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Import from Zendesk Guide

Importing Content3 min read · Updated 2 months ago

Bring your Zendesk Guide help center into HelpBento with the import wizard. Zendesk is the one source that needs three details to connect (your subdomain, the email you sign in with, and an API token); after that, the wizard handles categories, sections, and publish status, and you review everything before anything is written.

Before you start

  • Your plan must include content import. If it does not, Settings > Migrations shows an upgrade prompt instead of the provider cards.
  • The credentials are used only during the import session and are never stored.

Get a Zendesk API token

  1. In Zendesk, open Admin Center > Apps and integrations > APIs > Zendesk API.
  2. Enable Token access if it is not already on.
  3. Add an API token and copy it. The token belongs to the agent or admin account you are signed in as; you will need that account's email in the next step.

Connect

  1. In HelpBento, go to Settings > Migrations and click Start Import on the Zendesk card.
  2. Fill in the three fields:
    • Zendesk subdomain: the first part of your Zendesk URL, so acme for acme.zendesk.com. Pasting the full URL works too.
    • Email: the email of the Zendesk agent or admin the API token belongs to.
    • API token: the token you copied.
  3. Click Validate Connection. A success message tells you how many Guide categories were found.
  4. Continue to Select Categories and tick the Zendesk categories you want to import from.
  5. In Preview, choose articles. Published articles are ticked by default; drafts are listed but unticked, so tick any you want.
  6. In Categories, map each Zendesk section to a HelpBento category or create a new one. See Map your source categories during import.
  7. Click Start Import.

Two validation errors are worth recognising:

  • Invalid Zendesk credentials: the email and token pair was rejected. Check that the email matches the account that created the token.
  • Could not find a Zendesk help center at that subdomain: the subdomain is wrong or Guide is not enabled on it.

What maps to what

In Zendesk GuideIn HelpBento
CategoryWhat you pick in the Select Categories step
SectionA category, named "Category / Section"
ArticleAn article. The HTML body is converted to the HelpBento editor format and images are re-hosted in HelpBento
Draft flagThe article's status, when Preserve article status is on

Things to know:

  • The import uses your help center's default locale. Translations of an article are not imported separately.
  • Zendesk does not report article counts per category, so the selection summary shows category counts only.
  • View counts are not carried over; imported articles start their HelpBento stats from zero.

Published or draft

The Import step has a Preserve article status toggle, on by default. With it on, published Zendesk articles are published in HelpBento and drafts land as drafts. Turn it off to import everything as drafts for review first.

If your plan caps the number of published articles, anything beyond the cap is imported as a draft rather than failing. The completion screen shows how many landed as published and how many as drafts.

Keeping it in sync

After the first import, the Zendesk card gains a Sync updates button. It compares Zendesk's last-updated timestamps against your previous import and refreshes changed articles in place. See Run an import again.