Zendesk Support placeholders are containers for dynamically generated ticket, user, and custom data. The format is a data reference contained within double curly brackets. Since you can also access ticket, user, and custom data when defining programming logic, it may be helpful to think beyond placeholders and think instead of data objects and their properties that can be used for either purpose.
There are two primary data objects in Zendesk Support: Ticket and User. Each has its own set of properties; the User object, for example, contains user properties such as name and email. In addition to these two data objects, there are associated data objects. For tickets, there are the Comment and Satisfaction Rating objects. For users, there are the Organization and Agent objects. There are also custom objects, which are defined by users and can be associated with tickets, users, and other Zendesk objects.
Although placeholders can be in HTML format, when a placeholder is sent to a URL target or webhook, unformatted text is used to render the placeholder, not HTML. Also, placeholders won't work within code blocks.
Support includes inborn system rules that suppress placeholders in ticket triggers in certain situations. Inborn system rules are rules that you cannot change, modify, or override, which dictate the default behavior of Support. These rules may sometimes make it seem like placeholders in ticket triggers failed to work, but this isn’t a mistake. These rules protect you because they prevent spammers from using your account to distribute spam messages. For more information, see Understanding placeholder suppression rules.
This article categorizes the placeholders by the data they display. When you specify placeholders, remember they are case sensitive.
- User data
- Organization data
- Agent data
- Ticket data
- Comment data
- Satisfaction rating data
- Custom object data
Related articles:
User data
- ticket.requester, who is the person who requested the ticket
- ticket.assignee, who is the agent assigned to the ticket
- ticket.submitter, who is either the user who submitted the request or the agent that opened the ticket on behalf of the requester
- current_user, who is the user currently updating the ticket (an end user, agent, or Zendesk as the system user)
This means that most of the user data listed in the following table can be returned for each type of user (for example, {{ticket.submitter.name}}, {{current_user.name}}, and so on).
Properties/placeholders | Description |
---|---|
user.name
Important: Remember to replace user with one of the user
types shown above (for example, ticket.requester).
|
The user's full name. |
user.first_name | The user's first name. |
user.last_name | The user's last name. |
user.email | The user's email address. |
user.language | The user's language preference. |
user.phone | The user's telephone number. |
user.external_id | The user's external ID (if one exists). Optional for accounts that have enabled enterprise single sign-on using JWT or SAML. |
user.details | The user's details. |
user.notes | The user's notes. |
user.time_zone | The user's time zone. |
user.role | The user's role (Admin, Agent, or End user). |
user.extended_role | When using Support Enterprise agent roles, this returns the name of the
agent's Enterprise role. These are the predefined roles:
If you've created custom agent roles, those role names are returned. If you're not an Enterprise account, using this placeholder returns 'Agent' for all agent users and 'End user' for all end users. For more information about custom agent roles, see Creating custom agent roles and assigning agents. |
user.id | The user's ID. |
user.locale | The user's locale (for example: en-US). |
user.signature | The agent's signature. Only agents have signatures. |
user.organization... | See Organization data below. |
user.tags | Tags. See Adding tags to users and organizations. |
user.custom_fields.<field_key> | Property/placeholder format for the value of a custom user fields (except drop-down fields). For example, {{ticket.requester.custom_fields.my_custom_field}}. See Adding custom fields to users. |
user.custom_fields.<field_key>.id | The ID of the target record in a lookup relationship field. |
user.custom_fields.<field_key>.title | Property/placeholder format for the value of a custom user drop-down field. For example, {{ticket.requester.custom_fields.manager_for_approval.title}}. See Adding custom fields to users. |
About user name placeholders
The behavior of the first name and last name placeholders depends on the formatting of the name on the profile. For example, if you use the name Dutch van der Linde, the placeholder user.last_name will show 'Linde'. If you use the name van der Linde, Dutch on the profile, then the placeholder user.last_name will show 'van der Linde'.
