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Freshdesk Data Source

The Freshdesk connector enables you to ingest support ticket data, contact records, company information, agent details, and conversation histories from your Freshdesk account into Nexla. Follow the instructions below to create a new data flow that ingests data from a Freshdesk source in Nexla.
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Freshdesk

Create a New Data Flow​

  1. To create a new data flow, navigate to the Integrate section, and click the New Data Flow button. Then, select the desired flow type from the list, and click the Create button.

  2. Select the Freshdesk connector tile from the list of available connectors. Then, select the credential that will be used to connect to the Freshdesk instance, and click Next; or, create a new Freshdesk credential for use in this flow.

  3. In Nexla, Freshdesk data sources can be created using pre-built endpoint templates, which expedite source setup for common Freshdesk endpoints. Each template is designed specifically for the corresponding Freshdesk endpoint, making data source setup easy and efficient.
    • To configure this source using a template, follow the instructions in Configure Using a Template.

    Freshdesk sources can also be configured manually, allowing you to ingest data from Freshdesk endpoints not included in the pre-built templates or apply further customizations to exactly suit your needs.
    • To configure this source manually, follow the instructions in Configure Manually.

Configure Using a Template​

Nexla provides pre-built templates that can be used to rapidly configure data sources to ingest data from common Freshdesk endpoints. Each template is designed specifically for the corresponding Freshdesk endpoint, making data source setup easy and efficient.

Endpoint Settings​

  • Select the endpoint from which this source will fetch data from the Endpoint pulldown menu. Available endpoint templates are listed in the expandable boxes below. Click on an endpoint to see more information about it and how to configure your data source for this endpoint.

    List Canned Responses

    Returns a list of canned responses from a specific canned response folder. Use this endpoint to export saved reply templates for documentation, analysis, or synchronization with other support tools.

    • Sends a GET request to the Freshdesk canned response folders endpoint for the specified folder; returns canned response records as an array at $[*].
    • Each record includes the canned response title, content, and associated folder.
    • Configure the following parameters: Domain — your Freshdesk subdomain (e.g., yourcompany from yourcompany.freshdesk.com). Folder ID — the ID of the canned response folder from which to retrieve responses.

    Use the Freshdesk API to list all canned response folders first if you do not know the Folder ID. Canned response folders organize saved replies by team or topic.

    List Companies

    Returns a list of all companies (accounts) in the Freshdesk account. Use this endpoint to retrieve company records for CRM synchronization, account-based reporting, or contact enrichment.

    • Sends a GET request to /api/v2/companies; returns company records as an array at $[*].
    • Each record includes the company name, domains, description, and any custom company fields configured in your Freshdesk account.

    Results are paginated — up to 100 records are returned per page. Use the page query parameter to retrieve additional pages. Freshdesk enforces API rate limits that vary by plan.

    List Conversations

    Returns a list of conversations (replies and notes) for a specific ticket. Use this endpoint to retrieve the full conversation thread for individual support tickets.

    • Sends a GET request to the Freshdesk conversations endpoint for the specified ticket; returns conversation records as an array at $[*].
    • Each record includes the conversation body, author, type (reply or note), and timestamps.
    • Configure the following parameter: Ticket ID — the numeric ID of the Freshdesk ticket whose conversations should be retrieved.

    Use the List Tickets endpoint to obtain ticket IDs. Consider using a Nexla lookup macro to dynamically supply ticket IDs for bulk conversation retrieval across multiple tickets.

    List Contacts

    Returns a list of all contacts in the Freshdesk account. Use this endpoint to retrieve customer contact records for CRM synchronization, reporting, or marketing list management.

    • Sends a GET request to /api/v2/contacts; returns contact records as an array at $[*].
    • Each record includes the contact's name, email, phone, company association, and any custom contact fields.

    Results are paginated — up to 100 records per page. Use the updated_since filter parameter combined with Nexla date/time macros to perform incremental ingestion of recently updated contacts.

    List Discussion Comments

    Returns a list of comments for a specific discussion topic in the Freshdesk community forum. Use this endpoint to export community discussion content for analysis or moderation workflows.

