In Explore, data is calculated in queries. This article introduces you to queries, including what they are, how they’re structured, and how you interact with them in Explore. It also gives you some resources where you can find more detailed information about working with queries.
This article contains the following topics:
What are queries?
Queries are questions you ask about the information stored in your Zendesk account. For example, you could ask, "What percentage of this month's tickets have a priority of urgent?" Or, "Which agents have solved the most tickets this month?"
You create queries in the query builder. To learn more about navigating the query builder, see Getting started with the Explore interface.
Queries are stored in the queries library. You can open the queries library anytime by
clicking the () icon on the left sidebar.
How queries interact with datasets
Before you create a query, you need to define the data source that contains the business information you want to report on. In Explore, these data sources are referred to as datasets. These datasets connect you to information about other Zendesk products, like Support.
Whenever you create a query, you’ll be prompted to choose the dataset you want. Typically, you’ll use the out-of-the-box datasets for the product you want to query. More advanced users might create new datasets for testing and customization purposes.
For more information on datasets, see Understanding Explore datasets.How queries are structured
A typical query contains the following pieces:
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Metrics: Quantifiable data that represents the things you want to measure. A query must always contain at least one metric. Examples: Number of tickets, number of updates, number of comments, and more
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Attributes: Qualitative data that “slices” your metric into groups defined by the values of the attribute. Examples: Dates, user groups, tags, and more
For example, the attribute Assignee name lists your different Zendesk Support assignee names as the values. If your query includes the Tickets metric and the Assignee name attribute, Explore displays the number of tickets for each assignee.
In the Query builder, metrics are added in the Metrics panel. Attributes can be added to the Columns, Rows, Explosions, and Filters panels.
For more information on adding metrics and attributes, see Adding metrics and attributes to queries.Prebuilt Explore queries
Explore provides some out-of-the-box queries that help you start reporting on your Zendesk product data faster. When you first open Explore, you’ll find the following types of prebuilt queries in the default datasets.
Sample queries
Sample queries showcase the data available in the default datasets and act as the foundation for your first custom queries. You can edit these queries to suit your needs or clone them.
You can identify these queries by the [sample] label in their titles.Default dashboard queries
Default dashboard queries are created by the system when one of the prebuilt dashboards is cloned. To customize a cloned dashboard, you can edit these queries or delete any that aren’t needed.
You can identify these queries by the [default] label in their titles.Query resources
Now that you know the basics about queries, dig deeper with the articles in the following sections:
5 Comments
Hi,
I can see the number of queries we created, however only part of them listed.
All queries 117, but only 29 listed ?!
Regards,
Hi Fabiana -
Just to make sure, when you're on the Queries Library page, you've clicked "All queries" so that's highlighted, you don't have any search criteria entered that would limit the results, and also you've scrolled down all the way to the bottom (it should auto-load more queries to the list as you scroll down)?
If all of that is true, I wonder if there might be a browser issue. I'd suggest contacting our support team via chat (Option 1 here), so they can help troubleshoot your issue:: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026614173-Contacting-Zendesk-Customer-Support
When building a query I dont see a way input a 'date range' for the data. How can i have the query only show only the data from (for example) January 1-31 or the last quarter? thank you
Welcome to the community! To limit the date range of the data in your query, you'll want to apply a Filter based on a metric (e.g. the date tickets were created, the date they were solved, etc.). See "Example: Filtering by metrics" here: Working with query filters
Dave Dyson
Hello Dave - based upon your responses you seem to be very knowledgeable when it comes to Explorer. I just took a job at a company that uses Zendesk and coming from a SalesForce shop I am struggling with the concept of Explorer and having to add the queries to dashboards. I figured out how to do it but it seems odd they they don't have a way to run the query in a plain report mode. Are there any add-ons that you could recommend. I am 6x certified in SalesForce so I consider myself very technical. From reading older posts it looks like Zendesk used a product called Insights before, which had plain reporting. I just want to be able to filter and sort on column headers and in the queries it only works on some columns but not all. Any help would be greatly appreciated
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