The Zendesk Sunshine platform lets you connect and understand all your customer data wherever it lives. The Sunshine platform is independent from other Zendesk customer service tools such as the product APIs, the Apps framework, and the embeddables. The Sunshine data layer is not associated with any Zendesk product, though you can model relationships with certain native objects like tickets and users.
The Sunshine platform currently consists of the following APIs:
Custom Objects API
Use the Custom Objects API to model, store, and retrieve objects that are not native to Zendesk. The data is stored in the Amazon AWS infrastructure. Custom objects can be almost anything, including products, orders, devices, and warranties.
To get started with custom objects, see the following resources:
- Getting started with Sunshine custom objects
- Custom Objects API developer guide
- Custom Objects API reference
Events API
Use the Events API to build a timeline of your customers' interactions from any source. Events can be any programmatic event, including purchase transactions, website visits, or customer service interactions.
To get started with user events, see:
Profiles API
Use the Profiles API to create a single view of each of your customers across applications or systems.
To get started with profiles, see:
- Getting started with Sunshine profiles
- About Sunshine profiles
- Profiles API developer guide
- Profiles API reference
14 Comments
Hi Charles,
If in my case I need to develop Return merchandise authorisation system, in my understanding, it has to go to sunshine platfrom then : 1 connect to Custome object API in order to get orders and products data
2. then use Events API to customise service interation like put statu return merchandise/ decline repaire etc
3. also use profile API to create an inframe view block for customer fills the form
is this the correct procedure? or I read your article of Building-a-custom-ticket-form-with-the-Zendesk-API, it has better way to develop with this way ?
thank you so much
Hola!
uso Zendesk desde hace 6 años (support) y ahora quiero saber si es posible conectar mi base de datos de compras de mis clientes con SELL
no queremos exportar los datos a sell, sino que SELL lea los mismos en mi base de datos.
O sea Sell deberia consumir mi Api
Esto es posible usando Sunshine?
muchas gracias
Hola Leonardo,
1. No es posible con la conexión de base de datos hoy, pero estará disponible con Apps Framework a finales de este año.
2. ¿Qué quiere decir con esta "O sea Sell deberia consumir mi Api"?
3. No es posible con Sunshine.
Hi there,
Is there a limit to how much data can be stored in Sunshine?
Cheers,
Josie
Hi Josie -- here's the documentation on Sunshine Custom Object data limits:
Storage Limits
"Sunshine Select" is essentially an add-on that gets you higher limits. Both require the Enterprise plan. Note that these limits are across all objects (IOW, all object record counts collectively can't go over these limits). Hope this helps!
And each object record can have up to 32 KB of attribute data. See https://developer.zendesk.com/rest_api/docs/sunshine/resources#json-format.
Can the Sunshine Platform be used to track events within Zendesk? Similar to, but better than, the soon to be retired Pathfinder app. I've struggled so much with Events Flow in Google Analytics that I'm reaching here.
Hi Holly-
Sunshine Events won't be similar to Pathfinder. However, if your Zendesk account has Answer Bot, you will still be able to see which articles customers have been presented with via Answer Bot in the ticket interface.
That's a good option to be aware of, thanks Joseph.
¿Si tengo una BD externa de clientes con diferentes atributos, puedo usar Sunshine para integrar esa información con los tickets?
gracias
Hi Miriam -- I'm going to answer in English -- I hope that's OK.
Sunshine is a collection of features that can help create tighter integrations with external systems.
Sunshine Custom Objects is a "database as a service" feature and allows you to define various record types and schema to store data (which very well could be synchronized with an external system).
Another feature is Sunshine Profiles, which allows you to extend Zendesk User records with additional information that's tied to an external system.
I would also review Integrating with Zendesk for more integration options.
I hope this gives additional resources to look at. If I can clarify anything, please post back!
Hi There, I'm pretty new with Zendesk and trying to find out if Sunshine is the answer to my questions.
My goal with Zendesk is to be able to get information from my backend [**** Spring boot applications -microservices- different data sources, Mysql, Neo4J and Mongodb *****] into Zendesk (realtime) using my APIs for our call center Reps to see relevant information every time a customer contacts us. Below some goals.
Can someone please point me in the right direction here ?, I haven't had luck with support so far. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks
(other community members, please share your experiences as well!)
Hi Hector.
As mentioned above, Sunshine is an umbrella term that contains a number of platform features.
The "Custom Objects" feature, in its simplest form, is a database-as-a-service type feature. It lets you extend the ticket and user data models with your own data. A much more advanced approach versus using, say, ticket or user custom fields. It basically allows you to store your external system's data inside Zendesk.
The "Profiles & Events" feature lets you tie "event" type data to profiles that map to various external systems (this is also a very simplified description).
For your scenarios above, however, my take is that you want to pull in additional information from a service you control and display that in the agent's Zendesk Support UI. You want to keep the data external, just pull it into Zendesk to help give the agent context around the ticket. For this, the Zendesk Apps framework may be your best bet. It allows custom UI extensions to be placed inside the Support interface. The custom extensions (known as "apps") can run custom code can make requests and get responses from external services. The response data can then be displayed by the app.
Here are some resources to investigate:
Develop for Zendesk Support
Zendesk Apps Tutorial Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
How Apps framework client.request works
JavaScript Promises — a Zendesk Introduction
If you pursue an Apps framework app, the community Zendesk Apps framework (ZAF) topic is a great resource for further questions.
Awesome feedback Bryan. Checking all this now. Thank you.
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