How to pipe Zendesk Data to CSV in PowerShell

The CData Cmdlets Module for Zendesk is a standard PowerShell module offering straightforward integration with Zendesk. Below, you will find examples of using our Zendesk Cmdlets with native PowerShell cmdlets.

Creating a Connection to Your Zendesk Data

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.

$conn = Connect-Zendesk -URL "$URL" -User "$User" -Password "$Password" -InitiateOAuth "$InitiateOAuth"

Selecting Data

Follow the steps below to retrieve data from the Tickets table and pipe the result into to a CSV file:

Select-Zendesk -Connection $conn -Table Tickets | Select -Property * -ExcludeProperty Connection,Table,Columns | Export-Csv -Path c:\myTicketsData.csv -NoTypeInformation

You will notice that we piped the results from Select-Zendesk into a Select-Object cmdlet and excluded some properties before piping them into an Export-Csv cmdlet. We do this because the CData Cmdlets append Connection, Table, and Columns information onto each "row" in the result set, and we do not necessarily want that information in our CSV file.

The Connection, Table, and Columns are appended to the results in order to facilitate piping results from one of the CData Cmdlets directly into another one.

Deleting Data

The following line deletes any records that match the criteria:

Select-Zendesk -Connection $conn -Table Tickets -Where "Industry = Floppy Disks" | Remove-Zendesk

Inserting and Updating Data

The cmdlets make data transformation easy as well as data cleansing. The following example loads data from a CSV file into Zendesk, checking first whether a record already exists and needs to be updated instead of inserted.

Import-Csv -Path C:\MyTicketsUpdates.csv | %{
 $record = Select-Zendesk -Connection $Zendesk -Table Tickets -Where ("Id = `'"+$_.Id+"`'")
 if($record){
 Update-Zendesk -Connection $zendesk -Table Tickets -Columns ("Id","Subject") -Values ($_.Id, $_.Subject) -Where ("Id = `'"+$_.Id+"`'")
 }else{
 Add-Zendesk -Connection $zendesk -Table Tickets -Columns ("Id","Subject") -Values ($_.Id, $_.Subject)
 }
}

As always, our goal is to simplify the way you connect to data. With cmdlets users can install a data module, set the connection properties, and start building. Download Cmdlets and start working with your data in PowerShell today!