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Ticket conditional attributes [beta]
Ticket conditional attributes [beta]

How to make ticket attributes conditional.

Sze Wing avatar
Written by Sze Wing
Updated this week

This help article explains how to make ticket attributes conditional. If you are looking to make conversation attributes conditional, please refer instead to another article linked here.

What are conditional attributes?

This feature enables you to configure your attributes per ticket type to:

  1. Conditionally show attributes based on the value of another attribute. For example, show the attribute Delivery Carrier only when the value of Category = Delivery.

  2. Conditionally limit the options of an attribute based on the value of another attribute. For example, only show the options Italy and Spain in the Country attribute if Region = EMEA, but show only the options Malaysia and Japan in the Country attribute if Region = APAC.


A common use case for this feature is to manually collect granular categorisation data to be reported on.

This new capability improves data collection accuracy and creates a smoother experience. For instance, if a teammate picks “Complaint” as the Category of the conversation, you can automatically display attributes only relevant to the Complaint category. Conditional attributes can also apply to customers if an attribute is visible to both teammates and customers.

This is not a security feature.

Terminology

There are two key terms to understand:

  1. Controlling attribute - the attribute that has values that controls whether one or more attributes appears. For example, when the Topic is “Delivery”, the attribute “Delivery Carrier” is shown, Topic is the controlling attribute.

  2. Dependent attribute - the attribute that appears as a result of a value from the controlling attribute. For example, when the Topic is “Delivery”, the attribute “Delivery Carrier” is shown, “Delivery Carrier” is the dependent attribute.


How to set up conditional attributes for your ticket type

Here we cover two worked examples.

For your customers to experience conditional attributes in the Messenger, please upgrade your SDK to at least Android 15.14.0/ iOS 18.6.1 and above.

1) Show a new attribute based on the value of another

For example: show the attribute “Delivery Carrier”, when Issue = “Delivery”.

  1. Go to Settings > Inbox > Tickets > Ticket types, and click the 'Edit' icon next to the ticket type with attributes you would like to configure.

  2. Expand the Attributes section and click "Add attribute" to create two ticket attributes, Issue and Delivery Carrier.

  3. Add a condition to the controlling attribute (Issue), by clicking on the + icon.

  4. Click Add condition.

  5. Select the relevant value for "Issue" in the first dropdown (If option is). In this case “Delivery”.

  6. Select the attribute you want to show when Issue = Delivery in the second dropdown (then show). In this case, select the attribute “Delivery Carrier”.

  7. The additional dropdown (All options) allows you to limit which options are shown when the condition is met. In this example, you would keep “All options” in the dropdown. To see an example of how to limit the options shown, see below.

  8. Save your conditions.

2) Limit the values in a dropdown of an attribute, based on the value of another attribute

For example: if Category = EMEA, show EMEA countries only. If Category is APAC, show APAC countries only.

In addition to conditionally causing a new attribute to appear based on the value of another attribute, you can also use conditional attributes to conditionally limit the options in a list dropdown.

  1. Go to Settings > Inbox > Tickets > Ticket types, and select the ticket type with attributes you would like to configure.

  2. Expand the Attributes section and click "Add attribute" to create two ticket attributes, Category and Sub-category.

  3. Add a condition to the controlling attribute (Category), by clicking on the + icon.

  4. The "Sub-category" should contain all the values relevant for each of the values of "Category". In this example, "Sub-category" should contain a list of all countries in EMEA and APAC (Italy, Spain, Germany, Malaysia, Japan, and Singapore).

  5. Add two conditions to the controlling attribute, "Category" by clicking the + icon.

  6. Click Add condition.

  7. Select the relevant value for "Category" in the dropdown (If option is). In this case “EMEA”.

  8. Select the attribute you want to show when "Category = EMEA" in the dropdown (then show). In this case, select the attribute “Sub-category”.

  9. To limit the options in Sub-category when Category = EMEA, change the dropdown from "All options", to only show Italy, Spain and Germany.

  10. Repeat the above for "Category = APAC".

  11. Save your conditions.

Attributes with conditions applied to them will be hidden to teammates in the inbox by default, until the conditions for their visibility are met.


Impact to other settings, existing data, and automations

How this works with the other ticket attribute settings

  • Visible to customer/ teammate when creating a ticket - Attributes are only visible if the condition for it to be shown is also met. For example, in the above example, if "Delivery Carrier" is conditionally set to only appears when Issue = Delivery, it will not be visible until Issue = Delivery.

  • Required for customers/teammate to create a ticket - Similarly, ticket attributes are required if the conditions for them to appear are met. For example, "Delivery Carrier" if marked as required will not be required unless Issue = Delivery.

  • Ticket forms. Conditional attributes can be used on ticket forms to provide a smoother experience for your customers.

For your customers to experience conditional attributes in the Messenger, please upgrade to at least Android 15.14.0 and iOS 18.6.1.

How changes to the value of controlling attributes impact dependent attributes

When changing a controlling attribute after a dependent attribute is already filled in, the value for the dependent attribute will be automatically removed.

  • For example, if Topic is changed away from Delivery, the attribute Delivery Carrier will be removed.

How changes to set-up conditions impact data collected on existing tickets

Changes to conditions in the set-up does not impact historical data already collected in attributes.

  • Take the example of where an attribute Delivery Carrier has conditions such that it only appears when Topic = Delivery, and Delivery Carrier has been set to “DHL”. Changing the set up conditions such that Delivery Carrier appears only when Topic = Package Missing will not remove Delivery Carrier as an attribute on the historical ticket, nor unset it.

  • When a teammate updates this attribute, it will unset and hide the attribute if it doesn’t match the new conditions.


How to use conditional attributes with AI category detection

AI category detection is a new feature currently in beta that enables Fin to automatically categorize conversations based on their content.

AI category detection is not yet available for ticket attributes.

Other important notes:

  • There is a limit of 100 conditions per dependent attribute.

  • The controlling attribute can only be a list data type, not available for other data types now. The option to add conditions be disabled if you don’t have any attributes that are of a list data type.

  • It is not possible to set up an attribute to appear based two conditions in an AND fashion. For example, only show attribute Refund if Category is Product AND Price is > 100$.

  • Macros, workflows and changes via API can fill out dependent attributes without filling out the controlling attribute.


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