Zendesk Help Center Integration With ProProfs Knowledge Base

This feature only available for the Zendesk Help Center. Click here to understand the differences.

Zendesk released the Help Center on 8/21/13 (you can read the announcement here). It is included in all new Zendesk accounts. The Help Center is not deployed when you start a new Zendesk account. You must create it, prepare it for release, and then activate it. Many of our customers never activate the Help Center and just use ProProfs for their documentation.

If you are using the Help Center you can to add ”Documentation" link in your Help Center’s navigation that points to your ProProfs documentation. This makes it easy for your end users to access your documentation when they are in Zendesk. You can also hide this link from users who have not signed it. See restricting access below.

Using the Help Center and ProProfs Together

Many customers choose to use the Help Center for their FAQs and lighter documentation and ProProfs for their product guides, support docs, and user manuals. ProProfs really excels at organizing and structuring lots of documentation. The Help Center is great for your community forum and simplier topics.

We have many customers who never activate the Help Center and just use ProProfs for their documentation. The ProProfs app allows your support agents to search your ProProfs documentation from within Zendesk with responding to support tickets.

Adding a documentation link

You can add a "Documentation" link in Zendesk's navigation that point to your ProProfs documentation. This makes it easy for your end users to access your documentation when they are in Zendesk.

Log into your Zendesk Help Center
Click Customize design in the tools panel on the lower-right side of the page
A panel will slide open the on left side. Under Theme click Edit theme.
Select the Header template in the Theme editor
Use the code view to edit the template. Enter the following code:
<a href="http://mysite.helpdocsonline.com" class="helpiq" style="display:none">Documentation</a>
Replace "mysite.helpdocsonline.com" with the URL to your ProProfs site and "Documentation" with whatever text you want the hyperlink to be named.
To save your changes, click Save at the top of the sidebar. When you're ready to deploy your changes click Publish changes at the top of the sidebar.
The new link will now appear in your Help Center.

Restricting access to only logged in users

You can set up ProProfs so only logged-in Zendesk users (agents and/or end-users) can access and view your ProProfs documentation. If the user went directly to your documentation site without first logging in to Zendesk, they would not be able to access your documentation. Zendesk handles the authentication.

Step 1 - Make Your ProProfs Site Private

The first step is to set your site to private.

Log in to your account (as an Administrator) and click Settings.
Click Private Sites.

The private sites page will appear.

Under Make these Sites Private select which sites you want to make private.
You have the option of entering a redirect URL. This is the URL the end user will be redirected to when trying to access your ProProfs site directly. Since you are using Zendesk for authenication enter the URL to your zendesk login page such as: http://mycompany.zendesk.com/access/
Click Save to save the settings.
The site will now be private. Learn more about private sites.

Step 2 - Configure Zendesk

Add a link to your help center as described above Documentation
Make sure you keep the class=”ProProfs” in the hyperlink as this will be used to hide the link.
Click Customize design in the tools panel on the lower-right side of the page.
A panel will slide open the on left side. Under Theme click Edit theme.
Select the JS in the Theme editor.
Scroll to the bottom of the Zendesk JS code and and copy the below code and paste it in:
function authProProfs() {
if (HelpCenter.user.role == "anonymous") {
// Hide everything with class 'ProProfs'
    jQuery('.ProProfs').hide();
} else {
// Allow logged in users to view ProProfs site
    var ProProfs_hash = 'Private site API key';
    var ProProfs_url = 'mysite.helpdocsonline.com';
    jQuery.getScript('//' + ProProfs_url + '/access/remote/'+ProProfs_hash+'.js');
jQuery('.ProProfs').show();
    }
}
$(document).ready(function(){
authProProfs();
});
Log in to your ProProfs account (as an Administrator) and click Settings then Click Private Sites. The private sites page will appear. Locate your API key and copy it.
Now go back to Zendesk and in the code you just pasted in located the code:
var ProProfs_hash = 'Private site API key' Select the text Private site API key the and paste in your API key, overwrting the text. Make sure you do not delete the ' ' as this sytanx is needed by the javascript.
Now go back to Zendesk and in the code you just pasted in located the code:
var ProProfs_url = 'mysite.helpdocsonline.com' and replace with your ProProfs sites URL.
To save your changes, click Save at the top of the sidebar. When you're ready to deploy your changes click Publish changes at the top of the sidebar.
Now the link will only be visible to logged in Zendesk users and your ProProfs site will be restricted to only logged in Zendesk users.

Suggested Reading: Zendesk Agent App