Working on a project where I am creating a DNN portal to be used by a town for their intranet website.  Included with this is going to be access into www.jitbit.com helpdesk software solution.  My goal would be to try and get the dnn db and the helpdesk db working together so that when a user logs into the dnn site portal, or the software they are one in the same.  I want to use the jitbit login features for submitting tickets and tracking, and the community features new to dnn 6.2 for each employee of the town. 

 Jitbit is a C# and asp.NET application, and they also offer the integration options (listed below).  

My questions are: 1.  does anyone out there have any experience in doing this already?  Would be very helpful to see/speak with someone that has already done this.   2.  Jitbit has an api feature but what does that mean exactly and what are my options when using this with dnn?  3.  any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  

THANKS - MIKE.

 Jitbit feedback and integration options:

6. Autologin-feature

AutoLogin (configuring single sign-on with your existing Web-apps and websites)

Jitbit HelpDesk supports "autologin" feature which allows users to be pre-authenticated automatically (by your parent website for example) without entering their username and password. The "autologin" feature is targeted at developers and administrators, who integrate the HelpDesk software into their existing SQL-powered websites and applications. If the user is already authenticated on your parent website (for instance) there are two options:

1. If a user is already present in the helpdesk's database and you know his password - redirect the user to the link of this kind: "AutoLogin.aspx?username=XXXXXX&pswHash=XXXXX". Where "username" is the user's login name, and "pswHash" is a MD5-hash of the user's HelpDesk-password.
2. If a user is not already present in the helpdesk database or you don't want to pass his password, use this link format: http://MyHelpdeskUrl/AutoLogin.aspx?username=xxx&email=yyy&userHash=HASH where "username" is the user's username, "email" is is email and HASH is calculated as follows: MD5(username + email + shared-secret). The "shared secret" is specified in the admin panel. Remember to specify a "strong" secret, at least 10 characters (the longer the better).
   You can also specify user's first/last name and company name like this: http://MyHelpdeskUrl/AutoLogin.aspx?username=xxx&email=yyy&userHash=HASH&FirstName=John&LastName=Smith&CompanyName=IBM

When using the "autologin" feature you can optionally redirect users to the "new ticket" page. Just add "&new_ticket=1" to the link above.

 

7. Windows-integrated authentication

Starting from version 1.9 Jitbit HelpDesk supports Windows-integrated authentication and integrating with your existing Active Directory (AD) user's catalog. To enable Windows-integrated authentication edit the web.config file and un-comment this two lines:

<authentication mode="Windows"></authentication><identity impersonate="true"/>

and comment the above tag which enables "Forms" authentication. Also remember to check if Windows-integrated authentication is enabled in IIS directory where HelpDesk is installed, and anonymous access is disabled.

If you plan using Windows-authentication under IIS 7 - you will need "Windows authentication" role service installed. Installation instructions

PLEASE NOTE: that when Windows-authentication is enabled, Jitbit HelpDesk automatically adds a domain-user into HelpDesk database when logged in for the first time, if he is properly authenticated with his Windows-account. Also HelpDesk will try to connect to your domain-controller and populate the user's email from Active Directory.

 

10. API

The helpdesk app includes a "RESTful" web-service for integrating with other apps. The service address is: http://servername/helpdesk/API.svc

All webservice calls should supply a "shared secret" which is specified in the admin panel.

All webservice calls return JSON data.

AddTicketFromEmail

http://servername/helpdesk/API.svc/AddTicketFromEmail?sharedSecret={sharedSecret}&submitterEmail={submitterEmail}&categoryId={categoryId}&subject={subject}&body={body}

Adds a new ticket by specifying a submitter's email. A user with this email should be present in the system at the point. Returns the ticket ID.

AddTicketFromUsername

http://servername/helpdesk/API.svc/AddTicketFromUsername?sharedSecret={sharedSecret}&submitterUsername={submitterUsername}&categoryId={categoryId}&subject={subject}&body={body}

Adds a new ticket by specifying a submitter's username. A user with this username should be present in the system at the point.

AddUser

http://servername/helpdesk/API.svc/AddUser?sharedSecret={sharedSecret}&username={username}&password={password}&email={email}&firstName={firstName}&lastName={lastName}&phone={phone}&location={location}&sendWelcomeEmail={true/false}

Adds a new user.