    • Sends a GET request to the Freshdesk discussion comments endpoint for the specified topic; returns comment records as an array at $[*].
    • Each record includes the comment body, author, and timestamps.
    • Configure the following parameter: Topic ID — the ID of the discussion topic whose comments should be retrieved.

    Use the List Discussion Topics endpoint to obtain the topic IDs needed for this endpoint.

    List Discussion Forums

    Returns a list of forums within a specific discussion category. Use this endpoint to retrieve forum structure data for community portal analysis or content synchronization.

    • Sends a GET request to the Freshdesk discussion forums endpoint for the specified category; returns forum records as an array at $[*].
    • Each record includes the forum name, description, topic count, and visibility settings.
    • Configure the following parameter: Category ID — the ID of the discussion category whose forums should be listed.

    Discussion category IDs can be retrieved via the Freshdesk API discussion categories endpoint. Forums contain topics, and topics contain comments — retrieve the full hierarchy using this endpoint in conjunction with List Discussion Topics and List Discussion Comments.

    List Discussion Topics

    Retrieves a list of discussion topics from a specific forum. Use this endpoint to export community forum topics for content analysis, moderation, or knowledge base management.

    • Sends a GET request to the Freshdesk discussion topics endpoint for the specified forum; returns topic records as an array at $[*].
    • Each record includes the topic title, body, author, reply count, and timestamps.
    • Configure the following parameter: Forum ID — the ID of the forum whose topics should be retrieved.

    Use the List Discussion Forums endpoint to obtain the forum IDs needed for this endpoint. Topic IDs from this endpoint can be used with the List Discussion Comments endpoint to retrieve all comments for each topic.

    List Groups

    Retrieves a list of all agent groups in the Freshdesk helpdesk. Use this endpoint to retrieve group configurations for routing analysis, reporting, or synchronization with workforce management tools.

    • Sends a GET request to /api/v2/groups; returns group records as an array at $[*].
    • Each record includes the group name, description, associated agents, and escalation settings.

    Group IDs from this endpoint can be used to filter the List Tickets endpoint by assigned group.

    List Solution Articles

    Returns a list of knowledge base articles within a specific solution folder. Use this endpoint to export help center content for analysis, translation, or synchronization with external knowledge management systems.

    • Sends a GET request to the Freshdesk solution articles endpoint for the specified folder; returns article records as an array at $[*].
    • Each record includes the article title, body, status, author, and view/like counts.
    • Configure the following parameter: Folder ID — the ID of the solution folder whose articles should be retrieved.

    Use the List Solution Folders endpoint to obtain the folder IDs needed for this endpoint. Solution article IDs and content can be used to build searchable knowledge base exports or automated content review workflows.

    List Solution Folders

    Returns a list of solution folders within a specific solution category. Use this endpoint to retrieve the knowledge base folder structure and obtain folder IDs for fetching articles.

    • Sends a GET request to the Freshdesk solution folders endpoint for the specified category; returns folder records as an array at $[*].
    • Each record includes the folder name, visibility settings, and article count.
    • Configure the following parameter: Category ID — the ID of the solution category whose folders should be listed.

    Solution categories can be retrieved via the Freshdesk API solution categories endpoint. Use folder IDs from this endpoint with the List Solution Articles endpoint to retrieve all articles within each folder.

    List Tickets

    Returns a list of all tickets in the Freshdesk account. Use this endpoint as the primary source for support ticket analytics, reporting, and synchronization with CRM or data warehouse systems.

    • Sends a GET request to /api/v2/tickets; returns ticket records as an array at $[*].
    • Each record includes the ticket ID, subject, description, status, priority, assigned agent and group, requester details, and timestamps.

    Results are paginated — up to 100 tickets per page. Use the updated_since filter parameter combined with Nexla date/time macros for incremental ingestion (e.g., fetch only tickets updated in the last day). Freshdesk enforces rate limits that vary by plan: Growth — 200 req/min, Pro — 400 req/min, Enterprise — 700 req/min.

Endpoint Testing​

Once the selected endpoint template has been configured, Nexla can retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched according to the current settings. This allows users to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.

  • To test the current endpoint configuration, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu. Sample data will be fetched & displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right.

  • If the sample data is not as expected, review the selected endpoint and associated settings, and make any necessary adjustments. Then, click the Test button again, and check the sample data to ensure that the correct information is displayed.

