Creating conditional ticket fields in Zendesk Support (Professional add-on and Enterprise)

Fastpath: Admin () > Manage > Ticket Forms

You can create conditional ticket fields in Support 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.

Conditional ticket fields are available on Professional with the Productivity Pack add-on and on Enterprise. All Guide plans, including Guide Lite, support the conditional ticket fields feature in Support.

This article includes these sections:

• Using conditional ticket fields
• About conditions and conditional statements
• Adding and editing conditional ticket fields on ticket forms
• How conditional ticket fields are saved
• Using conditional ticket fields with the Web Widget

Related articles:

• Creating ticket forms to support multiple request types (Professional add-on and Enterprise)
• Making conditional ticket fields required (Professional add-on and Enterprise)
• Presenting ticket forms to end users (Professional add-on and Enterprise)

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 in Support. 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 Support administrator 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 this portion of the Support interface, where the administrator 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 (Professional add-on and Enterprise).

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: Drop-down fields (values selected) Check boxes (checked or not) Text fields (specific strings) Multi-line text fields (specific strings) Priority field (values selected) Ticket type field (values selected)
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: Subject Description
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 (Professional add-on and Enterprise).

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.

Note: If you delete a ticket form, the conditions associated with that form are permanently deleted.

To add conditions to ticket forms

1. In the sidebar, click the Admin icon () and then select Manage > Ticket Forms.
2. 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.

   

3. Click Conditions.

   A new page appears.

4. From the Conditions for drop-down list, choose a type of user (Agents or End users).

   

5. 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.

6. Click the Add condition button.
7. 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 (Professional add-on and Enterprise))

   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.

   

8. 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

Note: This section applies when you are using conditional ticket fields built into Support. If you are using the Conditional Fields app, the behavior might be different.

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.

1. From the Parent drop-down list, select Show child 1 and select Susan for the Child 1 field value.

   

2. Without submitting the ticket, select Show child 2 from the Parent drop-down list and select Peter for the Child 2 field value.

   

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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 from Support, 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 conditional ticket fields from Support (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 navigate to 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.