Connecting external knowledge sources to your Zendesk account

You can connect up to 50external content sourcesto your Zendesk account and make the content availablewherever external content is used.

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Summary: ◀▼

Connect external knowledge sources to make content available for search and use across knowledge experiences. You can add up to 50 sources, then manage syncing, permissions, and authentication for connectors like Box, Confluence, Google Drive, Jira, Notion, SharePoint, and more. A Knowledge admin can set up sources, and updates are pulled in during the next sync.

The ability to connect external content to your Zendesk account is available for all plans. However, the storage limits for external data vary by plan. See Managing data storage in your Zendesk account.

You can connect up to 50 external content sources to your Zendesk account and make the content available wherever external content is used.

This article contains the following topics:

• Connecting external content using a knowledge connector
• Knowledge connector authentication reference

Related articles:

• About connecting external content to Zendesk for use across knowledge experiences

Connecting external content using a knowledge connector

You can connect an external knowledge source to your Zendesk account to make the content available wherever external content is used. Each knowledge connector has a connector-specific authentication page that you configure prior to connecting. Once connected, you can use the Connection page to manage the connection. Any updates or additions made to those elements will be ingested into Zendesk during the next sync.

When you connect external knowledge sources to Zendesk, you’ll see them listed as an external search source in Knowledge admin.

You must be a Knowledge admin to set up and manage external content connections.

To connect external content using a knowledge connector

1. In Knowledge admin, click Manage articles () in the sidebar.
2. Click External content > Connections.
3. Under the Available sources section, click Connect for the knowledge source you want to connect.
4. Review messaging and click Continue to begin configuring the connection.
5. Enter the required authentication information to give Zendesk permission to access content from the knowledge source.

   Authentication details vary by connector. See Knowledge connector authentication reference for information specific to the connector you are configuring.

6. Click Sync.

   The knowledge connector is added to the Connections page and begins syncing. To manage existing connections, see Managing external knowledge connections.

Knowledge connector authentication reference

The following table lists the authentication fields required for each connector. When logging into the system you're connecting to, log in with a user account that has the correct permissions for content you want to sync to Zendesk.

