You can add numerous types of custom fields to ticket forms and make them visible to agents only or to both agents and end users.
After you create your custom ticket field, you can use it in triggers, automations, macros, and views. On Suite Professional and above, you can report on custom ticket fields in Explore.
You must be an administrator to create custom ticket fields and add them to ticket forms.
Topics covered in this article:
- How custom ticket fields work
- Adding a custom ticket field for agents and end users
- Understanding the persistence of custom field data
Related articles:
How custom ticket fields work
Drop-down list, multi-select, and checkbox custom fields generate tags that can also be used in automations, macros, triggers, reports, and views (see Understanding custom ticket fields, tags, and business rules). Lookup relationship fields can be used in triggers and views (see Using lookup relationship fields in triggers and views. All custom fields can be referenced as placeholders (see Placeholders for custom fields).
Creating custom ticket fields
You can add custom fields to tickets to gather more information about the customer or issue. Fields can be visible to agents only or to both agents and end users.
You can permit end users to view the custom field in their ticket by making the field visible, or you can add the custom field to the Support Request form by making the field both visible and editable.
Before you begin, see Optimizing your ticket form to understand ticket fields and do some planning to build an optimal ticket form.
You must be an administrator to create custom ticket fields.
The following video gives you an overview of how to create custom ticket fields:
Creating custom ticket fields [1:41]
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Fields.
- Click Add field.
- Select a field type, then enter a Display name.
- (Optional) Enter a Description for the custom field. This is visible to admins only.
- Under Permissions, select an option:
- Agents can edit: Only agents can view and edit the field. It appears in tickets.
- Customers can edit: Agents and end users can view and edit the field. It appears in tickets and in the support request form in the help center.
- Customers can view: Agents can view and edit the field. End users can only view the field. It appears in tickets and on end users' requests, but isn't included in the support request form in the help center.
For a single ticket form, the new field automatically appears in your ticket form. If you use multiple ticket forms, you'll have to manually add the field to any ticket forms you'd like to include it in.
- If the field is visible to customers, enter a Title shown to customers and
Description shown to customers.
The customer title and description options aren't available if the field is only visible to agents. Descriptions appear in plain text, with no line breaks.
- If the agent must complete the field to solve the ticket, select Required to solve
a ticket.Note: Required fields for solving a ticket can be bypassed by triggers and automations . These fields are also bypassed when an agent merges a ticket.
- If the end user must complete this field to submit the ticket, select Required to submit a request.
- Enter an optional Description shown to end users.
- Configure any additional options, depending on your field type.
-
Field option (checkbox fields only, optional):
Enter a tag to apply to a ticket when the checkbox is selected.
-
Field validation (regex fields only):
Enter a regular expression to create an input mask to validate entry.
-
Field values (drop-down and multi-select fields):
- Enter Field options to include in the list. Click the X to remove a
value.
You can bulk import field values if you have a large number to add.
- Click Sort ascending or use the drag-and-drop icon
(
) to manually reorder the field values.
- To create a nested drop-down list, separate categories and values with a double colon (::). See Organizing drop-down lists.
- Enter Field options to include in the list. Click the X to remove a
value.
-
Related object and Set a filter (lookup relationship fields
only)
Select the type of object to relate, and optionally define filters that restrict possible values for the field. See Adding lookup relationship fields.
-
Field option (checkbox fields only, optional):
- (Optional) Specify a Default value for the custom field.
In a drop-down list, the default value applies only to new tickets created by agents through the Support interface or created by users wherever the ticket form is displayed. If you change an existing ticket form to one with a drop-down list with a default option, the default option is not displayed and is shown as blank.
- Click Save or, to create another custom field, click the drop-down icon and
select Save and add another.
If you have a single ticket form, the new field automatically appears in your ticket form.
(Enterprise only) If you have multiple ticket forms, edit the ticket forms where you want the field to appear, drag the field from the right onto the ticket form, then click Save. Repeat for additional ticket forms.
- If needed, you can reorder your custom ticket fields.
The custom field appears on new tickets. It also appears on less-than-closed, closed, and archived tickets with a null '-' or empty value.
If the field does not appear on a new ticket, you might need to restart your browser.
Not all custom field types are available across business rules and views. For a list of which custom fields apply, see Using custom ticket fields in business rules and views.
On Suite Professional and above, you can report on custom fields in Explore.
Cloning custom ticket fields
Administrators and agents in custom roles with permission can create new custom fields from scratch or clone existing ticket fields and modify them as needed.
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Fields.
- Hover over the row of the user field you want to clone, then click the option menu
icon (
) and select Clone.
A detailed view of the ticket field's settings is displayed.
- Edit the Display name so that it is unique.
- Set any other options for your field, depending on the type.
- Click Save.
If you have a single ticket form, the new field automatically appears in your ticket form.