Additionally, in Japan, the first name placeholder refers to the user's last name and the last name placeholder refers to the user's first name.
Organization data
Each type of user can be added to an organization. An organization contains the following data properties.
Properties/placeholders | Description |
---|---|
user.organization.id
Important: Remember to replace user with one of the user
types shown below.
|
The ID of the organization that the user is assigned to. |
user.organization.name | The name of the organization that the user is assigned to. |
user.organization.is_shared | True or False. Indicates if the organization is a shared organization. |
user.organization.is_shared_comments | True or False. Indicates if the organization allows users to add comments to other user's tickets. |
user.organization.details | Details about the organization. |
user.organization.notes | Notes about the organization. |
user.organization.tags | Tags. See Adding tags to users and organizations. |
- {{ticket.organization.name}}, which is the ticket requester's organization
- {{ticket.requester.organization.name}}, which the same as {{ticket.organization.name}} (the requester)
- {{current_user.organization.name}}, who is the user currently updating the ticket (an end user or agent)
- {{ticket.assignee.organization.name}}, who is the agent assigned to the ticket
- {{ticket.submitter.organization.name}}, who is either the user who submitted the request or the agent that opened the ticket on behalf of the requester
Agent data
You can use the following placeholders in agent signatures only. For information on agent signatures, see Adding an agent signature to ticket email notifications.
Properties/placeholders | Description |
---|---|
agent.name | The agent's full name (or alias, if present). |
agent.first_name | The agent's first name. |
agent.last_name | The agent's last name. |
agent.role | The agent's role. |
agent.signature | The agent's signature. |
agent.email | The agent's email address. |
agent.phone | The agent's phone number. |
agent.organization | The agent's organization. |
agent.language | The agent's language. |
agent.time_zone | The agent's time zone. |
Ticket data
Zendesk Support tickets contain the following data properties.
Properties/placeholders | Description |
---|---|
ticket.account | The Zendesk account name. |
ticket.assignee.name | Ticket assignee full name (if any). See User data above. |
ticket.brand.name | The ticket's assigned brand name. |
ticket.cc_names | Returns the names CCs on the ticket.
Note: If you are using the new CCs and followers experience and you are
adding or updating your placeholders, we recommend using
ticket.email_cc_names instead of
tickets.cc_names . They do the same thing.If you want to return the email addresses of the people CC'd on the message, you can use this Liquid code:
|
ticket.email_cc_names |
With the new CCs and followers experience, returns the names of CCs on the ticket. With the old CCs experience, returns empty.
Note: If you are using the new CCs and follower experience and you are adding or
updating your placeholders, we recommend using
ticket.email_cc_names instead of
tickets.cc_names . They do the same thing. |
ticket.follower_names | With the new CCs and followers experience, returns the names of followers. With the old CCs experience, returns empty. |
ticket.follower_reply_type_message | With the new CCs and followers experience,
indicates what type of comment (public or private) triggered the notification.
Causes the phrase "Reply to this email to add a comment to the request" or "Reply
to this email to add an internal note to the request" to appear in the email
notification (see Customizing default email notifications for CCs and
followers). With the old CCs experience, returns empty. |
ticket.created_at | Date the ticket was created (for example, May 18, 2014).
Note: The year is
not included if the ticket was created in the current year.
|
ticket.created_at_with_timestamp | Time the ticket was created expressed as an iso8601 format date/time. Example: 2013-12-12T05:35Z, which translates to December 12th, 2013 at 05:35am UTC. |
ticket.created_at_with_time | Date and time the ticket was created. For example, February 10, 14:29. |
ticket.current_holiday_name | If the placeholder is used outside of a holiday, it is null. If it is used within a holiday, the holiday's name is displayed. If you've set up multiple schedules, this placeholder respects the list of holidays set in the schedule applied to the ticket. |
ticket.description | The ticket description. This includes the agent's name, the comment date, and
the ticket description (the first comment).
