I'm trying to update the requester on open/on-hold/pending tickets for two of our customers via the API. I'm very new to doing this, though. Can that be done?
Thanks!
Update requester
Hi Cyn! Before I share specifics on how to do this, I'd like to know more about your use case.
- Are you looking to do this as a one time thing or is this something that you want to do on a regular basis?
- If so, would it be something that you want to happen as soon as the ticket is submitted/updated/changes status/etc?
Please share any other useful into about this situation so that I can get you going in the right direction!
It would be a one-time thing (I hope).
The tickets are currently on hold, so I was hoping to update them and leave them in that status/
Thank you!
Sorry for the late reply! Since this is just going to be a one time deal, your best bet would be to use a webhook and automation which will take all of the tricky stuff out of the equation. Essentially, the webhook will do the actual work of updating the ticket's requester and the automation will tell the webhook when it needs to run.
Even with the above nullifying condition, I highly recommend turning this automation off once the tickets have been successfully updated. If you don't, two years down the road someone might start using that tag by accident and then suddenly the requester is getting switched and it causes problems.
After this, you just need to wait until the automations run at the top of the next hour and you should be all set to go. You can do this for as many organizations as you need, just make sure to do it one by one. If it's not a huge rush, I would recommend just editing the one webhook and automation with the specifics for each org so that you don't need to create a bunch of these.
As always with something like this, please ensure that this will not cause any issues with your current workflows. This is given for instructional purposes without any knowledge of your Zendesk instance, so be sure that this works for your needs and run a test with a fake ticket/user/organization to be sure that it does what you need it to do.
Let us know if you run into any questions!
Create a webhook
This part of the article will walk you through the webhook creation and I'll point out the specifics that you need to fill out:- Endpoint URL (be sure to replace "yoursubdomaingoeshere" with your actual Zendesk subdomain) : https://yoursubdomaingoeshere.zendesk.com/api/v2/tickets/10144226.json
- Request method: PUT
- Request format: JSON
- Authentication: Basic Auth is probably your best bet, although I do usually recommend using an API token instead of your password. If you're not familiar with API tokens, take a look at this article.
- One thing that usually gets people caught here is that when you use an API token, you'll need to append /token to the end of your username so instead of "greg@example.com" it becomes "greg@example.com/token".
Create an automation
Same idea as with the webhook, this part of the article will walk you through the automation creation and then I'll walk through the specifics to fill out. One very important distinction with automations is that we need to include a "nullifying condition" that prevents the automation from running over and over on the ticket. One of the easiest ways to do this is to add a new tag only used for this automation (just to make sure it doesn't affect any other tickets) in the actions, while also checking for the presence of that tag in the conditions of the automation. This means that before the automation runs on the ticket, it will run fine since the tag isn't there, but since we're adding it with this action it won't be able to run again because we're excluding tickets that include this tag.Even with the above nullifying condition, I highly recommend turning this automation off once the tickets have been successfully updated. If you don't, two years down the road someone might start using that tag by accident and then suddenly the requester is getting switched and it causes problems.
Meet all of the following conditions:
- Ticket: Organization is "name of org"
- Ticket: Tags contain none of the following
tag_that_you_choose
Meet any of the following conditions:
- Ticket: Status is Open
- Ticket: Status is Pending
- Ticket: Status is On-hold
Perform these actions:
- Notifications: Notify active webhook "select name of the webhook that you created above"
- JSON body: (replace the
requester_idwith the user you want to switch the ticket to)
{
"ticket": {
"requester_id": 123456
}
}- Ticket: Add tags
tag_that_you_choose
After this, you just need to wait until the automations run at the top of the next hour and you should be all set to go. You can do this for as many organizations as you need, just make sure to do it one by one. If it's not a huge rush, I would recommend just editing the one webhook and automation with the specifics for each org so that you don't need to create a bunch of these.
As always with something like this, please ensure that this will not cause any issues with your current workflows. This is given for instructional purposes without any knowledge of your Zendesk instance, so be sure that this works for your needs and run a test with a fake ticket/user/organization to be sure that it does what you need it to do.
Let us know if you run into any questions!
Thank you so much, Greg!
Hey @greg29,
Interesting approach above. I have a need to update the requester by automation.
So my use-case is a customer only wants tickets logged by certain people, and if the ticket is not logged by anyone in a list, then provide a message on the ticket and change the requester to an approved person (Can be one nominated person).
I have automated the validation in Zapier so would love it if I could just make a simple API call using Zapier to update the requester. Can I just use this endpoint https://developer.zendesk.com/api-reference/ticketing/tickets/tickets/#update-ticket with the code you gave above
{
"ticket": {
"requester_id": 123456
}
}Hi Paul! If the question is, "can you update a requester in a ticket with that endpoint and payload", the answer is yes. If there is something more that you need, just let me know exactly what it is you're looking for and I'll be happy to help as best I can!
Is there a way to update the requester on a recurring basis, based on a specific tag in a ticket?
Hi Jenn,
When you say update on a recurring basis, are you looking to have the requester updated on a time based schedule, or is there another change (e.g a tag being added) that should trigger the update to take place?
If it's a time based schedule, the method outlined by Greg above would probably be your best option. If it's another change to the ticket that should fire the requester update, then a Trigger would be your best bet.
Hi everyone,
I'm looking to streamline the process of a current process of mine.
Our phone provider is unable to integrate with Zendesk so agents answer a call and then want to create a ticket on behalf of the customer using the Help Centre form.
This works great if in an incognito window but if they are signed in then the ticket creates with the agent as the requester (not ideal).
I've set up customer fields for the customer's name and email address but am struggling to change the requester on a ticket. I'm using a successfully triggered and connected webhook with the JSON below:
{
"ticket": {
"requester": {"name": "{{ticket.ticket_field_16956521975581}}", "email": "{{ticket.ticket_field_17271527709853}}" }
}
}
The ticket requester, however, remains as the agent.
My webhook trigger is at the top of my trigger stack.
Basically...how can a webhook change a requester with custom field data?
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