Data

Tools

Indexes

Applications

Experiments

Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

https://github.com/jpf/zendesk-twilio-sms

Integrate Twilio SMS with Zendesk
https://github.com/jpf/zendesk-twilio-sms

Last synced: about 1 year ago
JSON representation

Integrate Twilio SMS with Zendesk

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

          
Basic overview for adding SMS support to Zendesk.

=================================================



Basic steps to get bidirectional SMS support in Zendesk via Twilio:



 1. If you don't have one already, create a Zendesk account.

 2. Add a new user to your account. Call this user "SMS User"

 3. Create a new Heroku app

 4. Buy a new Twilio number and configure it

 5. Set up your .env file

 6. Push code to Heroku

 7. Create a new SMS Target in Zendesk

 8. Create a new Trigger in Zendesk



Add a user named "SMS User" to your account

-------------------------------------------



 * Click on the "+ add" menu on the upper left of your Zendesk screen

 * Select the "User" option

 * Set the name as "SMS User" and give it a working email on your domain.

   (I suggest using your.email.address+sms@example.com)

 * Check your email for the confirmaion link for the SMS user. Click the link.

 * Set the password for the SMS user.

 * Log back in to Zendesk with a user that has administration privileges.

 * *Gear > People (found under "Manage")*

 * Find the "SMS User", click "edit"

 * On the left, change the Role to: "Agent"



Create a new Heroku app

-----------------------------



 1. Create a new Heroku app



        heroku create



Buy a new Twilio number and configure it

----------------------------------------

 * Log in to your Twilio account

 * Click "Numbers"

 * Click "Buy a number"

 * Select a number and click "Buy"

 * Buy the number

 * Click "Setup number"

 * Set the SMS Request URL to: http://your-heroku-app.example.com/sms

 * Click "Save Changes"



Set up your .env file

---------------------



 1. Rename '.env.sample' to '.env.



 2. Set the values for TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID and TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN

    These are found here: 



 3. Set the value for TWILIO_FROM_NUMBER to a number from your Twilio account

    You can see your list of Twilio numbers here:



 4. Set the value for ZENDESK_URL to your ZenDesk URL.

    It should look like this: https://{your zendesk accout}.zendesk.com/api/v2



 5. Create a dedicated "SMS User" in ZenDesk, 

    set the values for ZENDESK_USERNAME and ZENDESK_PASSWORD

    to the credentials for that user.



Push to and configure Heroku:

-----------------------------



 1. Make sure that your configuration is correct:



        foreman start



    If you don't get any errors then:



 2. Configure your Heroku app with the settings from above



        heroku config:set RACK_ENV="" 

        heroku config:set TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID="" 

        heroku config:set TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN="" 

        heroku config:set TWILIO_FROM_NUMBER="" 

        heroku config:set ZENDESK_URL="" 

        heroku config:set ZENDESK_USERNAME="" 

        heroku config:set ZENDESK_PASSWORD=""



 3. Push the code to Heroku



        git push heroku master



 4. Open your new Heroku app



        heroku open



 5. If you see "Hello." in your web browser, then continue on to the next step.

    If you don't see "Hello." then you have an error.



Create a new SMS Target in Zendesk

----------------------------------

 * *Gear > Extensions (found under "Settings") > Targets*

 * Select "URL target"

 * Configure the URL target as follows:

   Title: Outbound SMS target

   URL:



        http://your-app.example.com/outgoing



   Method: POST

   Attribute Name: Extra

   Basic Authentication: (leave blank)

 * Leave the dropdown set to "Test Target"

 * Click "Submit"

 * Make sure you get a message that starts with "The message was successfully sent."

 * Change the dropdown from "Test Target" to "Create target"

 * Click "Submit"



Create Triggers in Zendesk

--------------------------



 * *Gear > Triggers (found under "Business Rules")*

 * Click "add trigger"

 * Give the trigger the title: "SMS user on Ticket Update".

 * Configure this trigger to meet all the following conditions:

   * Ticket is: Updated

   * Comment is: Present, and requester can see the comment

   * Current user: is not: "SMS User"

 * Configure this trigger to perform these actions:

   * Notify target: Outbound SMS target

   * This field supports Dynamic Content:



        {

        "To": "{{ticket.requester.phone}}",

        "Body": "{{ticket.latest_public_comment}}"

        }



 * Click "Create trigger"



Other triggers to consider implementing:



 * Send SMS to user on ticket update

 * Re-open updated tickets



Making sure it all works:

-------------------------



 * Send an SMS to the phone number you configured. (I suggest sending the word "test")

 * In Zendesk:

   * Click on the "Views" button (it looks like three stacked lines).

   * Click on "All unsolved tickets"

 * You should see your test message as a ticket.

 * Click on the ticket

 * Click "take it" to assign the ticket to yourself

 * Reply to the ticket

 * Click "Submit as New"

 * You should receive an SMS with the reply you made to the ticket

 * Celebrate! It works!



Apendex: Running unit tests:

----------------------------



 1. Switch to Ruby 2.0 in RVM:



        rvm install 2.0.0

        rvm use 2.0.0



 2. Install dependencies:



        bundle install



 3. Run tests:



        bundle exec rake spec