Install and configure Algolia for Zendesk

Sync Zendesk articles or posts to an Algolia index and add Algolia search to your help center theme.

View live demo

Explore a working Zendesk help center that uses the connector to sync content and Algolia for search.

Explore source code

Browse the Zendesk connector source code on GitHub.

Set up the Zendesk connector

1. Go to the Algolia dashboard and select your Algolia .

2. On the left sidebar, select Data sources.

3. On the Connectors page, find Zendesk Knowledge Base and click Connect.

4. Click Create a new source.

5. If you’ve already allowed Algolia to access your Zendesk account, select your existing authentication from the OAuth 2.0 list.

   Otherwise, connect your Zendesk account:

   1. Enter your Zendesk subdomain and click Connect to Zendesk.
   2. In Zendesk, allow Algolia to access your Zendesk Help Center.
   3. When Zendesk redirects you to the Algolia dashboard, select Create a new OAuth 2.0 authentication.
   4. In Zendesk authentication URL, enter the URL for your Zendesk subdomain.
   5. Optional: enter a name for the authentication.
   6. Click Create authentication.
   7. Refresh the connector setup page, then select the new authentication from the list.

6. Enter the following values:

   • Account name: your Zendesk subdomain. For example, if your Zendesk URL is https://my-zendesk-app.zendesk.com, your account name is my-zendesk-app.
   • Content to index: choose the Zendesk content type you want to index: articles or posts. The Zendesk connector supports both content types, but each source indexes one content type. To index both, create one source for articles and another for posts.
   • Max Content Size: the connector truncates the content to the specified size. The default value is 5,000 characters. Increase it only if you need to index longer content.

7. Click Create source.

Configure the Algolia index

1. Select the Algolia to use as the destination for your Zendesk content.
2. Create an indexing task and set how often to synchronize your Zendesk content.
3. Click Run task to start the first synchronization.

Update your Zendesk help center theme

To replace the default search with Algolia Search, update a copy of your live help center theme. This lets you preview your changes before making the copied theme live.

1. Copy your live theme

   In Zendesk Knowledge admin, on the sidebar, click Customize design.

   On your live theme, open the options menu and select Copy.

2. Replace the default Zendesk search with Algolia

   On the copied theme, click Customize, then Edit code.

   From the template list, select the document_head.hbs template and add the following code to the end of the template:

   HTML

   <link
     rel="stylesheet"
     type="text/css"
     href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/algoliasearch.zendesk-hc@3.0.0/dist/algoliasearch.zendesk-hc.min.css"
   />
   <script
     type="text/javascript"
     src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/algoliasearch.zendesk-hc@3.0.0/dist/algoliasearch.zendesk-hc.min.js"
   ></script>
   <script type="text/javascript">
     algoliasearchZendeskHC({
       applicationId: "ALGOLIA_APPLICATION_ID",
       apiKey: "ALGOLIA_SEARCH_API_KEY",
       subdomain: "ZENDESK_SUBDOMAIN",
       indexName: "ALGOLIA_INDEX_NAME",
     });
   </script>
   
3. Preview your changes

   Click Save, then Preview to check the appearance of the updated theme.

   To change the look of your search, see Customize the CSS.

4. Test the theme

   Zendesk Preview is only intended for appearance checks, not interactive testing. For interactive testing, use a Zendesk sandbox.

   In your sandbox, enter text in the search box and confirm that it shows results.

5. Make the copied theme live

   In Zendesk Knowledge admin, on the sidebar, click Customize design.

   On the copied theme, open the options menu and select Set as live theme.

For more information, see Customizing your help center theme.

Next steps

Change the indexing configuration or update the translations.