Moodle Plugins directory: Freshdesk Support Widget | Moodle.org
Freshdesk Support Widget
A Moodle local plugin that adds a floating Get Help button to every page, opening a support modal powered by your Freshdesk account.
Features
- Floating Get Help button on every Moodle page
- Auto-suggested articles appear immediately when the widget opens, based on the current course name and activity type (e.g. quiz, forum, assignment)
- In-modal knowledge base search via the Freshdesk API
- Inline article viewer with option to open the full article in Freshdesk
- Native contact/ticket form — no iframe; submits via a Moodle AJAX server-side proxy so the API key never reaches the browser
- Contact form shows the submitting user's full name, Moodle username, and a profile link
- Auto-suggested related articles also appear inside the contact form
- Submitted tickets include page URL, course name, user role, Moodle username, profile URL, and Moodle user ID in the description
- User role detection (Staff / Student) based on Moodle course capabilities
- Hides automatically for guest/unauthenticated users
- Optional setting to hide the widget from site administrators
- Configurable portal URL, API key, and button colour
Requirements
- Moodle 4.5 or later
- A Freshdesk account with API access
Installation
-
Copy the plugin folder into your Moodle installation:
/path/to/moodle/local/freshdesk/ -
Log in as a site administrator and go to: Site Administration → Notifications Moodle will detect the new plugin and run the installer.
-
Go to Site Administration → Local plugins → Freshdesk Support Widget to configure the plugin.
Upgrading from v1.x (local_freshdeskwidget)
Prior to v2.0.0 the plugin was named local_freshdeskwidget and installed under local/freshdeskwidget/. To upgrade an existing site:
- Move the plugin folder:
mv local/freshdeskwidget local/freshdesk - Log in as admin and go to Site Administration → Notifications to run the upgrade
Moodle treats the rename as a fresh install and runs db/install.php, which automatically detects and copies your existing settings (API key, portal URL, colour, etc.) from the old component name — no need to re-enter them.
Configuration
| Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Enable widget | Show or hide the widget site-wide | Enabled |
| Freshdesk portal URL | Your Freshdesk account URL | https://thefeaturecreep.freshdesk.com |
| Freshdesk API key | Found in Freshdesk under Profile Settings → Your API Key | (empty) |
| Widget button colour | Hex colour for the Get Help button | #006B6B |
| Hide for site administrators | Suppress the widget for Moodle admins | Disabled |
Improving article suggestions
Suggested articles are driven by the Freshdesk knowledge base search API. To maximise the chance of relevant articles appearing:
- Publish articles (drafts are not returned by the search API)
- Set the folder visibility to All Users (not Agents Only or Logged-in Users)
- Add tags to articles matching your course names and Moodle activity types (
quiz,assign,forum,lesson, etc.) - Keep article titles short and keyword-rich — the search API weights titles heavily
The widget searches with up to two terms simultaneously: the current course full name and the activity type from the page URL (e.g. on a quiz page inside a named course, it searches both Introduction to Moodle and quiz).
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