Note: If the
subject field is empty or not visible to the requester, then this first comment
will be used and sent to the requester. This is true for private tickets as
well.
|
ticket.due_date | The ticket due date (relevant for tickets of type Task). The format is: May-18. |
ticket.due_date_with_timestamp | The ticket due date (relevant for tickets of type Task) expressed as an iso8601 format date/time. Example: 2013-12-12T05:35+0100 which translates to December 12th, 2013 at 06:35am UTC+1. |
ticket.external_id | The external ticket ID (if one exists). |
ticket.encoded_id | The encoded ID is used for threading incoming email replies into existing tickets. |
ticket.group.name | The group assigned to the ticket. |
ticket.id | The ticket ID. #{{ticket.id}} creates a clickable link.
{{ticket.id}} renders the ticket number in plain text. |
ticket.in_business_hours | True or False. True if the ticket update is during business hours. See Setting your business hours. |
ticket.link | Full URL path to ticket. |
ticket.organization.custom_fields.<field_key> | Property/placeholder format for custom organization fields. See Adding custom fields to organizations. |
ticket.organization.custom_fields.<field_key>.id | The ID of the target record in a lookup relationship field. |
ticket.organization.custom_fields.<field_key>.title | Property/placeholder format for the value of a custom organization drop-down field. See Adding custom fields to organizations |
ticket.organization.external_id | External ID of the ticket requester's organization. |
ticket.organization.id | The ID of the ticket requester's organization. |
ticket.organization.name | See Organization data above. |
ticket.priority | The ticket priority (Low, Normal, High, Urgent). |
ticket.requester.first_name | Ticket requester first name. If you have an open Zendesk Support instance, this placeholder can be a target for spam in first-reply triggers. See Using Zendesk Support-specific features to combat spam. |
ticket.requester.last_name | Ticket requester last name. If you have an open Zendesk Support instance, this placeholder can be a target for spam in first-reply triggers. See Using Zendesk Support-specific features to combat spam. |
ticket.requester.name | Ticket requester full name. If you have an open Zendesk Support instance, this placeholder can be a target for spam in first-reply triggers. See Using Zendesk Support-specific features to combat spam. |
ticket.requester.email | Ticket requester email address. |
ticket.requester.custom_fields.<field_key> | Property/placeholder format for custom user fields. For example, {{ticket.requester.custom_fields.my_custom_field}}. See Adding custom fields to users. |
ticket.requester.custom_fields.<field_key>.id | The ID of the target record in a lookup relationship field. |
ticket.requester.custom_fields.<field_key>.title | Property/placeholder format for the value of a custom user drop-down field. For example, {{ticket.requester.custom_fields.manager_for_approval.title}}. See Adding custom fields to organizations. |
ticket.requester.details | The contents of the Details field on the requester’s user profile. |
ticket.status | The standard ticket status (New, Open, Pending, On-hold, Solved,
Closed).
Note: If you've activated custom ticket statuses, this
placeholder displays the same value as
{{ticket.status_category}} . |
ticket.status_category | If custom ticket statuses are activated, returns the status category the ticket's status belongs to (New, Open, Pending, On-hold, Solved, Closed). Learn more about ticket status categories. |
ticket.custom_status | If custom ticket statuses are activated, returns the custom ticket status. |
ticket.tags | All of the tags attached to the ticket. |
ticket.ticket_field_<field ID number> | Property/placeholder format for custom fields. For example, {{ticket.ticket_field_123}}. See Placeholders for custom fields. |
ticket.ticket_field_<field ID number>.id | The ID of the target record in a lookup relationship field. |
ticket.ticket_field_option_title_<field ID number> | Property/placeholder format for the value of a dropdown custom field. For example, {{ticket.ticket_field_option_title_456}}. See Placeholders for custom fields. |
ticket.ticket_form | Form name for end users. |
ticket.ticket_type | Ticket type (Question, Incident, Problem, Task). If the ticket type is not specified, this placeholder returns "Ticket". |
ticket.title | The ticket subject. End users may see different text in this field. For
troubleshooting information about this placeholder, see The ticket title placeholder displays first comment instead of
the subject and Why does the subject line in my email notifications say
"Untitled ticket". If you have an open Zendesk Support instance, this placeholder can be a target for spam in first-reply triggers. See Using Zendesk Support-specific features to combat spam. |
ticket.updated_at | Date the ticket was last updated (for example, May18). |
ticket.updated_at_with_time | Time and date the ticket was last updated. For example, February 10, 14:29. |
ticket.updated_at_with_timestamp | Time the ticket was last updated expressed as an iso8601 format date/time. Example: 2013-12-12T05:35Z, which translates to December 12th, 2013 at 05:35am UTC. |
ticket.url | The full URL path to the ticket (excluding "http://"). |
ticket.verbatim_description | The plain text value of the ticket description (the first comment). If Include attachments in email is enabled, attachments are
included.
