Plan requirement
| Subscription | Any plan |
| Access | Admin |
A placeholder is a piece of text replaced with real data when a message goes out. It is how one trigger serves every ticket.
Where they work
- Triggers and automations, in the message they send.
- Macros, in the comment they insert.
- Email templates, including the header and footer.
- Dynamic content, so a translated message still carries real values.
What they can carry
- Ticket data: number, subject, description, status, priority, the latest comment.
- The people: requester's name, assignee's name, organisation.
- Custom fields, addressed by their ID rather than their name.
- Satisfaction, for survey messages.
The behaviour that matters
An empty placeholder resolves to nothing, and the sentence around it still goes out. "Hello ," and "Your order has shipped" are the classic results.
This is the single most common cause of an embarrassing automated message, and it is entirely preventable by testing with a ticket that is missing the data rather than one that is complete.
Two defences
- Write sentences that survive an empty value. "Hello" without a name reads fine.
- Use a Liquid conditional so the sentence only appears when there is something to say. More work, and the right answer for anything customer-facing.
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