Zendesk Connector for Microsoft Fabric

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 Microsoft Fabric without coding. We will use high-performance Zendesk Connector to easily connect to Zendesk and then access the data inside Microsoft Fabric.

Let's follow the steps below to see how we can accomplish that!

Download Documentation

Zendesk Connector for Microsoft Fabric 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.

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

Step-by-step instructions

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

Download and install ODBC PowerPack.
Open ODBC Data Sources (x64):
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.
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

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

Zendesk authentication

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 external API reference

API Connection Manager configuration

Just perform these simple steps to finish authentication configuration:

Set Authentication Type to Token Authentication [Http]
Optional step. Modify API Base URL if needed (in most cases default will work).
Fill in all the required parameters and set optional parameters if needed.
Finally, hit OK button:

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

Zendesk authentication

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 external API reference

API Connection Manager configuration

Just perform these simple steps to finish authentication configuration:

Set Authentication Type to OAuth Authentication [OAuth]
Optional step. Modify API Base URL if needed (in most cases default will work).
Fill in all the required parameters and set optional parameters if needed.
Press Generate Token button to generate the tokens.
Finally, hit OK button:

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)

Zendesk authentication

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 external API reference

API Connection Manager configuration

Just perform these simple steps to finish authentication configuration:

Set Authentication Type to UserID/Password Authentication (2FA must be OFF) [Http]
Optional step. Modify API Base URL if needed (in most cases default will work).
Fill in all the required parameters and set optional parameters if needed.
Finally, hit OK button:

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

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
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 Microsoft Fabric 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.
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 Microsoft Fabric:
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).
Click OK to finish creating the data source.

Video Tutorial

Installing Microsoft On-premises data gateway

To access and read Zendesk data in Microsoft Fabric, you will have to download and install Microsoft On-premises data gateway.

There are two types of On-premises data gateways:

Standard Mode
Personal Mode

Standard Mode supports Power BI and other Microsoft Data Fabric services. It fits perfectly for Enterprise solutions as it installs as a Windows Service and also supports Direct Query feature.

Personal Mode, on the other hand, can be configured faster, but is designed more for home users (you cannot install it as a Windows Service and it does not support DirectQuery). You will find a detailed comparison in the link above.

We recommend to go with Personal Mode for a quick POC solution, but use Standard Mode in production environment. You can download On-premises data gateway straight from Microsoft Data Fabric or Power BI web app:

Download Power BI On-premises data gateway

Standard mode

Follow these steps how to configure On-premises data gateway in Standard mode:

Install On-premises data gateway (standard mode) and sign-in:

Use the same email address you use when logging in into your account.
Register a new gateway (or migrate an existing one):
If you are creating a new gateway, name your gateway, enter a Recovery key, and click Configure button:
Once Microsoft gateway is installed, check if it registered correctly:
- Go back to Microsoft Fabric portal
- Click Gear icon on top-right
- And then hit Manage connections and gateways menu item
Continue by clicking On-premises data gateway tab and select Standard mode gateways option from the dropdown:
If your gateway is not listed, the registration may have failed. To resolve this:
- Wait a couple of minutes and refresh Microsoft Fabric portal page
- Restart the machine where On-premises data gateway is installed
- Check firewall settings
Done!

Now we are ready to read data in Microsoft Fabric.

Personal mode

Follow this single step to configure On-premises data gateway in Personal mode:

Install On-premises data gateway (personal mode) and sign-in:

Use the same email address you use when logging in into your account.
Once Microsoft gateway is installed, check if it registered correctly:
- Go back to Microsoft Fabric portal
- Click Gear icon on top-right
- And then hit Manage connections and gateways menu item
Continue by clicking On-premises data gateway tab and select Personal mode option from the dropdown:
If your gateway is not listed, the registration may have failed. To resolve this:
- Wait a couple of minutes and refresh Microsoft Fabric portal page
- Restart the machine where On-premises data gateway is installed
- Check firewall settings
Done!

Now we are ready to read data in Microsoft Fabric.

Loading Zendesk data into Microsoft Fabric

We created ODBC data source and installed Microsoft On-premises data gateway, and we are ready to load the data into Microsoft Fabric.

Let's roll!

