Example: Integrating the HTTP Target with Slack Follow

Updated September 21, 2018 23:31

Slack is a popular team collaboration product. Zendesk doesn’t have a built-in Slack Target, and in the past this would make it difficult for a business to send messages into Slack. In this example we will show how to use an HTTP Target to send comments from newly rated tickets directly into Slack by integrating directly into a Slack channel using Slack's incoming webhooks.

Setting up the HTTP Target

Let’s assume you have already created an incoming webhook in Slack.

To create your target in Zendesk Support

As a Zendesk admin, navigate to Settings > Extensions > add target.
Click HTTP Target.
Configure the target to integrate with Slack’s incoming webhook functionality.
When a webhook is configured in Slack, it will generate a webhook URL that receives new POST requests from your Target, as shown below.
Configure your webhook to use this URL. Since Slack does not require basic authentication, leave the username and password fields empty.
Save the target.
You’re now ready to configure a trigger notification using this Target.

Configuring the HTTP target as a trigger action

Now you need to configure your HTTP target as a trigger action.

To set up your trigger in Zendesk Support

As a Zendesk admin, navigate to Settings > Business Rules > Triggers.
In this example, we’ll configure a Trigger to send information about a customer satisfaction rating into Slack whenever a ticket is solved.
Configure your Trigger conditions to notify your new Slack Target whenever a ticket is solved and Satisfaction is rated with a comment.

The Trigger action should contain JSON formatted content according to Slack's documentation.
{ "text": "You received some feedback from {{ticket.requester.name}} on :\n{{satisfaction.current_comment}}" }
Save your trigger.

Now, newly rated tickets will send notifications into your Slack channel directly from Zendesk.

Comments

17 comments

Bart Brosens February 20, 2018 15:17

thanks for the great post Steven!

I was wondering...is there a way to notify a target with the latest comment in a zendesk ticket?

I don't see it in the available placeholders.

thx

Bart

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Nicole - Community Manager February 22, 2018 18:07

Hey Bart -

You should be able to do so. You just set up the target, and then it's triggers that do the work. More info can be found here:

Notifying external targets

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Jay Kershner March 22, 2018 00:36

Great example, how do I add the following variables into the slack post. I set up a trigger to send all of this via email, but would prefer to have it go to Slack.... Any help on what the JSON code would be?

Thanks!

Requester: {{ticket.requester.name}}
Assignee: {{ticket.assignee.name}}
Ticket #: {{ticket.id}}
Rating: {{satisfaction.current_rating}}

Comment: {{satisfaction.current_comment}}

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Jessie - Community Manager March 26, 2018 19:41

Hi Jay!

Rather than sending to email, you need to have it send to the HTTP target you create to send info to Slack. The very last image in the article shows what the JSON looks like. That should get you where you need to go!

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Jay Kershner March 26, 2018 19:47

@Jessie -

I know you need to send to HTTP target. I got that working, but I want to sen other fields from ZD to Slack, like I set up with my email trigger. See below. What does the JSON code look like if I want to add these fields?

Requester: {{ticket.requester.name}}

Assignee: {{ticket.assignee.name}}
Ticket #: {{ticket.id}}
Rating: {{satisfaction.current_rating}}

Comment: {{satisfaction.current_comment}}

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Jessie - Community Manager April 02, 2018 20:39

Hey, Jay! Sorry I misunderstood your question.

I was able to find some documentation about formatting incoming webhooks in Slack's API resources, so that should help you get started.

Based on the screenshot example above, it looks like you can use regular ZD placeholders to send that information over, but I'll see about getting one of our Community Moderators in here to verify that for you!

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Lara Palmer April 11, 2018 14:56

@Jay or @Jessie

Did anybody ever figure out the answer to Jay's question? I'm trying to do the same thing - add additional fields to what Zendesk sends to Slack. I tried adding it right in the Zendesk JSON but Slack doesn't interpret it. I believe I probably have to dork with the JSON URL in the slack webhook as well as the JSON in the Zendesk trigger but there I'm not finding any information on how to manipulate the JSON URL in the slack webhook.

Thanks,

Lara

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Lara Palmer April 11, 2018 18:04

Never mind: https://thecoolway.net/2018/01/13/advanced-zendesk-notifications-in-slack-using-incoming-webhooks/

I also see that Zendesk and Slack have collaborated to do a new integration but you have to be a certain level customer with Zendesk and it still seems kind of locked down on what fields you can display.

