Create three WordPress pages and drop one shortcode on each.
The three shortcodes:
- [asd_submit_ticket] renders the contact form: name, email, product, subject and message. The product dropdown is built from the list you save in Settings, Products.
- [asd_portal] renders the customer ticket lookup.
- [asd_kb] renders the public knowledge base. It accepts category and limit attributes, for example [asd_kb category="billing" limit="30"].
After creating the pages, select them under Settings, General. The portal page selection matters most: it is what lets acknowledgement emails include a tracking link back to the customer's ticket.
Deflection before submit:
While someone types a subject or message, the form quietly asks your knowledge base for matching articles and shows up to three of them under the heading that suggests reading before submitting. It waits until typing pauses, and needs a subject of at least four characters or a message of at least ten. Switch this off with the KB suggestion toggle in Settings, Automation.
On submit, the form validates the email and requires a message of at least five characters, then creates the ticket and shows the reference back to the customer.
How the portal identifies people:
A customer types the email address they contacted you with and sees the tickets attached to that address, each with its status, reference and last update. There is no password step, so the portal is best treated as a convenience view rather than a secure vault. The plugin also exposes a portal reply route in its REST API for developers who want to build a full conversation view.
The form, the portal and the knowledge base all load their own stylesheet and script only on pages that actually contain one of the shortcodes.