Zendesk Connector for C# Zendesk Connector can be used to integrate Zendesk REST API in your App / BI Tools. You can read/write data about Tickets, Activity, Users, Organizations and more. In this article you will learn how to quickly and efficiently integrate Zendesk data in C#. We will use high-performance Zendesk Connector to easily connect to Zendesk and then access the data inside C#. Let's follow the steps below to see how we can accomplish that! Download Documentation Zendesk Connector for C# is based on ZappySys API Driver which is part of ODBC PowerPack. It is a collection of high-performance ODBC drivers that enable you to integrate data in SQL Server, SSIS, a programming language, or any other ODBC-compatible application. ODBC PowerPack supports various file formats, sources and destinations, including REST/SOAP API, SFTP/FTP, storage services, and plain files, to mention a few.

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Create ODBC Data Source (DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

Step-by-step instructions

To get data from Zendesk using C# we first need to create a DSN (Data Source) which will access data from Zendesk. We will later be able to read data using C#. Perform these steps:

1. Download and install ODBC PowerPack.

2. Open ODBC Data Sources (x64):

   

3. Create a User data source (User DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

   ZappySys API Driver

   
   • Create and use User DSN if the client application is run under a User Account. This is an ideal option in design-time, when developing a solution, e.g. in Visual Studio 2019. Use it for both type of applications - 64-bit and 32-bit.
   • Create and use System DSN if the client application is launched under a System Account, e.g. as a Windows Service. Usually, this is an ideal option to use in a production environment. Use ODBC Data Source Administrator (32-bit), instead of 64-bit version, if Windows Service is a 32-bit application.

4. When the Configuration window appears give your data source a name if you haven't done that already, then select "Zendesk" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "Zendesk" is not present in the list, then click "Search Online" and download it. Then set the path to the location where you downloaded it. Finally, click Continue >> to proceed with configuring the DSN:

   ZendeskDSN

   Zendesk

   

5. Now it's time to configure the Connection Manager. Select Authentication Type, e.g. Token Authentication. Then select API Base URL (in most cases, the default one is the right one). More info is available in the Authentication section.

    Token Authentication [Http]

   Authenticate using Static Token instead of userid / password ([Token Access] option must be enabled under Admin Console > Channel > API > Settings and then Click [ADD API Token] to generate new token. These settings typically found here https://YOUR-SUB-DOMAIN.zendesk.com/agent/admin/api/settings [API reference]

   Please refer to below API reference (external site) link for Token Authentication [Http]

   https://developer.zendesk.com/rest_api/docs/support/introduction#api-token

   Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

   ZendeskDSN

   Zendesk

   Token Authentication [Http]

   https://[$Domain$].zendesk.com/api/v2

   Required Parameters
   Sub Domain (e.g. mycompany)	Fill-in the parameter...
   UserId	Fill-in the parameter...
   Token	Fill-in the parameter...
   Optional Parameters
   RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
   RetryStatusCodeList	429
   RetryCountMax	5
   RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True

   

    OAuth Authentication [OAuth]

   OAuth App must be created under Admin Console > Channel > API > Settings. These settings typically found here https://YOUR-SUB-DOMAIN.zendesk.com/agent/admin/api/oauth_clients [API reference]

   Please refer to below API reference (external site) link for OAuth Authentication [OAuth]

   https://developer.zendesk.com/rest_api/docs/support/introduction#oauth-access-token

   Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

   ZendeskDSN

   Zendesk

   OAuth Authentication [OAuth]

   https://[$Domain$].zendesk.com/api/v2

   Required Parameters
   Sub Domain (e.g. mycompany)	Fill-in the parameter...
   ClientId	Fill-in the parameter...
   ClientSecret	Fill-in the parameter...
   Permissions	Fill-in the parameter...
   RedirectUrl	Fill-in the parameter...
   Optional Parameters
   RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
   RetryStatusCodeList	429
   RetryCountMax	5
   RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True

   

    UserID/Password Authentication (2FA must be OFF) [Http]

   Authenticate using your userid / password (2FA must be OFF and [Password Access] option must be enabled under Admin Console > Channel > API > Settings. These settings typically found here https://YOUR-SUB-DOMAIN.zendesk.com/agent/admin/api/settings [API reference]

   Please refer to below API reference (external site) link for UserID/Password Authentication (2FA must be OFF) [Http]

   https://developer.zendesk.com/rest_api/docs/support/introduction#basic-authentication.

   Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

   ZendeskDSN

   Zendesk

   UserID/Password Authentication (2FA must be OFF) [Http]

   https://[$Domain$].zendesk.com/api/v2

   Required Parameters
   Sub Domain (e.g. mycompany)	Fill-in the parameter...
   UserName (2FA Must be OFF)	Fill-in the parameter...
   Password	Fill-in the parameter...
   Optional Parameters
   RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
   RetryStatusCodeList	429
   RetryCountMax	5
   RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True

   

6. Once the data source connection has been configured, it's time to configure the SQL query. Select the Preview tab and then click Query Builder button to configure the SQL query:

   

   ZappySys API Driver - Zendesk

   Zendesk Connector can be used to integrate Zendesk REST API in your App / BI Tools. You can read/write data about Tickets, Activity, Users, Organizations and more.

   ZendeskDSN

   

7. Start by selecting the Table or Endpoint you are interested in and then configure the parameters. This will generate a query that we will use in C# to retrieve data from Zendesk. Hit OK button to use this query in the next step.

   SELECT * FROM Tickets

   
   Some parameters configured in this window will be passed to the Zendesk API, e.g. filtering parameters. It means that filtering will be done on the server side (instead of the client side), enabling you to get only the meaningful data much faster.

8. Now hit Preview Data button to preview the data using the generated SQL query. If you are satisfied with the result, use this query in C#:

   

   ZappySys API Driver - Zendesk

   Zendesk Connector can be used to integrate Zendesk REST API in your App / BI Tools. You can read/write data about Tickets, Activity, Users, Organizations and more.

   ZendeskDSN

   SELECT * FROM Tickets

   
   You can also access data quickly from the tables dropdown by selecting <Select table>.
   A WHERE clause, LIMIT keyword will be performed on the client side, meaning that the whole result set will be retrieved from the Zendesk API first, and only then the filtering will be applied to the data. If possible, it is recommended to use parameters in Query Builder to filter the data on the server side (in Zendesk servers).

9. Click OK to finish creating the data source.

Video Tutorial

Read data in C#

Using ODBC DSN

1. Create a new Console project and use this code to read the data:
   

   "ZendeskDSN";

   

2. Press F5 to run the code and read the data:
   

3. Here is the code in text format:

   using System;
   using System.Data.Odbc;
   
   namespace ConsoleApp {
       class Program {
           static void Main() {
               var dsn = "ZendeskDSN";
               using (var conn = new OdbcConnection(String.Format("DSN={0}", dsn)))
               {
                   conn.Open();
                   var cmd = new OdbcCommand("SELECT * FROM Products", conn);
                   
                   //Increase the timeout duration from the default 30 seconds, which may be insufficient in certain scenarios
                   cmd.CommandTimeout=600; // 600-Seconds
                   
                   var rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader();
                   while (rdr.Read())
                   {
                       for (int i = 0; i < rdr.FieldCount; i++)
                       {
                               Console.Write("{0}\t", rdr[i]);
                       }
                       Console.WriteLine();
                   }
               }
               Console.ReadKey();
           }
       }
   }
   

Using a full ODBC connection string

If you want to avoid being dependent on a DSN and creating multiple DSNs for each platform (x86, x64), then you can use a fully qualified connection string. Simply go to your DSN and copy the Connection String:

1. Open ODBC data source configuration and click Copy settings:
   

   ZappySys API Driver - Configuration [Version: 2.0.1.10418]

   ZappySys API Driver - Zendesk

   Zendesk Connector can be used to integrate Zendesk REST API in your App / BI Tools. You can read/write data about Tickets, Activity, Users, Organizations and more.