Note: This placeholder cannot be used to send attachments in a webhook.
|
ticket.via | The source type of the ticket (Web form, Mail, etc.). |
account.incoming_phone_number_ID | Zendesk Talk inbound phone number. For example,{{account.incoming_phone_number_123}}. |
Comment data
- HTML comment placeholders are used for simplified email threading in email applications such as Gmail. For best results, they should not be used with other comment placeholders. See Understanding simplified email threading and Implementing simplified email threading for email applications.
-
Standard comment
placeholders allow you to use liquid hashes to choose what you want to display, and return a
collection of comment and attachment data. For example, you can set up templates to iterate over comments using
{{ticket.comments}}
. -
Formatted comment
placeholders allow you to return preformatted, rendered HTML
representations of the standard placeholders, but without a large degree of
customization. They simply return comments in predefined formats. For example,
{{ticket.comments_formatted}}
returns a chunk of rendered HTML. The ticket comments will include dates, author, the author’s avatar, and the like. - Rich text comment placeholders allow you to use rich text in your customized template (as with the formatted object placeholders) without being restricted to the predefined formatting rules, so you can have more control over the look and feel of your notifications. Rich text objects allow inclusion of attachments only if Include attachments in email is enabled.
- Agents who are assigned to or following the ticket receive both public comments and internal notes. End users receive only public comments.
- If you have CCs enabled, CCs (including agent CCs) receive email notifications only for public comments. See Understanding how email notifications are sent to CCs by default.
- If you use comment placeholders in side conversations, only public comments are included. Comment placeholders used in side conversations don't return internal notes.
Properties/placeholders | Description |
---|---|
ticket.latest_comment_html | The most recent comment including any attachments. Agents receive the most recent public or private comment. End users receive the most recent public comment. |
ticket.latest_public_comment_html | The most recent public comment, excluding any attachments. |
Properties/placeholders | Description |
---|---|
ticket.comments | Used as a placeholder, {{ticket.comments}} displays all the comments in a
ticket in unformatted text. The ticket.comments placeholder also serves as a collection for comment and attachment details. You can access the following data using Liquid markup:
For an example of accessing this data in business rules, see Customizing the format and placement of text in comments and email notifications.
Note: This same comment data collection is available when using the
ticket.public_comments, ticket.latest_comment, and
ticket.latest_public_comment placeholders.
|
ticket.public_comments | All public comments, most recent first. Unformatted text. |
ticket.latest_comment | The most recent comment. Unformatted text. Does not include attachments, unless Include attachments in email is enabled. To return attachments, use ticket.latest_comment_formatted. |
ticket.latest_public_comment | The most recent public comment. Unformatted text. |
Properties/placeholders | Description |
---|---|
ticket.comments_formatted | All comments, most recent first. |
ticket.public_comments_formatted | All public comments, most recent first. |
ticket.latest_comment_formatted | The most recent comment including any attachments. |
ticket.latest_public_comment_formatted | The most recent public comment. |
Properties/placeholders | Description |
---|---|
ticket.latest_comment_rich |
The most recent comment. Rich text formatting. If Include attachments in email is enabled, attachments are included. |
ticket.latest_public_comment_rich | The most recent public comment. Rich text formatting. If Include attachments in email is enabled, attachments are included. |
Satisfaction rating data
On Suite Growth and above or Support Professional and Enterprise, the following data properties are available for customer satisfaction rating for email and messaging.
