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
Tom Walker
With the introduction of Custom Ticket Status', is there a placeholder for this status? From my testing, it looks like {{ticket.status}} still just references the OOTB status options.
0
Colleen Hall
Hi Tom Walker,
The {{ticket.status}} placeholder does still reference the system ticket statuses, even if you've activated custom statuses. Zendesk plans to make custom ticket statuses in placeholders available in a future update.
Thank you for pointing this out though! I'm going to update this article to note that.
0
Tanawat Oonwattana
Is there any placeholder that I can get the follow-up ticket id?
0
Christine
There's no specific placeholder for follow-up ticket ID, but there are other conditions you can add to your business rules.
If you want your trigger or automation to fire on follow-up tickets, in addition to email tickets, then add the below conditions under Meet ANY of the following conditions:
You may want to share more details about your use case so we can provide better recommendations. Thanks!
0
Tanawat Oonwattana
hi Christine,
I want to send an api to another system, and I need to pass follow-up ticket Id in that API.
The trigger condition you proposed does not provide the follow up ticket ID.
Thank you.
0
Christine
You can use the ticket ID placeholder, although this is not specific to follow-up tickets alone.
Can you please share with us the exact use case? You can also raise a ticket with our support team directly so we can assist you better. See Option 2: Contacting Zendesk Customer Support from within your product.
0
Tanawat Oonwattana
Hi Christine,
I might not explain this clearly for you, apology for that.
for example, there was a ticket ID #1 and it got closed by one of the agent, then the customer sent another email on top of #1, which create #2.
I want to send the data of #2, how do I tell the other app in API that #1 is the original ticket of this one?
0
Christine
Apologies but currently, we do not have an available placeholder to pass the original ticket ID from follow-up tickets. There's no API endpoint to achieve this as well.
If you have some time, I recommend that you start a post about this in our Feedback - Ticketing System (Support) using the Product Feedback Post Template. Our Product Managers actively monitor our feedback threads, and conversations with high user engagement ultimately get flagged by the team for roadmap planning. Thank you!
0
Dan R.
Is there a way to have a placeholder output the _agent_ name for a form instead of the customer-facing form that the ticket.ticket_form placeholder outputs?
0
Cameron Milne
Hi all,
Is there any way to make it only fire the trigger once to Slack?
For example, we tag marketing which sends the trigger to Slack, then they comment on the ticket internally (which sends a new trigger), then we reply to the customer (which sends another trigger). We really only want one per ticket.
Thanks in advance!
0
Christine
You can add an action to the first trigger to add a tag on the ticket when the trigger fires. Then on the 2nd trigger, you can add a condition related to the tag, when that specific tag is present the trigger won't fire.
1st trigger:
2nd trigger:
0
Cameron Milne
Brilliant, thanks for your help @...!
0
Brian Rosenkrantz
Does anyone know if it's possible to disable Zendesk form automatically creating links to the help center, just because you add a # in front of some random numbers?
1
Dan R.
Brian Rosenkrantz As far as I know, you can't. The workaround we use is to add a space between the # and the number to prevent the linkification of the number.
1
Cor Falcon
Anyone knows how to remove this preset text in the Satisfaction email ?
##- Please type your reply above this line -##
0
Dan R.
Hey Cor Falcon
You'd want to uncheck the Mail Delimiter setting in your Admin Centre -> Channels ->Email. Note that applies to all emails sent from your account
1
Denis Menard
Hello,
On my side it doesn't work.
Latest comment HTML push all the history of the mail. My customers receive so Twice the content if I activate Quoted content...
0
Audrey Ann Cipriano
Hi Denis Menard I recommend reaching out to us via Messaging so we can take a better look at your account and some sample email notifications if you have it. Thank you!
0
mfg
I'd like to modify the formatting of the standard text in the notifications - font and colors. Specifically where it says the name of the person making the comment, the timestamp, the "## - Please type your reply..." snippet, and "This email is a service...".
Our brand requirements differ from the existing and these components are identifiable as Zendesk emails. What options are there for styling these elements?
0
Alexandre
There is a way to get the last comment id using a placeholder? How?
0
Dane
You can refer to Customizing your templates for email notifications.
Hi Alexandre,
It's only possible via API. Placeholders will only provide you with the actual comment body and not the ID.
0
Sergio F.
Hi!
This was super userful!
But I would like to know if is possible to look up for links (http) in conversation and do a list with everyones and send it in a integration as placeholder. I really appreciate it. I'ts possible?
0
PAUL STRAUSS
Is there any way to use placeholders to include an inbound phone number based on the brand it is associated with? I want to create a trigger that includes different phone numbers to call back depending on the brand and would rather not have to maintain separate triggers for each brand, since we have a lot of them.
0
Ola Timpson
0
Steve Y
Hi all,
In our instance, encoded id has disappeared which now breaks one of our macros.
What should be used instead please?
For reference, we were using encoding ID as a way of tagging incoming tickets via email to an existing request.
Thank you
Steve
0
Hiedi Kysther
Hi Steve Y
This may need more time to troubleshoot. I have created a ticket on your behalf so we can investigate the issue further. Please check your email for more information. Thanks!
0
Leslie Nelson
Alan Butcher - Did you ever get a resolution to the ticket placeholders including 'agent' in the link?
0
Alan Butcher
Hi Leslie - Not here, I found an article and I seem to recall my problem was that during my testing I was signed in as an agent and that is why it was taking me to the agent view, but that an external user could click the same link and be taken to the help center view...does that sound about right? Sorry, it has been a while!
0
Leslie Nelson
Alan Butcher - yes, thank you. We are seeing an issue with light agents as well though. I hoped there was a firm answer on that one.
0
Noly Maron Unson
Hi Leslie,
Alan is correct. The link for the ticket redirects differently depending on who is signed in when clicking it. If it is an agent, it will route to the Support dashboard but if it is an end-user, it will route them to their tickets in the Help Center.
Hope this helps.
1