Zendesk Search activity

Introduction

A Zendesk Search activity, using its Zendesk connection, retrieves an object from Zendesk and is intended to be used as a source to provide data in an operation.

Rate limits

The Zendesk REST API, which is used by the Zendesk connector, enforces a series of rate limits depending on a number of factors. Read about the limits in the Zendesk documentation.

Create a Zendesk Search activity

An instance of a Zendesk Search activity is created from a Zendesk connection using its Search activity type.

To create an instance of an activity, drag the activity type to the design canvas or copy the activity type and paste it on the design canvas. For details, see Create an activity instance in Component reuse.

An existing Zendesk Search activity can be edited from these locations:

• The design canvas (see Component actions menu in Design canvas).
• The project pane's Components tab (see Component actions menu in Project pane Components tab).

Configure a Zendesk Search activity

Follow these steps to configure a Zendesk Search activity:

• Step 1: Enter a name and select an object
  Provide a name for the activity and select an object.

• Step 2: Review the data schemas
  Any request or response schemas are displayed.

Step 1: Enter a name and select an object

In this step, provide a name for the activity and select an object. Each user interface element of this step is described below.

• Name: Enter a name to identify the activity. The name must be unique for each Zendesk Search activity and must not contain forward slashes / or colons :.

• Select an Object: This section displays objects available in the Zendesk endpoint.

  • Selected Zendesk Object: After an object is selected, it is listed here.

  • Search: Enter any column's value into the search box to filter the list of objects. The search is not case-sensitive. If objects are already displayed within the table, the table results are filtered in real time with each keystroke. To reload objects from the endpoint when searching, enter search criteria and then refresh, as described below.

  • Refresh: Click the refresh icon or the word Refresh to reload objects from the Zendesk endpoint. This may be useful if objects have been added to Zendesk. This action refreshes all metadata used to build the table of objects displayed in the configuration.

  • Selecting an Object: Within the table, click anywhere on a row to select an object. Only one object can be selected. The information available for each object is fetched from the Zendesk endpoint:

    • Name: The name of the Zendesk object.

    • Description: The description of the Zendesk object.

  Tip

  If the table does not populate with available objects, the Zendesk connection may not be successful. Ensure you are connected by reopening the connection and retesting the credentials.

• Page Number: The number of pages to be returned. The default value is 1. You should set this field to one more than the expected number of pages. For example, in order to retrieve 350 records, set a paging limit of 5 or more, as you need four pages (3 of 100 and 1 of 50) plus one additional empty page that breaks the flow.

• Page Size: The number of results per page to be returned. The default value is 100, which is also the maximum. If you alter this field, you may need to recalculate how many pages you need in the field Page Number above.

• Next: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and continue to the next step. The configuration will not be saved until you click the Finished button on the last step.

• Discard Changes: After making changes, click to close the configuration without saving changes made to any step. A message asks you to confirm that you want to discard changes.

Step 2: Review the data schemas

Any request or response schemas are displayed. Each user interface element of this step is described below.

• Data Schemas: The request and response data schemas for Zendesk will be displayed. If the operation uses a transformation, the data schemas will be displayed again later during the transformation mapping process, where you can map to target fields using source objects, scripts, variables, custom values, and more.

  Note

  Data supplied in a transformation takes precedence over the activity configuration.

  The Zendesk connector uses the Zendesk Rest API; see the API for information on the schema fields of supported objects.

  The request and response data schemas consist of these nodes and fields:

  • Request:

    Request Schema Field/Node	Notes
    searchRequest	Search request
    pageNumber	The number of pages to be returned. Maximum is 10.
    pageSize	The number of results per page to be returned. Maximum is 100
    criteria	The node containing search criteria that further limits the search
    item	The node of the item containing search criteria
    property	A group property keyword, either name or created
    operator	A search operator, one of :, <, >, <=, >=, " ", -, or *
    searchTerm	A search term consisting of a user-defined word, phrase, or value

    Note

    The Zendesk REST API returns up to 1,000 results per query, with a maximum of 100 results per page. If you request a number of pages past the limit (for example, by specifying a pageNumber of 11 at a maximum pageSize of 100 results per page), a 422 Insufficient Resource Error is returned.

    If you need to retrieve large datasets, Zendesk recommends breaking up the search into smaller chunks by limiting results to a specific date range.

  • Response:

    Response Schema Field/Node	Notes
    searchResponse	Search response
    records	The node of records returned by the search
    item	The node of the record item
    deleted	A boolean indicating if the group is marked as deleted
    updated_at	The time of the last update of the group
    name	The name of the group
    created_at	The time that the group was created
    id	An integer assigned during group creation
    url	The API URL of the group
    nextPage	When the results don't all fit in one page, this field shows the URL of the next page. Default value is null
    count	Number of results
    prevPage	When the results don't all fit in one page, this field shows the URL of the previous page. Default value is null

    Note

    The count property shows the actual number of results. For example, if there are 5,000 results, the count value will be 5,000, even if the API only returns the first 1,000 results.

• Refresh: Click the refresh icon or the word Refresh to regenerate schemas from the Zendesk endpoint. This action also regenerates a schema in other locations throughout the project where the same schema is referenced, such as in an adjacent transformation.

• Back: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and return to the previous step.

• Finished: Click to save the configuration for all steps and close the activity configuration.

• Discard Changes: After making changes, click to close the configuration without saving changes made to any step. A message asks you to confirm that you want to discard changes.

Next steps

After configuring a Zendesk Search activity, complete the configuration of the operation by adding and configuring other activities, transformations, or scripts as operation steps. You can also configure the operation settings, which include the ability to chain operations together that are in the same or different workflows.

Menu actions for an activity are accessible from the project pane and the design canvas. For details, see Activity actions menu in Connector basics.

Zendesk Search activities can be used as a source with these operation patterns:

• Transformation pattern
• Two-target archive pattern (as the first source only)
• Two-target HTTP archive pattern (as the first source only)
• Two-transformation pattern (as the first or second source)

To use the activity with scripting functions, write the data to a temporary location and then use that temporary location in the scripting function.

When ready, deploy and run the operation and validate behavior by checking the operation logs.