Providing agents with more information using the Iframe and Text apps

Two apps, the Iframe app and the Text app, let agents access additional information from the Zendesk agent interface. This article describes the two apps and how to install them.

• Using the Iframe app
• Using the Text app

Using the Iframe app

An iframe is an HTML element that lets you nest one web page in another web page. The Iframe app is designed to let Zendesk agents quickly flip to a web page in the agent interface and then flip back to their tickets without interrupting their workflow. This can be especially useful if agents use a page to look up things like orders or other data.

You can embed a lot of different web pages in the Zendesk agent interface with the Iframe app. However, not all pages will be displayed properly and some might be displayed but then exhibit strange behavior. A rule of thumb is to choose web pages that are very simple.

Also, some sites actively prevent other web sites from loading their content in this way. They do this for security reasons so hackers can't pretend to be those companies. When this happens, you’ll see the Iframe app but there won’t be any content when you click it.

Important: The latest versions of Firefox or Chrome browsers may block web pages from being loaded into Zendesk. To view the pages, agents must click the shield icon in the browser's Address bar and agree to load an unsafe script (Chrome) or to disable protection on the page (Firefox).

Reason: The browser detects and blocks any attempt to request an unsecured HTTP page through a secured HTTPS connection such as Zendesk's. The browser blocks the page because the page can be read or modified by attackers even if the page is served over HTTPS. For more information, see this article on the Firefox website and this post in the Google Chrome forum.

To add the Iframe app to the agent interface

1. In Admin Center, click Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Apps > Channel apps.
2. Click Zendesk Marketplace and search for "Iframe".
3. Click the Iframe app icon.

   

4. Click Install App in the upper right of the page.
5. Configure the app:
   • Iframe URL: Required. Put the link to the page you want to display when agents click on the Iframe app.
   • Inactive Icon URL: An image to be displayed when you're not interacting with the app. Pick something that contrasts with the grey color of the Zendesk panel for visibility.
   • Hover Icon URL: An image to be swapped in when an agent hovers the mouse over the image but hasn’t clicked or done anything yet.
   • Selected Icon URL: An image to be displayed when an agent has clicked on and activated the Iframe app.
   • Title: Required. A title differentiating the app from other apps.
6. Click Install.

Examples

Is your business X (formerly Twitter) focused? You can embed X’s status page into your Zendesk. Here are the Iframe app settings for the X status page. 

• Title: X Status
• Iframe URL: https://api.twitterstat.us
• Inactive Icon URL: https://twitter.com/images/resources/twitter-bird-light-bgs.png
• Hover Icon URL: https://twitter.com/images/resources/twitter-bird-dark-bgs.png
• Selected Icon URL: https://twitter.com/images/resources/twitter-bird-light-bgs.png

Make sure your agents know how to set their browser to allow the page to load. See the note in the introduction for more information.

Here are other examples of web pages that can be loaded into the Iframe app:

• Twilio status: http://status.twilio.com/
• Salesforce.com status: http://trust.salesforce.com/trust/status/
• Google App Engine: http://code.google.com/status/appengine
• Skype: http://heartbeat.skype.com
• Google Analytics: http://www.google.com/analytics/status#hl=en

Thanks go to http://www.transparentuptime.com/2009/01/comprehensive-list-of-saas-public.html and http://delicious.com/lennysan/healthdashboard for a really comprehensive list of SaaS dashboards. The Zendesk dashboard is available at http://www.zendesk.com/support/system-status.

Community tip from Chris: After much experimentation, I discovered that a 35x35px document with 20x20px glyphs match very nicely to the icons currently displayed in the sidebar.

Using the Text app

The Text app lets you display any text you want in the Apps panel in the agent interface. For example, you can display an important message to agents, provide instructions about filling out tickets, or add a link to your retail system.

The Text app also supports data placeholders. Placeholders let you include dynamic data in the text you want to display. This ability is useful if you want to display a link that includes parameters about the current ticket, requester, or user. Example:

http://www.mysite.com/orderlookup.php?customer={{ticket.requester.email}}

Note: The Text app can only be installed in new Zendesk.

To add a Text app to the agent interface

1. In Admin Center, click Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Apps > Channel apps.
2. Click Zendesk Marketplace and search for "Text".
3. Click the Text app icon.

   

4. Click Install App in the upper right of the page.
5. Specify a title. Example: "Customer Order Lookup".
6. Specify the text you want to display. 

   If you want to use a link as your text, don’t use <a> tags. Just type out the address you want (don’t forget http:// ) and Zendesk will automatically make it a link.

7. Click Install.

To view the text, navigate to a ticket and open the Apps panel by clicking the Apps button in the upper right.