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By connecting the action builder to external systems, such as Microsoft Excel, admins can integrate Zendesk with external systems in automated workflows, improving collaboration and maintaining a seamless experience across multiple platforms.
Note: The steps associated with external systems in action flows are referred to collectively as external actions.
This article contains the following topics:
  • Connecting Microsoft Excel to action builder
  • Using Microsoft Excel actions in action flows

Connecting Microsoft Excel to action builder

Before you can include external actions in your action flows, you must connect the action builder to the external system.

When connecting to external systems for use in action flows, the following best practices are recommended:
  • All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the external system. Therefore, it is a best practice to use a dedicated service account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each external system.
  • All integrations request access to necessary scopes. However, it's important that you review and validate the scopes before authorizing the connection to the external system.
  • When managing credentials for API key-based tools, such as OpenAI, it's best to store keys in a secure vault or credential manager.
To connect Microsoft Excel to action builder
  1. In Admin Center, click Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Actions > Action flows.
  2. Create or edit an action flow.
  3. Open the step sidebar.
  4. Under External actions, click Microsoft Excel.
  5. Click Connect.
  6. Use Microsoft to authenticate the account.

    Depending on your organization's policies, you might need to authorize device or app access.

    Note:
    • All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the external system. Therefore, it is a best practice to use a dedicated service account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each external system.
    • To ensure the connection is successful, you must have a Microsoft tenant admin add the connector first.

After you've connected to the system, you'll see an indicator that it's connected and details about the instance you're connected to, as well as the actions available for Microsoft Excel.

Using Microsoft Excel actions in action flows

Microsoft Excel action steps can be used to create and update Excel workbooks and worksheets as well as reading data from them.

The following Excel actions are available:
  • Create workbook
  • Create worksheet
  • Add row to sheet
  • Fetch row data
  • Update row

Creating a new Excel workbook

Use the Create workbook action to create a new Excell workbook with a specified name.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs workbook_name
Output created_date_time, http_status_code, last_modified_date_time, web_url, workbook_id, workbook_name

Creating a worksheet within a Excel workbook

Use the Create worksheet action to create a new worksheet within an existing workbook.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs workbook_id, worksheet_name
Output http_status_code, id, name, position, visibility

Adding a row to an Excel worksheet

Use the Add row to sheet action to append a new row to an existing worksheet.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs workbook_id, sheet_name, values
Output address, cell_count, column_count, column_hidden, column_index, http_status_code, row_count, row_hidden, row_index, values

Fetching data from a row in an Excel worksheet

Use the Fetch row data action to retrieve values in a specific row based on a row index.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs spreadsheet_id, row_index
Output row_data

Updating a row in an Excel worksheet

Use the Update row action to update values in a specific row based on a row index.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs spreadsheet_id, header_row
Output address, cell_count, column_count, column_hidden, column_index, http_status_code, row_count, row_hidden, row_index, values
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