Log in to the Microsoft Fabric Portal.
Select an existing Workspace or create a new one by clicking New workspace (make sure you are in Home section):
Inside your workspace, click the New item button in the toolbar to start creating your data pipeline:
In the item selection window, choose Copy job to open the data ingestion wizard:
In the Choose data source screen, search for odbc and select the Odbc source:
Then enter your ODBC connection string (DSN=ZendeskDSN) and select MyGateway from the Data gateway dropdown we configured in the previous step:

DSN=ZendeskDSN

DSN=ZendeskDSN
Select the table(s) and preview the data you wish to copy from Zendesk. Once done, click Next:

DSN=ZendeskDSN
Choose your Data Destination. You can create a New Fabric item (like a Lakehouse or Warehouse) or select an existing one:

As an example, we will be using Lakehouse as destination type in this article
Choose Full copy to load all data or Incremental copy if you want to load only changed data in subsequent runs:
Review the Column and Table mappings section:
On the summary screen, review your settings. You can optionally enable Run on schedule. Click Save + Run to execute the job:

DSN=ZendeskDSN

DSN=ZendeskDSN
The job will enter the queue. Monitor the Status column to see the progress:

DSN=ZendeskDSN
Wait for the status to change to Succeeded. Your Zendesk data is now successfully integrated into Microsoft Fabric!
Let's go to our Lakehouse MyLakehouse and double-check if it's true:
It's true, done!

Centralized data access via Data Gateway

In some situations, you may need to provide Zendesk data access to multiple users or services. Configuring the data source on a Data Gateway creates a single, centralized connection point for this purpose.

This configuration provides two primary advantages:

Centralized data access
The data source is configured once on the gateway, eliminating the need to set it up individually on each user's machine or application. This significantly simplifies the management process.
Centralized access control
Since all connections route through the gateway, access can be governed or revoked from a single location for all users.

	Data Gateway	Local ODBC data source
Simple configuration
Installation	Single machine	Per machine
Connectivity	Local and remote	Local only
Connections limit	Limited by License	Unlimited
Central data access
Central access control
More flexible cost

If you need any of these requirements, you will have to create a data source in Data Gateway to connect to Zendesk, and to create an ODBC data source to connect to Data Gateway in Microsoft Fabric.

Let's not wait and get going!

Creating Zendesk data source in Gateway

In this section we will create a data source for Zendesk in Data Gateway. Let's follow these steps to accomplish that:

Search for gateway in Windows Start Menu and open ZappySys Data Gateway Configuration:
Go to Users tab and follow these steps to add a Data Gateway user:
- Click Add button
- In Login field enter username, e.g., john
- Then enter a Password
- Check Is Administrator checkbox
- Click OK to save
Now we are ready to add a data source:
- Click Add button
- Give Datasource a name (have it handy for later)
- Then select Native - ZappySys API Driver
- Finally, click OK
ZendeskDSN

ZappySys API Driver
When the ZappySys API Driver configuration window opens, configure the Data Source the same way you configured it in ODBC Data Sources (64-bit), in the beginning of this article.
Very important step. Now, after creating or modifying the data source make sure you:
- Click the Save button to persist your changes.
- Hit Yes, once asked if you want to restart the Data Gateway service.
This will ensure all changes are properly applied:

Skipping this step may result in the new settings not taking effect and, therefore you will not be able to connect to the data source.

Creating ODBC data source for Data Gateway

In this part we will create ODBC data source to connect to Data Gateway from Microsoft Fabric. To achieve that, let's perform these steps:

Open ODBC Data Sources (x64):
Create a User data source (User DSN) based on ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server:

ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server

If you don't see ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server driver in the list, choose a similar version driver.
Then set a Name of the data source (e.g. Gateway) and the address of the Data Gateway:

GatewayDSN

localhost,5000

Make sure you separate the hostname and port with a comma, e.g. localhost,5000.
Proceed with authentication part:
- Select SQL Server authentication
- In Login ID field enter the user name you used in Data Gateway, e.g., john
- Set Password to the one you configured in Data Gateway
Then set the default database property to ZendeskDSN (the one we used in Data Gateway):

ZendeskDSN
Continue by checking Trust server certificate option:
Once you do that, test the connection:
If connection is successful, everything is good:
Done!

We are ready to move to the final step. Let's do it!

Accessing data in Microsoft Fabric via Data Gateway

Finally, we are ready to read data from Zendesk in Microsoft Fabric via Data Gateway. Follow these final steps:

Go back to Microsoft Fabric.
In the Choose data source screen, search for odbc and select the Odbc source:
Then enter your ODBC connection string (DSN=GatewayDSN) and select MyGateway from the Data gateway dropdown we configured in the previous step:

DSN=GatewayDSN

DSN=GatewayDSN
Read the data the same way we discussed at the beginning of this article.
That's it!

Now you can connect to Zendesk data in Microsoft Fabric via the Data Gateway.

If you are asked for authentication details, use Database authentication or SQL Authentication option and enter credentials you used when configuring Data Gateway, e.g. john and your password.