Important Terms

Some terms are used throughout this documentation and within Blesta that refer to certain areas or concepts. It's good to have a basic understanding of these terms in order to understand how things work.

Companies

In Blesta virtually everything belongs to a company, including clients, packages, services, and more. A company is created during installation, and additional, licensed companies can be created as well. Most installations however will only need one company. Each company is almost like it's own installation of Blesta with it's own installed plugins, gateways, and modules. Staff can be assigned to any number of companies, each with potentially different permissions. Companies may have different color themes which is recommended in order to distinguish one company from another. Companies can also be hosted at different domains within the same installation.

If a staff member has access to more than one company, a drop down will appear in the upper right where they can switch to the desired company.

Dashboard

The dashboard is the main staff page, and is displayed upon initial login. The dashboard displays a mini-calendar with badges, quick links, and various widgets. Widgets are boxes that appear on the dashboard, and can be installed, uninstalled, customized, and re-arranged by a staff member to their liking. Widgets can register ACL (Access Control List) permissions, and these can be used to grant or deny a staff group, and thus a staff member access to a particular widget.

Client Profile

The client profile is a page that contains everything to do about a particular client. It consists of two main columns. On the left, the clients contact details and available actions, and on the right widgets (By default invoices, services, and transactions are listed here). Every possible action that can be performed for a specific client and all client details are available on a clients profile page. For this reason, it's the most used page within Blesta.

Client Area

The client area is where clients login to view invoices, manage services, and make payments. Plugins can register additional functionality to the client area, and can be used to customize the experience. It is separate from the staff interface, but most similar in layout to the client profile.

Extensions

Extensions consist of various types of addons that extend the functionality of Blesta. Extension types include Plugins, Widgets (A type of plugin), Modules, and Payment Gateways.

Plugins

Plugins are mini-applications that can be installed to increase the functionality of Blesta. A plugin can register a simple widget, or multiple pages. Their possibilities are endless.

Widgets

A widget is a content box that allows a user to view or manage data, and are generally created by plugins. Staff members may choose which widgets they would like to see, and the order they're displayed. Widgets may appear in the Staff interface under the Dashboard, Billing Overview, or Client Profile. For clients, widgets may appear in the Client Dashboard.

Modules

Modules allow various types of services to be provisioned, suspended, canceled, modified, or managed. A module typically integrates with a third-party service over an API.

Messengers

Messengers are useful for sending notifications through different methods, like SMS and voice calls. A messenger typically integrates with a third-party service over an API.

Payment Gateways

Payment gateways allow Blesta to process various forms of payment.