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实现简化电子邮件电子邮件线程applications

Charles Nadeau
  • Edited
Zendesk Documentation Team

What's my plan?

Suite allall plans

Note:If your account was created on or after June 15, 2022, you already have simplified email threading in your account.

Zendesk introduced simplified email threading on June 15, 2022 to make conversations in modern email applications such as Gmail easier to follow and more productive for both end users and agents. To learn more about the change, seeUnderstanding simplified email threading.

If your account was created before June 15, 2022, you can still implement the simplified threading experience in your account to try it out. If you decide you prefer the original experience, you can switch back to it.

This article describes how to implement simplified email threading in your account. It contains the following topics:

Planning

Zen亚博desk,创建电子邮件使用的组合of triggers, automations, and email templates. To implement the enhanced email experience in your account, you need to identify and update any active triggers and automations that send email to users or groups. You also need to update the email templates.

Because of the potential for duplicate emails and an inconsistent email experience while you're in the process of making the changes, choose a time when you get a low volume of support requests to make the changes.

To minimize the time it takes to implement the changes, prepare ahead of time with the following steps:

  1. Create a list of triggers and automations to update.
  2. Clone the triggers and automations on your update list and deactivate them.
  3. Make the necessary changes to the deactivated clones.

When you're ready to implement simplified email threading in your account, you can quickly activate the clones and deactivate the originals. You can also update the email templates at the same time.

Listing the triggers and automations to update

The first task is to create a list of all the triggers and automations that need to be updated to support simplified email threading.

Triggers and automations are rules that specify actions to take when certain conditions are met. Dozens of possible actions are available. Two of them, “Email user” and “Email group,” send email to users and groups when certain conditions are met.

You need to update any trigger or automation that meets all of the following criteria:

  • The trigger or automation is active
  • The trigger or automation has an “Email user” or an “Email group” action
  • The email body of the action contains one or more of the original comment placeholders listed inOriginal comment placeholders to replace

Example trigger to add to the update list:

Zendesk has a number of default triggers and automations that meet these criteria. SeeDefault triggers and automations to update. Add any active ones to your update list.

Your account may also have custom triggers and automations. You should review them for any that meet the criteria.

You can use Admin Center to find the triggers and automations to update. You can also use the Zendesk API. SeeUsing the API to find triggers and automations to update.

To find the triggers and automations to update

  1. ReviewDefault triggers and automations to updateand add any active ones to your update list.
  2. Open the Triggers or Automations page in Admin Center.
    • Triggers:InAdmin Center, clickObjects and rulesin the sidebar, then selectBusiness rules > Triggers.
    • 自动化:InAdmin Center, clickObjects and rulesin the sidebar, then selectBusiness rules > Automations.
  3. Ignore any inactive trigger or automation.
  4. Ignore any default trigger or automation you added to your update list in step 1.
  5. Open each remaining trigger or automation and look for an “Email user” or an “Email group” action. If it doesn't have one, skip to the next trigger or automation.
  6. If one of the actions is present, check whether the action's email body contains one or more of the comment placeholders listed inOriginal comment placeholders to replace. If it has one, add the trigger or automation to your update list.

Using the API to find triggers and automations to update

You can use theList Active TriggersandList Active Automationsendpoints to get all the active triggers and automations in your account. You can then filter the list for the ones that match all the update criteria.

The equivalent update criteria for the API responses are as follows:

Admin Center criteria Equivalent criteria for the API
The trigger or automation is active Theactiveproperty of the trigger or automation is true
The trigger or automation has an “Email user” or an “Email group” action Thefieldproperty of an action object is "notification_user" or "notification_group"
The email body of the action contains one or more of the original comment placeholders The third element of thevaluearray in the action object contains one or more of the placeholders listed inOriginal comment placeholders to replace

Example trigger:

