Connect Zoho Desk
Connect Zoho Desk with a Self Client from Zoho's API console and one webhook. Tickets come in by themselves, and approved replies go back to Zoho Desk.
If your tickets live in Zoho Desk, connect it directly. Zoho Desk tells us about new tickets, we read each one from Zoho Desk with your connection, and approved replies go back into Zoho Desk. Nobody needs to write code.
Zoho has no API keys. Instead you make a Self Client in Zoho's API console. It gives you a client ID, a client secret and a short-lived grant code. You paste these here once.
Before you start#
- You need a Zoho Desk administrator to make the Self Client and the webhook.
- Webhooks need Zoho Desk Professional or Enterprise. The Free and Standard editions don't have them.
- Know your data centre: it is the address you open Zoho Desk at. For example,
desk.zoho.comis the United States,desk.zoho.euis Europe anddesk.zoho.com.auis Australia.
Connect Zoho Desk#
- 1
Here, go to Settings › Ticket system. On the Connection tab, click Connect a ticket system and choose Zoho Desk. Leave this page open.
- 2
In Zoho, sign in as a Zoho Desk administrator and open Zoho's API console for your data centre, for example
api-console.zoho.comorapi-console.zoho.eu. Click GET STARTED, or ADD CLIENT if you have used the console before. - 3
Choose Self Client and click CREATE NOW. Then click CREATE and OK.
- 4
On the Client Secret tab, copy the Client ID and Client Secret into Client ID and Client secret on our page. Choose your Data centre too.
- 5
On the Generate Code tab, paste these scopes into Scope:
Desk.tickets.READ,Desk.tickets.UPDATE,Desk.contacts.READ,Desk.basic.READ. Show me how on our page has them with Copy. - 6
Choose the longest Time Duration, type "Cerberius Agents" as the Scope Description, and click CREATE. When Zoho asks, choose Zoho Desk and your portal, then click CREATE again.
- 7
Copy the code into Grant code on our page. Under Approved replies, fill in Send from (see below). Then click Connect Zoho Desk straight away: the code stops working after the time you chose.
- 8
Click Check connection. It should say Zoho Desk let us read tickets, contacts and departments.
- 9
In Zoho Desk, go to Setup › Developer Space › Webhooks and click New Webhook. Give it a Name, such as "Cerberius Agents". Paste the Webhook address from Let Zoho Desk tell us about tickets on our page as the URL to Notify.
- 10
Under Choose Event, pick the Tickets module and the event Add. Click + and add Update without previous value, then + again and add Incoming threads. Choose all departments, or only this platform's. Click Test Run, then Save.
- 11
Try it. Create a test ticket. It shows under Tickets here within a minute, and our page says Last heard from Zoho Desk with the time.
Once connected, change anything on the page and click Save at the bottom.
Who replies show as
Replies and comments show in Zoho Desk as written by the person who made the grant code. To keep them apart from your own, make the code while signed in as a Zoho Desk user just for the agent.
Settings#
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Data centre | Where your Zoho account is. Choose the one whose address you open Zoho Desk at. |
| Client ID and Client secret | From the Client Secret tab of your Self Client. Once saved, the secret is never shown again. Type a new one to replace it. |
| Grant code | From the Generate Code tab. It works once, for a few minutes. We swap it at once for a lasting connection and don't keep the code. Later, you only need a new one to change the data centre, client ID or organisation, or if Zoho stops accepting the connection. |
| Organisation ID | Only if your Zoho account has more than one Zoho Desk organisation. Leave it empty: if there are several, we list them with their IDs, and you enter one with a new grant code. |
| Check connection | Shows once Zoho Desk is connected. It reads a ticket, a contact and your departments, and says whether that worked. |
| Webhook address | Shows once Zoho Desk is connected. Paste it into Zoho Desk, with Copy. Keep it private. |
| Zoho Desk's signature | Zoho Desk signs every call with keys of its own, saying which organisation it is from. We check it with Zoho's published keys, and refuse calls without it, from another organisation, or more than 5 minutes old. There is nothing to copy. A connection made before this check has it off, with a warning and Check Zoho Desk's signature. Stop checking turns it off: only if good calls are refused. |
| Last heard from Zoho Desk | When Zoho Desk last called the webhook address. Never yet means it hasn't called: check the steps. If a call was refused, it says when and why, such as wrong signature. |
| Which departments | Shows once Zoho Desk is connected: your Zoho Desk departments, read from Zoho Desk. Tick the ones whose tickets come to this platform. With none ticked, every department's tickets come here. A department that another of your platforms takes from the same Zoho Desk can't be ticked, and says which platform takes it. Tickets already here stay here. |
| Approved replies | Zoho Desk emails it to the requester: straight away, on the ticket. Add it as a private comment: your team reads it in Zoho Desk and sends it themselves. |
| Send from | The address emailed replies come from. It must be one of your support email addresses in Zoho Desk (Setup › Channels › Email). It is needed when Zoho Desk emails replies. |
| Agent's findings in Zoho Desk | When on, a private comment with what the agent found goes on the ticket as soon as a reply is ready to approve. Only your Zoho Desk team sees it. Off at first. |
What happens with a Zoho Desk ticket#
- A new ticket in Zoho Desk reaches the agent, with its files. Who it is from comes from the ticket's contact in Zoho Desk.
- An email from the requester on the ticket reaches the agent as a follow-up, with its files. Your team's replies, comments and private messages are skipped.
- Closing it in Zoho Desk stops the work on it here. Any status of the Closed type counts.
- Closing it here sets its status to Closed in Zoho Desk.
- An approved reply goes to the ticket's contact as you chose. If the contact has no email address, or Zoho Desk refuses the Send from address, the reply isn't sent and the ticket says why. Fix it in Zoho Desk or here, then retry the reply.
Tickets opened in Zoho Desk before you connected don't come in by themselves. Only tickets that came from Zoho Desk go back to Zoho Desk. Other tickets on the same platform, from the log watcher for example, don't.
One Zoho Desk, a platform per department
If one Zoho Desk serves several products or clients, each can be its own platform. Connect each platform to the same Zoho Desk, and under Which departments tick that platform's departments. Each platform has its own Webhook address: add each one to Zoho Desk as its own webhook. Two platforms never take the same department's tickets.
Stop using Zoho Desk#
Click Disconnect… at the top of the Connection tab, and confirm. New tickets from Zoho Desk stop coming in, and replies stop going back to it. The webhook address stops working at once.
To take away our access in Zoho too, delete the webhook in Setup › Developer Space › Webhooks, and delete the Self Client in Zoho's API console.