
You can create conditional ticket fields to control the appearance and behavior of ticket fields in ticket forms. For example, you can limit the number of ticket fields that appear in ticket forms, and control the sequence in which ticket fields are presented to end users.
This article includes these sections:
Using conditional ticket fields
With conditional ticket fields, only the fields that you want agents and end users to see appear in ticket forms. Initially, only a few fields appear in the form. As the user fills in their answers, the form progressively adds sub-fields based on the users’ answers. This helps you collect more granular and relevant information about their problem or request.
For example, when you add a condition to a ticket form, you specify whether the condition is for agents or end users.
Conditions for agents affect ticket fields that appear in the agent interface. Conditions for end users affect ticket fields in forms that appear in the Help Center and Web Widget.
By limiting the number of fields that initially display, you make it so that agents and end users complete only the fields that are required or relevant fields. This results in a better experience and time-savings for both end users and agents.
About conditions and conditional statements
A conditional ticket field is a ticket field within a ticket form that only appears to agents and end users some of the time, under certain circumstances. Those circumstances are defined by the admin in a condition (or condition statement), which is an if-then statement, or rule, that is associated with a specific ticket form.
For example, notice that the words if and then are used in the interface where the admin creates a condition for end users.
The same thing happens with conditions for agents. If-then statements are always part of creating conditions.
It's important to note that Required is different depending on whether the condition is for an end user or an agent (see the screenshots above). For more information about these differences, see Making conditional ticket fields required.
This table explains the parts of a conditional statement in more detail.
Setting | Description |
---|---|
When filling out this field |
Specify a field that you want to apply conditions to. This will be the “conditional ticket field.” These are the types of fields you can select and apply conditions to:
|
If value is |
Specify the value that the conditional ticket field (as defined in When filling out this field) must be in order for other fields to appear in the ticket form. |
Then show these fields |
Specify fields that will appear when the conditional ticket field (as defined in When filling out this field) is set to the correct value (as defined in If value is). You can specify any fields on the ticket form, except for:
|
Required |
For information about making a conditional field required, and how ticket form requirement settings in your admin settings affect each other, see Making conditional ticket fields required. |
You can't apply conditions to the system fields described in About ticket fields, except for Priority and Type. You also can't apply conditions to these type of custom fields described in Adding custom fields to your tickets and support request form:
- Multi-select
- Numeric
- Decimal
- Date
- Regex
Adding conditional ticket fields to ticket forms
Adding conditions to ticket forms creates conditional ticket fields that agents and end users encounter when they complete a ticket form. Each form can have up to 1500 conditions per user type.
To add conditions to ticket forms
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, and then select Manage > Ticket Forms.
- Move the cursor over the ticket form that you want to add conditions to and then click the menu icon (
) on the right side when it appears.
- Click Conditions.
A new page appears.
- From the Conditions for drop-down list, choose a type of user (Agents or End users).
- To view the conditions that are already on the ticket form, click the expand icon (
) to expand the sections.
You can edit, duplicate, and delete conditions at this stage also, if you want to.
- Click the Add condition button.
- In the dialog box that displays, create a conditional statement by defining these items. When you are done, click the Add button to add the condition to the ticket form.
- When filling out this field
- If value is
- Then show these fields
- Required (see Making conditional ticket fields required)
The Add another check box causes the dialog box to remain open after you click the Add button, so that you can continue to add another condition, if needed.
- Once you are done, remember to click the Save button to save the changes to the ticket form. Otherwise, your changes are lost.
Editing, duplicating, and removing conditional ticket fields on ticket forms
You can edit or remove conditions on ticket forms. You can also duplicate an existing condition, edit the duplicate, and then save the duplicate as a new condition on the same ticket form. However, you can't copy and paste a condition into another ticket form.
Use these icons:
|
Use the edit icon to change a condition. Make your changes in the dialog box that appears, and then click the Update button. |
|
Use the duplicate icon to duplicate (copy) a condition. Modify the duplicate in the dialog box that appears, and then click the Add button. The reason you have to modify the duplicate is because the If value is part of the condition statement must be unique (you can’t use the value in another condition on the ticket form). |
|
Use the delete icon to delete a condition. |
How conditional ticket fields are saved
Selections from conditional ticket fields are retained while you remain in the ticket, even if you make a field invisible, or change the ticket form. However, when you submit the ticket, only the fields that are visible are saved. If you exit, then re-enter a ticket, any unsaved field selections are not retained.
