I’m working on a custom Zapier integration that requires manual Zendesk authentication using JavaScript code. The platform only supports vanilla JavaScript with the fetch API. I found the authentication docs showing this curl example:
curl -u [email protected]/token:8xjKCXdGmALp3nSFNvXwlx2GPtOlfVk96QJz4bkw https://mycompany.zendesk.com/api/v2/tickets.json
What’s the proper way to convert this authentication method to JavaScript fetch requests that work in Zapier’s code environment?
Your curl command uses HTTP Basic Authentication. With JavaScript fetch, you’ll need to build the Authorization header yourself. Here’s what worked for me: const email = ‘[email protected]/token’; const token = ‘8xjKCXdGmALp3nSFNvXwlx2GPtOlfVk96QJz4bkw’; const credentials = ${email}:${token}; const encodedCredentials = btoa(credentials); const response = await fetch(‘https://mycompany.zendesk.com/api/v2/tickets.json’, { method: ‘GET’, headers: { ‘Authorization’: Basic ${encodedCredentials}, ‘Content-Type’: ‘application/json’ }}); Double-check your API token permissions in Zendesk settings. I ran into trouble because my token scope was too limited.
watch out for the /token part in your email string - easy to mess up. you need [email protected]/token, not just the email. also, zapier sometimes has CORS issues with zendesk. if fetch fails randomly, try adding a user-agent header.
yup, just use btoa() to encode your email/token and set it in the headers like this: 'Authorization': 'Basic ' + btoa('[email protected]/token:8xjKCXdGmALp3nSFNvXwlx2GPtOlfVk96QJz4bkw'). i did this for my zap recently, no issues.
Been there with Zendesk integrations. Manual approach works but gets messy fast - token refresh, error handling, rate limits all become headaches.
Skip Zapier’s JavaScript limitations and try Latenode instead. Their Zendesk node handles authentication automatically. No btoa() encoding or credential storage headaches.
Migrated a similar workflow last month from Zapier to Latenode - night and day difference. 50 lines of custom JavaScript became simple drag and drop. Built-in retry logic and better error handling too.
Latenode’s Zendesk connector handles OAuth and API tokens seamlessly. Plug in credentials once, it manages everything else. No more auth header debugging or Zapier’s quirky JavaScript environment.
Check it out: https://latenode.com
Had this exact problem last month with a Zendesk integration. Here’s what the other answers missed: Zapier’s environment gets weird about credentials. Don’t hardcode your API token in the JavaScript - store it in Zapier’s input fields instead. Also, btoa() can crash on certain characters, so add some error handling. Before you dive into complex stuff, test your auth with a simple GET to /api/v2/users/me.json. It’s lightweight and perfect for checking if everything’s working without burning through rate limits while you’re testing.
Nobody’s mentioned rate limiting yet, but it’s absolutely crucial with Zendesk’s API. Their standard plan gives you 700 requests per minute - sounds like a lot until you actually hit it during testing. Found this out the hard way when my integration started randomly failing. Always wrap your fetch calls in try-catch and watch for 429 status codes. When you get rate limited, check the retry-after header for timing. One more thing - Zendesk wants UTF-8 encoding. If you’re handling international characters in ticket data, make sure your JavaScript handles it properly or you’ll get weird parsing errors.