Question

Workflow when merging tickets

  • 26 April 2023
  • 7 replies
  • 365 views

Userlevel 1
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I have a situation whereby I need a workflow to trigger whenever a ticket is merged into another.  I have tried to create based on a trigger of Note added is of type private, condition that  Ticket Fields.Last Interaction contains “Merged from ticket”.

 

This triggers sometimes but not reliably.  I am advised this is due to the fact that merging tickets can create multiple updates on the ticket and despite one of them meeting the conditions other updates don’t meet the conditions and cause the workflow to not trigger.  Does anyone have a reliable way of running a workflow when merging tickets?


7 replies

Userlevel 6
Badge +11

Hi.

I haven’t tried it, but can you try checking on ticket update and check the internal variable Merged Ticket = True? My guess is that would also need a custom control variable.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Regards,

Elvis.

Userlevel 1
Badge +2

Hi.

I haven’t tried it, but can you try checking on ticket update and check the internal variable Merged Ticket = True? My guess is that would also need a custom control variable.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Regards,

Elvis.

I’ve not tried this, but I should have said I need to perform actions on the target ticket, i.e. ensuring the status is set to Open, not the source.  I would assume this variable is set on the source.

Userlevel 6
Badge +11

Hi.

I haven’t tried it, but can you try checking on ticket update and check the internal variable Merged Ticket = True? My guess is that would also need a custom control variable.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Regards,

Elvis.

I’ve not tried this, but I should have said I need to perform actions on the target ticket, i.e. ensuring the status is set to Open, not the source.  I would assume this variable is set on the source.

 

Such variable is set on the ticket that is merged (secondary tickets), that is, the one that is getting closed.

 

If you need to work on the primary ticket, this approach would indeed not help. Maybe using Parent-Child sync app ?

 

Regards,

Elvis

Badge +2

I have been able to accomplish this! The first go-around was not so good as it putting all my custom actions on every ticket that was closed by an agent which resulted in many agents asking me “why are you setting my resolution and added notes to my tickets”… lol yeah was a tiny tiny trigger option missed but after fixing it - all went back to working needed - another tip is the order in which the workflow is in.. from the top down - sets the priority of how they are handed and if anything above the workflow has some similar trigger then it will take precedent. We already know that the integrated part does the first part by adding the private note and putting the reference ticket in the link, etc - I just took that and added to it but the flow.. basically…

Event = “Note added is of type “private” + Status is changed from “any status” to “closed” (Selecting performed by Agent “Any”

Condition = Match All and Ticket Fields.Last Interaction starts with “this ticket is closed and merged into ticket”

That is really all it needs - I took my mine a few actions more by adding a “Merged_Ticket” tag so I could create views and see how many of them appear in the tags section, etc

I think have it Add A Public Note basically sayings that “The Ticket Has Been Automatically Closed & Merged with Primary Ticket” then I have created a custom ticket field that I required my agents to completed in order to close a ticket as “Resolution” > from the workflow I then have the resolution set to something like “This Ticket Has Been Automatically Closed & Merged” so the agent doesn’t have to worry about the field being required to close because merge function doesn’t care of ticket field rules apply - it just closes it and moves the conversation to the new primary thread (I wish it didn’t override it or have a required “Merged” status that means “Closed” but it’s closed lol

The trick to pay close attention to how the “wording” is placed when the systems performs the action - I had to copy that word for word (excluding the “link part”

 

Hope that Helps!!

Userlevel 7
Badge +16

Hello @Trevor Cooper we have something very similar to @Josh.Teodoro that is working to solve this use case. We also used a tag on the tickets to indicate a newly merged ticket (one that would not already include the tag “Merged”) so that the trigger would not execute on tickets that had been previously merged. This lets us isolate interaction in the workflow to only the primary ticket and still get away with using the “Note added is of type Private” trigger.

Here is our conditional: 

Wording is key for this to work correctly. 

HTH!

Userlevel 1
Badge +2

This is the workflow I have been using:

 

The issue is though there are multiple notes added tot he ticket.  The first is a note saying a ticket has been merged into this ticket, this is rapidly followed up by the description and any updated from the other ticket.

However as you can see from the activity history the workflow does not trigger

Other workflows do trigger, however this is further down the workflow list.

Badge +2

This is the workflow I have been using:

 

The issue is though there are multiple notes added tot he ticket.  The first is a note saying a ticket has been merged into this ticket, this is rapidly followed up by the description and any updated from the other ticket.

However as you can see from the activity history the workflow does not trigger

Other workflows do trigger, however this is further down the workflow list.

--- So there are a few factors there that should fix your issues… keep in mind the “secondary” ticket you want “merged” aka “closed” is the ticket that performs the FIRST action aka adding the “note” and obviously the conversations go with it hence your “issue” comment above (this is what FS does for you when you click the merge button lol) … so from your screenshots that is coming from the primary ticket which is the SECOND “action” here.. so your workflow has to work around the actions of the ticket you want you the “workflow” to perform on… which I assume above is “set status to open & notify agent” on your ticket that you want to be “primary” so what I would do is change the event performed by to “Agent” instead of “Anyone” just to be more specific so that if someone like a requester just happens to be adding a note at the same time it might throw it off or duplicate your workflow… I would also change your condition to “starts with” instead of contains .. from your activity shots the reason it’s not being trigged is because the last interaction is not your workflow’s “condition” - there is that that ‘HelpDesk” activity interfering with this flow and your other workflow “tag tickets with name” - it should go - merge ticket / added a private note / merged ticket / added private note as far as the “workflow” should be executing.. so you will need to move this “workflow” higher up in the order so that it doesn’t conflict with your “tag tickets with name” flow… so to solve this for sure I think you should - change your performed to by “Agent” and not anyone and move this flow up higher so you make sure this is the last interaction performed (without me being able to see how that “tag ticket” flow is setup) and I recommend changing the conditioning to start with.. because it does lol so I am 99% sure your other workflow is your problem here. the private note where it should be the “Merged from ticket” xxxx in the orange screen shot should be the last interaction in these events but from you screen shot and according to your “condition” .. it not the last as you can see the other workflow is happening and then the last public note from “David John” aka the person who is “merging” this these tickets at the top so this flow cannot trigger because his “last interaction” note on the merge feature cannot be met because it’s false accordingly to the “condition of last field interaction”… 

I can’t screen shot because I have my workflow performing the actions on the ticket that gets closed/merged vs the ticket that remains open lol the ticket you want the action to happen on still has the same actions on mine that match activity but mine executes because the “last interaction’ isn’t being interrupted by other flows’ “actions” by someone doing at the same time by the “wording” you have in that condition.... if you want that to work when the merge is happening - it has to be “worded” just right so that when the “last interaction” is recorded - it’s happening the same time without interruption. .. you could add a timer between the flows which might work but I still recommend moing this one higher to happen first before anything else :)

Hope that helps!

 

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