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Feature request: ability to set text inputs on custom form fields through macros.
Not Planned
Posted Nov 03, 2021
We can currently set dropdown and checkbox values but not normal text fields in macros.
This is another arbitrary limitation from Zendesk that is hampering the agent and developer experience.
Please can this be addressed?
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22 comments
Zac Garcia
Hi Nathan! Thanks for sharing this feedback.
I'd love to learn a little more. Macros actions are typically pre-defined inputs, which corresponds well with a dropdown field composed of a set of defined options to select from. Given that macros are able to update dropdown fields, could you share more about the type of data your team commonly enters that requires a macro, but doesn't fit well into dropdown fields for your workflow?
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Nathan Purcell
Thanks for responding.
My current set up offers an "other" field at the bottom of each dropdown available on the forms. Selecting this option reveals a textbox for the users to enter a value.
While on long-term project we would look to eventually add the values of these textboxes to the dropdown, we sometimes run short-term projects that would benefit from being able to simply enter a textbox value.
Furthermore, there's no real reason I can think of to not add support for this. Macros should probably be able to alter all visible ticket fields.
3
Jonas Brenig
I do agree, Macros should support this.
Our usecase
We are handling text and talk requests with the same agent(s).
I want to create a macro that the agent can use to "Put on Call Queue".
The macro should do the following:
- set the custom field phone_group = "default"
Now the user could in addition to that override that field with the actual person they would like to talk to. This way we could then have a view that groups each ticket by the phone_group that let's the user quickly see all the open tickets that are relavant for a conversation via phone for that particular group.
Thus not requiring many different calls throughout the day but rather having one batch call where we can clarify all the open topics.
Does this make sense?
Let me know if I should clarify anything here.
Of course in this case the user can just directly edit the custom field's value without using a macro at all, but once you want to have additional actions that should be taken, you want to actually make sure that all of them happen, so use a macro...
Thank you for taking the time.
- Jonas
3
Leopold Sperling
I also agree that macros should support this.
We have the need to fill custom text fields with makros in order to standardised our processes and use makros even more sufficient.
Thank you in advance.
3
000000 Danjoint
We have this need as well to track Release Versions when a user reports an issue that was caused due to a specific product release. It allows us as a Support organization to track the impact on our volume for specific releases.
2
Phil Clark
This would also be great for us
Macros should be able to edit any fields an agent can edit.
Something like "Update custom field (date) to be tomorrow" would be super handy, too.
2
Sydney Neubauer
Not just macros but triggers should also be able to prefill or to trigger off of the field text
4
Justin Beeler
Couldn't agree more! I don't see any reason why a Macro can't support open text box custom fields. If a user can type in whatever they want when they're on the ticket page, why is Zendesk saying that macros can only do pre-defined inputs??
2
Fredys Garcia
Hi everyone,
HappyFox Workflows can help solve the use cases mentioned in this thread. The app can automatically set the custom fields within a ticket and helps build out other actions. Seeing Jonas' use case HappyFox Workflows would be the perfect solution to address the process.
Feel free to look at our app in the Zendesk app marketplace, https://www.zendesk.com/marketplace/apps/support/244734/happyfox-workflows/.
2
Nathan Purcell
Is there a cost to that Fredys? The only pricing I could find appeared to be for the Helpdesk product.
It's a pretty poor testament to Zendesk that such a simple request was overlooked in the first place, it's taken over a year to get to this point (which is of course, no movement), and that the next best option is what looks like a very costly third-party app.
Even a free third-party app inevitably means workarounds and unpicking said workaround when Zendesk finally come up with a solution (if one comes at all).
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Fredys Garcia
Hi Nathan Purcell,
Agreed, we've made workflows for Zendesk to address those areas or processes that might not be available out of the box in your instance. We're happy to show you a demo and go more into detail on pricing and use cases by booking a time with us here, https://www.happyfox.com/workflows/zendesk-support/.
0
Flic
I've been using Zendesk in different organizations for 7 years. This single issue has been the cause of much development pain. So much so that we have designed entire workflows around this issue when much happier, direct paths should have existed.
I will not simply pay for a workaround such as that sold by Fredys Garcia when you have implemented half the feature already. Please offer the whole feature set of custom field manipulation through macros or none at all.
0
Martha De La Paz Castro
Yes! The ability to pre-fill fields would be a huge time saver for our use case. We often have duplicate requests that have similar text box fields that begin with a certain set of letters/numbers. For example, all of our iPad Barcodes begin with XVSD3700.... - This way the agent just fills in the last numbers and can later be copied and pasted to use in our systems.
1
Leigh KELSEY
+1
First time we've had this request, but our use case is someone who is using the same form as the team this request will wind up with but would want to fill in NA for the boxes that are not her tier and then the next level can fill those in if needed.
Our workaround for this is likely to build a new form with less fields for this small team which is fine, but if we could automatically have those fields filled in, that would be preferable.
0
Ryan (Zheng) Wang
+1
Need support this to set up Macro and make life easier
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Rolf Hayes
Just noticed this myself that macros won't populate a custom text field. Yet again Zendesk seem to have done half the job on macros and leaving it hampered by what should be a small bit of dev work.
+1 from us too. Please update us ZD on where this is after 18 months of comments and requests for this feature. It is so hard for you to add this feature in that it should wait this long?
0
Lydia Forsyth
Liquid Markup is a way to also add values to the text field, and would help with automating workflows with macros. +1 for this!
0
Scott Allison
Thank you everyone for continuing to share your needs for this. Unfortunately, this is not on currently on our roadmap, so I will mark the status of this as Not Planned, for now.
Improvements to Macro functionality and the management of them is something we'd like to prioritize in the future, and the more customer demand there is, the better so please keep commenting and upvoting on the requests you care about. We do have a lot of awesome product enhancements planned for 2024, and if you're not already following our what's new section I recommend you do so to get alerted as we release them.
0
Christian Bruner
+1
Our team creates macros to offer quick actions on temporary projects. Tier 1 users apply the macro and would like particular required text fields to be filled via so that the prework on a ticket can be completed in a couple clicks. They are confused that everything except a text field can be completed with the macro
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Reed David
We also expected to use macros to set text fields, and were surprised this wasn't possible. Disappointed that this isn't even on the roadmap. Seems like an odd limitation?
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John Witt
Agree this is disappointing - just ran into this today as I just wanted to clear out text fields.
For anyone still needing to implement something similar, my solution is to create a macro that adds a tag, then run a trigger with a webhook that updates that ticket. Zendesk discourages doing this as you can run into issues with trigger order and race conditions due to updating the ticket via API, but this is my go-to solution when I need to work around a Zendesk limitation. Just make sure your only non-webhook action in the trigger is to remove the tag.
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James Peterson - Eastern Logic
Hi All,
We have recently updated our Extended Macros app on the Zendesk Marketplace app to include the ability to set custom fields via macro. Give it a shot by installing here and see if it can help out with your use case. Feedback is welcome.
Jimmy Long ~
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