Macros

What are macros

As per Zendesk:

A macro is a prepared response or action that an agent can manually apply when they are creating or updating tickets. Macros contain actions that can update ticket properties.

Unlike triggers and automations, macros only contain actions, not conditions. Conditions aren’t used because nothing is automatically evaluating tickets to determine if a macro should be applied. Agents evaluate tickets and apply macros manually as needed.

Change management

Keep in mind, all change management should be stemming from an issue, first and foremost.

Creating a new macro with managed content

When your new macro is going to be using managed content, you will first need to get the managed content file in the Support managed content project. Remember to use the correct filenames for all of this to prevent Pipeline error “No managed content file” in the sync repo project later on.

Only after that has been done should you proceed to the next steps, which will match the steps detailed in Creating a new macro without managed content exactly.

Creating a new macro without managed content

This is a bit simpler than creating one with managed content. You will start by creating a placeholder macro within Zendesk itself (as you will need the ID for the sync repo). To do this, open up the admin page of your corresponding Zendesk instance (Global or US Government), click Workspaces on the left-hand side, and then click Macros. On this page, you will want to click Add macro. This will bring up the new macro page.

On this page, you will do the following:

• Set the name to “Placeholder for ISSUE_LINK” (replacing ISSUE_LINK with the link to the issue you are working out of).
• Set an action of:
  • Brand GitLab

After doing so, click the blue Create button. You will then locate the placeholder macro you just created and get the ID value from it (if you click it, you can see it in the URL).

From here, create the merge request in the sync repo project.

Updating an existing macro

Updating an existing macro is considerably easier than creating a new one. Simply change the code in the source project and it will occur via the sync repo.

The one caveat you need to consider is when you are changing a macro to allow for managed content (or to disable it using managed content).

If you are adding managed content for the automation, see Creating a new macro with managed content as that process will detail setting up the connection.

If you are removing managed content for the macro, you will simply change the the macro file in the source sync repo project via your merge request. After that has been merged, you will want to comment on the original issue asking the requester to remove the file from the corresponding Support managed content project.

Deactivating a macro

To deactivate a macro, you will simply change the macro file in the source sync repo project via your merge request. Ensure you merge request does the following:

• Moves the file from the data/active folder to the data/inactive folder
• Sets active: true to active: false in the file.
• Set an action of:
  • Brand GitLab
• If the macro has a managed content file:
  • Sets the contains_managed_content: true to contains_managed_content: false

Note: If the macro has a managed content file, make sure to also deactivate the corresponding managed content file in the Support managed content project by moving it from the data/active folder to the data/inactive folder.

Deleting a deactivated macro

NOTE We avoid doing this unless a macro has been deactivated for a full year. After that point it can be deleted completely.

To delete a macro, you need to purge it from multiple locations:

• Sync repo project
• Support managed content project
• Zendesk itself

The first two can be done via merge requests, but the last one has to be done in the Zendesk instance itself. To do this, open up the admin page of your corresponding Zendesk instance (Global or US Government), click Workspaces on the left-hand side, and then click Macros. On this page, you will want to click Inactive, hover over the macro you are deleting, click the three vertical dots at right-hand side of the macro, and click Delete. This will cause a pop-up modal to appear asking you to confirm the action. Click blue Delete macro button to do so.

Troubleshotting

Pipeline error “No managed content file”

This happens when we have said a managed content file should exist, but the git submodule does not contain one. This is commonly caused by:

• The file does not actually exist. If this is the case, you need to assist in getting it created in the Support managed content project
• Filename mismatches. This all works very specifically using naming conventions. If there is something even slightly off, your pipelines will encounter issues. The scripts are looking for a file that has the exact same name as the macros’s title, replacing all instances of : with /. So if your macro has a title of Jason::Do a Thing, the corresponding Support managed content project should have a file with the same name (Jason/Do a Thing.md). You will need to assist in correcting that on the Support managed content project first, and then rebase your merge request after that is done.
• You created the merge request in the source project before the file was added to the Support managed content project. To rectify this, get the Support managed content project MR completed and merged first. Once that has been done, you can rebase your MR by making a comment of /rebase. After it performs the rebase, your MR’s CI/CD pipeline should pass.

Pipeline error “Blank ID”

This means the script detected a YAML file within data/active or data/inactive that has an id value of blank (or nil). You will need to locate the file mentioned in the error and correct that.

Pipeline error “Blank title”

This means the script detected a YAML file within data/active or data/inactive that has an title value of blank (or nil). You will need to locate the file mentioned in the error and correct that.

Pipeline error “Inactive macro in active folder”

This means the script detected a YAML file within data/active that has an active value of false. You will need to locate the file mentioned in the error and correct that.

Pipeline error “Active macro in inactive folder”

This means the script detected a YAML file within data/inactive that has an active value of anything other than false. You will need to locate the file mentioned in the error and correct that.

Pipeline error “GitLab errors”

This is a generic error message that will detail some error that occurred when trying to either create or update the tag used on the source project. The exact steps to fix this will vary based on the nature of the error itself. You will need to review the error and determine the next steps from there.

If you are unsure how to proceed, it is best to seek assistance from the wider team.

Source Projects

Zendesk Global

• Support managed content project
• Sync repo project

Zendesk US Government

• Support managed content project
• Sync repo project

Naming standards

Macros are a bit unique in Zendesk. They have categorization, but it is not obvious in the UI. Instead, the categorization is determined based on the name of the macro itself. Essentially, every group of words becomes a “folder” of sorts in the macros dropdown selector. The separator currently used by Zendesk is two colons (::).

This can get a bit confusing and hard to learn the ins and outs of, so when in doubt, reach out to your fellow Support Ops team members.