Working on Zendesk automations, triggers, macros and views

How to collaborate on Zendesk automations, triggers, macros and views

General process

To make it easier for Support Engineers to contribute to things that are managed by Support Operations, data and code have been separated for some items. A more detailed, technical explanation is available in the Readiness handbook. This approach removes the need for Support Operations to review every change proposed for Zendesk views, macros, triggers and automations.

For any changes to the content of Zendesk views, macros, triggers and automations consider their impact first. If your changes go beyond something like fixing a typo or updating a link and have broader repercussions for the team, consider the Change Management in GitLab Support handbook page. Otherwise you can suggest your changes directly via a merge request in the relevant managed content project.

For creating new content or renaming existing content (e.g. a new macro, or renaming a view), an STM issue is required as Support Operations has to handle these actions. The managed content projects only allow managing content of existing items.

Managed content projects

The tables in the Readiness handbook are the SSOT, see the Support Project column to find the corresponding project where we can easily change contents.

Refer to the corresponding projects and create a merge request with your changes:

Whether you’re proposing minor changes directly or something bigger following an RFC discussion, tag a Support Manager for review and ask them to merge the changes. Once changes have been merged in one of these projects, you’ll notice that the Sync Stage badge says Awaiting Deployment on the project overview page. This indicates that there’s changes in the project that will be rolled out during the next regular deployment.

Macros

Macros are deployed immediately. For information on macros, please see Zendesk Global Macros.

  • If you want to edit the wording of a macro, make an MR to the repo (Zendesk Global or Zendesk US Government).
  • If you want to make non-wording changes (renaming it, add/removing options, etc.), use the Support Super Form ‘Edit a Zendesk macro’ option.
  • If you want to create a new macro, use the Support Super Form ‘Create a Zendesk macro’ option.
  • To discuss a macro (but not actually action on anything), use a support-team-meta issue.

Previewing variable replacement

When using variables it can be useful to verify that they will be working as you expect them to. A simple way to do this is to create a test ticket, pasting the content of your automation, trigger, or macro in there and observing the outcome.