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Can I use a trigger and a target to update tickets?

Christopher Cooper
  • Edited

Question

I want to update tickets using a trigger or automation. The ticket attributes I want to update are not accessible using business rules. I can make the update successfully using the Support API. Can I have the trigger or automation notify a target that updates the ticket through the API?

Answer

No, this workflow is not recommended or supported. When a ticket is updated by business rules and the API simultaneously, errors are likely to occur. When this happens, it is called a race condition.

Every time a ticket is created or updated, all your business rules run in a cycle against that ticket. For instance, triggers fire and update the ticket if their conditions are met during the cycle. A cycle is the entire process of a ticket being checked against all your triggers. For more information, see the article: How do triggers run according to their position on the trigger page? 

When a trigger updates a ticket using the API, the update occurs at some indeterminate point in the cycle. Results can vary based on when the ticket update occurs in the cycle. The ticket update can affect whether other business rules fire.

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8 Comments

  • David

    Seems to me like it should be OK to try these practices (as there is no safe, built in functionality), and if there are issues, just cancel the trigger or automation.

    1
  • Brett Bowser
    Zendesk Community Team

    Hi David,

    You are correct and it's OK to try using a trigger and target to update your ticket. In some cases it will work and others it will not. We just set the expectation that if any issues should occur it's most likely due to this unsupported workflow. As you stated you can just disable the trigger/automation if any issues should come up.

    Cheers!

    0
  • Yamile Martinez

    Hi All,

    I am fairly new to Zendesk, and i am vastly disappointed in seeing small functions not implemented in Zendesk, especially for the customers.  Most of the applications we looked at had basic functionality that Zendesk does not provide and has not over the years by what i am reading.   Simple things like, the order the messages are laid out in the ticket, extra fields (custom), sorting, exporting, reporting, etc.

    We resort to implement whatever we can to make our customers happy since we rely on the SLA from our customers contract.  Basically, we are forced to use like the target triggers to resolve something Zendesk should be providing in the first place.

    For me, the target triggers work wonderfully, i use it to capture the 1st SLA - Customer Acknowledgement in the public reply of the ticket.  Most of our customers are Airlines, and you could imagine the million emails received by them.  This is where they go to ensure that an email was sent acknowledging their issue.

    I believe, criticism on what we are doing does not help us find a solution to the inadequacy functions of Zendesk.   We understand there are limitations, but then push for a better Zendesk Customer Experience!

    Thanks,

    Yami

    1
  • Corentin D

    Hello Christopher, 

     

    I want to use trigger to add value in text ticket fields but it is impossible.

    It's only possible if you have a list ticket field but not "text" ticket field.

     

    Will you add it ? 

    Thanks,

    1
  • Devan - Community Manager
    Zendesk Community Team

    Hello Corentin D,

    Appreciate the insight you shared on this product limitation. I would recommend posting your request in our product feedback forums so our developers can consider your use case for future updates. 

    Best regards.

    0
  • Leif Cederblom

    I too want this functionality to update a field with a numeric value when firing an action, whether that be through a macro, trigger or automation.

    I guess we'll see what they have in their feedback forum...

    0
  • Rich
    • Edited

    The lack of more sophisticated workflows is becoming more and more an achiles heel for Zendesk as the requirements of customer support/experience/operations teams continue to increase in complexity. The basic triggers are great for a traditional service desk but to manage cross-functional business processes you need something with a little more firepower.

    • You will absolutely need to subscribe to a workflow automation service like Zapier or  IFTT if you want to do anything remotely sophisticated with workflows. Example use case: receiving a ticket via API from a Google Form or Typeform and updating a different ticket from that same Requester
    • If you're still evaluating ticketing systems you should add the cost of a higher Zendesk API rate limit and the cost of a workflow automation tool when comparing Zendesk to other CRM or ticketing systems that are able to accommodate more robust business process workflows natively.
    0
  • Andrew J
    Community Moderator

    This article is sadly inaccurate.
    The correct answer is Yes - BUT!
    An entire article explaining why you shouldn't do something does not negate the fact that you can. This option is used by many zendesk administrators with caution. It is used as the basis for many support articles even.
    And by Brett ;) https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360031398273/comments/360011110493

    0

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