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Auto-Expand Linked Objects

When you retrieve an object from Autotask, many properties contain an integer value representing a related object or picklist item. For example, a Ticket entity's Status property contains 5 instead of Complete. To get the display value, you would normally need to make a separate API query for the related object.

MSPintegrations automatically retrieves related objects, so you only need one query.

How It Works​

When you query for an Autotask object, you can access both the object's properties and the properties of any linked objects. This makes it simple to answer questions like "Is the resource who completed this task still active?"

Example: Accessing Linked Object Properties​

Instead of querying for a ticket's contact ID and then querying for the contact's details separately:

{{custom.ticket.ContactID}}              <!-- Returns the contact ID -->
{{custom.ticket.ContactID.id}}           <!-- Also returns the contact ID -->
{{custom.ticket.ContactID.FirstName}}    <!-- Returns the contact's first name -->
{{custom.ticket.ContactID.LastName}}     <!-- Returns the contact's last name -->
{{custom.ticket.ContactID.EMailAddress}} <!-- Returns the contact's email -->

This works for any linked object:

<!-- Ticket linked objects -->
{{custom.ticket.AccountID}}              <!-- The account ID -->
{{custom.ticket.AccountID.AccountName}}  <!-- The account name -->
{{custom.ticket.Status}}                 <!-- The status ID -->
{{custom.ticket.Status.Name}}            <!-- The status name -->

<!-- Account linked objects -->
{{custom.account.OwnerResourceID}}            <!-- The owner resource ID -->
{{custom.account.OwnerResourceID.FirstName}}  <!-- The owner's first name -->
{{custom.account.OwnerResourceID.LastName}}   <!-- The owner's last name -->
Legacy Behavior

Before mid-2023, you could not access linked objects directly. You had to run multiple query steps, using IDs from one step to query the next. You can now consolidate these into a single query.

The update is backwards-compatible. The legacy syntax {{custom.ticket.ContactID}} and current syntax {{custom.ticket.ContactID.id}} return the same value. Existing action steps continue to work without changes.