How to pre-fill ticket description field in freshdesk with required info text

I would like to prefill the Description field on a ticket with placeholders for required information such as the following:

Steps to reproduce
<provide clear steps that will allow our engineers to reproduce your issue>

Expected results
<describe what output were you expecting to see>

Actual results
<describe what output you want to see>

I’ll start digging around in the FD App SDK but I’m wondering if anyone has done similar and had some suggestions.

I see ticket_property_hider which uses ticket_background app location and looks like a good starting point.

Here are some of things I’d like to do:

  • have headings as shown above that appear and get submitted with the ticket
  • have placeholder text as shown above that appear below each heading that explain what should to there but it disappears as soon as they start typing in that section
  • warn user if they have not added text to any of the sections

I guess alternatively I could have 3 separate new ticket fields (Repro Steps, Expected Results and Actual Results) but multiline text fields do not support formatted text, inserting images, etc. so its not as ideal for getting good data entry (i.e. repro steps should really include screenshots). The Description field is ideal for allowing users to enter formatted text and images.

This seems like it would be a common need. Does anyone have any apps they wrote they are willing to share?

I have never looked into this myself, and hence don’t have any apps I wrote to show as example, but I’m pretty sure this method should work:

Additionally, maybe this App could be useful for you, don’t know if it works on the new ticket page, but on Ticket Details page you can automatically add a signature. Perhaps it could also be used to just add some text into the description box:

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Hi @stevemc,

On which page, are you trying to achieve this requirement?

Currently, the apps can only run on the agent-facing portal and cannot run on the user-facing portal. But, it’s coming soon to run apps on the user-facing portal as well.

If you have a requirement to achieve this in the agent-facing portal, on the New Ticket page, the apps can be built to run. But, the subject and description fields are not available to be changed by the apps.

Have you checked out the Ticket Templates product feature that can be used by agents voluntarily?

But, it will not be possible in any way to stop the ticket from being created if not included the mentioned sections as per your requirement #3.

Thanks for the very helpful response.

My need is for this to be in the user-facing portal.

The Ticket Template feature looks interesting but seems its only agent-facing so not applicable.

So even when apps for user-facing portal is released, it will not allow manipulation of the Description field?

The features are not known for user-facing portal apps. Please raise a support ticket to Freshdesk support (support@freshdesk.com) to get an alternative for a solution within the product in the meantime.

Otherwise, you can wait for the apps and achieve it with custom fields though it will have some limitations as you have mentioned.

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