Configure Manually​

Freshdesk sources can also be configured manually, allowing you to ingest data from any valid Freshdesk API v2 endpoint. Configuration options available for Freshdesk sources allow them to be fully customized to suit any use case—including sources that use date-range filtering to fetch only recently updated records, sources that paginate through large datasets automatically, or sources that chain multiple API calls to enrich data with related records.

First, select the method that will be used for calls to the Freshdesk API from the Method pulldown menu. The most common methods are:

  • GET: For retrieving tickets, contacts, companies, agents, and other records from Freshdesk
  • POST: For triggering search queries or creating records (when used as a write-back source)

API Endpoint URL​

  1. Enter the URL of the Freshdesk API endpoint from which this source will fetch data in the Set API URL field. This should be the complete URL including the protocol (https://) and your Freshdesk subdomain.

    Freshdesk API v2 endpoints follow this pattern: https://{'{yourdomain}'}.freshdesk.com/api/v2/{'{resource}'}. Common endpoints include:

    • Tickets: https://yourdomain.freshdesk.com/api/v2/tickets — retrieves all tickets in the account, with optional filters for status, priority, assignee, and date ranges.
    • Contacts: https://yourdomain.freshdesk.com/api/v2/contacts — retrieves customer contact records including name, email, phone, and company associations.
    • Companies: https://yourdomain.freshdesk.com/api/v2/companies — retrieves company (account) records associated with your contacts.
    • Agents: https://yourdomain.freshdesk.com/api/v2/agents — retrieves the list of support agents in your Freshdesk account.
    • Conversations: https://yourdomain.freshdesk.com/api/v2/tickets/{'{ticket_id}'}/conversations — retrieves all replies and notes on a specific ticket.

    Freshdesk's list endpoints return up to 100 records per page by default. To paginate through all records, append the page query parameter — for example, https://yourdomain.freshdesk.com/api/v2/tickets?page=2. Nexla handles pagination automatically when you configure the Path to Data correctly.

Date/Time Macros (API URL)​

Optional

Optionally, the API URL can be customized using macros—all macros added to the API URL will be converted into values when Nexla executes the API call. Macros are dynamic placeholders that allow you to create flexible API endpoints that can adapt to different time periods or data requirements.

Date/time macros are especially useful with the Freshdesk tickets endpoint, which supports filtering by update date using the updated_since query parameter. For example: https://yourdomain.freshdesk.com/api/v2/tickets?updated_since={'{now-1}'} retrieves only tickets updated within the last time unit, enabling incremental data ingestion runs that process only new or changed records.

  1. To add a macro, type { at the appropriate position in the API URL (within the Set API URL field), and select the desired macro from the dropdown list.

    • {now} – The current datetime
    • {now-1} – The datetime one time unit before the current datetime
    • {now+1} – The datetime one time unit after the current datetime
    • custom – Datetime macros can reference any number of time units before or after the current datetime—for example, enter (now-4) to indicate the datetime four time units before the current datetime

  2. Select the format that will be applied to datetime macros from the Date Format for Date/Time Macro pulldown menu. This format will be applied to the base datetime value of the macro—i.e., the value of {now} in {now-1}. Freshdesk expects datetime values in ISO 8601 format (e.g., 2024-01-15T00:00:00Z).

  3. Select the datetime unit that will be used to perform mathematical operations in the included macro(s) from the Time Unit for Operations pulldown menu—for example, for the macro {now-1}, when Day is selected, {now-1} will be converted to the datetime one day before the current datetime.

Lookup-Based Macros (API URL)​

Optional

Column values from existing lookups can also be included as macros in the API URL. Lookup-based macros allow you to reference data from previously configured data sources or lookups, enabling dynamic API endpoints that can adapt based on existing data.

Lookup-based macros are particularly useful with Freshdesk when you need to fetch conversations or details for a list of ticket IDs obtained from another Nexla source. For example, you can pass a ticket ID from a lookup to build a URL like https://yourdomain.freshdesk.com/api/v2/tickets/{'{ticket_id}'}/conversations.

  1. To include a lookup column value macro, select the relevant lookup from the Add Lookups to Supported Macros pulldown menu.

