Freshdesk Support Widget

Local plugins ::: local_freshdesk
Maintained by Vernon Spain
A Moodle local plugin that adds a floating **Get Help** button to every page, opening a support modal powered by your Freshdesk account.
Latest release:
1 sites
32 downloads
Current versions available: 1

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

  1. Copy the plugin folder into your Moodle installation:

    /path/to/moodle/local/freshdesk/
    
     
  2. Log in as a site administrator and go to: Site Administration → Notifications Moodle will detect the new plugin and run the installer.

  3. 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:

  1. Move the plugin folder: mv local/freshdeskwidget local/freshdesk
  2. 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).

Screenshots

Screenshot #0
Screenshot #1
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Screenshot #3

Contributors

Vernon Spain (Lead maintainer)
Please login to view contributors details and/or to contact them

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