If you want to save all conditional ticket field selections you make on a ticket, you must submit the ticket while each field you want to save is visible.
Example:
You have three drop-down ticket fields, Parent, Child 1, and Child 2.
- From the Parent drop-down list, select Show child 1 and select Susan for the Child 1 field value.
- Without submitting the ticket, select Show child 2 from the Parent drop-down list and select Peter for the Child 2 field value.
- With Show child 2 selected, submit the ticket.
Show child 2 and Peter are saved. However, you can select Show child 1 and see that the value Susan is retained.
- Without submitting the ticket, exit and re-enter the ticket.
Now, under Show child 1, the value Susan is empty. This is because you never submitted the ticket and saved this value while Show child 1 was displayed.
- With Show child 1 displayed, and Susan selected, submit the ticket to save these values.
Now, whenever you exit and re-enter the ticket, the values for both Show child 1 and Show child 2 are retained because you submitted the ticket and saved each of these values while they were visible.
Using conditional ticket fields with the Web Widget
If a ticket form includes conditional ticket fields, and ticket forms are enabled in the Web Widget from your admin settings, conditional ticket fields are presented to end users in the Web Widget.
The Web Widget supports most native conditional ticket fields (but not from the Conditional Fields app). The Priority and Type fields are not supported in the Web Widget. If you apply conditions to these fields, they appear in the agent interface and in ticket forms that appear in the Help Center, but not in the Web Widget.
To confirm that tickets forms are enabled in the Web Widget
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, and then select Channels > Widget.
For more information about using ticket forms in the Web Widget, see the section about ticket forms in Configuring components in the Web Widget, and Using custom ticket fields and ticket forms with the Web Widget.
81 Comments
Zendesk conditional fields doesn't allow me to add fields that are already used in separate conditions on the same form. Some of our workflows are status based. When a certain status is selected then field 1, field 2, and field 3 display. When the ticket goes to the next status field 4, field 5, and field 6 display. When the ticket moves to the next status I need to display field 1, field 2, field 5,field 7, and field 8. To use the Zendesk conditional fields I will have to create duplicate and triplicate fields to conform to what we have now.
I hope this feature can be added before the conditional fields app is deprecated. If not we will be back to 96+ forms. Also, contextual workplaces isn't an option because of how our tickets move to different departments.
Hi there,
While trying out the new built-in Conditional Fields in Sandbox mode, I notice that I am unable to replicate one particular important function which the current Conditional Fileds V1 App allows me to do.
How do I replicate this function with the new built-in Conditional Fields?
I am very reluctant to do the migration at the moment until I have a clearer picture of this matter.
Please advise
Hi Matthew,
Currently there's no way to replicate this with the built-in conditional fields. However, this feedback was brought up during the EAP for this feature. I've reached out to our Product Managers and they confirmed that they are looking into ways to resolve this limitation long term.
Thanks for sharing this feedback with us :)
Thanks Amy,
TY for including search ability + clone ability for these.
Also agree with Matt
Will there be any granularity added to this feature?
We use a third party app to expose particular drop-down options in a ticket field when a condition is met rather than just the ticket field itself. This feature would allow us to replace the third party app with this native conditional ticket fields functionality.
We would also love to be able to show/hide options within a field based on the contents of another field.
Hey Justin,
There is no plan to include this functionality in the conditional fields feature at this time. If you're looking for this specific functionality you'll want to utilize solutions provided by our partners such Cloudset or your existing app to fill that gap. I've passed this feedback along to the appropriate team for you as well :)
Cheers!
Thanks Brett. We are currently using Cloudset.
Happy to help Justin :)
I'd love to be able to use Multi-Select fields as parent fields in conditions. So if the user selects multiple options in this parent field, child fields for each of those options should appear.
But overall I think this new UI is much easier to deal with than the v1 version. Thanks!
Newly created ticket fields are not showing up under the "Then show these fields" drop down?
One use case I don't seem to be able to find a solution for (but maybe I'm missing something), is making end-user fields required. I don't really need conditions per se, but the CTA was the only way we were able to make certain fields required only on specific forms. We have some ticket fields that are shared on many forms, but aren't required on many of them.
We used to make it required for an end user to submit, but have the conditional open up on ANY of the parent drop-down list options. It doesn't seem to allow for this without making the parent also editable now (even though we've got all options... including NULL set to show the fields and require them).
I'm sure we must not be the only ones who want to set fields to be required only on specific forms, and this used to be the best way to do it. Any ideas on this?