Connector	Authentication and connection details
Amazon S3	On the Authenticate tab, configure the following: Access Key ID and Secret Access Key: AWS IAM credentials that grant programmatic access to the Amazon S3 bucket you want to sync. AWS access keys are generated through the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) console. See AWS Developer Guide for more information. AWS Region: AWS region where your bucket is stored. On the Define scope tab, configure the following: Bucket Name: Name of the Amazon S3 bucket that you want to sync. The connector will sync all supported file types (.docs, .xlsx, and .md), folders, and subfolders within a bucket.
Box	Log in to Box with a user account that has the correct permissions for content you want to sync to Zendesk. Configure the following: Root folders: Root folder that you want to sync to your Zendesk account. You can only select the top level folders in the root directory; you cannot select subfolders or individual files in the root directory. When you select a root folder, the sync automatically includes all subfolders and supported file types (docx, .xlsx, .html, and .md) in that folder. When you set up a Box connection, you select parent folders that reside in the root directory of your Box knowledge base. When the connector syncs, all supported content within that parent folder (including subfolders and supported files) will sync to your Zendesk account.
Confluence	Log in to Confluence with a user account that has the correct permissions for content you want to sync to Zendesk. Configure the following: Confluence site: Confluence site that you want to connect. Spaces: Spaces that you want to connect. Only the first 20 spaces (shown in alphabetical order) appear in the drop-down menu. To select a space that doesn't appear in the menu, begin typing the name of the space in the search box, then select it once it appears. To remove a space, click X on the space tag. Connections to personal spaces in Confluence are not permitted.
Contentful	On the Authenticate tab, configure the following: Contentful Space ID: Identifier for the Contentful space that you want to connect to Zendesk. For more information about finding the Contentful Space ID see the Contentful help center. API key: (Content Delivery API - access token in Contentful) Credential that grants programmatic access to read content stored in your Contentful space. On the Add public URL tab, configure the following: URL format* (required): URL format for the public page that hosts your Contentful content. The URL format can be: a field containing the full URL, such asfields.url a URL string with one or more placeholders, such ashttps://zendesk.com/{fields.slug} Placeholders can reference entry fields (fields.<fieldId>) and entry metadata (sys.<key>), such as sys.id. The knowledge connector only ingests content that can be associated with a URL. If the URL cannot be constructed from the URL format because required fields are missing, the record is skipped during content syncing.
Document360	On the Authenticate tab, configure the following: Select server: Select the server region where your Document360 account is hosted (EU, US, or Private). If you select Private, you'll also be prompted to enter the subdomain for your Document360 private hosting account. API token: Enter the API token that you created in your Document360 account for this connection. On the Define scope tab, configure the following: Workspace: Select any public workspace that you want to sync. Languages: Select the language for the knowledge base that you want to sync. This connection will only sync Document360 content in the language you specify here. You must create a new connection for each language. Categories: Select the categories that you want to sync. Each category or subcategory you select will appear as a tag within the Categories field. When you select a category, you're only syncing the content that lives at the category level; you're not syncing the subcategories within that category. You must select both the categories and the subcategories that contain the content you want to sync. Each time you create a connection, you must provide a unique API token. When creating API tokens in Document360 for use with Zendesk, be sure to specify GET as the allowed HTTP method. See the Document360 documentation for more information.
Dropbox	Log in to Dropbox with a user account that has the correct permissions for content you want to sync to Zendesk (.docs, .xlsx, .html, and .md.) Select the Root folder that you want to sync to your Zendesk account. You can only select the top level folders in the root directory; you cannot select subfolders or individual files in the root directory. When you select a root folder, the sync automatically includes all subfolders and supported file types in that folder.
Freshdesk	Configure the following: Domain: Current Freshdesk domain. This is the subdomain you chose when you created your account (for example, yourcompany.freshdesk.com). API Key: Freshdesk API key that allows Zendesk to communicate directly with your Freshdesk account. Zendesk only ingests content from the default locale.
Google Drive	Sign in to Google with a user account that has the correct permissions for content you want to sync to Zendesk and allow Zendesk to access your Google Drive files. Select the drives you want to sync. The Google Drive connector supports Google Docs and Sheets. In addition, the Google Drive connector syncs contents from your shared Google Drive. Content from private Google Drives is not synced. You can enroll in the PDF Ingestion EAP to enable syncing of your PDF documents.
Guru	On the Authenticate tab, configure the following: Email: Email address used to access your Guru account. You must be a Guru admin to create a connection, and can only sync content that you have permission to access in Guru. API token: User token associated with your email address in Guru. The user token provides read and write access in Guru based on your existing account permissions. Click Manage > API Access above this field to access the page in Guru where you can generate the user token. For more information, see Leveraging Guru's API in Guru's help center. On the Define scope tab, configure the following: Collection: Guru collection that contains the published content you want to sync.
Jira	Select the JIRA account that you want to sync with your Zendesk account. Enter the following information: Jira site: Enter the Jira site you want to sync. This field displays all Jira sites that you have access to. Each Jira site maps to a single Jira connection. If you want to sync multiple sites, you must create a new connection for each site. Select spaces: Enter the Jira space that you want to sync. This field displays all spaces in the Jira site you selected that you have access to. Each space that you select appears as a tag in the Spaces field. You can remove spaces that you selected in error by clicking the X icon on the space tag. Synced content includes the following: Issue key Summary Description Status Priority Type Labels Comments
Notion	Select your Notion Workspace from the drop-down list in the upper right. Select the pages within your teamspace that you want to sync, then allow access to those pages. Due to limitations with Notion, you can set up only a single Notion connection in your Zendesk account. To add or remove content from this connection, see Adding or removing content from your Notion connection. For pages to be synced to your Zendesk account, they must have content within the body of the page.
SharePoint	Log in to Microsoft with a user account that has the correct permissions for content you want to sync to Zendesk. Select your SharePoint site from the drop-down list. Supported file types are docx, .xlsx, and .md. You can enroll in the PDF Ingestion EAP to enable syncing of your PDF documents.
Zendesk	Enter information required for all connections (public and non-public): Zendesk URL: URL for your Zendesk account If you want to sync non-public content that requires user login, click Turn on, then enter the required information: Email: Email address associated with your Zendesk account. This information is combined with the API token to access and sync your internal content. API token: API token that you can use to sync non-public articles to your Zendesk account. If you leave this field blank, then only content visible to anonymous users will be synced. Select the Locale (optional) for articles you want to sync. Locale for articles that you want to sync. If you leave this field blank, then articles associated with all locales will be synced. If you don't specify an API token with email and locale, then each connection contains the publically available content in the all locales for that subdomain. All published articles that meet this criteria are synced to the connection. If you want to sync content from another Zendesk subdomain, you'll need to add a new connection for that subdomain.