1What FoxPlug reads from Zendesk
These are the exact things it reads, and nothing else.
| What | The details it takes |
|---|---|
| Your subdomain and the admin email | typed by you in one box, separated by a comma. The subdomain is the acme part of acme.zendesk.com; a pasted address is trimmed down to that part. Without either one the read stops with an error |
| Your newest tickets (tags and creation time only) | for each ticket: the tags and the time it was created, newest first, 100 per page, up to 3 pages, so at most the 300 newest tickets. An underscore inside a tag is turned into a space, so 'bulk import' reads as 'bulk import'. The ticket list the API sends back carries other fields too; the code takes only the tags and the creation time and drops the rest |
| Counts per tag | over the last 30 days; a tag must be at least 3 characters and be on at least 2 tickets; the top 20 are kept, each as a 'request' with as many votes as tickets |
| What is stored from the read | up to 30 of those tag names with their counts, how many matched something you shipped, and the time of the read; no ticket text, customer name or email |
| Your own recent updates, for matching | titles of the updates FoxPlug already holds from your other tools in the last 30 days (up to 80), compared word by word with the tag names. Updates that came from the support and request tools themselves are left out of that list |
2Moments it finds, and what each becomes
A moment is one thing that happened in Zendesk worth a second look. Each one is scored, then it becomes a post, a changelog entry, a thing to fix or an idea to email, or it is skipped.
A tag used on at least 3 tickets in the last 30 days matches the words of something you shipped in the last 30 days
The moment is titled like this: Looks like you shipped what 6 people asked for: refund policy
Six tickets from the last 30 days carry the tag 'refund policy', and one of your updates this month is 'Shipped a clearer refund policy page'. FoxPlug writes 'Looks like you shipped what 6 people asked for: refund policy' and says the tag is on 6 tickets in 30 days. At most 3 such moments come out of one read.
3How the brain uses it
The rules below are the ones that apply to Zendesk. The same rules, with worked examples, are on the brain page.
- Zendesk is read for ticket tags only, counted over 30 days. A tag on at least 2 tickets becomes a request with that many votes; the code handles it exactly like Help Scout and Intercom tags. Ticket text, names and emails are never read. How the brain decides
- A tag with at least 3 tickets whose words match something you shipped in the last 30 days becomes a 'looks like you shipped it' say line. Matching is by words: a one or two word tag needs every word, a longer one needs at least two words and half of them. Check it before you post. How the brain decides
- FoxPlug keeps titles and counts, not who asked, so it cannot write to the people who asked; telling them is yours to do. How the brain decides
- Zendesk was added to the list of connectable tools in the latest connector change; the brain page text on this had not yet been updated to name it at the time this sheet was written, so the rules above are read from the code. How the brain decides
4Set up Zendesk in a few steps
Access: an API token plus your subdomain and the admin email, pasted by you. What to give it: API token (FoxPlug only reads); subdomain and admin email go in the box under it.
- In Zendesk Admin Center, open Apps and integrations, then APIs, then Zendesk API.
- Turn on token access, add an API token and name it FoxPlug, then copy it.
- Paste it into FoxPlug, and type your subdomain (the acme in acme.zendesk.com) and the email of the admin who made the token in the box under it, separated by a comma.
- Press Check for what's new.
5Limits worth knowing
Where it stops, so nothing surprises you.
- Reads at most 3 pages of 100 tickets, the newest first, and stops earlier when a page has under 100 tickets or Zendesk gives no next page.
- Only tickets created in the last 30 days are counted.
- A tag needs at least 2 tickets to appear and at least 3 to produce a 'Looks like you shipped it' moment; at most the top 20 names are kept and at most 3 matched moments come out of one read.
- Tags have no completed state, so there is never a 'Shipped what N people asked for' moment from Zendesk, only the matched kind.
- Both the subdomain and the admin email are required; a missing one stops the read with an error.
- The sign-in is Basic auth with the admin email, '/token:' and the API token. That form is confirmed by Zendesk's own documentation.
- NOT confirmed by any vendor document or real account: how many tickets Zendesk sends per page, and what a tag looks like in the ticket list, come from the reader code alone.
6What it never reads
Read only means read only, and the list below is what the code leaves alone.
- Ticket text, subjects and comments
- Customer names or email addresses (the admin email you type is used only to sign in to the API)
- Anything that writes to Zendesk: it replies to nobody, changes no ticket and adds no tag
7How Zendesk differs from the tools next to it
Near-identical to Help Scout and Intercom in what FoxPlug does with the result. Zendesk: an API token plus your subdomain and admin email, then GET of the ticket list (100 per page, up to 3 pages); tag names only, underscores turned into spaces. Help Scout: an App ID and App secret exchanged for a token, then conversations. Intercom: one private-app token, tags and topic names. None has a completed state, so all three can only give 'Looks like you shipped it' moments.
8Questions
Why does FoxPlug ask for a subdomain and an email as well as the token?
Zendesk's API token sign-in is the admin email plus the token, and every account lives at its own address. The subdomain (the acme in acme.zendesk.com) and the email go in the box under the token, separated by a comma.
Does FoxPlug read my customers' emails or what they wrote?
No. It counts the tags on your newest tickets. Ticket text, customer names and email addresses are not read or kept.
When does it read Zendesk?
Only when you press Check for what's new. Nothing is fetched on a timer for your project.
Has the Zendesk connection been tested against a real account?
No. It is marked code-path-only: the code path exists and its offline checks pass, but no real Zendesk account of ours has exercised it. Treat the first read as the test.
FoxPlug reads this tool only when you press Check for what's new, and only to read. Plans and limits are on the pricing page. Questions: support.