Zendesk Inbound Integration

Create alerts in ilert from Zendesk tickets and vice versa — with ilert's Zendesk integration

Zendesk offers a range of products that streamline processes and enhance productivity for support teams, enabling them to provide more effective and personalized service experiences. The platform allows businesses to manage customer interactions across various communication channels, such as email, chat, and social media, consolidating them into a single, unified interface.

In ilert: Create a Zendesk alert source

Go to Alert sources --> Alert sources and click on Create new alert source
Search for Zendesk in the search field, click on the Zendesk tile and click on Next.
Give your alert source a name, optionally assign teams and click Next.
Select an escalation policy by creating a new one or assigning an existing one.
Select you Alert grouping preference and click Continue setup. You may click Do not group alerts for now and change it later.
The next page show additional settings such as customer alert templates or notification prioritiy. Click on Finish setup for now.
On the final page, an API key and / or webhook URL will be generated that you will need later in this guide.

In Zendesk: Create a Target

Go to Zendesk and then to Settings -> Extensions and click on the Add target button

On the next page click the HTTP target link

On the next page:
In the Title section, enter a name eg. ilert
In the URL section, paste the Webhook URL that you generated in ilert
In the Method section, choose POST
In the Content type section, choose JSON
In the bottom section choose Create target
Click the Submit button

Create a Trigger

Go to Zendesk and then to Business Rules -> Triggers and click on the Add trigger button

On the next page:
In the Trigger name section, enter a name eg. ilert
In the Category section, choose a category, e.g. Notifications
In the Meet ANY of following conditions section, add Ticket is created and Ticket is updated rules

Scroll down to the Actions panel and choose the ilert Notify target that you created above
In the JSON body sections, paste the following object:

{
  "id": "{{ticket.id}}",
  "title": "{{ticket.title}}",
  "description": "{{ticket.description}}",
  "via": "{{ticket.via}}",
  "status": "{{ticket.status}}",
  "priority": "{{ticket.priority}}",
  "requester_name": "{{ticket.requester.name}}",
  "group_name": "{{ticket.group.name}}",
  "assignee_name": "{{ticket.assignee.name}}",
  "account": "{{ticket.account}}",
  "link": "{{ticket.link}}",
  "latest_comment": "{{ticket.latest_comment}}",
  "latest_comment_author_name": "
{% for comment in ticket.comments limit:1 offset:0 %}{{comment.author.name}}{% endfor %}"
}

Click on the Create button

Zendesk Incident Lifecycle

Additional Custom Ticket Details

You may provide an additional field for the Zendesk trigger template to render additional information into ilert alert details.

{
  "additional_ticket_details": {
        "test": "{{ticket.title}}",
        "two": 3,
        "three": ["one", "two", "three"]
    }
}

The additional_ticket_details map's values will be displayed in a human readable format in the alert's detail section.

FAQ

Will alerts in ilert be resolved automatically?

Yes, as soon as an Zendesk Ticket is completed, the alert in ilert will be resolved automatically.

Can I connect Zendesk with multiple alert sources from ilert?

Yes, simply create more Webhooks in Zendesk.

Can I customize the alert messages?

No.

Are Zendesk comments synced with ilert alerts?

Yes, if the variables latest_comment and latest_comment_author_name are provided in your Zendesk trigger JSON template the comments will be synced to ilert alerts.