Excel Spreadsheet Automation with the QUERY Formula

The CData Excel Add-In for Zendesk provides formulas that can edit, save, and delete Zendesk data. The following three steps show how you can automate the following task: Search Zendesk data for a user-specified value and then organize the results into an Excel spreadsheet.

The syntax of the CDATAQUERY formula is the following: =CDATAQUERY(Query, [Connection], [Parameters], [ResultLocation]);

This formula requires three inputs:

• Query: The declaration of the Zendesk data records you want to retrieve or the modifications to be made, written in standard SQL.

• Connection: Either the connection name, such as ZendeskConnection1, or a connection string. The connection string consists of the required properties for connecting to Zendesk data, separated by semicolons.

  Connecting to Zendesk

  To connect, set the URL and provide authentication. The URL is your Zendesk Support URL: https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com.

  Authenticating to Zendesk

  You can authenticate using the Basic or OAuth methods.

  Using Basic Authentication

  To use Basic authentication, specify your email address and password or your email address and an API token. Set User to your email address and follow the steps below to provide the Password or ApiToken.

  • Enable password access in the Zendesk Support admin interface at Admin > Channels > API.
  • Manage API tokens in the Zendesk Support Admin interface at Admin > Channels > API. More than one token can be active at the same time. Deleting a token deactivates it permanently.

  Using OAuth Authentication

  See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for an authentication guide.

• ResultLocation: The cell that the output of results should start from.

Pass Spreadsheet Cells as Inputs to the Query

The procedure below results in a spreadsheet that organizes all the formula inputs in the first column.

1. Define cells for the formula inputs. In addition to the connection inputs, add another input to define a criterion for a filter to be used to search Zendesk data, such as Industry.
2. In another cell, write the formula, referencing the cell values from the user input cells defined above. Single quotes are used to enclose values such as addresses that may contain spaces.
=CDATAQUERY("SELECT * FROM Tickets WHERE Industry = '"&B4&"'","URL="&B1&";User="&B2&";Password="&B3&";Provider=Zendesk",B5)
3. Change the filter to change the data.