Batch Reporting via Zendesk

[dbyfield]

Hi All,

I've got an upcoming piece of work for which I'd appreciate some thoughts or suggestions. Ideally, I'd like to accomplish as much of this as possible through Alteryx (please note I'm only using Designer as opposed to Server).

Aim:

- Extract data from the Zendesk ticketing system

- Collate into a row-level data-file (csv or Excel) and combine with a visual summary report.

- Package up both files securely and send to a predefined list of recipients

- Repeat for each instance of a specific field (there will be a field in the raw data defining this.)

I'm clear that a Batch Macro would likely be the best route for producing the report & iterating through each recipient (I haven't done this before but have a good idea on how through various helpful Community posts.)

Where I need some guidance is on 2 points:

Extraction of Data:

Currently, this can be manually downloaded so short-term this isn't a barrier, but ideally, I'd like to use a Download tool to streamline. The Zendesk portal also uses MFA (Okta) so I'm wondering how much of a barrier this would be?

Sending of Files to Recipients:

- The files will contain some personal information, so as a bare minimum they will need to be protected before emailing with (preferably) a randomly generated password.

- My ideal scenario is for the workflow to (as its last stage) either:

1. Output / Encrypt file in 7-Zip > Generate Password > Send to Recipient > Send Password to Recipient Separately.
2. Upload File to Storage Portal (OneDrive for e.g.) > Notify Recipient

I'm open to suggestions (and any thoughts/experiences of https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/zendesk-odbc-alteryx.rst ) and would greatly appreciate some ideas on how best to achieve.

Cheers

[BrandonB]

I haven't personally used the CDATA ODBC Driver, but that would probably be the most "plug and play" so to speak. 

If you are looking to build it yourself with the download tool, you would want to reference the Zendesk API documentation: https://developer.zendesk.com/rest_api/docs/support/introduction

The way that this generally works is that one download tool is used for an authentication step and then another download tool is used for a subsequent call of the data. Rather than using Okta, you would likely leverage an API token or Oauth flow so that it can programatically authenticate. This would handle your extraction of data step. I was able to find another example of a Zendesk workflow that was available on the community (last post at the bottom): https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/Alteryx-and-Zendesk/td-p/150728

For the output and sending of files to recipients, you may want to look at something like this: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/Input-and-Output-password-protected-XL...

This takes the approach of creating a password protected Excel file in a specific location. 

Hopefully this is a good start! I wouldn't worry about the macro until you build it out for a single use case and then you could wrap the whole workflow up to run in a batch style. 

[DanM]

@dbyfield 

First off you are on the right track with the batch macro to work with the data to get it into the way you want it. The connection to Zendesk is not supported by Alteryx so you'll have to see if anyone else has used that connection before. Since we have not tested it, we can't say if it's any good. 

The last part of creating password Zip and push to Onedrive are going to take bat files to complete. Since Alteryx will not output in zip file format and we don't offer password creation either. The articles below should help you with all three of those aspects. You can use the Events tab in the workflow configuration to run these bat files upon the completion of the workflow.

https://superuser.com/questions/1343438/how-to-add-password-command-in-zip-bat-file

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20485419/batch-file-script-to-zip-files/20486828

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfwinrt-surfusing/copy-a-file-to-onedrive-using-...

Hopefully someone will have more info for you on the Zendesk connection, but if it's free it's probably worth a shot.

DanM