Original comment placeholders to replace

If the email body of an “Email user” or an “Email group” action contains any of the following placeholders, add the trigger or automation to your update list.
  • {{ticket.comments}}
  • {{ticket.latest_comment}}
  • {{ticket.comments_formatted}}
  • {{ticket.latest_comment_formatted}}
  • {{ticket.latest_comment_rich}}
  • {{ticket.public_comments}}
  • {{ticket.latest_public_comment}}
  • {{ticket.public_comments_formatted}}
  • {{ticket.latest_public_comment_formatted}}
  • {{ticket.latest_public_comment_rich}}

Default triggers and automations to update

This section lists the triggers and automations that might need to be updated to support simplified email threading. They might not all be active in your account. You only need to update the active ones. If you decide to activate a deactivated trigger or automation on this list later, remember to also update it for simplified email threading as described inUpdating the triggers and automations.

The following default triggers meet the criteria to be updated:
  • Notify requester and CCs of comment update: Sends the requester and CCs an updated email message when a public comment is added to the ticket.
  • Notify assignee of comment update: Sends the agent assigned to a ticket an email notification when a comment is added to the ticket.
  • Notify assignee of assignment: Sends an agent an email notification when the agent is assigned a ticket.
  • Notify assignee of reopened ticket: Sends the agent assigned to a ticket an email notification when the ticket is reopened.
  • Notify all agents of received request: Sends all agents an email notification when the ticket is received.
  • Notify group of assignment: Sends all agents in a group an email notification when a ticket is assigned to the group.
  • Notify requester of new proactive ticket: Sends the requester an email notification when a proactive ticket is created by an agent on behalf of the requester.

The following default automations meet the criteria to be updated:

  • Pending notification 24 hours: Sends the requester an email message that their request has been pending for 24 hours and awaits their feedback.
  • Pending notification 5 days: Sends the requester an email message that their request has been pending for 5 days and awaits their feedback.

Updating the triggers and automations

Updating the triggers and automations consists of replacing all the content of the action's email body with one of the following placeholders for simplified threading:

  • {{ticket.latest_comment_html}}

  • {{ticket.latest_public_comment_html}}

To determine which one, seeSimplified threading placeholder map.

Zendesk recommends updating all the triggers and automations that contain any of theoriginal comment placeholders. Updating only some of them may give unexpected results in email applications.

Before you start, make sure you create a list of triggers and automations that need to be updated. SeeListing the triggers and automations to update.

To update a trigger or automation

  1. Open the Triggers or Automations page in Admin Center.
    • Triggers:InAdmin Center, clickObjects and rulesin the sidebar, then selectBusiness rules > Triggers.
    • 自动化:InAdmin Center, clickObjects and rulesin the sidebar, then selectBusiness rules > Automations.
  2. Clone the first trigger or automation on your update list.

    The clone is not created yet. You can edit it before creating it.

  3. In the cloned trigger or automation, replace "(copy)" in the name with "(simplified)" or something else that makes sense to your use case.
  4. In the "Email user" or "Email group" action in the Actions section of the clone, replace all the content in the email body, including any original comment placeholder, with the simplified threading placeholder specified in theSimplified threading placeholder map.

    In the following example, the email body of the "Email user" action contains some text and the original{{ticket.comments_formatted}}placeholder:

    TheSimplified threading placeholder mapspecifies that the simplified threading placeholder for{{ticket.comments_formatted}}is{{ticket.latest_comment_html}}. Make the change in the email body by replacing all the content in the body with the single placeholder:

  5. After making the changes, clickCreateto create the clone.

    Clones are activated by default.

  6. Immediately deactivate the cloned trigger or automation to prevent duplicate emails.

    Click the options menu icon () and selectDeactivate.

