
If your client has a problem with a site, send them here and ask for details - msacca
http://supportdetails.com/
======
prawn
Would be smarter, less effort and maybe remove or change the spam vector if
the process were this (myself being the developer):

1\. Visit site. Enter my email address and maybe client name. It gives me a
unique URL (supportdetails.com/jasd9s89ajd698/ or optionally
support.mybusiness.com/clientname).

2\. I email that to the client and tell them to click the link. [Risk of
training them to click strange links...]

3\. They visit the page and get a Thanks message. It automatically sends me
all the info I need.

Burden on the client is lowered. First time I saw this site or similar (been
around for years) I wondered about quickly building an alternative that
offered white labeling and the above process instead. Easy weekend project for
someone, I imagine.

~~~
reitzensteinm
I came here to suggest exporting via giving the user a unique url that anyone
can go to, but your way is far far better for a layperson. Visiting a link is
about as foolproof as it could be.

Could be implemented as freemium, too, by charging for more than 7 uses a week
to the same email address.

~~~
prawn
And then a secret mode where, heading to the URL, a cat shows up on screen and
appears to examine you through the display, measures up the browser window,
tries to look up at the browser chrome, punches something into a calculator,
etc. Cat Technical Support.

~~~
kijin
That's absolutely adorable. Anybody want to make this with HTML5?

~~~
prawn
It'd be a viral winner (puppy mode vs cat mode!), but how often do people
really need this sort of function? And when they have the problem, how many
people just email the client "What browser are you using?" (initiating that
"Is it Windows?" conversation) rather than Google "best way to get support
information from my nutbag client"?

Cat mode sounds immature, but MailChimp gets by.

Is there another common process where by technical people need to collect
information from internet battlers?

~~~
kijin
"What browser are you using?" is probably one of the most commonly used
methods, and also the most pointless question that one could ask of a non-
tech-savvy client. You're bound to get replies like "I'm using Google" or
"What's a browser?"

A "cat mode" that gets widely noticed could help many of us deal with clueless
clients. Make the cat follow laser pointers and mutter lolcode while it
collects every possible piece of information about the client's system.
Really, anything to make it more viral would contribute to the Greater Good
(tm) and more than compensate for immaturity.

Even something as simple as a browser-specific tuturial for clearing the cache
would be immensely helpful. For example, Dropbox customizes its download &
installation tutorial for each user's browser. It's really helpful.

------
16s
I just spammed some guys by using this site. You may want to at least do a
CAPTCHA. You or your ISP may receive complaints or get blacklisted if you're
not careful.

Update: I also forged/made-up the from email address. Could have fun on an
open wifi network with this. I suggest you stop, and think about all the ways
this could be abused (and how you can prevent that) before proceeding.

Update2: The eamil "from header" actually has the forged address in it so if
the recipient victim replies, the reply goes to the sender victim. Nice. The
real culprit is clearly identified though:

X-Originating-IP: 173.193.132.135

Received: from heroku.com (unknown [10.9.180.5])

Update3: Sergey Brin is about to send an email to Zuck ;) just kidding.

~~~
jmah
Yes, email headers are not authenticated. Yes, mail filtering software
accounts for this. Open wi-fi has nothing to do with it.

~~~
RyanMcGreal
> Open wi-fi has nothing to do with it.

You should really serve the site in HTTPS.

------
taylorsmith
Hey everyone. Taylor from Imulus here. I'm the front-end developer leading up
Support Details.

Thanks for all of the positive and constructive comments. We're really excited
to take Support Details to the next level, and based on your comments, I think
our ideas on the right track. As of late, we've been focusing on the accuracy
and speed of the site (see [http://imulus.com/blog/bryce/javascript/support-
details-on-r...](http://imulus.com/blog/bryce/javascript/support-details-on-
rails/)), but now that we've got that nailed down, we're excited to start
rolling out some new features.

As an agency focused on client work, we've struggled in the past to make time
for our own products, but we're set on making them a priority this year, so
thanks again for the positive comments to encourage us to move forward.

~~~
ecaron
The site seems very fast, so good job. Without being able to see a non-
obscured application.js, the javascript gurus here can't be of much help. The
cloudfront is doing a good job with the caching, but you could shave off 10
HTTP requests by doing a sprite of the background images (just like you did
with sprite.png, although the download.gif could be moved in there too.)

I love seeing developers raise their hand on HN and say "I did this!" And
kudos to you the project so far!

------
firefoxman1
You should seriously consider licensing this out to people. I would definitely
pay 5 bucks a month to get this embedded on my own site. Either let them embed
the script and you handle the data, or host a subdomain of their choosing,
like "support.(their domain).com" because I'm sure a lot of people prefer to
keep their customers within their own site. Makes customers feel much safer.

~~~
gee_totes
Yeah, I would pay for this as well if you offered a white label service.

~~~
ams6110
Might want to look at Browserhawk, they have been offering this for quite some
time. Sample report for your browser: <http://browserhawk.com/showbrow.aspx>

No affiliation, but I know some folks who have used their service and were
happy with it.

Edit: P.S. should have mentioned that they historically have been an ASP[.NET]
oriented product, an important detail I forgot about.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
browserhawk said [in the site banner area] "Your browser: Firefox 1.5 (WinXP)
| Screen: 1024 x 768 | Flash: 8 | Cookies: Enabled [more]" when I first
arrived. That's about as wrong as is possible. I'm assuming that is some
default info - but that seems rather poor design. It does get it right but
then goes back to the wrong info again on other pages. SupportDetails has
always worked for me in the past.

~~~
GFischer
In my case it says I'm in AU (Australia)? when I'm in Uruguay.

It did get the browser and OS version right.

------
grimtrigger
Is this your site?

I like the concept, but one suggestion. The rounded rectangles with the
computers specs look like buttons. The onhover effect doesnt help either. I
tried clicking for 5-10 secs before realizing they werent buttons.