(Enterprise only) If you have multiple ticket forms, edit the ticket forms where you want the field to appear, drag the field from the right onto the ticket form, then click Save. Repeat for additional ticket forms.
- If needed, you can reorder your ticket fields.
Understanding the persistence of custom field data
If you delete a custom field, the data from the custom field is not preserved in existing tickets, including closed tickets. The data is preserved only if the custom field also adds a tag to a ticket. The three custom fields that add tags are the drop-down list, the checkbox, and multi-select fields. If you delete one of these custom fields, then the data in tickets persist as tags.
For example, suppose you have a drop-down list in your ticket form to associate tickets with different product names. After a while, a decision is made to stop providing support for one of the products. If you remove the product from the drop-down list, the product name persists in existing tickets as a tag. If however you use a text field to record a product ID and you delete the text field, the product ID is not preserved in your tickets.
91 comments
benjamin
Hello !
I am trying to add a field on my support form but the custom field won't show.
I am on a pro plan with 1 single form. The custom field is added to the form and I selected "editable for end user". But still the field won't show ! :'(
Any idea why ?
2
Brandon Tidd
Hey @... -
Sorry you're having trouble. If you've just created the field, you may need to wait a couple minutes and / or refresh your browser to get it to appear on the Ticket Form. If that doesn't resolve things for you, I'd recommend opening up a support ticket to review things further.
Hope this helps!
Brandon Tidd
729 Solutions
1
benjamin
It's not changing since 1 hour and I tried with 3 different browsers... Can you give me the support adress ? I don't find it anywhere. I just see an "answer bot"... No way to speak to someone.
Thanks !
1
Brandon Tidd
Hi @... -
Oh dear that doesn't sound right at all. You can always email support@zendesk.com (make sure to include your subdomain). You can also access support from within your instance by clicking on the dropdown menu in the upper right corner:
From there you should be able to click through to live chat with a Support Rep. Good Luck!
Brandon
1
benjamin
FYI I don't see what you see :) The closest to what you have is "assistance rapide" ("get help fast") but it describes the zendesk features only... Does not open a chat or something else...
I will contact support@....com
thanks for your help.
1
Administrateur -
Hello,
I would like to make the 'Canal' system field visible to my agents.
(i'm not sure of the name of this field in english , but this field indicates wether the ticket was created from a mail , a call, ...)
Could you plesae tell me if it is possible and how i could proceed ?
Thanks
2
Brett Bowser
Hey Bruno,
I would recommend creating a custom ticket field for ticket channels using the instructions I provided.
Then you can create a trigger that will set this custom field based on the Channel the ticket is received from. The conditions you can use are:
Ticket > is > created
Channel > is > web form
That should hopefully help get you started!
1
Bonaliza Garcia
Hi,
I have a custom form that has a custom field that is editable by end user.
The custom field is a dropdown and I'm trying to populate that field depending on what the user picks.
I've tried doing this on POSTMAN using the request API but the response returned with an empty string value on the custom field. Am I doing anything wrong?
3
Steve Wells
Is it possible to add a ticket field that is like another Requester with a drop down list of Customers to choose from ? or even better linked to the requester and cc'd?
1
Remi
Hi Steve Wells,
Thank you for your post, hope you are doing well today !
In your case, it seems the CC field in the ticket would work :
If you want to select from a pre-defined limited list, there is not a native feature available for this.
A workaround here could be to add CCs based on organization. You can try to create orgs for predefined CC lists with the following app : Carbon Copier.
However, this app is a 3rd party one, and we cannot provide support on it.
Hope this helps, if not, please let me know !
Have a great rest of your day.
Best regards,
1
Scott Davis
I've created a custom text field called URL. is displays on the left side of the agent interface in support. Is there a way to make it clickable? Right now it's just text. Perhaps a new custom field with type URL could be implemented in future releases?
2
Cheeny Aban
Hi Scott,
Unfortunately, there is no native way to create clickable custom fields at the moment. There is an existing feature request related to what you're seeking: Getting a ticket and organizational fields to contain a clickable hyperlink
You can up-vote that original post and add your detailed use-case to the conversation. Threads with a high level of engagement ultimately get flagged for product managers to review when they go through roadmap planning.
Specific examples, details about impact, and how you currently handle things are the most helpful things to share to help our product teams understand the full scope of the need when working on solutions.
2
Jake Galtman
Hello,
I was wondering if you can add a custom field that would let the customer set the priority level of a ticket inside the "Submit a Request" form via the Help Center?
1
Brandon Tidd
Hi @... -
A couple of options here. You could just update the stock Priority field to be end-user facing:
Another option would be to create your own custom drop down field and then use triggers to map to corresponding priority. IE:
ALL
Ticket is Created
UserPriority Is CODE RED
Action
Priority is Urgent.
