Objects

In Zammad you can add your own fields to tickets, users, organizations and even groups (these are called “objects”). This can be useful if you need to add further information to a ticket or any other object in Zammad and the information doesn’t fit in any existing field.

Note

Try to avoid deleting attributes (and disable them instead) as Zammad might run into unexpected conditions if they are referenced somewhere.

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Here’s an overview of object attributes. On the upper right you can add new attributes. By default, there will be no custom fields - standard attributes will be grayed out, you can’t delete or change those. You can edit custom attributes (they are displayed in black font and have a trash bin on the right side) just by clicking on them.

Note

Attributes you add to Zammad, no matter if they have default values or not, will not update existing information. This means a new ticket field technically will be empty unless you populate it.

Especially in ticket scope this also means that newly added attributes will be indicated as “changed” to agents that view the ticket. This may interfere with Zammad’s tabs behavior.

Ordering attributes

Since Zammad introduced Core Workflows the need to have a custom positioning for attributes has become more important than ever.

To adjust the position of such an attribute, simply click on the attribute entry in question, scroll down and adjust the position number. Please note that you cannot change the positioning of default attributes.

In case two attributes have the same position value, Zammad will sort alphabetically by name automatically.

Screenshot showing custom attribute entries ordered in between default ones

Updating database after adding or editing attributes

When adding or changing attributes, Zammad will not apply the changes instantly, but instead shows you the changed attributes first. If you’re ready to go, just click on “Update database” to apply the changes to Zammad. If you made a mistake or just want to discard your changes, click “Discard changes”.

After applying the changes with “Update Database”, a restart of Zammad is mandatory. If you don’t perform it, you may experience unexpected behavior or even errors. You may want to do this kind of configuration during maintenance windows.

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Changes on objects require you to update the database to apply these changes.

Tip

🤓 Service restarts can be automated

Hosted environments automatically restart for you.
If you’re using a self-hosted installation you can use environment variables

System attributes

Zammad comes with pre-configured attributes. Some of these currently do not provide the possibility to edit them via UI (or at all).

This is not a bug but is to save you from possibly nuking Zammad.

Tip

There are technical exceptions which can be solved via console. This e.g. affects ticket states and priorities, see console section.

💰 If you’re a hosted customer, please contact your support for more. 💰