This table lists both current and legacy CSAT placeholders. Legacy placeholders work only for the legacy CSAT experience. The updated CSAT option lets you customize the CSAT question, rating scale, and rating labels.
Properties | Description |
---|---|
satisfaction.survey_section | A block of text in the CSAT email directing users to complete the CSAT survey. |
satisfaction.survey_url | The URL for customers to rate their support experience. |
satisfaction.rating_section (Legacy CSAT) |
A formatted block of text prompting the user to rate satisfaction. |
satisfaction.rating_url (Legacy CSAT) |
A URL to rate the support. |
satisfaction.current_rating (Legacy CSAT) |
The text of the current satisfaction rating (e.g. "Good, I am satisfied"). |
satisfaction.positive_rating_url (Legacy CSAT) |
A URL to rate the support positively. |
satisfaction.negative_rating_url (Legacy CSAT) |
A URL to rate the support negatively. |
satisfaction.current_comment (Legacy CSAT) |
The comment that the user added when rating the ticket. |
Custom object data
Properties | Description |
---|---|
custom_objects.<object_key>.custom_fields.<field_key> | The value of a custom object's field. |
custom_objects.<object_key>.custom_fields.<field_key>.title | The value of a drop-down field. |
custom_objects.<object_key>.custom_fields.<field_key>.id | The ID of the target object in a lookup relationship field. |
custom_objects.<object_key>.custom_fields.<field_key>.name | The name of the lookup relationship field. |
custom_objects.<object_key>.external_id | The external ID of the custom object record. |
custom_objects.<object_key>.id | The ID of the custom object record. |
custom_objects.<object_key>.name | The name of the custom object record. |
169 comments
Jose Mª
Hello,
I need to know if a ticket is marked as public or private. If I call the read ticket from the API I see that there is a property that indicates this: is_public
But I can't find any place_holder to be able to send that ticket information.
How could I access this information in the triggers?
Regards.
0
Rick N.
Thank you for reaching out to Zendesk Support Advocacy team. My name is Rick and I’ll be assisting you today.
If I understand this correctly then the properties you’re pertaining to(public or private) is the reply type whether its public(your actual response in a ticket to a customer) that your end-user can see and private(internal) that only your staff can see.
On the article where you last commented : Zendesk Support placeholder reference this will be the placeholder you'll need. Please see image below ;
And do not forget to add the double curly brackets for the system to identify these placeholders.
Let me know if this helps. Im looking forward hearing back from you. Cheers!
1
Andrea Rodriguez (CD Baby)
Is there a placeholder where we can point them to the appropriate brand help center? We have a macro that applies the ticket brand, but we'd like to direct them to the appropriate help center without having to create a duplicate macro with the same exact language, just for that.
0
Emil
Is there placeholders for the ticket's side-conversation data as well?
0
Gautam Dama
Can we add Custom fields as placeholders? I have a Custom field named, Feature Request State. So something like ticket.featurerequeststate?
Thanks
1
Madison Hoffman
Hi Gautam! You sure can. It's listed deep in one of the tables above but here is the format:
As mentioned there, this article has some additional info that might help: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408887218330#topic_nfp_nja_vb
1
Gautam Dama
@Melinda Davis Thanks!
0
OVO
Hi team,
Can we create a custom placeholders? We want to add data about customer's request such as block account, change phone number etc. We have that data field on Zendesk form that manually filled by agents
0
OVO
and also for tags, can we add/grab 1 specific tag that is added into the ticket (for example we have 5 tags tagged into the ticket)?
