This article will cover common issues you may encounter within the Calendar app and how you can troubleshoot them.

 

This article contains the following sections:

• Issue - Can't see calendar in agent sidebar after installing
• General troubleshooting
• Issue - Calendar event trigger
• Issue - Calendar event webhook
• Issue - Calendar event ticket fields
• Issue - External calendar

Issue - Can't see calendar in agent sidebar after installing

For the app to be visible on the right of the ticket, you will first need to create a calendar. To create a calendar click into the main admin section on the left and then on 'add calendar' like this:

Give the calendar a name and once it is created head back to the ticket and refresh the apps section. At this point the calendar app should show with the option to add an event to the calendar you just created.

 

General troubleshooting

When troubleshooting any issue, a good place to start is by going through the entire process and ensuring all the pieces of the puzzle are present.

These steps are designed to help you pick up on anything that doesn't seem quite right or might be missing.

 

1. Create the event.

This step seems fairly straightforward, however, when you're first getting started, it can be easy to miss that you need to submit the ticket in order to create the event.

You'll know when the event is created successfully when this prompt disappears and a progress bar appears on top indicating how long until the event starts.

 

2. Check the calendar within Zendesk.

At this point, you should see the event within the calendar view. If it's not appearing, you may need to refresh the view.

Take note of the icon in the top right corner of the event. If this is anything other than a 'ticket' icon (e.g a dot/circle), it's likely an indication of an issue.

This is what each icon means:

Ticket - The event has been created within Zendesk and linked to a ticket.

Cloud - The event has been created within an external calendar and imported into Zendesk.

Dot/Circle - The event has not yet been created and requires the ticket to be submitted. If the ticket has been submitted, it could indicate an issue with the app.

 

2. Check the ticket event logs.

Once you've created the event and confirmed that it's visible in the calendar, next we need to check the ticket event logs.

If you're using the Zendesk Agent Workspace, open a ticket and click the events icon ( ) in the conversation header to toggle between ticket conversations and events.

If you're not using the Zendesk Agent workspace, open a ticket and click Conversations under the active comment area, then select Events.

 

Assuming you've just created the calendar event, you'll want to scroll to the latest event logs. These event logs can be broken up into two stages.

Stage 1:

This stage occurs upon ticket submission after creating an event and can be further broken into two parts.

• The calendar ticket fields are set. If you are missing any of these ticket fields, please refer to the calendar event ticket fields section of this article.
• The calendar trigger "App - Calendar - Set event" activates. If you are missing this event, please refer to the calendar event trigger section of this article.
• A message is pushed to the calendar webhook "App - Calendar - Set event". Just because the trigger activates, does not always mean the webhook is working. If you suspect this may have been disabled, please refer to the calendar event webhook section of this article.

 

Stage 2:

This stage occurs shortly after stage 1 and is primarily for adding the tag "event_pending" and creating the event link.

If you have an external calendar connected (e.g O365 or Google), the event link will appear different.

None - https://zendesk.sweethawk.co/calendar_items/...

Google - https://www.google.com/calendar/...

O365 - https://outlook.live.com/owa/...

 

 

4. Check the calendar within Google/O365.

Lastly, we can check that the event exists within our external calendar. If you don't have an external calendar connected, you can ignore this step.

If you are still missing the event within your external calendar after confirming all of the above steps are working, please refer to the external calendar section of this article.

 

Issue - Calendar event trigger

This is the most common issue and is often caused as a result of an admin attempting to 'clean up' triggers within Zendesk without knowing what they do. Common symptoms of this trigger getting disabled/modified are:

• The 'invite attendee' link does not appear.
• The event is not exported to an external calendar.
• After creating the event, the app still asks to submit the event.

If you performed the general troubleshooting, you would have found the calendar event trigger missing from the ticket even logs, you can follow the steps below to verify its status and potentially resolve the issue.

1. Open the admin center, then navigate to Object and rules and finally Triggers located under Business rules.

2. Search "calendar" and locate the trigger called "App - Calendar - Set event".

If you cannot find the trigger, there's a good chance one of your admins has disabled it. 

3. Select your inactive triggers and locate the same trigger.

4. Once found, select activate from the list options to the right.

5. You can now attempt to create a calendar event within the app.

 

Issue - Calendar event webhook

This is an uncommon issue since most Zendesk admins may not be aware of webhooks and as a result, it's rare for them to accidentally disable/modify them.

If you suspect the calendar event webhook is disabled, you can follow the steps below to verify its status. 

1. Open the admin center, then navigate to Apps and integrations and finally Webhooks located under Webhooks.

2. Search "calendar" and locate the webhook called "App - Calendar - Set event".

3. Verify the status of the webhook.

If you find that the webhook is inactive, you can enable it from the same screen.

4. Locate the ellipsis to the right of the webhook, then select Activate from the drop-down list.

5. You can now attempt to create a calendar event within the app.

 

 

Issue - Calendar event ticket fields

This issue is also uncommon since the app will usually notify you when there is a missing field and likely won't require troubleshooting.

If you found one or more calender event ticket fields missing from the ticket event logs, you can follow the steps below to verify their status. 

Check your ticket fields

1. Open you're admin center, then navigate to Object and rules and finally Fields located under Tickets.

2. Search "calendar" to locate all your fields tagged with calendar.

 

Check your ticket forms.

If you have access to multiple forms on your Zendesk plan, you'll want to do the same for these

1. Open you're admin center, then navigate to Object and rules and finally Forms located under Tickets.

2. Locate all calendar event ticket fields.

 

Typically when one or more fields are missing from the form, the app will request that you add app ticket fields to form before you can even create a calendar event.

If this does not occur, you can still manually add them to the form.

 

Issue - External calendar

If you've reached this section of the article without first performing general troubleshooting, please take a moment to complete this first as the issue could be related to the internal calendar event failing to create which is a requirement before the external calendar event can be created.

Once you've confirmed the internal calendar event was created within Zendesk, this section can help you troubleshoot why the event did not get created within the external calendar.

Re-connect the external calendar.

1. Select the Calendar icon from the main navbar, then select the Calendars tab within the app.

2. Locate the calendar you wish to re-connect, then select disconnect.

3. Select Add Google/Office 365 calendar, then select the trash can icon next to the account.

 

4. Select Add Google/Office 365 calendar once again, then scroll down and select Connect Google/Office 365 account.

5. Follow the prompts to add your external calendar.

6. Locate the original internal calendar, select the Google/Office 365 drop-down field, and then connect the same calendar.

The calendar should look the same as what you originally started with as seen below.

7. Try to create a new calendar event and observe the results on whether this gets exported into your external calendar.