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Jay Kershner April 19, 2018 23:42

Finally got escalated to T3 support, Garrick killed it and helped me customize JSON to get what i need. Here's what you need if you want to send CSAT/DSAT notifications to your team via a Slack Channel...Really speeds up the investigation/feedback cycles.

{ "text": "DSAT received on {{ticket.url}}, [Assigned to {{ticket.assignee.name}}] [Customer = {{ticket.requester.name}}] [Comment = :\n{{satisfaction.current_comment}}]" }

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Nicole - Community Manager April 20, 2018 14:56

Glad to hear you got the help you needed, Jay! Thanks for sharing the answer.

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Dan Ross April 20, 2018 15:03

For users playing with shaping JSON to send to Slack or other services, you may find https://jsonlint.com/ to be invaluable. You can enter and validate that the JSON is structurally correct, which is handy because if you send bad JSON to Slack, you don't get a ton of information about what broke.

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Jessie - Community Manager April 26, 2018 21:25

Thanks for sharing that, Dan!

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Danny Koss October 03, 2018 20:01

Hello. I'm trying to modify the JSON blob of a trigger that is sent to an extension which in turn fires a message to Slack.

The current JSON which successfully sends info to Slack is:

{"status": "{{ticket.status}}", "id": "{{ticket.id}}", "updated_at": "{{ticket.updated_at_with_timestamp}}"}

Oddly, what is generated in Slack does not reflect this information. The result looks like the following:

I would like to change the JSON to something like the following, but the extension fails to send anything to Slack:

{"ticket_id": "{{ticket.id}}","status": "{{ticket.status}}","updated_at": "{{ticket.updated_at_with_timestamp}}","subdomain": "{{ticket.account}}","ticket_latest_comment": "{{ticket.latest_comment}}","updated_by": "{{current_user.name}}"}

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Dan Ross October 03, 2018 20:12

Hey Danny,

Do you see anything in your API->Target Failures tab in your settings that correspond to the time you did your test?

Do you have the Zendesk-built in slack integration installed as well? or just the setup described in the article?

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Danny Koss October 03, 2018 20:16

Hi Dan. Yes, there are in fact target failures with status 500 (invalid_ticket_id).

We did install the Zenesk-built integration, but many of the triggers still rely on the legacy Slack-built integrations if I'm not mistaken.

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Dan Ross October 03, 2018 20:38 (Edited October 03, 2018 20:38)

Hey Danny,

My hunch is that your extension might be expecting a parameter name of "id" instead of ticket_id", given that your initial JSON worked and the new one doesn't. (one has "id":"{{ticket.id}}" and the other has "ticket_id":"{{ticket.id}}".

However, just sending the blob as is in a trigger, (once it works) will generate a pretty simple message.

If you're looking to mimic the styling you're seeing in the screenshot you included, you might want to look at using the Slack Attachments feature.

Assuming you're posting to an Incoming Webhook target for Slack, here's an example template:

{  
   "channel":"ENTER DESTINATION CHANNEL NAME OR USER ID HERE (eg:escalation_channel)",
   "icon_emoji":":FAVOURITE EMOJI:",
   "username":"WHAT YOU WANT TO NAME YOUR BOT",
   "attachments":[  
      {  
         "fallback":"You have a reply on ticket #{{ticket.id}}({{ticket.title}}!",
         "pretext":"You have a reply on ticket #{{ticket.id}}({{ticket.title}}!",
         "title":"Click To Open Ticket",
         "title_link":"{{ticket.link}}",
         "color":"(green, yellow, warning, see slack docs for options. )",
         "fields":[  
            {  
               "title":"Status",
               "value":"{{ticket.status}}",
               "short":true
            },
            {  
               "title":"Ticket Subject",
               "value":"{{ticket.title}}",
               "short":true
            },
            {  
               "title":"Assignee",
               "value":"{{ticket.assignee.name}}",
               "short":true
            },
            {  
               "title":"SOME OTHER FIELD",
               "value":"{{SOME OTHER PLACEHOLDER}}",
               "short":true
            }
         ]
      }
   ]
}

here's a sample of what that looks like. This screenshot isn't a 1:1 for the fields I've put in the demo above, but it should illustrate the point.

Hope that helps!

Danny Koss October 04, 2018 22:08

Thanks, Dan! You got me going in the right direction. All is now working as expected.

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Example: Integrating the HTTP Target with Slack Follow

Setting up the HTTP Target

Configuring the HTTP target as a trigger action

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