Hope this helps!
Brandon Tidd
729 Solutions
1
Permanently deleted user
I added a custom field to our ticket form and chose multi-select, however when I go into a ticket, it displays as a drop-down list instead and I am not able to select more than one option. What am I doing wrong here?
1
Joyce
Hey @...,
I would recommend that you go to Admin > Manage > Ticket Fields and check the field type for this field as it might accidentally be created as a Drop-down field instead of a Multi-select field. The ticket field will retain its original field type and has to be recreated if needs to be converted using another ticket field type.
Hope this helps!
1
Constantine Kuks[CSOC]
The "Title shown to agents" seems to be redundant.
Since every time I edit it, the field name changes and when I change the field name the "Title shown to agents" changes.
Is it possible to edit those separately?
I need the field name to be more verbose so I will be able to know what it applies to.
But for the agents I need the field name to be shorter, for example:
Field name: Internal IT categories.
But the agents should just see "Categories" when they select the appropriate ticket form.
So in short, I need several different category drop-down lists for example but the agents should only see "Category" on the form.
A solution would be appreciated.
Konstantin
1
Cheeny Aban
Hi Constantine Kuks,
Are you editing a Ticket Field that is editable for end-users and agents? If yes, you should have the option to change the ticket field separately. From Support, go to Admin> Ticket Fields> Add or Edit Fields
0
Constantine Kuks[CSOC]
No,
Let's try it with a visual aid....
It is impossible to edit these 2 fields separately.
I change one the other changes as well. As the dev/admin for the platform I need to create several fields that I need named one way for me ( for administration purposes ) and different for agent and end-user.
Why does these 2 fields even exist separately if they are hard-tied together?
The way that the new field creation is built, suggests that there should be an option to edit them independently. ( As they should, considering the situation I outlined in my previous post, this is not a far fetched situation where you need several similar fields for different forms but want to be able to distinguish them as the admin )
1
Cheeny Aban
Hi Constantine,
Unfortunately, that is expected behavior. The title shown to agents follows the ticket field title and this is hardcoded in the system. We understand your need for this functionality so I am marking this comment as Product feedback.
We truly value customer feedback and your voice and votes in the product feedback topics in the community help influence future Zendes
1
Customer Service Manager
I'm trying to create a new customer form, but no matter what i do the submit button remains greyed out even though all the fields have an entry in them.
I stripped the fields back to just be subject and description to see if was one of the fields causing the issue, but the submit button still remained greyed out when the form was filled in.
Has anyone got any ideas as to what im missing? I've got 3 other custom forms which all work fine.
I even cloned one and published it and had the same problem so it seems to only be on new forms that i'm adding.
Any help/ guidance would be great
1
Beau P.
Hello Dan,
As a first step in troubleshoot I'd recommend testing within an incognito browser window, as well as after clearing your cache and cookies in your main browser session. If these steps do not produce improvement your next stop would be testing with the string ?noapps amended to the end of your url. This will indicate if there is potentially an issue with an app that's causing interference with ticket function; additional details here: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/229496847-How-can-I-troubleshoot-issues-with-apps-
Beau | Customer Advocate
Ask our Zendesk Community
1
Customer Service Manager
Thanks Beau
The issue is still there in incognito window. Interestingly enough when i put ?noapps at the end of the url, the form redirects back to the main help page.
1
Beau P.
Hi Dan,
I'd recommend submitting a ticket to support@zendesk.com so we can review your case specifically in further detail.
Beau | Customer Advocate
Ask our Zendesk Community
1
Michael J
I added a custom Text field -- however when creating a trigger, I do not see it is available to select as an actionable item. I only see my drop down custom fields. Is this WAD (working as designed) or am I missing something?
1
Heather Rommel
Michael J
It could just be that you need to refresh your browser. Sometimes when I add a new custom field that's what I have to do. FYI for text fields you'll only be able to test that it has something in the field or not.
1
Michael J
Thank you for the response Heather, however the custom field does show up under the Add Conditions section, however it does now show up under the Add Action. IP address is a text field and it shows up under Add Condition but no Add Action.
Below is the Add Condition section.
Below is the Add Actions section
1
K
According to this article, only the following field types are available as Trigger Actions: Checkbox, drop-down, and date custom fields. I hope this helps!
If you are still having issues, please let me know and we can look to open up a ticket and look more closely at your account.
Best,
2
Jonathan Cavey
Does anyone have a working RegEx solution to verify an email address in a custom field?
I have one that works well, but I get an error that it is too long when I try to save.
I have another that half way works by looking for a '@' but nothing beyond that.
I am extremely new to Ruby Regex so any help is apricated. Thank you!
1
Jeff C
Hi Jonathan,
There are different approaches to this but this is what I have and have tested:
Hope that works for you!
2