@Darren you may need to do a quick browser refresh for these fields to show up. If that doesn't resolve the issue, are you setting this up for agents or end-users? Can you confirm that these fields are visible to end-users?
@Ryan this is not something that is available with the new conditional ticket fields feature unfortunately. I'll pass your feedback along to the appropriate team since I can understand why this would be useful on your end. In the meantime, you may need to create a separate ticket field for each form and make the appropriate fields required.
@Brett so they did show up eventually. I guess there is a slight delay in them updating.
Thanks
Awesome news Darren :) Glad they showed up!
Just migrated to the conditional fields integrated feature, and we love it! So much easier than the conditional fields app!
That's great to hear Melanie :)
For making fields required, it only allows us to make ticket fields that are conditional of another ticket field required. With the Conditional Fields app we are able to select Group and then make any ticket field required at that point (does not need to be a condition of another ticket field).
I was aware of Groups being removed as a condition when I got a demo last year. I was under the impression though after that demo and conversation that our solution would be to move to a forms based approach and create a form per process that requires different ticket fields. I was happy with this since Zendesk appears to be becoming more forms-centric (with this and contextual workspaces) and was good with that approach.
This however is not the case I am seeing now, unless I am overlooking something?
Is it only users with the Admin role who can see/edit these conditions?
@Amber I'm not quite sure I understand the issue you're experiencing on your end. Are you receiving any sort of error when you attempt to make this field required?
@Milton only Admins on the account can set conditional fields.
@Brett - no error. I just want to be able to make a field required in a specific form, right off the top. This new functionality only allows me to do this to a ticket field that is conditional to another ticket field.
With the app, I am able to choose a group, and then make a ticket field required from there (no ticket fields conditional to another ticket field). I understand you are not able to do conditions based on groups anymore which is fine, but would be nice to have this functionality replaced on the form level, whether conditional fields exist or not.
Does it make sense this way?
@Amber that does make sense. Thanks for clarifying :) I did some testing and you're correct, you cannot make the field required unless it's a condition of another ticket field. I'll pass your feedback as well as your use case along to the appropriate team in charge of this feature. Thanks for bringing this up!
@Brett in response to your comment related to the below:
Do you know if the product team is planning on introducing that functionality prior to the deprecation of the conditional fields app? Hoping to wait till that functionality is native, but if there is no plans on it prior to the deprecation, we will need to start looking at building something custom. Please advise.
Hi Reshma,
Just so we're on the same page, are you also looking to have a ticket field required at the top level when using the native conditional fields feature? Or is there something else you're looking to have available?
Just want to make sure so I can get the correct information from our Product Managers :)
I believe it's the same. Currently we can make a field required on save or submit on the agent side though the conditional field app. This is extremely useful to ensure tier 1 teams are completing required fields prior to escalating to a tier 2 team. The new CTF does not have this functionality.
Thanks for confirming Reshma!
This limitation is something our product managers are aware of and are currently looking into. However, we don't have any additional information to provide at this time.
I've passed your feedback along so they're aware of your interest :)
Hi -
I'd like to display a block of text in response to a condition being met. e.g. a customer selects a reason for contact, and we show a sentence of text like "Did you know you can make that change yourself [here]?"
I can't figure out how to do this, as I can only show a field in response to a condition being met, and I don't believe there is a type of field that is a "display only" block of text. Any ideas how I might be able to cobble this together? Seems like a very sensible use case for conditions!
Thanks!
Hi Chris,
In its current state, the conditional fields feature can only show an additional field once the condition has been met. Unfortunately, there's no way to display a block of text outside of using custom code in your Help Center.
If this is something you're interested in, I encourage you to create a feedback post in our Support Product Feedback forum. This will help provide visibility to both our Product Managers as well as other users in need of similar functionality.
Thanks for taking the time to share this with us!
How does this work with Light Agents ?? Our current issue is that we implemented the Conditional Fields App but it only applies to Agents when they are creating a ticket. We use Zendesk for our internal change management system and need the Light Agents to have fields that conditionally appear when choosing a specific ticket. Will this be possible in the built in ??
I'm curious how this new functionality handles removal of ticket fields from a form or field options from ticket fields, especially when those are used in a condition. The CFA had some issues with this as outlined in this article https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/231929007-Conditional-Fields-app-What-you-need-to-know-BEFORE-you-edit-or-remove-ticket-fields
Has anyone experienced similar issues using the new functionality or is this solved for in another way?
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