Starting the new year, we had a client with the need to display Zendesk tickets along with custom Dynamics CRM data. Because of the setup of CRM system this presented us with a unique challenge that we were able to successfully tackle. Utilizing the Zendesk API and a custom CRM proxy we were able to merge the data into a portal that provides current status of support.
Zendesk provides its data in XML that we can go out and grab using REST commands. We used the built in view creation functionality inside of Zendesk to format the data in the fashion we needed. And after requesting the XML we packaged it in a way that was easily manipulated by ASP.NET controls. Because Zendesk only provides 15 or 30 records at a time, we had to include some logic that made multiple requests to give the client a complete view of tickets in the system.
We also had a need to display data from a custom CRM entity that could have 2 states associated to it. Because of the setup of the CRM system, we had to develop a proxy that would enable us to access this data from outside the clients network. Using web services we were able to successfully grab the data from this custom entity and manipulate it for our portal.
In the end we had a portal that presented data from 2 separate sources, and provided the client with an up to date view of the current support requests. Wow, that’s pretty smart . . . and made for very happy client. Seriously, call us . . . Signal’s got some smart people.