interest in myself to look into app development. I'm here looking for reasoning and alternatives and the ones suggested so far have been unacceptable.

Edited February 9Feb 9 by Sakisan

5 minutes ago, Sakisan said:

If someone were to come in here and saw support and decide to work on porting and maintaining it, then you'd be proven wrong.

That's what this community needs. People who can help to improve and help to evolve the IPS software to be greater than it already is. I encourage you to do it, as I'm sure some community members would find it useful to a have a ported version of the old IPS support system.

Just now, beats23 said:

That's what this community needs. People who can help to improve and help to evolve the IPS software to be greater than it already is. I encourage you to do it, as I'm sure some community members would find it useful to a have a ported version of the old IPS support system.

You might not be the best to ask this, but maybe you know. Is the current 5.0 version in any sort of stable state and available to use? If so, I might dig into it. I already make small adjustments to the code of my current install. Going to be annoying to migrate those to 5, but I'll already have reason to have my nose in it. It may be something I consider doing.

Edited February 9Feb 9 by Sakisan

Just now, Sakisan said:

You might not be the best to ask this, but maybe you know. Is the current 5.0 version in any sort of stable state and available to use? If so, I might dig into it. I already make small adjustments to the code of my current install. Going to be annoying to migrate those to 5, but I'll already have reason to have my nose in it. It may be something I may consider doing.

I'll be total honest. It's the best. And when I say best, I do really mean it's the best system on the market at this moment. I find it very stable. There are a few bugs which should be expected from a software that was rewritten mostly from scratch, but the IPS dev team are fixing them as fast as they can.