Connecting LiquidPlanner and Zendesk

Though there is no out-of-the box integration between LiquidPlanner and Zendesk, there are a few ways to connect the two worlds together that will save you time and keep all those details from falling through the cracks.

In many cases, those using Zendesk for ticket tracking find that most individual tickets, incidents, problems, and questions don’t need to be sent into LiquidPlanner since they’re likely to be quick jobs requiring immediate action, rather than needing to be scheduled in with other work. For this reason, it’s common to use an ongoing task to track bulk time spent working on multiple tickets.

For the Zendesk tickets that do require more time to resolve, it can be helpful to have that ticket represented as an individual task in LiquidPlanner. This way, the work can be scheduled and other assigned work can be shifted around it – either now, if it’s an urgent matter or as part of a future project. Decide with your team what constitutes sending a ticket into your workspace. For some, that might mean the ticket requires a developer’s attention. For others, it may mean all tickets reporting a bug with a certain feature should be automatically sent into LiquidPlanner.

For these cases, take a look at the options below to learn how Zendesk can be connected with your LiquidPlanner workspace via email integration, Zapier or the API.

Using Email Integration

The first option is to automatically create tasks in LiquidPlanner by using an email target and trigger in Zendesk.

In this method, Zendesk tickets can be added automatically as tasks into a “Zendesk Inbox” package in LiquidPlanner, created specifically for this purpose. Alternatively, you can also use the workspace “Inbox” or another container for this purpose.

Then, it’s easy to see all the submitted tickets in the same package and triage them as needed. Someone can drag-and-drop them into a project and/or prioritize them into a priority package depending on when the ticket work should be scheduled. When tasks are triaged, this is a good time to open the item’s edit panel and change the project/package while also adding other information, such as assigning the task owner if it isn’t already assigned, estimating effort, adding details, notes, checklists, comments, etc.

Follow these steps to connect Zendesk and LiquidPlanner using email integration:

In LiquidPlanner

This first step is to prepare your LP workspace for the Zendesk tickets that come in:

1. Create a new package (if you don’t want to use the workspace Inbox). Consider calling it something like “Zendesk Inbox” as mentioned above.
2. Right-click on the new package and select Share Links & Email. Copy the unique email address of the selected package.
3. Go to your User Menu > Settings > Email Integration and make sure security is set to Low (to allow incoming emails from an unregistered email address).

In Zendesk

The next step is setting up an email target in Zendesk which will target LiquidPlanner with an email (creating a new task) when a certain action happens in Zendesk. The ticket actions and conditions prompting the new task email will be designated by creating a trigger in Zendesk.

ADDING A TARGET 

1. Click the Admin icon (gear) in the sidebar, then select Extensions. (Zendesk Classic: Select the Settings menu, then select Extensions.)
2. Click the Targets tab.
3. Select Add target.
4. Select the type of target (email).
5. Title the target something obvious like “LiquidPlanner” and paste the email address of the LiquidPlanner package obtained above.
6. In the Subject field, enter information that will populate the LiquidPlanner task name and task owner (optional). This should be entered in LiquidPlanner formatting with task name first, followed by the task owner (separated by a comma). For example, the Subject could be: Zendesk ticket {{ticket.id}}, DeveloperTBD. Note, in this example, {{ticket.id}} is a Zendesk placeholder that will automatically pull the ticket id into the task name and DeveloperTBD is the name of a virtual member in this example workspace. To have the ticket subject match the task name, consider using the Zendesk placeholder {{ticket.title}} in the Subject line.
7. Use the drop down at the bottom to select “Create Target” and then click Submit.

Click here to see detailed instructions from Zendesk on how to set this up.

ADDING A TRIGGER

1. Click the Admin icon (gear) in the sidebar and under Business Rules, select Triggers.
2. Click Add trigger.
3. Give the trigger a title and select the conditions that need to be true in order for the trigger to prompt sending the email target.
4. Under Perform these actions: select Notifications: Notify Target and then select the target you created above.
5. Click Create trigger.
6. When creating the trigger, consider adding Zendesk placeholders, such as {{ticket.requestor.name}} or {{ticket.description}} in the Message field. This will automatically pull this data from the ticket and add it into the Notes section of the new LiquidPlanner task.

Click here to see details instructions from Zendesk on how to set this up.

Using Zapier

To create a more automated process, consider using Zapier. If you are not familiar with Zapier – it is a Webapp-Automation Service. It allows you to integrate LiquidPlanner with hundreds of online apps by setting up automations in an easy-to-use graphical interface.

With Zapier, there’s no need to wait for app developers or programmers to build integrations. Zapier helps you use complementary apps side-by-side. It’s pretty much as simple as creating a Zapier account and then setting up some Zaps by filling out forms and selecting from dropdown menus. A Zap is a blueprint for a task you want to do over and over. In brief, a Zap looks like this: “When a new thing happens in X, do this other thing in Y.” The first part is the trigger and the second part is the action. More details can be found in this article on Zapier.

Both Zendesk and LiquidPlanner have multiple triggers and actions available to choose from in Zapier. This means you can create a variety of combinations to automate parts of your process and save you time. Some examples of tasks that can be automated using those triggers and actions are:

• When someone adds a new ticket in Zendesk, create a new task in LiquidPlanner.
• When a task is marked done in LiquidPlanner, update a ticket in Zendesk.

You can set up filters to refine conditions under which the trigger is executed.

Notes:

• Zendesk is a Zapier premium app so you will need to have a paid plan with Zapier to continue using Zendesk with Zapier beyond the Zapier free trial period.
• Zapier automation may not support every possible action you may want to implement in the integration.

Using the API

If you want to develop a more flexible and powerful integration, building a custom integration using Zendesk API and LiquidPlanner API with webhooks is the way to go.

Please note that this option requires development resources from your end in order to set this up.

Here are some developer resources to get you started:

• LiquidPlanner Developer Hub
• Zendesk API