Zendesk Connector for SAP Crystal Reports

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

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

Download Documentation

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

Step-by-step instructions

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

  1. Download and install ODBC PowerPack.

  2. Open ODBC Data Sources (x64):

    Open ODBC Data Source
  3. Create a User data source (User DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

    ZappySys API Driver
    Create new User DSN for 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
    ODBC DSN Template Selection
  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.

    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
    ODBC DSN HTTP Connection Configuration

    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
    ODBC DSN Oauth Connection Configuration

    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
    ODBC DSN HTTP Connection Configuration

  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
    Open Query Builder in API ODBC Driver to read and write data to REST API
  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 SAP Crystal Reports to retrieve data from Zendesk. Hit OK button to use this query in the next step.

    SELECT * FROM Tickets
    Configure table/endpoint parameters in ODBC data source based on API Driver
    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 SAP Crystal Reports:

    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
    API ODBC Driver-based data source data preview
    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 SAP Crystal Reports from the ODBC data source

  1. First of all, open SAP Crystal Reports and create the new Crystal Report.
    Create New Crystal Report

  2. And it will open the new data source selection window. Under ODBC(RDO) double click on the Make New Connection and Select the desired ODBC DSN, in our case we need to select ZendeskDSN which we created in upper section. And Click on Next.

    ZendeskDSN
    SAP Crystal Report - Select ODBC ZendeskDSN DSN

  3. Expand the Connection and under the data select the desired table(s) or view(s) and click Add > button and click on Next.

    ZendeskDSN
    ZendeskDSN
    SAP Crystal Report - Add ODBC ZendeskDSN DSN Tables

  4. Add the desired Fields to Display in the Reports. Here we are adding all fields and click on Finish.
    SAP Crystal Report - Add Display Fields

  5. That's it and you will be able to load the data in the Report.
    SAP Crystal Report - ZendeskDSN Data Output

Using ZappySys Driver Custom Views and Stored Procedure in SAP Crystal Report

You can create parameterized Stored Procedure and Virtual Tables on the same Data Source (ODBC DSN or Data Gateway Data Source). Please refer to this article for the same. You can create procedures to encapsulate custom logic and then only pass handful parameters rather than long SQL to execute your API call.

Using Custom Views in the SAP Crystal Report

After establishing the connection with ZendeskDSN Data Source you can use the custom view in SQL Crystal Report.
ZendeskDSN
ZendeskDSN
SAP Crystal Report - Custom Views

Using Custom Stored Procedure in the SAP Crystal Report

  1. First of all, create the custom stored procedure in the ZappySys Driver. Please refer to this article to create the custom stored procedure.
    ZappySys Driver Custom Stored Procedure
  2. After establishing the connection with ZendeskDSN Data Source you can use the custom Stored Procedure in SQL Crystal Report. Same way you can write custom queries also in the query box.
    ZendeskDSN
    SAP Crystal Report - Custom Views

Actions supported by Zendesk Connector

Learn how to perform common Zendesk actions directly in SAP Crystal Reports with these how-to guides:

Conclusion

In this article we showed you how to connect to Zendesk in SAP Crystal Reports 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 SAP Crystal Reports 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 SAP Crystal Reports Documentation

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