Dynamic content

This guide covers how to create, edit, and manage Zendesk dynamic content at GitLab (only used on Zendesk Global). Administrators should review the Administrator tasks section.

Understanding dynamic content

What is dynamic content?

As per Zendesk:

Dynamic content is a combination of a default version of the text (typically in the same language as your default language) and variants for every other language that you support.

How we manage dynamic content

While Zendesk offers a full way to manage dynamic content via the UI, we turn to a more version controlled methodology. This allows for a set review process, the ability to perform rollbacks as needed, etc.

That being the case, we utilize sync repos and managed content repos.

Using dynamic content in themes

To call on a dynamic content item in a theme, use the following helper:

{{dc 'item_to_call'}}

Replacing item_to_call with the placeholder attribute of the item (minus the curly brackets and dc. component).

Using dynamic content in other areas

To call on a dynamic content item outside of a theme, use the placeholder attribute of the dynamic content item in the raw attribute.

The exact raw attribute to use varies from item to item, but the most common areas are:

• raw_display_name on ticket forms to show the form’s name as the dynamic content item
• raw_title_in_portal for ticket fields to show the dynamic content item as the field’s title
• raw_description for ticket fields to show the dynamic content item as the field’s description
• raw_name on entries under the custom_field_options attribute of ticket fields to show the drop-down option as the dynamic content item

For insertion into text (such as comments or emails), simply insert the placeholder attribute of the dynamic content item in the text itself.

Administrator tasks

Creating a dynamic content item

For the creation of a dynamic content item, you will need to create a MR in the sync repo. The exact changes being made will depend on the request itself. A starting template you can use would be:

---
name: 'Name of item here'
placeholder: 'placeholder item (see below)'
default_locale_id: 1 # English
variants:
- content: 'content_to_use'
  locale_id: 1 # English
  active: true
  default: true

The placeholder attribute is formatted as follows:

1. Convert the name to lowercase
2. Replace spaces with underscores
3. Prefix with dc.
4. Wrap in double curly brackets: {{dc.placeholder_name}}

An example would be Preferred Region for Support becoming {{dc.preferred_region_for_support}}.

If you are unsure of what your placeholder would be, a neat trick is to go into the Zendesk instance’s Sandbox and create the dynamic content item in the admin panel, then look at what it generates (make sure if you do this to delete it afterwards).

If you need to know more about locales for the default_locale_id or locale_id, you can get a list of active locales using the Zendesk API.

After a peer reviews and approves your MR, you can merge the MR. When the next deployment occurs, it will be synced to Zendesk.

Editing a dynamic content item

To edit a dynamic content item, you will need to create a MR in the sync repo. The exact changes being made will depend on the request itself.

After a peer reviews and approves your MR, you can merge the MR. When the next deployment occurs, it will be synced to Zendesk.

Deleting a dynamic content item

As the sync repos do not perform deletions, you will need to do this via Zendesk itself.

To delete a dynamic content item:

1. Navigate to the admin dashboard for the Zendesk instance
   • Zendesk Global (production)
   • Zendesk Global (sandbox)
2. Go to Workspaces > Agent tools > Dynamic content
   • Zendesk Global
   • Zendesk Global (sandbox)
3. Locate the dynamic content item you wish to delete and click delete by it (at the far right)
4. Click OK to submit the changes

Performing an exception deployment

To perform an exception deployment for dynamic content, navigate to the dynamic content sync project in question, go to the scheduled pipelines page, and click the play button for the sync item. This will trigger a sync job for the dynamic content.

Common issues and troubleshooting

Not seeing dynamic content changes after a merge

As dynamic content follows the Standard deployment type, they would only be deployed during a normal deployment cycle (or when an exception deployment has been done)

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