The Linked Ticket app enables you to create a child ticket from an existing parent ticket and link the two tickets together. This is particularly useful when you need to have two separate conversations around the same issue.
This article will cover the following topics:
- Installing the Linked Ticket app
- Creating a child ticket from a parent ticket
- Creating a View for child tickets
- Using business rules with the Linked Ticket app
- This ticket form is missing the linked data field
- Legacy Reference Field (existing/old installations only)
Installing the Linked Ticket app
To install the Linked Ticket app
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select Apps > Marketplace.
- Search for Linked Ticket and select the app from the results list.
- Click Install in the upper-right corner.
- Click Install to complete the setup
- Enterprise customers: Go to Ticket Forms and add the automatically created "Linked Data" field to each active ticket form.
Creating a child ticket from a parent ticket
To create a child ticket from a parent ticket, you can refer to the apps sidebar in the ticket, and click on Create a ticket.
From there, you can fill in each of the ticket fields, and check Copy current ticket description if you would like to carry the ticket description from the parent ticket through to the child ticket. Please note that ticking this option will only carry through public replies (no internal notes), and post the description as a public reply.
Once the child ticket is created, there will be a link in the app to each ticket as per the screenshots below.
Updating the status of a child ticket will not automatically update the status of a parent ticket, and vice versa.
Creating a View for child tickets
The Linked Ticket app will automatically add a tag to child tickets called 'child_ticket'. This tag can be customized when installing the app (see Installing the Linked Ticket app).
To track your child tickets, you can create a View that meets the condition Ticket: Tags Contains at least one of the following "child_ticket".
To create this View
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select Manage > Views.
- Click Add view in the upper-right corner.
- Under Meet all of the following conditions add:
- Ticket: Tags Contains at least one of the following child_ticket
- Ticket: Status Less than Solved
You could also add a tag to parent tickets (for example parent_ticket) to create a view for these tickets, as the app will not tag them automatically.
For more information on how to create Views, check Using views to manage ticket workflow.
Using business rules with the Linked Ticket app
You can set up triggers and automations for parent and child tickets using the tags above (child_ticket, parent_ticket). However, it is not possible to set up business rules to make two linked tickets interact with each other. For instance, it is not possible to setup a trigger to automatically solve a parent ticket once the child ticket is solved.
This ticket form is missing the linked data field
If you see an error that states that that "This ticket form is missing the linked data field", this means the required ticket field is not on the ticket form and the Linked Ticket app will not be able to work. The error looks like this, which shows the name and ID of the ticket field required:
To resolve this, you must be an admin:
Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Manage > Ticket Forms. The ticket field ID can be found by going to Manage > Ticket Fields.
Drag the "Linked Data" field into the ticket form and save. Refresh your browser and the app should start working.
If you are on the Zendesk Suite Enterprise plan or above, ensure the ticket field appears on any ticket forms that require the Linked Ticket app to work.
Legacy Reference field (existing/old installations only)
You may have a custom ticket field field in your Ticket Forms/Form called "Linked Data". This was previously a requirement for administrators to create this field for the app to use, however this process is no longer required for new installations.
"Reference Field" in the app settings is the custom field ID for the ticket field called "Linked Data". This is a manually created ticket field that contains the data to link tickets together in the app. This field should be on all active ticket forms.
When installing:
Deleting this ticket field will erase all links between tickets and is not recoverable. If this field exists, it's best to leave it as is.
33 Comments
So no option to send an attachment?
Hi Jorge!
Do you mean that you want to add an attachment to a Child Ticket at the time that it's created? If so, the Linked Ticket app isn't built with that functionality so you would need to add the attachment manually after the Child Ticket is created.
Hi Jessie,
Your article says "check Copy current ticket description if you would like to carry the ticket description from the parent ticket through to the child ticket. Please note that ticking this option will only carry through public replies (no internal notes), and post the description as a public reply."
I'm running into the issue where it is only pulling the "original description" and not any subsequent public replies through to the 'child' ticket. Is there any way to fix this? We would like to have all public comments in the 'parent' ticket pull through.to the 'child'.
Thanks!
Hi Dain!
That wording is a big ambiguous, but my understanding is that it's expected that only the ticket description would be copied over to the child ticket in this scenario. I'm going to contact our Docs team to see if we can get that clarified.
I don't think it's going to be possible to get all the ticket replies over to the child, short of copy/pasting everything. My concern with doing that with any method is that it will create confusion for the person viewing the ticket, having all of that info dumped into the description. Can you tell me more about your use case?
Hi there,
This is a solid app! Could use some edits, though:
Currently, when tickets are linked there is only one relationship possible at a time. For instance, when a child ticket is created it is not an option to create another child ticket from the same parent. Furthermore, it is not possible to create another child ticket from the child ticket. Any way around this?
Hi Arthur!
There's no way around it with the Linked Ticket app, but there's another app that allows you create multiple child tickets. You can find it our App Marketplace: Project Management App.
Why cant we link 2 existing tickets?
Hey Helder -
That's just not the way the app works. It was written with parent/child logic.
I will share your feedback with the developers that you would like to see it link 2 tickets. you are also welcome to leave a review on the apps marketplace to share your thoughts.
Additional note: one of my colleagues suggested that the Linkets app can help with linking existing tickets.
