Ruby on Rails, Zendesk API integration not loading the client - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am trying to set up the Zendesk API in my app, I have decided to go with the API that was built by Zendesk
I have set up the initializer object to load the client.
config/initializers/zendesk.rb
require 'zendesk_api'
client = ZendeskAPI::Client.new do |config|
# Mandatory:
config.url = Rails.application.secrets[:zendesk][:url]
# Basic / Token Authentication
config.username = Rails.application.secrets[:zendesk][:username]
config.token = Rails.application.secrets[:zendesk][:token]
# Optional:
# Retry uses middleware to notify the user
# when hitting the rate limit, sleep automatically,
# then retry the request.
config.retry = true
# Logger prints to STDERR by default, to e.g. print to stdout:
require 'logger'
config.logger = Logger.new(STDOUT)
# Changes Faraday adapter
# config.adapter = :patron
# Merged with the default client options hash
# config.client_options = { :ssl => false }
# When getting the error 'hostname does not match the server certificate'
# use the API at https://yoursubdomain.zendesk.com/api/v2
end
This is pretty much copy paste from the site, but I have decided on using the token + username combination.
I then created a service object that I pass a JSON object and have it construct tickets. This service object is called from a controller.
app/services/zendesk_notifier.rb
class ZendeskNotifier
attr_reader :data
def initialize(data)
#data = data
end
def create_ticket
options = {:comment => { :value => data[:reasons] }, :priority => "urgent" }
if for_operations?
options[:subject] = "Ops to get additional info for CC"
options[:requester] = { :email => 'originations#testing1.com' }
elsif school_in_usa_or_canada?
options[:subject] = "SRM to communicate with student"
options[:requester] = { :email => 'srm#testing2.com' }
else
options[:subject] = "SRM to communicate with student"
options[:requester] = { :email => 'srm_row#testing3.com' }
end
ZendeskAPI::Ticket.create!(client, options)
end
private
def for_operations?
data[:delegate] == 1
end
def school_in_usa_or_canada?
data[:campus_country] == "US" || "CA"
end
end
But now I am getting
NameError - undefined local variable or method `client' for #<ZendeskNotifier:0x007fdc7e5882b8>:
app/services/zendesk_notifier.rb:20:in `create_ticket'
app/controllers/review_queue_applications_controller.rb:46:in `post_review'
I thought that the client was the same one defined in my config initializer. Somehow I think this is a different object now. I have tried looking at their documentation for more information but I am lost as to what this is?

Answer 1

If you want to use the client that is defined in the initializer you would need to make it global by changing it to $client. Currently you have it setup as a local variable.

Answer 2

I used a slightly different way of initializing the client, copying from this example rails app using the standard Zendesk API gem:
https://github.com/devarispbrown/zendesk_help_rails/blob/master/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
As danielrsmith noted, the client variable is out of scope. You could instead have an initializer like this:
config/initializers/zendesk_client.rb:
class ZendeskClient < ZendeskAPI::Client
def self.instance
#instance ||= new do |config|
config.url = Rails.application.secrets[:zendesk][:url]
config.username = Rails.application.secrets[:zendesk][:username]
config.token = Rails.application.secrets[:zendesk][:token]
config.retry = true
config.logger = Logger.new(STDOUT)
end
end
end
Then return the client elsewhere by client = ZendeskClient.instance (abridged for brevity):
app/services/zendesk_notifier.rb:
class ZendeskNotifier
attr_reader :data
def initialize(data)
#data = data
#client = ZendeskClient.instance
end
def create_ticket
options = {:comment => { :value => data[:reasons] }, :priority => "urgent" }
...
ZendeskAPI::Ticket.create!(#client, options)
end
...
end
Hope this helps.