Reuse DITA content in Zendesk

[ann.jensen]

Hi,
Our company uses Zendesk Support for customer service tickets and has started to use Zendesk Guide for customer service articles.
We also use DITA to Oxygen WebHelp (defined in Oxygen XML Author) for general product documentation.
Management want to know why we have 2 documentation repositories (I wasn't involved with the introduction of Zendesk Guide) and how they can work together.
We have more content in DITA than in Guide and AFAICS, since Zendesk Guide is static HTML, the only way of updating it with content from DITA is by doing a manual copy (from HTML5 transformation) over to Guide editor.

Can anyone else advise on the best approach to reuse content already defined in DITA in Oxygen XML Author across to Zendesk Guide.
Any feedback appreciated,
Regards,
Ann

[Radu]

Hi Ann,

We are not very familiar with Zendesk, maybe you could ask around on the DITA Users List.
There have been questions in the past about this on the DITA Users List but not with very helpful answers.
Also if you google for "dita zendesk", there seem to be quite a lot of requests for Zendesk to provide a DITA integration.

Regards,
Radu

[cfurlin]

Ann,

This is probably a bit late, but it's something I've been trying to do as well. I have found a bit of information.

ZenDesk writers author in DITA and do exactly what you are doing to publish. See this article for more information:

https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ar ... at-Zendesk

Here is the relevant passage:

"...we transform the DITA to HTML, then manually paste the source HTML into the article code editor..."

My guess is that there is no better way if their own authors do it manually.

[ann.jensen]

Hi,
Yes, thanks I have been in communication with Charles in Zendesk on this process and he has been very helpful.
Regards,
Ann

[Radu]

Hi Ann,

We were considering creating a DITA Open Toolkit plugin which produces HTML and then uploads the content to Zendesk based on certain parameters set to it (like the user/password authentication, the domain).
I was trying to gather ideas about what the plugin should do in order to be useful.
For example on Zendesk articles are grouped in categories and sections. Are all your DITA topics pushed to the same Zendesk section or do you want to push them to various sections? Do you also make changes to the articles from the Zendesk interface or you only modify the DITA content?

Regards,
Radu

[ann.jensen]

Hi Radu,
Due to change of employer, I haven't worked with Zendesk in a few years. At the time I used the support from https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ar ... at-Zendesk to push published HTML content to Zendesk. That project didn't get fully operational before I left.
Sorry I can't be more help. Maybe other people on that Zendesk help page might be able to advise more.
Regards,
Ann

[Radu]

Hi Ann,

No problem, thanks.

Regards,
Radu

[Radu]

Hi,

As an update on this thread, Oxygen 24 has support to publish DITA XML content directly to Zendesk.

Regards,
Radu

[BobbyG66]

I have purchased Oxygen Editor Enterprise edition 24 and trying to publish to Zendesk.
I am following this procedure: https://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/versions/ ... utput.html
My settings seem to be correct, but I am getting an error at the end of the transformation.

Error: org.zendesk.client.v2.ZendeskException: java.net.ConnectException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target

Is this a certificate error?
Any ideas on how to fix this?
Thanks
BobbyG66

[Radu]

Hi,

Indeed this looks like a certificate error, as if the HTTP connection started by Oxygen somehow considers the Zendesk website certificate invalid. Are you using some kind of HTTP proxy server in your company?
After the transformation fails, there should be a "DITA OT" console tab view at the bottom of Oxygen. Could you save all that logging information to a file and send it to us via email (support@oxygenxml.com)? Please also check there are no confidential logged passwords in the log file before sending it to us.

Regards,
Radu

[BobbyG66]

Issue resolved! We can now publish to Zendesk.
Solution:
In the Oxygen DITA Maps Manager view click the "Configure Transformation Scenarios" toolbar button and edit the transformation scenario you are using to publish DITA to Zendesk.
In the "Advanced" tab, "JVM Arguments" field set this value:

Code: Select all

-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStoreType=Windows-ROOT -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=C:\\Windows\\win.ini

Save the scenario and then publish it.

Thanks for all your help Radu!
BobbyG66