Workflows in the Calendar app enhance your calendar process by providing powerful updates throughout the entire event timeline. Whether you need to remind attendees before or after an event, or automatically push information into ticket fields for reporting and views, workflows make it possible.
Topics covered in this article:
Workflow example
How to add a workflow
There are 2 different ways workflows can be applied to your calendar events, global ticket updates and calendar workflows.
Global ticket updates affect all calendars setup in your app, including personal calendars. To setup global ticket updates, open the Calendar app and click Settings from the left side menu.
Calendar workflows only apply to calendars you set them to. These ticket updates are in addition to any global settings. To add a new workflow, open the Calendar app and click Workflows from the left side menu and then Add workflow.
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Please note that if you will have more than 1 calendar event per ticket where you are pushing time and date information, then you will need to always use a unique workflow for each calendar and with unique ticket fields. |
Defining the workflow and ticket updates
Before defining your workflow, consider what data you would like to store into ticket fields and create these custom fields first in the Zendesk admin center.
Then in the new workflow or ticket update, define:
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Name of the workflow. (workflow only)
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Select one or more ticket update events from the + Add event... drop down. These events are:
- Calendar event started
- Calendar event ended
- Calendar event created
- Calendar event updated
- Within these events, add any ticket fields you want to update for this event from the Add ticket field(s)... drop down. You can easily add placeholders from the event and calendar app by clicking the </> or + on the far right of the field. All Zendesk placeholders and liquid markup are also accepted.
- Additional ticket updates are available at times relative to the event, either before or after, based on both the start and end times. Select these by selecting the time needed under Relative event ticket updates.
- Click Create workflow / Save app settings
Applying workflows to your calendars
Once global ticket updates are saved, they apply to all calendars automatically. For calendar workflows, they will need to be attached to the calendars they are for.
To set a workflow for a calendar, click on the calendar from Calendars in the app and then select the desired workflow from the Workflow drop down. Then click Update calendar.
Workflow example
Remind attendees of upcoming event
It's important to remind all attendees of an upcoming event for various reasons. With our Calendar app, you can do this directly through workflows—no need for Zendesk triggers!
To setup a reminder, in your ticket updates or workflows, define:
- A Calendar event created update and add the following field and placeholder:
- Add email CCs - {{calendar_event.attendee_emails}}
- A Relative event ticket update. A common reminder would be 1 day before event start which can be created by specifying 1 - Day(s) - Before - Calendar event started. Click Add.
- In the new 1 day before ticket update, specify your ticket fields and what information will be added at this time. Since we want to email our attendees to remind them of the event, at minimum add a comment update.
- Click Save.
The created event updates above will populate the ticket requester as the guest of the event and if there are any further guests, they will be added as CCs on the ticket. This is important so that our comment updates will go to all the guests of the event!