  7. Make the same changes to the next trigger or automation on your update list.

Simplified threading placeholder map

Replace each comment-rendering placeholder with either the{{ticket.latest_comment_html}}or{{ticket.latest_public_comment_html}}placeholder depending on the existing placeholder. Use the following map to determine the correct simplified threading placeholder:

Existing placeholder Simplified threading placeholder
{{ticket.comments}}

{{ticket.latest_comment_html}}
{{ticket.latest_comment}}
{{ticket.comments_formatted}}
{{ticket.latest_comment_formatted}}
{{ticket.latest_comment_rich}}
{{ticket.public_comments}}

{{ticket.latest_public_comment_html}}
{{ticket.latest_public_comment}}
{{ticket.public_comments_formatted}}
{{ticket.latest_public_comment_formatted}}
{{ticket.latest_public_comment_rich}}

The simplified threading placeholders work as follows:

  • {{ticket.latest_comment_html}}:对于代理商,占位符显示only the last comment (public or private). For end users, it renders only the last public comment. The comment includes attachments.
  • {{ticket.latest_public_comment_html}}: For both agents and end users, the placeholder renders the latest public comment. The comment also includes attachments.

Updating the email templates

To implement the enhanced email experience in your account, you also need to update the following two email templates used to create messages for email applications:

  • The follower template or the CC template, depending on your account settings
  • The account-level HTML and plain-text email templates

Back up your email templates by pasting them in text files and saving the files. If you later decide to go back to the original email experience, you can restore the original templates from the backup files.

Updating the follower template or the CC template

Updating the follower or CC template consists of replacing original comment placeholders in the template with one of the two simplified threading placeholders listed in theSimplified threading placeholder map.

You have either the follower template or the CC template depending on your account settings. If the CCs & Followers experience is enabled in your account, you have the follower template. Otherwise, you have the CC template.

To update either the follower template or the CC template

  1. InAdmin Center, clickObjects and rulesin the sidebar, then selectTickets > Settings.
  2. Scroll to either the "CCs and Followers" or the "CC" settings.
  3. Copy the content of either theFollower email templateorCC email textfield and paste it in a separate text file and save it.

    You can use this backup file to restore the template later.

  4. In either theFollower email templateorCC email textfield, replace anyoriginal comment placeholderin the content with the corresponding simplified threading placeholder in theSimplified threading placeholder map.

  5. ClickSave tab.

Replacing the account-level email templates

The last step is to replace the two account-level email templates. One template is for displaying email content in HTML and the other is for displaying the content in plain text. The new HTML template introduces font changes and removes unnecessary padding.

To replace the account-level email templates

  1. InAdmin Center, clickChannelsin the sidebar, then selectTalk and email > Email.
  2. Scroll down to theEmail templatessection.
  3. Replace the HTML content of theHTML templatefield with the content below.

    The content below doesn't include an email delimiter placeholder (the delimiter is disabled by default). If you enabled email delimiters in your Zendesk account, you mustadd the delimiter placeholder to the email template.

           
     {{content}} 

     
     {{footer}} {{footer_link}} 

     {{quoted_content}}
  4. Customize the template as desired.

    For details, seeCustomizing your templates for email notifications.

    The replacement template is HTML5 compliant. To learn more about supported HTML5 elements, see theHTML5 Elements Referenceon www.w3docs.com.
  5. Scroll down toText template, copy the content into your backup file, and replace the content with the following placeholders:
    {{content}} {{footer}} {{quoted_content}}

    SeeUnderstanding the system placeholders.

  6. ClickSave.

Restoring the original email experience

This section assumes you created clones of the original triggers and automations, and backups of the original templates.

To restore the original email experience
  1. Restore the original email triggers and automations by activating the originals and deactivating the clones.
  2. Restore the original follower or original CC template from the backup file.
  3. Restore the original account-level email templates from the backup file.

    Avoid using theRevert to defaultlink for each template. This will revert the template to the one used for simplified email threading.

    Return to top

    67 Comments

    • Rafael Santos
      User Group Leader

      Charles NadeauCould you please clarify what will the placeholder

      {{quoted_content}}

      include?

      We'd like to adapt our email template to accommodate these.

