Views

What are Zendesk views?

As per Zendesk:

Views are a way to organize your tickets by grouping them into lists based on certain criteria. For example, you can create a view for unsolved tickets that are assigned to you, a view for new tickets that need to be triaged, or a view for pending tickets that are awaiting response. Using views can help you determine what tickets need attention from you or your team and plan accordingly.

Currently, Zendesk has 3 view types:

• Default: Pre-defined views created by Zendesk
• Shared: Views created by the Zendesk Administrator(s) (ie. Support Ops)
• Personal: Views created by you and usable only by you

Currently, Zendesk views have some limitations:

• Only 30 (previously 12) visible views (Default and Shared) will be displayed.
• Views cannot use criteria that is not “defined”, meaning it must be selectable data (text fields will not work, as an example).
• You can only display up to 10 personal views and Support Ops cannot manage or view them.
• Views will not include archived tickets (i.e. Closed tickets after 120 days.)

Change management

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

Creating a new view with managed content

When your new view 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 view without managed content exactly.

Creating a new view without managed content

This is a bit simpler than creating one with managed content. You will start by creating a placeholder view 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 Views. On this page, you will want to click Add view. This will bring up the new view 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 grouping to group by the ticket form in ascending order
• Set sorting to sort by the ticket ID in ascending order
• Remove all columns except for ticket ID
• Ensure the restrictions allow anyone to access it

After doing so, click the blue Save button. You will then locate the placeholder view 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. Keep in mind you are likely to need to adjust many view files due to positioning.

Updating an existing view

Updating an existing view 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 view to allow for managed content (or to disable it using managed content).

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

If you are removing managed content for the view, you will simply change the view 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 view

To deactivate a view, you will simply change the view 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 grouping to group by the ticket form in ascending order
• Set sorting to sort by the ticket ID in ascending order
• Remove all columns except for ticket ID
• Ensure the restrictions allow anyone to access it

Deleting a deactivated view

NOTE We avoid doing this unless a view has been deactivated for a full year. After that point it can be deleted completely. Do also note that this will result in a complete change to positions and can cause the need for subsequent merge requests to the sync repo project.

To delete a view, 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 Views. On this page, you will want to Inactive tab. You will then locate the view to delete, hover over it, click the three vertical dots at the right-hand side, and then click Delete view This will cause a pop-up modal to appear asking you to confirm the action. Click blue Delete view button to do so.

Troubleshooting

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 views’s title. So if your VIEW has a title of Do a Thing, the corresponding Support managed content project should have a file with the same name (active/Do a Thing.yaml). 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 position”

This means the script detected a YAML file within data/active or data/inactive that has an position 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 trigger 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 trigger 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

Positioning

Many components of Zendesk using positioning to determine the overall run order. With views being how agents locate tickets, it is often very important to consider positioning.

By default, new views gain a position of N+1, where N is the highest position value of all views currently in Zendesk (both active and inactive). This is desired and we should rarely need to change this.

View standards

To ensure all views we utilize are both consistent in nature and transparent in their actions, we strive to meet some standards on all views we work with.

Naming standards

The name used for the view should be simple, clear, and concise. You want the name to convey what the view is used for.

Condition standards

Generally speaking, we aim to make view conditions as simple as possible. When possible, you should use condition sets that are very specific and succinct. As an example, if you wanted a view to only run when the form is Support Ops, it is better to simply put a condition of “Form is Support Ops” than adding exclusions for every other form. This can take time and practice to learn, so when in doubt, pair with the rest of the Support Ops team!