OTRS is an open source trouble ticket system for easily managing support requests in a multi-agent interface.

The application can auto-convert e-mails into tickets (e-mail piping) which "eliminates the need of using the web interface" for customers.

OTRS is used by large organizations like Opera, MySQL AB, BitDefender, Suse & has very nice features like:

• transfer of tickets between agents
• auto-calculation of hours worked on a ticket
• powerful reporting
• canned responses
• multilanguage support
• themable web interface
• role-based user management
• & much more..

OTRS is built with Perl & can work with different databases (e. g. MySQL, PostgeSQL, Oracle, DB2 and MSSQL).

It has one-click installers for multiple operating systems (including Windows).

Almost every web developer has a favorite database that he/she feels comfortable working with as all the tricks & gimmicks are already experienced.

It can be one of the popular databases below:

• MySQL
• PostgreSQL
• MSSQL
• SQLite
• MS Access

or even simpler ones like XML, text, etc.

It is understandable why these databases are frequently used; they are well-documented, have a community behind them, integrated with most popular CMSs', easy-to-use, offered by most of the hosting companies ,etc..

But there are also many other databases which are getting popular day-by-day & may have advantages over what you're already using.

Here are 25+ open source alternative databases that you may consider using in your next project:

MongoDB

It is an open source, high-performance, scalable, schema-free & document-oriented (JSON-like data schemas) database.

There are ready to use drivers for most popular programming languages like PHP,Python, Perl, Ruby, JavaScript, C++ + more.

Hypertable

Hypertable is a high performance distributed data storage system designed to support applications requiring maximum performance, scalability, and reliability.

It is modeled after Google's BigTable and mostly focuses on large-scale datasets.

Apache CouchDB

A document-oriented database that can be queried and indexed in a MapReduce fashion using JavaScript.

CouchDB offers a RESTful JSON API which can be accessed from any environment allowing HTTP requests

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nopCommerce is an open source shopping cart software that is built with ASP.NET & uses MSSQL for storing the data.

It comes with a powerful backend & highly customizable frontend.

nopCommerce has all the features of a standard e-commerce websites & offers more like:

• support for kit products (e.g. build your own computer)
• real-time currency exchange rates
• multilingual interface
• compare selected products
• highly flexible shipping calculation (integrated providers, width/height/order total based & more)
• tax calculations by country/state/product & more
• built-in forum & polls
• wishlist

One of the most impressive parts of the software is the integrated marketing capabilities it has. You can customize the design of a product or category page, create any type of discounts & even activate an affiliate system.

nopCommerce supports most of the popular payment gateways & with its pluggable modular/layered architecture, new ones can be added with ease (some are already created).

Kentico CMS is a powerful, flexible & complete content management system that is built with ASP.NET.

It has various modules that make building any type of website possible from blogs to e-commerce or wikis to social networking.

The application comes with an easy-to-use WYSIWYG editor for creating/editing the content.

One of the unique features Kentico offers is the worklow management. It allows you to control the process of content creation & modifications by creating custom approval steps (like proofreading, editing, approval, etc.).

Kentico is multilingual & can manage multiple websites from the same administrator panel.

It has an API that allows you to script any Kentico CMS operation (like creating a new document, user or even the whole web site) which is great for integrations with any 3rd party software. On the other hand, with the modules integrated, there is almost no extra function needed. Here are all the modules it offers:

• Blogs
• Booking system
• Content Rating
• Content Staging
• E-commerce
• Event calendar
• Forums
• Friends
• Geomapping
• Groups
• Image Gallery
• Media Library
• Message Boards
• Messaging
• Newsletter
• On-line Forms
• Polls
• Reporting
• Taxonomy
• Wiki
• Web Farm Support
• Web Analytics

which simply show what the application is capable of.

And, these are not all it has. Kentico generates SEO-friendly URLs, has full-text search support, a powerful role-based security system & much more..

Besides the paid versions, it offers a limited free version which is ideal for smaller websites. The free edition have no time limitation & can be used even for commercial purposes with no additional cost. It can be downloaded from here.

Kentico CMS is reliable and stable product & I didn’t came to any bug. But if that occurs, the company promises to fix it within 7 working days, furthermore they plant a tree in the name of the client who finds the bug. You can read more about this interesting initiative here.

The product can be evaluated by downloading the TRIAL or FREE editions. Other way is to use the Virtual Lab service which allows you to test-drive Kentico CMS on-line, without installing anything on your local PC.

P.S. This post is a sponsored review.

Picok (personal information cockpit) is an open source, multi-user script where users can create their own iGoogle-like start pages.

It is ideal for intranets as an admin account can pre-define the available components like feed addresses & users can select items from that list.

Similar to iGoogle, the items can be:

• drag’n dropped
• minimized
• configured

The script has integration support for Lotus Notes, Doodle, Wikipedia, Google Maps & more. Also, users can create post-it notes.

Picok offers a multi-language interface & can be extended by writing custom portlets.

It is built with PHP (Zend Framework), YUI & supports MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM Lotus Notes.