      0
    • Benjamin Kirsch
      Zendesk Product Manager

      Hi Rafael, thanks for the question! The {{quoted_content}} placeholder is the threaded message history that will be folded/hidden under the ellipses within an email client.

      0
    • Ryan P.

      Is there a way to determine when this is enabled for our environment? For example, I noticed a "Learn about simplified email threading" link in the email action. Does that mean it's enabled for us? Thanks

      0
    • Benjamin Kirsch
      Zendesk Product Manager

      Hi Ryan, yes, that should mean you have access to the Simplified Email Threading Experience.

      To double check, you can always see if you have access to the {{ticket.latest_comment_html}} and {{ticket.latest_public_comment_html}} placeholders in your triggers. When those placeholders are used within your notification triggers (as well as some changes to your Email Template), the new Simplified Email Threading experience will be used for your emails! The above article has some helpful info about how to go about updating your notification triggers in an efficient manner as well.

      0
    • Vladimir Kochkovski
      • Edited

      Hi Zendesk Team,

      Thank you for the Simplified Email Threading Experience upgrade. I just went through the proces of upgrading the tickets and the email templates and I've noticed a strange bug:

      When you add the {{quoted_content}} in the email template, the users receive the previous messages, butthe quoted text shows as if it's sent from the agent's personal email instead of the support email they are replying from.

      For example, the {{quoted_content}} shows like this to the end user:

      You'll notice that instead of the support emailsupport@company.comwhere the ticket is answered from, it shows the private email of the agent that is used to login at Zendesk.

      So the end users can see the private emails of the agents.

      The actual email still arrives fromsupport@company.comand the end users sees that, but the quoted text always shows as it's from the agent's login email.

      Is there a way to show the actual support email in the {{quoted_content}} instead?

      Best regards,
      Vladimir Kochkovski

      6
    • Tyler Swanson
      • Edited

      I'm having the same issue as Vladimir and have raised a ticket with Zendesk. In order to avoid exposing agents' personal email addresses, I've removed the {{quoted_content}} placeholder from both the HTML and text templates. Since most of our triggers that send email notifications to requesters used the {{ticket.latest_public_comment_formatted}} placeholder before implementing simplified email threading, it seems to be an acceptable workaround for us while this issue gets ironed out.

      3
    • Vladimir Kochkovski

      Tyler SwansonThank you so much for the reply and for confirming the issue!

      I've also temporarily removed the {{quoted_content}} from the HTML and text templates.

      Before upgrading to the new Simplified Email Threading Experience, I've used to include to previous replies in the tickets with {{ticket.comments_formatted}} in the trigger. I hope this issue is resolved so that we can use {{quoted_content}} in the template without exposing the private email addresses of the agents.

      Also,I've noticed two additional issues: The option to show the agent's or user profile photos in the email replies no longer seems to work when using {{ticket.latest_comment_html}} in the triggers (at least for me).

      和新的HTML电子邮件模板上g the {{delimiter}} tag, and also seems to go outside of the margins on some email clients now (for example, on Apple Mail).

      To solve this, I used this mix of the old Email template with the new features added:









      {{delimiter}}

      {{content}}

      {{footer}}


      {{quoted_content}}





      Hope this would be useful to someone.

      Looking forward to these issues being resolved and to using the new Simplified Email Threading Experience

    3
  • Anton

    I've made tests, and yes... the same issue asVladimir Kochkovski. Let us know when this can will be resolved, so we can recommend customers to upgade to this experience. It works much better for most of the cases.

    4
  • Vladimir Kochkovski

    Thank you so muchAntonandTyler Swansonfor the replies and for confirming the bug.

    Hopefully it will get resolved soon, so that we can use the new Simplified Email Threading Experience as intended.

    I've found a couple of smaller issues also with the new Email template (at least on my account) and have posted a workaround above. That comment is currently pending approval, but I guess it should show up as soon as the mods approve it

    0
  • Benjamin Kirsch
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi all, thank you for bringing up the issue about agent's personal emails being surfaced! We're working on a fix for this now and I'll update back in this thread when we have it resolved.

