Checking Configuration with the Agent Simulator

Test the effect of Rules, using the Agent Simulator

The Agent Simulator is a supplementary feature which has no impact on the functioning of the app or its configuration.

To access the Agent Simulator

1. Click on the Formset icon (1).

2. Click on Formset field (2).  

3. Select the Tickets tab (3) and Agent Simulator (4).

To activate the Agent Simulator:

1. Click the Agent Simulator tab (1). The Ticket Emulator window opens (2).

2. Ticket Emulator: (Pseudo Ticket) select values in each field from the dropdown lists. In this example, Technical Support was selected (3).

Sub-fields will open up according to your selections. In this example, sub-fields Technical Area and Application Category opened (4). As you select these values for the driving fields, the controlled fields will be updated accordingly.

3. Check that the fields are behaving as expected before you save your changes.

The Rule Log on the right-side panel (2) shows in detail the rules which are applied when a driving field value is modified and the controlled fields and field values which are affected.

There are also buttons to simulate the behaviour of Mandatory field definitions if a ticket was submitted with the simulated driving and controlled field values.

Example of the Agent Simulator

In this example, Shipping & Returns (2) was selected from the Request Type field drop-down list (1). The Rule Applied Log (3) displays the driving field, Request Type (4) with the corresponding values (5).

The Field Affected (6) displays the values for Shipping & Returns: Shipping & Returns Type and Delivery Address (7).

Pseudo Ticket

In the left-side Pseudo Ticket section, the driving and controlled fields defined in the rules are displayed.  Only driving and controlled fields appear here. 

In the Agent Simulator, any fields hidden by conditionality rules in the Zendesk Interface are disabled and greyed out.  These fields are being controlled and based on the values of the driving fields not yet visible.

NOTES:

1. Initially, the top level driving fields are enabled (i.e. driving fields that are not themselves controlled). 
2. Selecting a value from a driving field will evaluate the rules you have defined. The controlled fields and their values will become enabled.  If a controlled (Ticket) field is marked as readonly by a rule that has been satisfied, then the displayed controlled field will be disabled so that you cannot change it's values.  NOTE: The end user (Help Center) simulator will ignore any readonly fields as they only apply in the agent interface.
3. As fields are enabled, they are moved up the Pseudo Ticket form to make it clear which of the fields have been affected by the change in value to the driving field.

As fields are enabled, they are marked with coloured 'tick' icons as follows :-

• Blue - this is the driving field whose value was changed.
• Green - this field is enabled but its values have been restricted based on the rules.
• Purple - this field is enabled and all values are available.

IMPORTANT POINTS:

1. The coloured tick icons mark fields that have become enabled as a result of the last change to a driving field. 
2. As you modify other driving fields, only the affected fields of this change will be marked. 
3. If you change the value of a controlled field (i.e. it is not a driving field), then this will not affect the display.

Rule Log

The Rule Log window shows the cause and effect of the rules being applied. 

As each change is made to a driving field, the Rule Log shows details of the change to the driving field (marked with a blue tick icon).

For each affected controlled field the display shows: 

• Rule Applied - The name of the rule which was satisfied. 
  • Click the rule name to switch back to the Configuration tab.
  • Select the rule to show the driving and controlled fields.
• Field Affected - The name of the controlled field.  If the entire field is controlled (not field values), this field is marked with a purple tick and the third column will be empty.
• Values Controlled - For rules which control the option values available for a field, the values enabled by this rule are listed here.  These fields are marked with a green tick.

This log is very useful to understand which rules are causing controlled fields and their values to be enabled.  

In the example displayed here, the Enquiry Type field was set to Product Enquiry. 

As a result of this the following happened :-

• The Trials rule caused the Trial field to become visible.
• The Product Enquiry rule caused the SLA Management and Cloudset Apps fields to become visible.
• The Product Enquiry rule also displayed the Handling Type field but with just the Opportunity and Requirement values available.
• The Opportunity Handling rule displayed the Impact field but with just the two listed values available.

Submit

If you have defined fields to be Mandatory, you can use the Submit and Submit as Solved buttons.

A notification is displayed 

This simulates what happens on a real ticket if you submit it with the Controlled fields given the values as configured in the Pseudo Ticket.

In the Agent Simulator:

• Any Mandatory fields will be marked with an asterisk (*)
• Any Mandatory on Solve fields will be marked with two asterisks (**). 

If these fields are visible due to the values in the driving ticket fields, they should have values for a Submit to work.

NOTE: When you click either of the Submit buttons, the visible mandatory fields are checked. If they have no value, they are highlighted in the Pseudo Ticket on the left. A message is displayed at the top of the Agent Simulator page indicating that these fields should be given values.