Understanding placeholder suppression rules in ticket triggers

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Zendesk Support includes system ticket rules that suppress placeholders in ticket triggers in certain situations. These rules dictate behavior in Support that can't be changed, modified, or overridden. These rules may make it seem like placeholders in ticket triggers failed to work, but this isn’t a mistake.

These rules protect you because they prevent spammers from using your account to distribute spam messages. Placeholder suppression in ticket triggers keeps content from spammers out of notifications and prevents spammers from forwarding spam.

This article includes these sections:

About placeholder suppression rules

Criteria for placeholder suppression in triggers

Placeholders affected by suppression rules

Exceptions to placeholder suppression rules

Frequently asked questions

Related articles:

Using placeholders

Placeholder reference for business rules

Creating triggers for automatic ticket updates and notifications

About the standard Support triggers

Understanding suppression of CCs email notifications

About placeholder suppression rules

If you have ticket triggers that include an action to email users (the Email user action) and include placeholders, specific placeholders in the trigger will be suppressed if certain conditions are met. Placeholder suppression only occurs when the ticket trigger fires upon ticket creation.

Depending on your ticket triggers, you may have a situation where end users get a mostly blank email notification upon ticket creation due to placeholder suppression rules. Because placeholder suppression occurs only when the ticket trigger fires upon creation, subsequent email notifications about ticket updates aren't affected by these rules.

Avoid using lead-in text that describes or announces the presence of ticket comments in the email. The lead-in text won't make sense if the placeholder that follows is suppressed. For example, don't include text such as, "a copy of your message is below."

Criteria for placeholder suppression in ticket triggers

Placeholder suppression in ticket triggers occurs when all the following criteria are met:

Anyone can submit tickets is enabled.

Ask users to register is disabled.

The recipient is an end user.

The creator of the message is an end user.

The ticket trigger fires upon ticket creation.

Placeholders affected by suppression rules

These are the placeholders that are affected:

{{ticket.comments}}

{{ticket.description}}

{{ticket.public_comments}}

{{ticket.latest_comment}}

{{ticket.latest_comment_html}}

{{ticket.latest_public_comment}}

{{ticket.latest_public_comment_html}}

{{ticket.comments_formatted}}
Note: If the To recipient of an email notification is a machine or system user, the {{ticket.comments_formatted}} placeholder is suppressed for that user and modified for any CCs and followers so that they only receive the latest comment in the email notification.

{{ticket.public_comments_formatted}}

{{ticket.latest_comment_formatted}}

{{ticket.latest_public_comment_formatted}}

{{ticket.latest_comment_rich}}

{{ticket.latest_public_comment_rich}}

{{comment.value_rich}}

{{comment.rich}}

For more information about the affected placeholders, see the Zendesk Support placeholder reference.

Exceptions to placeholder suppression rules

Placeholders are not suppressed if:

The placeholder is part of an action to notify an email target (the Notify target action).

The placeholder is in an organization subscription notification because these notifications are not controlled by triggers at all.

The Anyone can submit tickets setting is disabled, or the Ask users to register setting is enabled.

The ticket was created through the Tickets API. This includes any of the functions listed on the Tickets API endpoint.

The placeholder is part of an email sent by an automation.

Frequently asked questions

Does placeholder suppression apply to agent notifications?

Placeholder suppression only happens in the first reply or automated “received request” notification and only when certain criteria are met. Placeholders are never suppressed in email notifications sent to agents or end users when triggered by comments or ticket updates.

Does placeholder suppression apply to automations or macros?

No. It affects ticket triggers that are set to send an email notification to end users when a ticket is created.

Does placeholder suppression apply to autoreplies?

Yes. Autoreply notifications are ticket triggers that contain the Action “Autoreply with articles.” Placeholders used in the email body of this action will be suppressed if they are one of the placeholders in this list.

Does placeholder suppression apply to dynamic content?

No. Placeholder suppression doesn't apply to placeholders used inside the body of dynamic content items. Review your dynamic content items to remove the use of placeholders in this list if these are used in ticket triggers that run on ticket creation to send emails to your end users.