~~~
foz
yes, removing the gradient and :hover CSS would probably clear that up.

------
chaz
Would love to see this go one step further. I can't get people to read details
back to me or they want to read every single word very slowly from the top of
the page. I want to use this to send them an email with a clickable link, they
click, and I get an email back with all of these details -- nothing lost in
translation. Network information would be great, too.

~~~
sbhat7
Not sure if they added this now, but there is a send e-mail form at the top of
the page that just does this.

Also, looks like its all the standard info that can be detected in general.
More specific things like n/w info might be harder to get.

------
bluesmoon
My suggestion would be as follows: 1\. Partner registers a callback URL with
you, gets an api_key and a shared secret in return.

2\. When partner sends a user to your site, they make a call to
[http://supportdetails.com/<api_key>?data=<random](http://supportdetails.com/<api_key>?data=<random)
base64 string>

3\. You collect details, and make a POST to the <callback_url> with all the
information (including <random base64 string>) as JSON or XML and signed using
a HMAC of the data with the shared secret

4\. Partner verifies signature and then accepts the data. The <random base64
string> could contain information that the partner can use to identify the
user/store session info, etc.

This protects your partners from fake submissions, if they care about that
sort of thing.

------
avlesh-singh
I am definitely missing something here. So, this is what I understand - users
can send the client side info to webmasters. But how do I get to know that
email id? Ain't that the only reason why services like UserVoice or WebEngage
exist? All these services automatically capture the client side info (most of
the info that is presented on SupportDetails) everytime someone submits a
feedback on their corresponding websites.

Disclaimer: I co-founded WebEngage (<http://webengage.com>). And here's a
shamless plug - WebEngage not only provides you all this client side info, it
also captures a screenshot of the current page (on your website) the visitor
is on.

------
coryl
A branded landing page makes sense. IE. I sign up with my company email, you
give me a /url123 page, I forward that to my customers/users. They see it and
simply fill their email and click "Send".

------
cleverjake
Doesn't work for my email account either. It would be a great thing to package
up as a .js file to offer in support forms as something auto uploaded in a
hidden part of the form.

------
JoshTriplett
Nice idea.

Why do you include the IP address? This seems like the only bit of personal,
identifying information, as opposed to information that could affect the
rendering of a site.

You seem to parse any version of Linux as an unknown OS with version "Linux",
rather than the OS "Linux" with an unknown version.

You should include the full browser User-Agent string, not just the parsed-out
bits; among other things, that provides the version of Gecko or WebKit, not
just the version of the browser UI.

~~~
eli
I see what you're getting at, but it'd be pretty useful to have IP address so
you can grep your error logs with it (or whatever)

~~~
hartleybrody
Also, if it's a datacenter/regional issue

------
zbowling
Ideas:

* Speed testing and connectivity testing.

* Throw in reverse DNS data for getting info on their ISP.

* Add ad-blocker detection.

* Add silverlight detection.

~~~
saulrh
Add adblocker detection. Bonus points because that means you also get to sell
ads.

~~~
GFischer
If they had adblocker and pop-up blocker detection, I might join the others in
saying I'd pay for it :)

I'd also like antivirus detection (for example Avast doesn't like one of our
apps) and a pony :)

------
azelfrath
Export as PDF option might be a bit sketchy. You can inject whatever you want
into the URL and it'll end up in the PDF. Not sure if it's sanitized (I am not
familiar with the PDF file format) but if not, this could lead to
exploitation.

Of course it wouldn't be on a grand scale necessarily, but as they say in
several contexts, "a hole is a hole."

------
asuth
All of this is easy to auto-detect in Javascript that you can have on your
support submit form--so this page is not that useful.

What is KILLER useful is <http://showmewhatswrong.com>. Instant screencasts
from users of what is going wrong.

------
alexchamberlain
I don't get it. Wouldn't all this information be collected by any half decent
support software?

------
x3c
You should also send the HTML5 features supported by the browser via modernizr
or something. Very easy to implement on your end and will be a huge timesaver
in debugging javascript.

------
ck2
You need a one-click (flash based unfortunately) copy and paste to put that
into a text format for forums/blogs.

Just list each line in plain-text.

------
lignuist
It would be awesome, to be able, to start a Browserling session with your
clients setup, to track down problems.

------
desaiguddu
It would be nice if the Browser size would be automatically changed on the
resizing of the browser.!

------
cstuder
Nice.

What use cause does the item 'color depth' cover?

~~~
FreeKill
I'd imagine people who work in design or graphics? Sending a spec to a client
might look different on their machine due to inferior hardware....

------
guynamedloren
Simple and extremely useful. I want to see more web apps/sites/projects like
this.

------
DanBlake
Flash version would be helpful, as would screen size. (At least in our case)

------
rycs
this is exactly what I need to debug a problem of some users in some versions
of windows with our html5 video player, very good idea that solves a painful
problem, keep it up!

------
cr4zy
Would be cool if Rapportive sent this info automagically.

------
zeynalov
Doesn't work. I get this: Your email address is invalid. Please try again. My
email is on gmail

~~~
skeletonjelly
Did you include "+token" in your address?

