My client has Zoom integration set up, but the Topics and Description for a lot of meetings is frequently coming out as %service_name% and %service_description%. But other times, Topic and Description are what would be expected. I have checked the Amelia settings, but it all seems ok. What else should I be checking?
In Amelia -> Settings -> Integrations -> Zoom you will find the fields Meeting Title: and Meeting Agenda: , so here you need to put the placeholders for the information you want to get in Zoom from Amelia appointments. So , you can change these placeholders - add the ones that you want to have information for in your Zoom meetings. You will find these placeholders when you click on the </>Show email placeholders link on the Amelia -> Notifications page.
If you have any further questions feel free to ask.
I did already do that - shouldn't %service_name% be replaced by the service name etc? If I hadn't set something, then why is that some meetings have the right service name and description and others the placeholders?
The client only just complained about this, so I do not know what the order of events was. But I do know I set the placeholders appropriately when I first set up Zoom and the integration, so I'd expect either all the names/descriptions in the Zoom Upcoming Meetings panel to be correct or all of them to be wrong - not just some....
If I get more information, I will update this ticket. I may have deleted a service on the website side in order to fix something (to replace it), but that change shouldn't affect data on the Zoom side once the meeting has been scheduled...
I see, sorry I misunderstood your issue then. It is strange that the placeholders show information for some services, and for some they don't. That shouldn't happen, if the placeholder is added it should show information for all of the services for which Zoom meetings are created. Services' changes can reflect on Zoom meetings so this could be caused by deleting appointments/service in the back-end of Amelia.
Could you please try to reproduce the issue now, see with several test appoitnments if the Zoom meetings have the information about Amelia services/appointments properly?
I went into QA mode and ran through everything I could think of. The Zoom integration for appointments (services) seems to work fine in that placeholders like %service_name% (in the Zoom Integrations settings <Meeting Title etc>) work - the topic of the Zoom is correct or if the Meeting Title setting is blank, the topic is "Zoom Meeting".
Where things break is in Zoom meetings for Events. When I created an event in the Amelia backend (no attendees), a Zoom Meeting (let's call this an "event") was set up. Ok... but the topic was based on the setting of Meeting Title. If that was blank, the topic of the Zoom event was "Zoom Meeting". ok... but I would have expected the actual name of the event no matter what. And there was nothing for the description/agenda in the Zoom event. When I set Meeting Description in the Integrations settings, the Zoom agenda then got set to "%service_description%". The actual description of the event (as specified in setting up the event) never gets used.
So the logic for the setting up of corresponding Zoom meeting for events is not correct re: event names vs Meeting Title, agenda vs. Meeting Description. As a user, I would have expected the event name and description (in Amelia) to always override anything set in the Integrations settings panel and not be influenced by it (e.g. a blank Meeting Title). This is based on how I interpret the name of settings and how I assume the system works. Why label events and the Zoom events based on anything but the event name and description? To do this for appointments makes more sense because they are more variable.
So all of these Zoom meetings that have been set up are ones for a class (an event) my client runs periodically for people. Thus none of these meetings (Zoom events) have an understandable topic or agenda.
I hope that all made sense...
Tangentially, a feature I would add would be in the list of email placeholders on the Notifications panel, display the list of placeholders (e.g. %service_description%) along with the actual or at least example output based on the current data in the database. Then users would have a clearer understanding of the mapping between settings and these placeholders and their events/services.
I feel I should ask about a partial refund at least given this bug is rather basic, I really wouldn't have expected to see it, and I can't charge my client for the time I spent nailing it down. Otherwise Amelia is a quite useful product - I actually had picked it out initially for use, but then my client found Acuity Scheduling and its integration with Quickbooks was a selling point. But it turned out to be really over engineered and he wasn't happy with certain aspects of it. So we shall stick with Amelia...
If these two fields for Zoom Meeting Title and Meeting Agenda are left blank no information will be sent to Zoom, this is how the integration is created, so for any information you want to be sent to Zoom from Amelia you need to provide placeholders in these fields, and the information will be added to Zoom meetings.
There isn't a possibility for service/event name to override anything set in those filed (including blank fields) with the plugin's built-in features and the integration with Zoom. We haven't had such request so far, I will add it as a feature request to our list.
Regarding Events, I am not sure if I understood the issue quite well , you said
The actual description of the event (as specified in setting up the event) never gets used.
Could you please tell me have you added placeholders for Event to these Zoom fields as well? Like you added %service_description% for Services, have you added the %events_description% as well? There are separate placeholders for Services and Events.
In the Show Email Placeholders popup of the Notifications panel, there is no mention of any %event...% sort of placeholder. I was wondering why there wasn't... No, I have not read any other document - that list looked compete so I didn't look elsewhere what placeholders there might be for events.
