Notifying external targets

You can notify external targets when a ticket is created or updated. External targets are cloud-based applications and services (such as Twitter and Twilio) as well as HTTP and email. Here are some examples of how and why targets are used:

• Sending an SMS text message when an urgent ticket has been unattended for more than 48 hours
• Sending a notification to a Twitter stream when a new urgent ticket is created
• Creating a Salesforce case from a ticket

Those are just a few examples. See Setting up a target below for more information about the targets available. Targets are used in automation and trigger actions. First you configure a target and then you specify the target using the Notify target action.

This article contains the following sections:

• Setting up a target
• Using targets in automations and triggers
• Avoiding timeout errors

Setting up a target

In addition to generic targets for HTTP and email targets, you can use predefined targets for well-known cloud-based applications and services.

Table 1. Targets

Target	Description
Basecamp	Using the Basecamp target, you can push ticket updates to a project as: New messages in a project New comments in a specific message New ToDo list New ToDo item in a specific todo list You need to enable API access in your Basecamp account to use this target. For information about setting up Basecamp, see Setting up and using the Basecamp target.
Campfire	Send notifications to a Campfire chat room.
Clickatell	Use this target to send SMS messages using your Clickatell account. Follow the steps in Clickatell HTTP API Guide to setup the account, add a HTTP connection and obtain an API ID.
Email	Send emails to specific addresses. You can define the action in a trigger or automation.
Get Satisfaction	Post public comments to Get Satisfaction topics for tickets created using the Zendesk moderator tool in Get Satisfaction. By creating this target, the necessary triggers and views and also add a useful widget in the home and ticket pages (you can remove those widgets if you don't need them) will automatically be created.
HTTP	Pass information in the request body of HTTP requests to third-party services and REST APIs that accept JSON, XML, or form-encoded content. See Creating webhooks using the HTTP target.
Pivotal Tracker	Create stories in Pivotal Tracker from a Zendesk Support ticket to easily prioritize support issues in your project backlog. The Pivotal Tracker target sends the Zendesk Support ticket ID to Pivotal Tracker when creating a new story. If you have enabled Pivotal Tracker's native Zendesk integration in the target Tracker project, a link back to the Zendesk Support ticket is created in the new story.
Salesforce	Create a Salesforce case from a Zendesk Support ticket. When you set up this target, an example trigger is automatically created for you.
SugarCRM	Push ticket data to a SugarCRM case.
Twillio	Use this target to send SMS messages to a mobile phone using your Twilio account.
Twitter	Send notifications to a Twitter stream. Note: Make sure that you protect your twitter stream if you don't want notifications to be readable by the general public.
URL	Pass URL parameters to any URL. You can use placeholders as values. Example: www.some-address.com?customer_name={{ticket.requester.name}}. Set up a script on your server to receive the request, and then you can do just about anything from there. See also the HTTP target above. To troubleshoot problems with the target, see Get information about HTTP and URL targets that aren't working. Note: We don't recommend using URL/HTTP targets to update tickets in Zendesk Support, which can result in multiple issues. Use for external targets only.
Yammer	Send notifications to a Yammer stream. Follow the steps in this Yammer Target Guide to create a client application in Yammer and authorize this target to use the Yammer API. For more information, see Notifying your Yammer feed.

Note: To set up many of these external targets, you'll need to consult their documentation. Some targets, such as Twitter, merely require that you authorize your account before you can begin posting messages.

To add a target

1. Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Extensions.
2. Click the Targets tab.
3. Select Add target.
4. All of the target options are listed. Select the type of target and enter the required target information (which varies from target to target).
5. Select Create Target from the drop-down list at the bottom of the page. If you want to test the target before adding it, select Test Target.
6. Click the Submit button.

Once you've set up targets, you can edit, delete, and deactivate and reactivate them. See Managing external targets.

Using targets in automations and triggers

Once you've set up targets, you can use them in automations and triggers. Here's an example of a trigger that notifies a Twitter account when an urgent ticket is created:

Since you're interacting with external targets, there may be a delay between when a trigger or automation runs and when you'll see the results in the external target (in the example above, that would be your Twitter home page or stream).

You can enter up to 8192 characters in the Message field of a Notify target action.

Avoiding timeout errors

If a timeout error is received within 10 seconds of a request being made, Zendesk retries the request. After 21 consecutive failed attempts to retry the request, Zendesk deactivates the target. You'll need to reactivate the target before you can use it again.

Zendesk admins receive a notification when a target is automatically deactivated. They don't receive a notification when a target is manually deleted or deactivated.

The following are the most common causes of timeout errors:

• The message body in the trigger or target page is blank.
• There's a problem with the receiving server.

If using an HTTP request, you can use the Target Failures tab in the API dashboard to check for problems with the request. See Debugging a webhook.