So you want to build workflows to do stuff relative to the time of the deadline? And you want to be able to control which tickets workflows fire on? No problems! You've come to the right place.
If you're still confused, here's an example: Let's say you've setup a workflow that sends an email 60 mins before the deadline hits. But maybe you don't want that email to be sent for all tickets - maybe you want to choose which tickets you get the email and which ones you don't.
No problems, by using a combination of Zendesk ticket fields and triggers, you can build in this controllability. Below are some instructions, but if you don't like them, here's a video that shows you how to set things up:
So first up, let's add a workflow into the Deadline app. To do this click on the Deadline icon on the left of the screen, then under "Workflows" click on "Add workflow" like this:
Then give the workflow a name (this would usually indicate when the workflow will fire in relation to the deadline), choose when it will fire, define the tag that will be added to the ticket at the time you just specified, next, you can decide what you want the popup notification to say, and finally, click "Create Workflow" at the bottom.
Sweet! The first part is now out of the way. Next, we'll create a checkbox that you'll be able to check when you want to use the workflow (ie. receive the 60 min reminder or not).
To create a checkbox click on the cog on the left of the screen. Then under "manage", click on "Ticket fields". Then on the right, click on "Add custom field".
Next choose "Checkbox" from the list of ticket field types and then give it a name. Lets call it "Deadline reminder (60 mins)". Also, where it says "Tag (optional)", enter in a tag dlr_60. The reason why we need to add a tag is because this is the mechanism we'll use in our triggers to send, or not send out the email.
Note: If you're on the Enterprise plan or above, you'll then need to add the ticket field to each form you'll be wanting to control deadlines on.
Ok, now we can create the trigger that will send the email (or do anything else you want) 60 minutes before the deadline. So to do this click on the deadline icon on the left of the screen, and under "Workflows" click on "Create trigger" next to the 60-minute workflow you created at the start of this tutorial... like this:
By clicking "Create trigger", this will pre-populate a trigger so that it already contains the condition required for it to fire when the tag "60_min_before" is added to the ticket by the Deadline app's workflow. In order to make sure this trigger only fires when the checkbox "Deadline reminder (60 mins)" is checked, simply add a condition that checks for the tag associated with that field, like this:
Once you're happy with what the trigger will do (under "Perform these actions"), simply save the trigger by clicking "Submit" at the bottom.
Sweet!
Let us know if this article helped you in the comments section below.