    0
  • Shayan Moussawi
    • Edited

    This experience is something that we have been looking for, to make content in Agent Workspace more readable, so I am glad it was introduced.

    However I am experiencing two rather odd things:
    1) Underneath every single email, the agent name and brand name seem to appear for end users | EDIT: I was able to fix this by going into the brand and including {{agent.signature}} in the signature field for the brand. (The field was previously empty and with the old experience it did not display anything)

    2) Is there a reason why the entire trigger content has to be replaced? We also had our company imprint added at the bottom of each email that went to end users.
    With the new experience this seems to not be possible, or am I missing something?

    Vladimir KochkovskiThank you for providing the adjusted template. I also found it rather odd that the standard one doesn’t render well on Apple Mail clients.

    In regards to the separator: I believe the new email threading experience is supposed to make a separator obsolete, no? Since now there is no need to cut off the previous reply as it can be hidden in the „quoted_content“ button. This does seem to work like a charm for us in Agent Workspace, for now.

    2
  • mfg

    I'm unclear whether this is a feature that needs to be enabled. I'm not seeing any steps in the instructions above about how to enable it. I saw the notes above about how to know if it'savailable- but if it's "available" does that mean it's enabled and active?

    We're not in a position at the moment to do all the analysis and updates to all the triggers, and I'll need to schedule such a lift.

    Also, wouldn't this affect macros in addition to triggers and automations, or are the changes limited to just triggers and automations?

    0
  • Benjamin Kirsch
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Matthew, thanks for the question! This feature is tied directly to a new set of placeholders that are now available within Support. To enable the new email experience with your Support instance, those placeholders will need to be added to your notification triggers/automations and in addition some updates to your email template will need to be made. The above document details how to efficiently make those updates.

    This new experience only needs to be updated in Triggers and Automations because they are what is actually doing the sending of email. Macros are not affected because they are a prepared response or action that could then cause a Trigger or Automation to send an email.

    0
  • Vladimir Kochkovski

    Shayan Moussawi谢谢你的提及,如果你就是说我很高兴d the template useful.

    From my testing, I found that if you use the tag {{quoted_content}} without the delimiter separator tag {{delimiter}}, it doesn't cut properly and you will get small parts of the previous email inside the ticket replies in the Dashboard.

    However, if there is any official info whether the {{delimiter}} needs to be used, I would love to hear it.

    0
  • Sierra Lite agent

    Benjamin Kirsch

    Is there an update on the [[quoted_content}} issue?

    Our team would like to make the switch as soon as this is resolved. Could I possibly be notified directly when it is no longer an issue?

    I am very excited to see this implemented! We often have to wade through long quoted email threads to try and find the actual new comment. This gets very tedious when dealing with complex issues and challenging customers. Can't wait to see how this helps!

    Thanks

    0
  • Benjamin Kirsch
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi all, I wanted to provide a quick update on the {{quoted_content}} issue pertaining to agent's personal emails being surfaced in the thread history. We have deployed a fix for this issue so agent's personal information will no longer be surfaced. Please let us know if you continue to experience any issues there. cc/Vladimir Kochkovski

    3
  • Vladimir Kochkovski

    Benjamin KirschThank you so much for the new update and for the heads-up!

    I will go ahead and implement it right away and will let you know how it goes as soon as possible.

    0
  • Vladimir Kochkovski
    • Edited

    Just wanted to update the thread that I've tested the new update as mentioned byBenjamin Kirschand I'm happy to say that the {{quoted_content}} tag now correctly displays the actual support email address, instead of the personal address of the agent:

    I think the Simplified Email Threading now works as intended.

    There is one more thing to note: it seems that the new Email Template should also include the delimiter tag for the accounts that use that feature:

    {{delimiter}}


    Otherwise, if the tag is missing and it's not disabled in the settings, each new ticket reply in the Zendesk Dashboard seems to include parts from the previous emails, which might make things messy.