When I create a linked ticket not all the ublic comment are created. As soon as the app find an internal comment the other public comments are not copied.
Is it correct ?
Hi Sonia,
The expected workflow is that using the Linked Ticket app will allow for you to copy over the parent tickets description. The app is not configured to copy all comments within the parent ticket over to the child ticket.
I hope this clears up any confusion :)
This app works great for us, but we have a few minor requests. Perhaps these could be included when the app is updated to V2 framework?
-AND/OR-
Thanks for sharing Mary!
I can't promise these features would make it into the V2 version of the app so I wanted to provide you with a possible workaround in the meantime.
Since your app is configured to add the child_ticket tag to your linked ticket you could create a trigger that fires only when the ticket is created and uses the set tag condition. Here's an example below:
What this will do is remove all previous tags from the ticket when it's created and contains the child_ticket tag.
I hope the above helps!
Hi Guys,
it seems that after the last update of last week, the APP is not working properly.
When you select the final assignment of the child ticket, the new ticket create seems not receive this information, and it is creating a lot of internal issue.
Does anynone experience the same issue?
Yes, we are also experiencing the same problem.
Hi Donato and Dylan -
We are seeing several reports of this, and our team is working on resolving the issue. We'll keep you posted once it's fixed!
Hi Donato and Dylan,
We released a bugfix today which should resolve this issue regarding assignees.
Thanks,
Chris
For some reason when I create a new child ticket, it doesn't automatically add the tag, "child_ticket". I've set it up in the App Configuration. I made sure the tickets were fully created and had the status of Open. Please advise.
Hi Joe,
If you check the ticket events of your child ticket can you see if there's a trigger set up that is removing the child_ticket tag?
Let me know!
Thanks Brett for responding so quickly. I've opened my Ticket Events and see no trigger removing a child_ticket tag. I only see it add the normal tag for the ticket category I created.
Hi Joe,
I tested the app on my end and it appears to be adding the tag correctly. Have you had a chance to uninstall and re-install the app to see if that resolves the issue?
Good afternoon, we are using Linked Ticket for about 1 year. We noticed that it is impossible to add the attached files, this would actually be fundamental to us. Can you implement this function or someone knows an app which is similar to Linked Ticket with the possibility of sending the attachments? Someone can give me a suggestion please?
STEFANO SANTONI we contacted ZD already last year about that... nothing happened :/
Hey Stefano,
In it's the current state you cannot add attachments using the Linked Ticket app as you mentioned. I'll be sure to pass this feedback along to our app developers so they're aware of this need.
Thanks for sharing this with us!
I would really like to use the app to link to existing ticket. For example, I have an existing ticket created as project that my internal agents review/update. Then I have several child tickets that I want to LINK to the parent ticket so that they all remain grouped together.
Parent: Hardware Replacement Program
Child(ren) linked to the above parent: Sue, Joe, Bobby, Claire, etc.
Merging doesn't provide the flexibility we need and I need a way to LINK the child(ren) back to the parent. Ideally, the LINKED TICKET APP should reflect all linkages to other tickets.
If this APP can't do this, how can I create this type of link hierarchy without using the MERGE function?
Hey Chris,
If I'm understanding your use case correctly, you may want to take a look at the Project Management app which I've linked for you.
I hope this helps!
Well that's exactly what I needed. Thanks! Sorry I didn't check that first.
Is there a way to have the popup also show the REQUESTER's information when you hover over the associated child tickets. That would be helpful since the subject is identical for all the tickets. Here is what mine looks like and you can see that the subject and the bubble don't tell me WHO is REQUESTING. We assign project tickets to recipients in this manner and it would help to see it.
Hey Chris,
Since this is a Zendesk Labs app, this isn't supported by us which means we wouldn't be making any updates to the integration. I was able to track down the github page for the integration so you may be able to reach out there.
Hope this helps!
Hi team,
There is a gap that needs to be filled here, and I would ask Zendesk to please review this comment as a priority.
As far as we know, the "Linkets" app has been the only resolve to the lack of ticket linking functionality within Zendesk. Unfortunately, our clients have been experiencing errors with Linkets which is causing miscommunication and frustration.
Linking related tickets falls under both common and BEST practices, as it is incredibly important for maintaining unified messaging to Requesters.
Without the capability to link existing tickets, CSAT ratings fall and screenshots get posted to Social Media due to miscommunications provided by the agents responding to UNLINKED, but RELATED tickets. In reality, this usually occurs when a requester is fishing for a different answer and is counting on the support organization not having immediate visibility into related tickets.
Whether it is this app, separate extension, or core functionality to be developed, it would be incredibly beneficial to your customers, as well as Zendesk Support themselves, to have an official Zendesk solution for linking tickets (of all types & statuses).
Thanks!
Hi ZenBros -
I shared your post with the product manager working with apps. She has the Linked Tickets app as an upcoming priority.
As he shared in this post, the developer for Linkets built it as a side project and hasn't been able to keep it up recently. We're hopeful that he'll be able to get it working better and listed in the marketplace again. I've also asked the product manager to connect with him to learn more about that functionality and how it could potentially be incorporated into linked tickets.
In the meantime, if you can share any details about the behavior you'd like to see and how it would ideally work, that would be informative!
Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback.
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