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Overview

The Freshdesk source imports closed tickets from your Freshdesk account. Each ticket becomes a data point, with the ticket’s conversations as its text and the requester’s name and email address attached. A workspace admin creates the Freshdesk source once for the whole workspace, and channels then add its tickets. Learn more about Sources →
If your workspace doesn’t have Sources, see Connect a tool without Sources. The requirements under Before you start for the tool itself still apply.

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Before you start

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In Dovetail

  • A workspace admin creates the source. Other users can request it.
  • The credentials you connect with are shared by the whole workspace. See Shared credentials for how to choose an account.

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In Freshdesk

  • Your Freshdesk subdomain. This is the first part of your Freshdesk URL. For yourcompany.freshdesk.com, the subdomain is yourcompany.
  • An API key. Each Freshdesk agent has an API key in their profile settings.
  • An agent with access to the tickets you want. The source reads Freshdesk with the access of the agent whose API key you use, so it can only import tickets that agent can read. We recommend a dedicated agent for integrations rather than a personal account, so the source keeps working when people change roles or leave.

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Create the Freshdesk source

1

Open Sources and select Freshdesk

In the sidebar, select Sources, then select Freshdesk.
2

Connect Freshdesk

Enter your Freshdesk subdomain, only the first part, in lowercase. Paste the API key, then select Connect.
3

Choose an import period

Choose an Import period. See Import period.
4

Choose who can use the source

Choose who can use the source, then select Next. See Create a source.
5

Create the source

Choose whether to auto-redact sensitive information in the source’s data, then select Create source. The first import starts right away. See Redact data from sources.

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Authentication and permissions

Freshdesk connects with an API key and your account’s subdomain. Dovetail uses the key to read tickets, their requesters, and their conversations, with the access of the agent the key belongs to. Dovetail only reads from Freshdesk. It doesn’t create, change, or delete anything there. The API key is stored once for the whole workspace. To change the account or credentials, see Reconnect a source.

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Datasets

The Freshdesk source has one dataset, and it holds every closed ticket the source imports. You can’t limit the source to particular groups or ticket types.

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What gets imported

Each closed ticket becomes one data point. Its text comes from the ticket’s conversations.

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Always imported

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Imported when present

To rename these fields or change their types, see Source fields.

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Not imported

  • Tickets that aren’t closed. Only tickets with the Closed status are imported. Open, pending, and resolved tickets are skipped until they’re closed.
  • Conversations after the first 10 on a ticket, and closed tickets with no conversations.
  • The ticket’s description field. The data point’s text comes from the ticket’s conversations only.
  • Attachments and custom ticket fields.

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Customer emails

This data includes customer email addresses, so Dovetail can link data points to contacts. See Create contacts from source data.

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Sync behavior

The first import starts when the source is created. After that, the source syncs about every hour. See Manage a source.
  • Import period. The import period applies to when a ticket was last updated in Freshdesk. A closed ticket that was last updated within the period is imported, even if it was created earlier.
  • Ongoing sync. Each sync imports closed tickets updated since the previous sync. A ticket that’s still open is imported after it’s closed.
  • Rate limiting. Dovetail’s requests count toward your Freshdesk account’s API limit.

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Troubleshooting

Dovetail doesn’t accept my subdomain or API key. Enter only the first part of your Freshdesk URL, in lowercase. For https://yourcompany.freshdesk.com, enter yourcompany. Copy the API key again from the agent’s profile settings in Freshdesk, and make sure that agent can view tickets. The source can no longer read some tickets. The agent whose API key the source uses has lost access to them in Freshdesk. Ask a Freshdesk admin to restore that agent’s access, then select Sync now on the source. See Source statuses. A closed ticket is missing from Dovetail. Check that the ticket’s status is Closed, not Resolved, that it has at least one conversation, and that the agent whose API key the source uses can see it. A ticket last updated before the import period started isn’t imported. See Missing or outdated data. Freshdesk isn’t available when I set up a channel. See Troubleshoot sources.

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Revoke access in Freshdesk

Dovetail reads Freshdesk with the API key of the agent you connected with. To revoke its access, a Freshdesk admin can remove that agent’s access to tickets or remove the agent. The source then can’t import new tickets. Data the source has already imported stays in Dovetail. To pause or delete the source in Dovetail, see Manage a source. To take its data out of one channel, see Channel setup.

Sources

What a source is, and how its data reaches channels.

Channel setup

Create a channel from your sources and choose its datasets.

Manage a source

Check a source’s status, sync it, pause it, or reconnect it.

Voice of customer

Centralize feedback, make sense of it, and close the loop.