Zendesk announced the retirement of the original Sunshine custom objects, referred to here as legacy custom objects, on 7 July 2025 and removed them on the standard removal date of 27 July 2026. Creating new legacy objects or relationships had already been disabled on 15 January 2026. Accounts could request a one-time six-month extension. Check with Zendesk whether your account has a confirmed extension. Read Zendesk’s announcement.
Connect the data, work in the ticket
A customer asks about their service contract. The ticket is in Zendesk, but the contract details sit in the ERP. Your team has to gather the information before it can answer. This was the problem the original Sunshine use cases aimed to solve.
The need remains: make products and contracts available alongside tickets, use information from other systems and turn that information into the next step. Today’s options include current custom objects, integrations, custom apps and action flows.
The right combination depends on your process: Where is the data maintained? When does it need to be available? And do agents only need to see it, or do rules need to use it too? We explain the differences and show examples from practice.
One contract, two systems
Maintained in the ERP
Contract W-1042 · Example Ltd
Services, contract term and status
Available in the Zendesk ticket
Agents see the relevant contract.
Rules need data they can evaluate.
Does your app still depend on legacy custom objects?
First check with Zendesk whether your account has a confirmed extension. Then work through the affected apps and connections:
Dependencies
Identify affected apps and connections. Check with the vendors which versions and changes are needed and who will handle them.
Available data
Without a confirmed extension, legacy records are no longer accessible. You will need your own backups or data from the source systems.
Rebuild
Rebuild the data model and connections, then transfer available data. There is no automatic migration; developer involvement is required.
Test the process
Find a record, link the ticket, run the rule and write back if needed. Test the complete process, including missing or delayed data.
Zendesk explains the technical work in its guide to preparing for the removal of legacy custom objects.
Our Leafworks Sunshine Data Editor has also been retired and is no longer supported. If you used it, include its previous data and workflows in this assessment. The older support articles document the former app.
Four use cases: What you need today
Link products and contracts to tickets
If a customer has several service contracts, a text field containing every contract detail is unlikely to be enough. You need separate records so your team can select the right contract and see its included services alongside the ticket.
Current custom objects can provide that structure. A lookup field defines the possible relationship. An agent or a configured workflow must then link the specific contract record to the ticket; defining the relationship alone does not do this.
Example: a contract linked to a ticket
Ticket: maintenance question
Customer: Example Ltd
Selected contract: W-1042
Contract W-1042
Product: installation A
Service: maintenance and repairs
Status: active
Custom objects require a Suite plan or Support Enterprise and an activated Agent Workspace. They are not included in Support Team or Support Professional. Object limits range from three in Suite Team to 50 in Suite Enterprise and Enterprise Plus.
Agents can preview related records in the Agent Workspace. Configuring which fields appear on custom object cards is available in Suite Professional and above and in Support Enterprise, for example to show the contract term and included services.
Make CRM, ERP and online store information available
If orders are maintained in an online store and invoices in an ERP, Zendesk does not need to become a complete second database. An integration can retrieve information when the ticket is opened or synchronise selected values. What matters is which system remains the source of truth and how reliably customers, orders and contracts are matched.
If agents also need to take actions, such as changing a status or using several data sources together, a custom app can provide the interface. The integration connects the systems; the app makes the information and actions accessible within the workflow.
SAP and document data: An example from Knots
Knots describes how thyssenkrupp Rasselstein uses OCR to process documents, Ticket Parser to extract reference numbers from email text, and Knots Studio to handle routing and add SAP data. This shows how unstructured information becomes usable data for support.
Knots is a Leafworks partner company. The technical implementation of this SAP workflow is described in the Knots customer story.
Assign tickets and trigger follow-up actions
Displaying data is not yet automation. If an app only displays a contract type in the sidebar, a Zendesk trigger cannot read that display. The information must be available as a field the rule can evaluate or as a related custom object record.
Ticket triggers can evaluate fields on related records and assign a group, for example. If an incoming email has no contract linked to it yet, an app, an integration or an earlier trigger must first set that relationship. Only then can the contract type determine the assignment.
1 · Link the contract
An app or integration links the ticket to the appropriate contract record.
2 · Check the contract type
A trigger checks the fields of the linked contract record.
3 · Assign the right group
The rule assigns the ticket to the appropriate group.
An earlier Zendesk customer story about Rasselstein’s work with Leafworks describes email routing to two groups based on customer segment. That example concerns the Zendesk setup at the time; the SAP workflow from Knots is documented separately.
For processes with several steps, action flows are an option. They can look up, create, update and delete current custom object records and respond to configured field changes. External systems connect through connectors. Zendesk added this custom object support in May 2026.
Action flows are included in Suite and in Support Team, Professional and Enterprise; custom objects also require a plan that includes them. Native Zendesk actions for tickets, users, organisations and custom objects do not consume action credits; external and custom actions can use the plan’s credit allowance.
Turn an event into a next step
The original article discussed making customer activity useful for support under the term Sunshine Events. The underlying question remains: Should an activity simply be recorded, or should it initiate a specific action?
Zendesk documents an Events API that associates customer activities with a Zendesk user. The documentation lists a Suite plan as a requirement. Creating a ticket or a follow-up process from that activity needs to be configured separately.
Practical example: connecting systems at Grover
At Grover, Leafworks connected Aircall, Zendesk and Grover’s system with a script. The workflow handles the customer lookup and ticket creation for the team:
The public customer story describes a custom integration. It does not document the use of Sunshine or the Events API.
- Call not connected
A team member calls through Aircall but cannot reach the customer.
- Find customer details
The script looks up the phone number in Grover’s system and retrieves the customer’s details.
- Create a contextual ticket
A Zendesk ticket documenting the contact attempt is created with those details.
- Follow up automatically
The customer automatically receives an email for the next step.
Which approach fits your use case?
Start with one specific process and the small set of data it needs. These three questions show which components you need:
Where is the data maintained?
If the ERP or online store remains the source of truth, plan for on-demand retrieval or targeted synchronisation. If additional records should be managed in Zendesk, assess current custom objects and their plan requirements.
When must it be available?
For display, retrieving information when the ticket opens may be sufficient. A rule needs it when it runs. Define when updates happen and what should happen if a transfer is delayed or fails.
What needs to happen with it?
Cards or an app can provide the display. Assignment requires data that rules can evaluate. Actions across systems may call for action flows or an integration.
Which workflow do you want to improve?
Bring the app name, the systems involved and one specific example to the conversation. Together, we can work through which data agents and rules need, when they need it and where an additional connection is required.
Our services for Zendesk integrations and custom apps explain how we connect systems and provide custom interfaces.