  2. Type { at the appropriate position in the API URL, and select the lookup column-based macro from the dropdown list. Lookup-based macros are automatically populated into the macro list when a lookup is selected in the Add Lookups to Supported Macros pulldown menu.

Path to Data​

Optional

If only a subset of the data that will be returned by API endpoint is needed, you can designate the part(s) of the response that should be included in the Nexset(s) produced from this source by specifying the path to the relevant data within the response. This is particularly useful when API responses contain metadata, pagination information, or other data that you don't need for your analysis.

For example, when fetching a list of Freshdesk tickets, the API returns a JSON array of ticket objects at the top level of the response. By entering the path to the relevant data, you can configure Nexla to treat each ticket object as a separate record.

Path to Data is essential when API responses have nested structures. Freshdesk list endpoints generally return a top-level JSON array (e.g., for tickets the response is [{'{...ticket 1...}'}, {'{...ticket 2...}'}]), so you would typically set the path to $[*] to treat each element as a record.

  • To specify which data should be treated as relevant in responses from this source, enter the path to the relevant data in the Set Path to Data in Response field.

    • For responses in JSON format enter the JSON path that points to the object or array that should be treated as relevant data. JSON paths use dot notation (e.g., $.data.items[*] to access an array of items within a data object).

    • For responses in XML format, enter the XPath that points to the object/array containing relevant data. XPath uses slash notation (e.g., /response/data/item to access item elements within a data element).

    Path to Data Example:

    For the Freshdesk tickets endpoint (/api/v2/tickets), the API returns a top-level JSON array. Set the path to $[*] to treat each ticket object as an individual record. For nested resources such as conversations (/api/v2/tickets/123/conversations), the response is also a top-level array — set the path to $[*] as well.

Autogenerate Path Suggestions​

Nexla can also autogenerate data path suggestions based on the response from the API endpoint. These suggested paths can be used as-is or modified to exactly suit your needs.

  • To use this feature, click the Test button next to the Set API URL field to fetch a sample response from the API endpoint. Suggested data paths generated based on the content & format of the response will be displayed in the Suggestions box below the Set Path to Data in Response field.

  • Click on a suggestion to automatically populate the Set Path to Data in Response field with the corresponding path. The populated path can be modified directly within the field if further customization is needed.

    PathSuggestions.png

Metadata​

If metadata is included in the response but is located outside of the defined path to relevant data, you can configure Nexla to include this data as common metadata in each record. This is useful when you want to preserve important contextual information that applies to all records but isn't part of the main data array.

Metadata paths are particularly useful for preserving API response context like request IDs, timestamps, or summary statistics that apply to all records in the response.

  • To specify the location of metadata that should be included with each record, enter the path to the relevant metadata in the Path to Metadata in Response field.

    • For responses in JSON format, enter the JSON path to the object or array that contains the metadata, and for responses in XML format, enter the XPath.

Request Headers​

Optional

  • If Nexla should include any additional request headers in API calls to this source, enter the headers & corresponding values as comma-separated pairs in the Request Headers field (e.g., header1:value1,header2:value2). Additional headers are often required for API versioning, content type specifications, or custom authentication requirements.

    You do not need to include any headers already present in the credentials. The Freshdesk API requires the Content-Type: application/json header for POST requests; for GET requests, no additional headers beyond the authorization credential are typically needed.

Endpoint Testing​

After configuring all settings for the selected endpoint, Nexla can retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched according to the current configuration. This allows users to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.

  • To test the current endpoint configuration, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu. Sample data will be fetched & displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right.

  • If the sample data is not as expected, review the selected endpoint and associated settings, and make any necessary adjustments. Then, click the Test button again, and check the sample data to ensure that the correct information is displayed.

Freshdesk enforces rate limits on API requests. Growth plan accounts allow 200 requests per minute, Pro allows 400 per minute, and Enterprise allows 700 per minute. Trial accounts are limited to 50 requests per minute. If test requests fail with a 429 status code, wait a moment before retrying. For additional details, see the Freshdesk rate limit documentation.

Save & Activate the Source​

  1. Once all of the relevant steps in the above sections have been completed, click the Create button in the upper right corner of the screen to save and create the new Freshdesk data source. Nexla will now begin ingesting data from the configured endpoint and will organize any data that it finds into one or more Nexsets.