Configuration

Open Add-ons → Manage add-ons → Help Desk & Support Tickets → Settings. On CS-Cart Ultimate you can override most settings per storefront.

General

Setting	Default	Description
Enable the help desk	On	Turns the storefront and admin features on or off without uninstalling.
Customers can choose the priority	On	Shows the priority field on the new ticket form. When off, tickets start with Normal priority.
Department is required	Off	Customers must choose a department (when at least one is active).
Customers can reopen closed tickets	On	A reply on a closed ticket reopens it. Resolved tickets can always be reopened by a reply.
Reopen window after closing (days)	30	How long after closing a ticket can be reopened. 0 = no limit.
Auto-close … after (days)	7	Tickets in “Resolved” or “Awaiting customer reply” without activity are closed. 0 = never.
Ask customers to rate the support	On	Shows a 1–5 star rating on resolved and closed tickets and a rating link in the e-mail.
Customers can contact vendors about their orders	On	Multi-Vendor only. Tickets about a vendor’s order go to that vendor.
Guests can open tickets	On	Visitors without an account can open tickets and follow them through a secure link.

Attachments and access details

Setting	Default	Description
Allow attachments	On	Customers and staff can attach files to messages.
Maximum files per message	5
Maximum file size (MB)	5	Also limited by your PHP upload_max_filesize.
Allowed file extensions	jpg, jpeg, png, gif, webp, pdf, txt, log, csv, zip	Scripts, HTML and SVG are always rejected. Images, PDF and ZIP files are checked by their content.
Customers can share access details	On	A separate field for logins. The text is encrypted with your store key.
Delete access details when resolved or closed	On	Removes the encrypted text as soon as the ticket is solved.

Files are stored in var/custom_files/kv_support_tickets/ (not reachable from the web) and are only downloaded through the add-on after an access check.

Notifications

Setting	Default	Description
Staff notification e-mails	empty	Comma separated addresses for new tickets and customer replies. Empty = the Help/Support department e-mail from Settings → Company. A department e-mail takes priority.
Send staff notifications to the assignee only	On	Once a ticket has an assignee, only that person is e-mailed.
Include the message text in e-mails	On	Turn off if messages may contain sensitive data.

Switch each notification on or off in Administration → Notifications (group “Support tickets”). Edit the texts in Design → E-mail templates (templates named “Support ticket: …”).

Automation

Setting	Description
Cron access key	Generated on install. Protects the cron URL.
Cron job	Shows the command and URL for the auto-close job. Run it hourly. Without cron, the job runs at most once an hour while staff use the admin panel.

Departments and canned responses

Open Orders → Support tickets and use the Departments and Canned responses buttons (in the gear menu on CS-Cart 4.17).

• Departments: name (per language), notification e-mail, position and status. Three departments are created on install.
• Canned responses: title and text. Staff insert them into a reply with one click. On Multi-Vendor, vendors can add their own; shared ones are visible to all.

Image verification (CAPTCHA)

With a CAPTCHA add-on (for example Google reCAPTCHA) enabled, open Settings → Image verification and tick Support tickets (guests) under “Use for”. Guest ticket and “find my ticket” forms are then protected.

Multi-Vendor

• With Customers can contact vendors about their orders on, a ticket opened from a vendor’s order goes to that vendor. The vendor gets the e-mail and an admin panel notification, and works with the ticket under Orders → Support tickets in the vendor panel.
• Vendors see only their own tickets. They cannot delete or merge tickets, manage departments or open tickets on behalf of customers.
• The marketplace administrator sees all tickets and can filter them by vendor.

License

The license status is shown in a License card at the top of the add-on page, above the tabs, so you see it on every tab. The License tab holds the key itself. The key is stored once for the whole installation (not per storefront).

