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Zendesk Icon Zendesk ODBC Driver

The Zendesk ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live Zendesk project management data, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Zendesk like you would a database - read, write, and update Tickets, Groups, Users, Schedules, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

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Natively Connect to Zendesk Data in PHP


The CData ODBC driver for Zendesk enables you to create PHP applications with connectivity to Zendesk data. Leverage the native support for ODBC in PHP.

Drop the CData ODBC Driver for Zendesk into your LAMP or WAMP stack to build Zendesk-connected Web applications. This article shows how to use PHP's ODBC built-in functions to connect to Zendesk data, execute queries, and output the results.

Configure a DSN

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

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.

Establish a Connection

Open the connection to Zendesk by calling the odbc_connect or odbc_pconnect methods. To close connections, use odbc_close or odbc_close_all.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Zendesk Source","user","password");

Connections opened with odbc_connect are closed when the script ends. Connections opened with the odbc_pconnect method are still open after the script ends. This enables other scripts to share that connection when they connect with the same credentials. By sharing connections among your scripts, you can save system resources, and queries execute faster.

$conn = odbc_pconnect("CData ODBC Zendesk Source","user","password"); ... odbc_close($conn); //persistent connection must be closed explicitly

Create Prepared Statements

Create prepared statements and parameterized queries with the odbc_prepare function.

$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Tickets WHERE Industry = ?");

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with odbc_execute.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Zendesk Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Tickets WHERE Industry = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('Floppy Disks'));

Execute nonparameterized queries with odbc_exec.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Zendesk Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT Id, Subject FROM Tickets");

Process Results

Access a row in the result set as an array with the odbc_fetch_array function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Zendesk data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT Id, Subject FROM Tickets"); while($row = odbc_fetch_array($query)){ echo $row["Id"] . "\n"; }

Display the result set in an HTML table with the odbc_result_all function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Zendesk data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Tickets WHERE Industry = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('Floppy Disks')); if($success) odbc_result_all($query);

More Example Queries

You will find complete information on the driver's supported SQL in the help documentation. The code examples above are Zendesk-specific adaptations of the PHP community documentation for all ODBC functions.