The calendar app pushes lots of data about your calendar events into Zendesk ticket fields. Having this data available makes it possible to create views, reports and will also allow you to easily reference events using placeholders in macros & triggers.
In this article we'll cover how to create macros that reference these fields. This will make it super easy to talk about events with other Zendesk users.
For example, you could build a macro that says:
Hi John, I've scheduled the event to take place on 2018-07-18 at 01:00pm (Melbourne time).
This macro is actually referencing 3 Zendesk ticket fields in order to automatically enter the event details.
So let's start with the Zendesk ticket fields that are used by the calendar app that might be useful in a macro:
- calendar event date: The date the event takes place.
- calendar event description: This is defined by you in the 'Settings' tab.
- calendar event duration: How long an event is in minutes.
- calendar event link: This is a link to either the event in Google calendar or Office 365. If the calendar is not linked to an external calendar, this will be a link to a .ics file.
- calendar event subject: The title of the event. This is defined by you in the 'Settings' tab.
- calendar event time: The time the event starts
- calendar event time zone: The timezone the calendar event time is set in.
- calendar event where: This is defined by you in the 'Settings' tab.
In order to reference them in a macro, trigger or automation, simply click the calendar icon in the main menu on the left, then go to the Ticket fields tab:
You'll then be presented with a list of each ticket field and their corresponding placeholders.
To copy a placeholder, simply select the blue icon located to the right, then paste that ticket field in any macro, trigger or automation.
Coming back to the example used at the beginning of this article, you might choose to make a macro like this...