Integrate Freshdesk Data into Power Automate Desktop using CData Connect

Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism

CData Connect for Freshdesk Data enables you to integrate Freshdesk data into workflows built using Microsoft Power Automate Desktop.

CData Connect enables you to access live Freshdesk data in workflow automation tools like Power Automate. This article shows how to integrate Freshdesk data into a simple workflow, saving Freshdesk data into a CSV file.

CData Connect provides a live interface for Freshdesk, allowing you to integrate with live Freshdesk data in Power Automate — without replicating the data. Connect uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Freshdesk, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Freshdesk data.

Configure Freshdesk Connectivity for Power Automate

Connectivity to Freshdesk from Power Automate is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Freshdesk data from Power Automate, we start by creating and configuring a Freshdesk connection.

Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

👁 Adding a Connection

Select "Freshdesk" from the Add Connection panel

👁 Selecting a data source

Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Freshdesk.
FreshDesk makes use of basic authentication. To connect to data, set the following connection properties:
- Domain: Set this to the domain associated with your FreshDesk account. For example, in your URL: https://my_domain.freshdesk.com.
- APIKey: Set this to the API key associated with your FreshDesk account. To retrieve your API key, Log into your support Portal -> Click on profile picture in the top right corner -> profile settings page. The API key will be available below the change password section to the right.
👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
Click Save & Test
Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Freshdesk Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Freshdesk data from Power Automate Desktop.

Integrate Freshdesk Data into Power Automate Workflows

After configuring CData Connect with Freshdesk, you are ready to integrate Freshdesk data into your Power Automate workflows. Open Microsoft Power Automate, add a new flow, and name the flow.

👁 A new flow in Power Automate

In the flow editor, you can add the options to connect to Freshdesk, query Freshdesk using SQL, and write the query results to a CSV document.

Add an Open SQL Connection Action

Add an "Open SQL connection" action (Action -> Database) and click the option to build the Connection string. In the Data Link Properties wizard:

On the Provider tab: select Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server
On the Connection tab:
1. Select or enter a server name: set to tds.cdata.com,14333
2. Enter information to lag onto the server: select "Use a specific username and password"
  - Set User name to your CData Connect AI user name (e.g. [email protected])
  - Set Password to your PAT
  - Select the database: use the database configured above (e.g. FreshDesk1)
Click "Test Connection" to ensure the connection is configured properly
Click "OK" 👁 A configured connection to CData Connect

After building the connection string in the Data Link Properties wizard, save the action.

👁 A configured 'Open SQL connection' action

Add an Execute SQL Statement Action

Add an "Execute SQL statement" action (Action -> Database) and configure the properties.

Get connection by: SQL connection variable
SQL connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)
SQL statement: SELECT * FROM Tickets

After configuring the properties, save the action.

👁 A configured 'Execute SQL statement' action

Add a Write to CSV File Action

Add a "Write to CSV file" action (Action -> File) and configure the properties.

Variable to write to: %QueryResult% (the variable from the "Execute SQL statement" action above)
File path: set to a file on disk
Configure Advanced settings as needed.

After configuring the properties, save the action.

👁 A configured 'Write to CSV file' action

Add a Close SQL Connection Action

Add a "Close SQL connection" action (Action -> Database) and configure the properties.

SQL Connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)

After configuring the properties, save the action.

👁 A configured 'Close SQL connection' action

Save & Run the Flow

Once you have configured all the options for the flow, click the disk icon to save the flow. Click the play icon to run the flow.

👁 A fully configured workflow

Now you have a workflow to save Freshdesk data into a CSV file.

👁 Application data in a CSV file (Salesforce is shown)

With CData Connect AI, you get live connectivity to Freshdesk data within your Microsoft Power Automate workflows.

SQL Access to Freshdesk Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Freshdesk data from Power Automate tasks. You can create more connections and workflows to drive business — all without replicating Freshdesk data.

To get SQL data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect AI.

URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/freshdesk-cloud-power-automate-desktop.rst