    Please update the Email Template in the tutorial above to note this if possible for accounts that use it.

    For reference, this is the working email template that I use now with the Simplified Email Threading and it seems to work properly:









    {{delimiter}}

    {{content}}

    {{footer}}


    {{quoted_content}}



    3
  • Gina Palomares

    Is there a way for the newly cc'd customers to get the email history? Tried this new email thread but when we copy new email in Zendesk, they can only see latest email, not the history

    1
  • Shayan Moussawi

    Experiencing similar situation as @Gina Palomares

    的显示评论历史somet CCsimes excluded. That is not always the case however.

    Sometimes CC‘s will see the previous comments and sometimes they‘ll be outright excluded. This seems like a pretty detrimental bug, considering the fact we use CC functionality to share inquiries with other departments

    1
  • Tommy (Anatolii Binkovskyi)

    It would be great if agent's avatar was still displayed

    1
  • Jen C
    • Edited

    Is there a way to reverse the comment thread so that the newest comments show at the top of the email to the customer? Maybe I set up the email threading wrong, but the newest comments go to the bottom of the email thread on the customer's end. Our agent comments sometimes are long and so to have the most recent comment at the bottom means the customer has to scroll to the bottom of the page.

    Example:
    My current flow for simplified email threading(for the email thread the customer sees on their end):
    original comment
    comment #2
    comment #3
    (newest comment)

    Would prefer:
    (newest comment)
    comment #3
    comment #2
    original comment

    Thanks for the help!

    0
  • Jeremy Pinar
    • Edited

    Hi All, I know this is still fresh however I'm waiting for someone who's crafty on the HTML coding side to adapt the new 'account-level email template' found above for those that have multi-branded templates i.e

    ---








    {{delimiter}}

    {{content}}

    {% case footer %}

    {% when 'This email is a service from Brand 1.' %}


    Kind Regards,

    Technical Support


    Click here to access our
    www.test.com" style="color:black" target="_new">Customer Support Portal



    brand_main




    ---

    I'd like to switch over however don't want to cause necessary hours of pain trying to figure out why the new sig isn't calling when brand is identified.

    0
  • Sean Morrissey

    I have noticed since switching to the new html format that I have an issue with emails that flow through google groups.

    When I have a ticket and send a public reply that goes to a google group, the Zendesk support email is a member of the group. Prior to enabling the html format I did not receive a reply back. Now that I have enabled this, zendesk receives a reply back and adds an internal note "sensing the auto-reply loop" While it does not send a duplicate email tot he group distro, it does show a duplicate internal note in zendesk thus resulting in a pending message being switched to open.

    I know zendesk doesnt officially support google groups, but disappointed this broke the integration.

    0
  • Luke Aleo

    I want to confirm that nothing will change if I don't update my Triggers or Automations with the new code for Simplified Threading. This is not some type of update that is being implemented onto the account and will have drastic changes. Correct?

    0
  • Benjamin Kirsch
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Luke, thanks for the question! That is correct. The new Simplified Email Threading Experience will only take affect if you go and update your notification tiggers with the new placeholders.

    0
  • MatchMasters

    Is there a place where we can see the differences?

    I don't understand what this change does.

    3
  • Dainne Lucena
    Zendesk Customer Care

    HiMatchMasters

    You can check out the articleUnderstanding simplified email threading. Let me know if you have any follow-up questions!

    0
  • Tamara Pascual Franquet

    Hi!!

    If I understood correctly, this new release is for customers who are using Gmail as their main email account. Is it right? If so, those of us who do not use Gmail as an email engine do not benefit from this improvement at all and there is no need to update the placeholders.

    Could you confirm, please?

    Thanks in advance!

    0
  • Dainne Lucena
    Zendesk Customer Care

    HiTamara Pascual Franquet

    It would affect all email engines like Gmail or Microsoft.


    0

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