Zendesk Connector for SSRS

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

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

Download Documentation

Video Tutorial - Integrate Zendesk data in SSRS

This video covers the following topics and more, so please watch carefully. After watching the video, follow the steps outlined in this article:

  • How to download and install the required PowerPack for Zendesk integration in SSRS
  • How to configure the connection for Zendesk
  • Features of the ZappySys API Driver (Authentication / Query Language / Examples / Driver UI)
  • How to use the Zendesk in SSRS

Create Data Source in ZappySys Data Gateway based on API Driver

  1. Download and install ODBC PowerPack.

  2. Search for gateway in start menu and Open ZappySys Data Gateway:
    Open ZappySys Data Gateway

  3. Go to Users Tab to add our first Gateway user. Click Add; we will give it a name tdsuser and enter password you like to give. Check Admin option and click OK to save. We will use these details later when we create linked server:
    ZappySys Data Gateway - Add User

  4. Now we are ready to add a data source. Click Add, give data source a name (Copy this name somewhere, we will need it later) and then select Native - ZappySys API Driver. Finally, click OK. And it will create the Data Set for it and open the ZS driver UI.

    ZendeskDSN

    ZappySys Data Gateway - Add Data Source

  5. 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
  6. 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

  7. 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
  8. 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 SSRS 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.
  9. 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 SSRS:

    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).
  10. Click OK to finish creating the data source.

Read data in SSRS from ZappySys Data Gateway

  1. Open Visual Studio and create a new SSRS project
  2. Then add a new Shared Data Source (you can create a non-shared data source inside report too):

    Adding a Data Source in SSRS project
  3. Continue with creating the Shared Data Source. Select Microsoft SQL Server as Type and hit Build button to proceed further:

    Configuring a Data Source to access API data in SSRS project
  4. Once a window opens, configure it similarly. Configure "ZendeskDSN" as database name. Finally, hit Test Connection and OK:

    ZendeskDSN
    Configuring thoroughly a Data Source to access API data in SSRS project
  5. Another window opens, and it should look similarly to this one below which ends the creation of a Data Source:

    DataSource=localhost,5000;Initial Catalog=ZendeskDSN
    How Data Source in SSRS project looks like
  6. Now it's time to create a Dataset. If you don't have a report created, in one of the wizard's steps it will look like this:

    SELECT * FROM Tickets
    Specifying a query in SSRS Dataset to access API data #1
  7. Finally, once you complete the report, similar results will show up:

    ZappySys Data Gateway API data source results

Passing Parameters to SSRS Report / Filter data

If you want to parameterize your report, then refer to this article

Actions supported by Zendesk Connector

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

Conclusion

In this article we showed you how to connect to Zendesk in SSRS 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 SSRS 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 SSRS Documentation

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