0
Jean-michel WEISS
0
Joyce
I tested the placeholder in a macro and it is indeed working. This placeholder is intended for user fields and the <key_name> to input is the value in the Add field key box.
Hope this helps!
0
Jean-michel WEISS
0
Joyce
The placeholder captures the user field value of the person who's using the macro. Does the Access user field in your profile do have value in it?
0
Jean-michel WEISS
Ok, so i'm not sure but maybe it's not the appropriate placeholder. what i would like is a placeholder which captures a custom user field, from the user who created the ticket
0
Joyce
To capture the Access field value of the ticket requester, use the placeholder
{{ticket.requester.custom_fields.<key_name>}}
2
Jean-michel WEISS
Thanks !!! it works
0
Joyce
0
Marshall Hahn
Hello! I am in the process of converting a few of our triggers to be automations and came across a question about placeholders/variables in the action step.
When creating a trigger, the placeholder for ticket.assignee.email is available to use, and this is what we have been using up until this point:
However, when I attempt to create an automation, the same placeholder ticket.assignee.email does not appear to be available for use here:
Is there a reason why this is the case? In case this is helpful context, we are using the action to notify an active webhook with a JSON payload (which includes the placeholder in the JSON body).
Thanks in advance for any clarification around this!
1
Jason Schaeffer
Thanks for reaching out, I just tested this within my Test Account and was able to add it. Only a certain amount of placeholders will pre populate as a drop down list and are not the same for Triggers and Automations, however as long as you format it properly you can simply manually add it using the double curly brackets.
I hope that helps!
2
Marshall Hahn
Hi @...,
Amazing! Thank you for the clarification, that is helpful to know.
0
Erik Cerbulis
I have set up a trigger to send an email based on criteria in a ticket. I am trying to capture the requester's organization field that is reflected on the ticket. If the requester is associated to multiple organization records, it is choosing the user's default org instead of the one on the ticket. I am using the value {ticket.organization.name}. Is there a way to pull in the correct value?
0
Dave Dyson
{ticket.organization.name} should give you the organization selected on that ticket, not the default organization (unlike {ticket.requester.organization.name} which should give you the ticket requester's default organization.
I've tested this on my own account, using both a macro that uses both of the above placeholders, as well as using those placeholders directly in the email notification text box in a trigger.
Can you verify that the ticket you're testing this on does not have the organization set to the requester's default organization?
0
Erik Cerbulis
Thank you Dave. Not sure what changed but it is working now.
0
Dave Dyson
0
Roee Aizman
I am still waiting for ticket.organization.custom_field values
When it will be available?
0
Leon Nicolaou
Hi, is there a way to change/rename the "Subject of the ticket conversation" into the email that a customer enters when fills up the basic form (Name & Email ) to being transfer to an agent?
Currently the default ticket subject is "Conversation with xxxxxxxxxxx (customer name)".
Thank you!
1
Santiago Gandolfo
Hi, is there a list of the possible "ticket.via" values? Or a way to get them via API?
We are trying to use this field in order to know how to process the Ticket Audits API (because the way to get the user's messages from that API is slightly different between messages sent from Whatsapp and messages sent from the Zendesk Messenger Web Widget as an example).
We know that we can get them manually, but specially for channels that we can't replicate on our Staging environment it becomes cumbersome and prone to mistakes.
Cheers!
0
Karun Kamal
Hi Santiago Gandolfo!
You can find the list of via types here: https://developer.zendesk.com/documentation/ticketing/reference-guides/conditions-reference/#via-types
0
Santiago Gandolfo
Hi Karun! Thank you for the list, it's exactly what I needed!
But is it outdated? Because while testing from the New Web Widget (Zendesk Messenger) I'm getting 'messaging' for the via, and I'm not seeing this on the list.
Cheers!
0
Riah Lao
Hi,
1. Is there a way to "escape" or what to replace single quote ' within the if else condition?
For example:
{% if ticket.brand.name == 'XYZ's' %}
2. Does "else if" work?
Thanks,
Riah
1