Digaf Help Desk Management System

Help desk and support request management system for Digaf Microfinance.

Overview

The Digaf Help Desk Management System is a web-based system for managing internal and external support requests from clients, employees, departments, and support officers.

The system provides centralized request management, assignment, SLA tracking, notifications, reporting, client feedback management, and administration features.

Features

• Help desk request management
• Request assignment and reassignment
• Departments and branches
• Request categories and keywords
• User management
• Roles and permissions
• SLA policies and business hours
• SLA monitoring and escalation
• In-app and email notifications
• Reports and request statistics
• Client feedback management
• Feedback titles
• System settings
• Maintenance mode
• Authentication rate limiting

Technology Stack

Frontend

• React
• Vite
• React Router
• Redux Toolkit
• Tailwind CSS
• Lucide React
• Recharts
• React Datepicker

Backend

• Node.js
• Express
• Prisma
• PostgreSQL
• JWT authentication
• bcrypt
• Nodemailer
• Helmet
• Express Rate Limit

Infrastructure

• Docker
• Docker Compose
• PostgreSQL 16
• Nginx

Project Structure

Digaf Help Desk Management System/
├── backend/
│   ├── prisma/
│   ├── src/
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   ├── prisma.config.ts
│   ├── server.js
│   └── package.json
│
├── frontend/
│   ├── src/
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   ├── vite.config.js
│   └── package.json
│
├── docker-compose.yml
├── .env.docker.example
├── .gitignore
└── README.md

Prerequisites

For Docker-based development, install:

• Git
• Docker Desktop
• WSL 2 on Windows

Node.js and PostgreSQL do not need to be installed on the host machine when running the complete application through Docker.

Docker Setup

1. Configure environment variables

Create your local Docker environment file from the example:

cp .env.docker.example .env.docker

Then update .env.docker with your local configuration and required secrets.

Never commit .env.docker to Git. It contains environment-specific configuration and secrets.

2. Start the application

From the project root:

docker compose --env-file .env.docker up -d --build

This starts:

• PostgreSQL database
• Backend API
• Frontend application

3. Run database migrations

After the containers are running:

docker exec -it digaf-helpdesk-backend npx prisma migrate deploy

4. Seed the database

Run the database seed:

docker exec -it digaf-helpdesk-backend npm run prisma:seed

The seed creates the initial departments, branches, roles, permissions, categories, keywords, business hours, SLA policies, system users, client feedback titles, and system settings.

Application URLs

When running through Docker:

Service	URL
Frontend	http://localhost:5173
Backend API	http://localhost:5001
PostgreSQL	localhost:5433

The backend listens on port 5000 inside the Docker container and is exposed as port 5001 on the host.

PostgreSQL listens on port 5432 inside the Docker container and is exposed as port 5433 on the host.

Docker Commands

Check running containers

docker compose --env-file .env.docker ps

View all service logs

docker compose --env-file .env.docker logs

View backend logs

docker compose --env-file .env.docker logs backend

Follow backend logs

docker compose --env-file .env.docker logs -f backend

Stop the application

docker compose --env-file .env.docker down

Start and rebuild the application

docker compose --env-file .env.docker up -d --build

Stop the application and remove Docker volumes

docker compose --env-file .env.docker down -v

Warning: docker compose down -v removes the Docker volumes used by the application, including the PostgreSQL data volume. Use this command only when you intentionally want to remove the Docker database data.

Local Development Without Docker

Docker is recommended for a complete development environment, but the frontend and backend can also be run directly on the host machine.

Backend

Navigate to the backend directory:

cd backend

Install dependencies:

npm install

Start the development server:

npm run dev

The backend will normally run at:

http://localhost:5000

Frontend

Open another terminal and navigate to the frontend directory:

cd frontend

Install dependencies:

npm install

Start the development server:

npm run dev

The frontend will normally run at:

http://localhost:5173

The frontend uses the following API URL by default for local development:

http://localhost:5000/api

The API URL can be changed using the VITE_API_BASE_URL environment variable.

Database

The application uses PostgreSQL.

Docker database

When running with Docker:

Database: digaf_helpdesk
Host from backend container: db
Port from backend container: 5432
Host from Windows: localhost
Port from Windows: 5433

The PostgreSQL data is stored in the Docker volume:

postgres_data

The backend connects to the database using the Docker service name:

db:5432

This keeps the Docker database separate from any PostgreSQL installation running directly on the Windows host.

Environment Variables

The Docker environment template is provided in:

.env.docker.example

The actual local Docker environment file is:

.env.docker

The actual environment file should contain local secrets such as database credentials, JWT secrets, and email credentials.

Never commit real secrets to the repository.

Security

The application includes several security measures, including:

• JWT-based authentication
• Password hashing with bcrypt
• Authentication rate limiting
• Helmet security headers
• CORS configuration
• HTTP-only authentication cookies
• Role-based access control
• Permission-based authorization
• Environment-based secret configuration

Important Notes

• Docker PostgreSQL uses host port 5433 to avoid conflicts with PostgreSQL running directly on Windows.
• The backend uses port 5001 on the host when running through Docker.
• The frontend uses port 5173.
• Database migrations must be applied before using a fresh database.
• Database seeding should be run after migrations on a new database.
• .env.docker must not be committed to Git.
• The frontend/README.md is the original Vite-generated README and is separate from this project-level README.

License

This project is developed for Digaf Microfinance.