Now that you say there is a set for events, then fixing the problem seems obvious at first glance - but what if one wanted to label meetings in Zoom that are tied to events -and also label Zoom meetings for service appointments - there is only "Meeting Title" and "Meeting Agenda" in the Zoom Integrations settings and it isn't clear if they apply to events or to services or both. My client has both events and appointments using Zoom. I'll set things to use %event_name% and %event_description% and see what happens.
I would assume if you specify in "Meeting Title", both %service_name% and %event_name% for a Zoom meeting topic, both strings will be used -for one zoom meeting- and that isn't correct.
Thinking through this from a UX perspective, I would expect
1) reasonable defaults for Zoom Topic and Agenda if the user hasn't set anything at all - "Zoom Meeting" and "" is not entirely useful. I'd do "Event Name/Event Description" and also "Service Name/Service Description", but that is my opinion.
2) a way to specify the global default of the Zoom Topic and Agenda for both events and appointments/services - each distinct from each other. The Zoom Integration panel doesn't support setting both separately, it seems.
3) a way to override these global settings if need be when creating a new event or an appointment manually - within the creation panel.
3) is extra and perhaps not so useful for most people, but 2) is needed and 1) can be accomplished by initially setting the values of "Meeting Title" and "Meeting Description" to %service_name%,%service_description%. Then most people won't need to change a thing in setting up Zoom integration. And the equivalent for events.
Apologies for replying late, we don't work on weekends.
"Meeting Title" and "Meeting Agenda" in the Zoom Integrations settings apply to both Services and Events so you need to add placeholders for both if you use both in Amelia. The Placeholders on the Amelia Notifications page are based on what email notification have you chose, so if you choose Events - To Employee you will see the information/placeholders that can be send to employees for events, if you choose Services/Appointments - TO Customer you will see placeholders/information that can be sent to customers for service/ appointments and so on. We implemented this for Zoom and Google calendar because users want to have different kind of information in their Zoom/Google events from Amelia.
Please do, and if any placeholder doesn't work in those fields let us know so we can check it out.
I will add your suggestions as feature requests in our list, so they can be considered for implementation in the future.
If you have any other questions or concerns feel free to open a new ticket and we will gladly help.
Hi,
My client has Zoom integration set up, but the Topics and Description for a lot of meetings is frequently coming out as %service_name% and %service_description%. But other times, Topic and Description are what would be expected. I have checked the Amelia settings, but it all seems ok. What else should I be checking?
thanks
Doug
Hello Doug,
In Amelia -> Settings -> Integrations -> Zoom you will find the fields Meeting Title: and Meeting Agenda: , so here you need to put the placeholders for the information you want to get in Zoom from Amelia appointments. So , you can change these placeholders - add the ones that you want to have information for in your Zoom meetings. You will find these placeholders when you click on the </>Show email placeholders link on the Amelia -> Notifications page.
If you have any further questions feel free to ask.
Hi Marija,
I did already do that - shouldn't %service_name% be replaced by the service name etc? If I hadn't set something, then why is that some meetings have the right service name and description and others the placeholders?
The client only just complained about this, so I do not know what the order of events was. But I do know I set the placeholders appropriately when I first set up Zoom and the integration, so I'd expect either all the names/descriptions in the Zoom Upcoming Meetings panel to be correct or all of them to be wrong - not just some....
If I get more information, I will update this ticket. I may have deleted a service on the website side in order to fix something (to replace it), but that change shouldn't affect data on the Zoom side once the meeting has been scheduled...
Doug
Hello Doug,
I see, sorry I misunderstood your issue then. It is strange that the placeholders show information for some services, and for some they don't. That shouldn't happen, if the placeholder is added it should show information for all of the services for which Zoom meetings are created. Services' changes can reflect on Zoom meetings so this could be caused by deleting appointments/service in the back-end of Amelia.
Could you please try to reproduce the issue now, see with several test appoitnments if the Zoom meetings have the information about Amelia services/appointments properly?
Hi Marija,
I went into QA mode and ran through everything I could think of. The Zoom integration for appointments (services) seems to work fine in that placeholders like %service_name% (in the Zoom Integrations settings <Meeting Title etc>) work - the topic of the Zoom is correct or if the Meeting Title setting is blank, the topic is "Zoom Meeting".
Where things break is in Zoom meetings for Events. When I created an event in the Amelia backend (no attendees), a Zoom Meeting (let's call this an "event") was set up. Ok... but the topic was based on the setting of Meeting Title. If that was blank, the topic of the Zoom event was "Zoom Meeting". ok... but I would have expected the actual name of the event no matter what. And there was nothing for the description/agenda in the Zoom event. When I set Meeting Description in the Integrations settings, the Zoom agenda then got set to "%service_description%". The actual description of the event (as specified in setting up the event) never gets used.