The License card shows:

• the status in color: green when valid, blue for a development host or the 14-day period before a key is required (with the days left), amber when the license server could not be reached (with the days left) or a Marketplace number is still being verified, red when the add-on is switched off;
• in plain words what the status means and, when the add-on is (or will be) switched off, what stops: the storefront ticket pages and forms are off and customers are sent to your contact page; ticket management in the admin and vendor panels keeps working;
• the licensed domain, every storefront with its result (covered, development host, not covered), the end of the updates and support period, the last and the next check, and the key in use (masked);
• the actions Enter license key / Change license key (opens the License tab), Check now (verifies at once and stays on the page), Manage license (your licenses on cs-cart.kaviolabs.com) and, without a valid license, Buy a license.

In Add-ons → Manage add-ons the add-on’s row shows a small license badge next to its name, for example License: Valid or License: Pending · 9 days left.

The add-on’s own admin pages (the ticket list, the ticket page, the new ticket page, departments and canned responses) show the license status in a bar at the top: a small green chip when the license is valid, or a banner with the status, what is switched off and the same actions as the card.

Setting	Description
License key	Your Kavio Labs license key (KAVIO-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX, from My licenses on cs-cart.kaviolabs.com) or your CS-Cart Marketplace license number. If you entered the Marketplace license number in Add-ons → Manage add-ons (the add-on’s license field), leave this empty: the add-on uses that number.
License status	Points to the License card and explains what the check sends.

What the license covers. A license is bound to the base domain you entered at purchase (for example example.com) and covers every subdomain of it (www.example.com, shop.example.com, staging.example.com). Local development hosts are always allowed: localhost, 127.0.0.1 and other private IP addresses, and host names ending in .localhost, .test, .local, .example or .invalid. A store on a different base domain needs its own license. If you move your store to a new domain, contact support.

When the add-on checks. When you save the key, and then once a day. The check runs only in the admin panel (on a page you open) or from cron, never while customers browse the storefront, and takes a few seconds at most. A cron job keeps the license verified even when nobody opens the admin panel:

php /path/to/store/admin.php --dispatch=kv_support_tickets_license.check

What is sent. The check sends this to https://cs-cart.kaviolabs.com and nothing else: the license key, the add-on ID and version, the host names of your storefronts, your CS-Cart version and edition, and a random one-time value. No customer, order or personal data is sent. The server answers with a digitally signed result, so a forged answer is ignored.

Statuses.

Status (card)	Color	What happens
Valid	Green	The license is valid for this domain. Everything works.
Development host	Blue	The store runs on a local development host, which every license covers. Everything works.
Pending verification	Amber	A CS-Cart Marketplace license number was accepted, but the Marketplace has not confirmed it yet. Everything works.
Pending · N days left	Blue	No verified key yet (a new installation, or right after upgrading from 1.0.x). Everything works for 14 days.
Grace period · N days left	Amber	The last checks failed (for example a network problem). The add-on keeps working for 14 days after the first failed check.
Partly valid	Amber	(CS-Cart with several storefronts) Some storefronts run on another base domain. The ticket pages are switched off on those storefronts only.
Not activated, Invalid key, Revoked, Domain mismatch, Not verified	Red	The customer ticket pages are switched off on the storefront: the ticket links in My account and on order pages are hidden, the ticket pages open your contact page instead (the first active Form builder page whose name contains “Contact”, such as the default “Contact us” page, otherwise the home page), and customers cannot open or answer tickets, also not through the REST API. Ticket management in the admin panel (and the vendor panel on Multi-Vendor) keeps working: staff can read, answer, close and export all tickets, the e-mails of staff replies are still sent, and the auto-close job still runs. No tickets or settings are deleted. Domain mismatch shows the licensed domain next to the domain your store runs on.

When your updates and support period ends, the add-on keeps working. Only updates and support stop.

License information appears in the admin panel only, and only for administrators who may manage add-ons; vendors (Multi-Vendor) and customers never see it. When the add-on is switched off, other admin pages also show a notice once per session with a link to the add-on page; the add-on page and the add-on’s own pages show the card or the status bar instead.