Besides anything we write on a website, we also create content on 3rd party services by:

• uploading images, videos (Flickr, Youtube..)
• saving bookmaks or voting (Delicious, Digg..)
• listening to music (Last.fm..)
• logging "what we are doing right now" (Twitter, Facebook..)
• & more..

AmpliFeeder is an open source lifestream application which can combine every activity we have on other services & present them.

The application is already integrated with many popular services & new ones can be added easily.

The look & feel can be totally customized with the theming support (there are 10+ ready-to-use themes).

AmpliFeeder is built with ASP.NET & uses MSSQL for storing the data.

P.S. The source code is not yet available for download but it can be downloaded in the next few weeks.

Few weeks ago, a post at WebResourcesDepot was sharing 20+ Cheat Sheets Handy For Designers. Considering how helpful they are, here is another collection of cheat sheets specially for web designers & developers.

From the applications used to CSS & XHTML or JavaScript frameworks to url rewriting, there are 70+ well-categorized cheat sheets that will ease your everyday web tasks. Here they are:

Applications

Adobe Dreamweaver Cheat Sheets

• DreamWeaver CS4 Keyboard Shortcuts (PC)
• DreamWeaver CS3 Quick References (PC – Mac)
• DreamWeaver 8 Quick Reference (PC)
• DreamWeaver MX Quick Reference (PC – Mac)

Aptana Cheat Sheets

• Aptana Keyboard Shortcuts

Adobe Flash Cheat Cheets

• Flash CS4 Keyboard Shortcuts(PC and Mac)
• Flash CS3 Quick Reference (PC – Mac)
• Flash MX Quick Reference (PC – Mac)
• ActionScript 3.0 Top Level Cheat Sheet
• ActionScript 2.0 Cheat Sheet
• ActionScript 3.0: flash.display Package Cheat Sheet
• ActionScript 3.0: Packages Cheat Sheet
• AS2 – AS3 Migration

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A web application or a software development process always has bugs which is very normal in a hundreds of lines of code. The important part is tracking & fixing them.

Whether you are a one-person-army or have teammates, it is a big time-saver to use a bug tracking software.

Besides having the bugs listed in a comprehensive way, most bug/issue tracking applications let end-users to submit bug-feature requests that will end up in a better product.

Here are 9 free & open source bug tracking softwares, both desktop & web-based, for a better development process:

WebIssues

WebIssues is an open source issue tracking & team collaboration application that has 2 parts:

• The server: a PHP-MySQL based server where the data is stored, notifications are sent
• The client: a desktop application for users to connect to the server (Windows & Linux supported)

A permission-based user system enables the ability of "multiple users working on different projects".

Issue types are flexible & customizable. Issues can be easily filtered & reports can be created for a snapshot. 

eTraxis

A PHP bug tracking software that works with MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL and Oracle.

Unlimited projects can be created with any number of users working on them. Users working on the project can easily see the bugs assigned to them or see the general status of the project.

eTraxis can notify users with e-mails & has a reminder system. The software has multilanguage support.

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HelpDesk Pilot is a professional support ticket & helpdesk software for managing support requests sent via e-mail or the web interface easier and better.

The application runs on your server (PHP & MySQL / MSSQL) for a better customization & integration.

HelpDesk Pilot strives to offer a good customer service experience. Here are some nice features provided:

E-mail Parser

Users can submit new tickets via e-mail. The application auto-parses the e-mail & creates a new ticket with it.

If the user responds to a ticket with e-mail, that works too. With the unique IDs in the e-mail subjects, the application adds those e-mails as an update to the ticket.

Online Support Portal

Users can create a new membership to the support system, send new tickets & view the status/details of the old ones.

With the help of the knowledgebase plugin, a category-based FAQ system can be created for minimizing support requests.

Flexible Ticket Management

With a clean & slick admin interface, admins can see the priorities with an instant look.

There are several features for answering requests faster, like:

• Canned replies (one-click replies to popular questions)
• Mass reply (reply multiple tickets with one answer)
• Similar tickets (see similar tickets answered in the past)

Besides these, tickets can be assigned between departments & admins, private notes can be added, custom fields can be created & more.

Also, admins can see the other admins that are online for a better collaboration. The RSS support offers a wider usability, literally on any internet enabled device.

And, HelpDesk Pilot is multilingual which makes it possible to be used in any language.

The application comes with several editions offering different limits in department/admin staff & number of domains it can be installed. You can check the pricing for the detailed info.

Limited-Time Special: $100 Discount

HelpDesk Pilot is offering a $100 discount for any purchase completed between 10 March 2009 – 17 March 2009 with the coupon code: WRD100.

To see more, check this powerful help desk software.

P.S. This post is a sponsored-review.

WWW SQL Designer is an open source application that enables anyone to create database schemas from a browser.

It supports most of the database features like:

• keys
• foreign key constraints
• comments
• indexes

Once a database schema is created, you can:

• save your design to modify later
• print it
• export as SQL script

It is possible to retrieve (import) schema from an existing database.

MySQL, MSSQL, SQLite & Web2py are supported.

A fully-functional demo can be found here.