So the logic for the setting up of corresponding Zoom meeting for events is not correct re: event names vs Meeting Title, agenda vs. Meeting Description. As a user, I would have expected the event name and description (in Amelia) to always override anything set in the Integrations settings panel and not be influenced by it (e.g. a blank Meeting Title). This is based on how I interpret the name of settings and how I assume the system works. Why label events and the Zoom events based on anything but the event name and description? To do this for appointments makes more sense because they are more variable.
So all of these Zoom meetings that have been set up are ones for a class (an event) my client runs periodically for people. Thus none of these meetings (Zoom events) have an understandable topic or agenda.
I hope that all made sense...
Tangentially, a feature I would add would be in the list of email placeholders on the Notifications panel, display the list of placeholders (e.g. %service_description%) along with the actual or at least example output based on the current data in the database. Then users would have a clearer understanding of the mapping between settings and these placeholders and their events/services.
I feel I should ask about a partial refund at least given this bug is rather basic, I really wouldn't have expected to see it, and I can't charge my client for the time I spent nailing it down. Otherwise Amelia is a quite useful product - I actually had picked it out initially for use, but then my client found Acuity Scheduling and its integration with Quickbooks was a selling point. But it turned out to be really over engineered and he wasn't happy with certain aspects of it. So we shall stick with Amelia...
Doug
Hello Doug,
If these two fields for Zoom Meeting Title and Meeting Agenda are left blank no information will be sent to Zoom, this is how the integration is created, so for any information you want to be sent to Zoom from Amelia you need to provide placeholders in these fields, and the information will be added to Zoom meetings.
There isn't a possibility for service/event name to override anything set in those filed (including blank fields) with the plugin's built-in features and the integration with Zoom. We haven't had such request so far, I will add it as a feature request to our list.
Regarding Events, I am not sure if I understood the issue quite well , you said
The actual description of the event (as specified in setting up the event) never gets used.
Could you please tell me have you added placeholders for Event to these Zoom fields as well? Like you added %service_description% for Services, have you added the %events_description% as well? There are separate placeholders for Services and Events.
Hi Marija,
In the Show Email Placeholders popup of the Notifications panel, there is no mention of any %event...% sort of placeholder. I was wondering why there wasn't... No, I have not read any other document - that list looked compete so I didn't look elsewhere what placeholders there might be for events.
Now that you say there is a set for events, then fixing the problem seems obvious at first glance - but what if one wanted to label meetings in Zoom that are tied to events -and also label Zoom meetings for service appointments - there is only "Meeting Title" and "Meeting Agenda" in the Zoom Integrations settings and it isn't clear if they apply to events or to services or both. My client has both events and appointments using Zoom. I'll set things to use %event_name% and %event_description% and see what happens.
I would assume if you specify in "Meeting Title", both %service_name% and %event_name% for a Zoom meeting topic, both strings will be used -for one zoom meeting- and that isn't correct.
Thinking through this from a UX perspective, I would expect
1) reasonable defaults for Zoom Topic and Agenda if the user hasn't set anything at all - "Zoom Meeting" and "" is not entirely useful. I'd do "Event Name/Event Description" and also "Service Name/Service Description", but that is my opinion.
2) a way to specify the global default of the Zoom Topic and Agenda for both events and appointments/services - each distinct from each other. The Zoom Integration panel doesn't support setting both separately, it seems.
3) a way to override these global settings if need be when creating a new event or an appointment manually - within the creation panel.
3) is extra and perhaps not so useful for most people, but 2) is needed and 1) can be accomplished by initially setting the values of "Meeting Title" and "Meeting Description" to %service_name%,%service_description%. Then most people won't need to change a thing in setting up Zoom integration. And the equivalent for events.
Doug
Hello Douglas,
Apologies for replying late, we don't work on weekends.
"Meeting Title" and "Meeting Agenda" in the Zoom Integrations settings apply to both Services and Events so you need to add placeholders for both if you use both in Amelia. The Placeholders on the Amelia Notifications page are based on what email notification have you chose, so if you choose Events - To Employee you will see the information/placeholders that can be send to employees for events, if you choose Services/Appointments - TO Customer you will see placeholders/information that can be sent to customers for service/ appointments and so on. We implemented this for Zoom and Google calendar because users want to have different kind of information in their Zoom/Google events from Amelia.
Please do, and if any placeholder doesn't work in those fields let us know so we can check it out.
I will add your suggestions as feature requests in our list, so they can be considered for implementation in the future.
If you have any other questions or concerns feel free to open a new ticket and we will gladly help.