   ZendeskDSN

   
2. The window opens, telling us the connection string was successfully copied to the clipboard:

3. Then in your C# code, pass the connection string as an argument when calling the OdbcConnection object's constructor, for example:

   var connectionString = @"DRIVER={ZappySys API Driver};ServiceUrl=https://[$Domain$].zendesk.com/api/v2;CredentialType=Basic;UserName=[$UserId$]/token;Password=[$Password$];";
   
   using (var conn = new OdbcConnection(connectionString))
   {
       // your code goes here
   }

Limitations of using a full connection string

Despite using a full ODBC connection string may be very convenient it comes with a limitation: it's length is limited to 1024 symbols (or sometimes more). It usually happens when API provider generates a very long Refresh Token when OAuth is at play. If you are using such a long ODBC connection string, you may get this error:

"Connection string exceeds maximum allowed length of 1024"

But there is a solution to this by storing the full connection string in a file. Follow the steps below to achieve this:

1. Open your ODBC data source.
2. Click Copy settings button to copy a full connection string (see the previous section on how to accomplish that).
3. Then create a new file, let's say, in C:\temp\odbc-connection-string.txt.
4. Continue by pasting the copied connection string into a newly created file and save it.
5. Finally, the last step! Just construct a shorter ODBC connection string using this format:

   DRIVER={ZappySys API Driver};SettingsFile=C:\temp\odbc-connection-string.txt

6. Our troubles are over! Now you should be able to use this connection string in C# with no problems.

Actions supported by Zendesk Connector

Learn how to perform common Zendesk actions directly in C# with these how-to guides:

• Create Organization
• Create Ticket (Single)
• Create Tickets (Bulk)
• Create User
• Delete Attachment
• Delete Organization
• Delete Ticket
• Delete Tickets (Bulk)
• Delete Upload Session
• Delete User
• Read Attachment
• Read Brands
• Read Current User Info
• Read Groups
• Read Macros
• Read Organization Count
• Read Organization Fields
• Read Organization(s) by ID
• Read Organizations (All)
• Read Organizations (Incremental) changed after a specified date
• Read Requests
• Read Requests Search
• Read Sessions
• Read Tags
• Read Ticket ActivityStream
• Read Ticket ActivityStream Details
• Read Ticket Attachments
• Read Ticket Comments
• Read Ticket Events (Incremental) changed after a specified date
• Read Ticket Fields
• Read Ticket Forms
• Read Ticket Metric Events (Incremental) changed after a specified date
• Read Ticket Metrics
• Read Ticket(s) by ID
• Read Tickets (All)
• Read Tickets (Incremental) changed after a specified date
• Read Tickets (Recent)
• Read Tickets Count (All)
• Read Tickets Count (for Organization)
• Read Tickets for Organization
• Read Tickets for User (Assigned)
• Read Tickets for User (CCed)
• Read Tickets for User (Requested)
• Read User Fields
• Read User Sessions
• Read User(s) by ID
• Read Users (All)
• Read Users (Incremental) changed after a specified date
• Read Views
• Search Records - NO Sorting (Allows more than 1000 rows)
• Search Records - WITH Sorting and Extra Columns (Max 1000 rows)
• Update Organization
• Update Ticket (Single)
• Update Tickets (Bulk)
• Update User
• Upload Attachment (Single file)
• Upsert Organization - Create or Update
• Upsert User - Create or Update
• Upsert Users (Bulk) - Create or Update
• Generic Request
• Generic Request (Bulk Write)

Conclusion

In this article we showed you how to connect to Zendesk in C# and integrate data without any coding, saving you time and effort. It's worth noting that ZappySys API Driver allows you to connect not only to Zendesk, but to any Java application that supports JDBC (just use a different JDBC driver and configure it appropriately).

We encourage you to download Zendesk Connector for C# and see how easy it is to use it for yourself or your team.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact ZappySys support team. You can also open a live chat immediately by clicking on the chat icon below.

Download Zendesk Connector for C# Documentation

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