When managing computer repair operations or IT support teams, finding the right ticket tracking system is crucial. Open source alternatives to commercial solutions like Zendesk offer customizable, self-hosted options with full control over your data. Let's examine the top contenders:

1. osTicket

Feature-rich and easy to deploy, osTicket offers:

• Customizable ticket forms and workflows
• Knowledge base integration
• REST API for developer integration

# Sample API call to create ticket in osTicket
import requests

api_url = "https://yourdomain.com/api/tickets.json"
headers = {
    "X-API-Key": "your_api_key",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}
payload = {
    "name": "John Doe",
    "email": "john@example.com",
    "subject": "Printer not working",
    "message": "Getting error 0x0000007b when trying to print"
}

response = requests.post(api_url, json=payload, headers=headers)
print(response.json())

2. UVDesk

Built on Symfony (PHP framework), UVDesk provides:

• Modern UI with drag-and-drop workflow builder
• GitHub integration for technical teams
• Extensive webhook support

3. Zammad

For teams needing enterprise features:

• Ruby on Rails backend
• Real-time chat integration
• LDAP/Active Directory authentication

When selecting a system, evaluate these technical aspects:

System	Tech Stack	API Support	Docker Support
osTicket	PHP/MySQL	REST	Yes
UVDesk	Symfony/MySQL	REST+Webhooks	Yes
Zammad	Ruby/PostgreSQL	GraphQL	Yes

For teams needing to build custom workflows, consider this webhook handler example:

// Node.js webhook processor for ticket events
const express = require('express');
const app = express();

app.post('/webhook/ticket-updated', (req, res) => {
    const event = req.body.event;
    const ticket = req.body.ticket;
    
    if (event === 'ticket.created') {
        // Trigger SMS notification
        sendSMSAlert(ticket);
    }
    
    if (event === 'ticket.status_changed') {
        // Update external dashboards
        updateServiceHealthDashboard(ticket);
    }
    
    res.status(200).send('Webhook processed');
});

function sendSMSAlert(ticket) {
    // Implementation for Twilio or other SMS providers
}

app.listen(3000);

When moving from commercial to open source systems, ensure data portability:

• Export existing tickets as CSV/JSON
• Use intermediate databases for transformation
• Validate data integrity after migration

Many open source systems provide migration utilities. For example, Zammad offers a dedicated import framework:

# Zammad import script example
require 'zammad_api'

importer = Zammad::Import.new(
    source: 'zendesk',
    options: {
        url: 'https://yourdomain.zendesk.com',
        username: 'api_user',
        token: 'api_token',
        migrate_attachments: true
    }
)

importer.start

---

When managing IT support operations like computer repairs, a robust ticketing system needs three core capabilities:

1. Multi-channel ticket creation (email, web forms, API)
2. Client communication tracking
3. Service Level Agreement (SLA) monitoring

1. OSTicket (PHP/MySQL)

Installation snippet for Ubuntu:

sudo apt install osticket
cd /var/www/html
git clone https://github.com/osTicket/osTicket-1.8
mysql -u root -p -e "CREATE DATABASE osticket_db"

2. Request Tracker (RT) (Perl)

Docker deployment example:

docker run -d \
  -e RT_DB_HOST=mysql \
  -e RT_DB_PORT=3306 \
  -p 8080:80 \
  bestpractical/rt:latest

Python example for OSTicket API:

import requests

ticket_data = {
    "name": "Client XYZ",
    "email": "client@example.com",
    "subject": "Laptop won't boot",
    "message": "Detailed problem description..."
}

response = requests.post(
    "https://yourdomain.com/api/tickets.json",
    data=ticket_data,
    auth=('APIKEY', '')
)

Feature	OSTicket	RT	Zammad
Mobile Interface	Basic	Plugin Required	Native
Webhooks	✓	✓	✓
SLA Metrics	Manual	Advanced	Built-in

For computer repair shops, consider these modifications:

• Hardware inventory plugins
• Warranty tracking modules
• Diagnostic checklist integration

Example JavaScript extension for device tracking:

function addHardwareToTicket(ticketId, device) {
  fetch(/api/tickets/${ticketId}/custom_fields, {
    method: 'POST',
    body: JSON.stringify({
      field_id: 'hardware_info',
      value: device.serialNumber
    })
  });
}