Search
Guide exposes three different search APIs: the Article and Post search APIs enable you to search for articles and posts respectively, the Unified search API allows you to search across articles, posts and external content in a single query.
You can call the search APIs from a JavaScript client in a domain other than your Help Center. The API implements Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS). CORS lets a JavaScript client access resources in other domains.
JSON format
Search are represented as JSON objects with the following properties:
Name | Type | Read-only | Mandatory | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
results | array | false | true | An array with the base articles or community posts |
Unified Search
GET /api/v2/guide/search?filter[locales]={filter[locales]}
Use the Unified Search endpoint to search for knowledge base articles, community posts, and external records.
Returns a default number of 10 results per page.
The only mandatory parameter is filter[locales]
. Other parameters can be added to narrow down the search result set.
If you specify an invalid locale or a locale that's not enabled for any of your account's help centers, no search results are returned. You can check for valid locales with the API. See List all enabled locales and default locale.
If the query
parameter is used, results are sorted by relevance according to the rules described in About Help Center End User Search. If the query
parameter is not used, results are sorted using an internal ordering.
Pagination
This API only supports cursor-based pagination. See Using cursor based pagination in the Help Center API docs. Currently, this API does not support backwards pagination.
Returns a maximum of 50 records per page.
Allowed for
- Authenticated users
- Agents
- Admins
Parameters
Name | Type | In | Required | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
filter[brand_ids] | string | Query | false | Limit the search to articles or posts within these brands. If no brand is specified, results are returned across all brands. If you want to scope the result of your search with multiple brands, separate each value with a comma |
filter[category_ids] | string | Query | false | Limit the search to articles with these category ids. See Filtering by Category |
filter[content_types] | string | Query | false | Limit the search to one of these content types: ARTICLE, POST. At present, it is not possible to specify EXTERNAL_RECORD . Instead, use the filter[external_source_id] parameter above |
filter[external_source_ids] | string | Query | false | Use this parameter to scope the result of your search to a specific external source or external sources. If no external source is given, results are returned across all sources |
filter[locales] | string | Query | true | Limit the search to these locales. See Filtering by Locale |
filter[section_ids] | string | Query | false | Limit the search to articles with these section ids. See Filtering by Section |
filter[topic_ids] | string | Query | false | Limit the search to posts within these topics. See Filtering by Topic |
page[after] | string | Query | false | A string representing the cursor to the next page. |
page[size] | integer | Query | false | A numeric value that indicates the maximum number of items that can be included in a response. The value of this parameter has an upper limit of 50. The default value is 10. |
query | string | Query | false | The search text to be matched or a search string |
Code Samples
Curl
curl --request GET https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/search?filter[brand_ids]=73%2C67&filter[category_ids]=42%2C43&filter[content_types]=ARTICLE%2CPOST&filter[external_source_ids]=01EC05A5T1J4ZSDJX4Q8JGFRHP&filter[locales]=en-us%2Cen-gb&filter[section_ids]=42%2C43&filter[topic_ids]=42%2C43&page[after]=&page[size]=&query=carrot \
--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
-u username:password
a query with password authentication
# Use commas to separate multiple search terms.
# Authorization can be achieved using `email:password`
curl "https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/search?query=Printing&filter[locales]=en-us,en-gb" -g \
-v -u {email_address}:{password}
external source filtering with basic authentication
# You can omit the query term if you just need to apply a filter
# The `Authorization` header can be used to pass a Base 64 encoded Authorization token
curl "https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/search?filter[locales]=en-us&filter[external_source_ids]=01EC05A5T1J4ZSDJX4Q8JGFRHP" -g\
-H "Authorization: Basic {token}"
pagination with basic authentication
# You can use page[size] and page[after] to paginate your result set
curl "https://{subdomain}.zendesk.comapi/v2/guide/search?filter[locales]=en-us&page[size]=2&page[after]=WzEuMCwxNjld" -g\
-H "Authorization: Basic {token}"
Go
import (
"fmt"
"io"
"net/http"
)
func main() {
url := "https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/search?filter[brand_ids]=73%2C67&filter[category_ids]=42%2C43&filter[content_types]=ARTICLE%2CPOST&filter[external_source_ids]=01EC05A5T1J4ZSDJX4Q8JGFRHP&filter[locales]=en-us%2Cen-gb&filter[section_ids]=42%2C43&filter[topic_ids]=42%2C43&page[after]=&page[size]=&query=carrot"
method := "GET"
req, err := http.NewRequest(method, url, nil)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
return
}
req.Header.Add("Content-Type", "application/json")
req.Header.Add("Authorization", "Basic <auth-value>") // Base64 encoded "username:password"
client := &http.Client {}
res, err := client.Do(req)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
return
}
defer res.Body.Close()
body, err := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
return
}
fmt.Println(string(body))
}
Java
import com.squareup.okhttp.*;
OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();
HttpUrl.Builder urlBuilder = HttpUrl.parse("https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/search")
.newBuilder()
.addQueryParameter("filter[brand_ids]", "73,67")
.addQueryParameter("filter[category_ids]", "42,43")
.addQueryParameter("filter[content_types]", "ARTICLE,POST")
.addQueryParameter("filter[external_source_ids]", "01EC05A5T1J4ZSDJX4Q8JGFRHP")
.addQueryParameter("filter[locales]", "en-us,en-gb")
.addQueryParameter("filter[section_ids]", "42,43")
.addQueryParameter("filter[topic_ids]", "42,43")
.addQueryParameter("page[after]", "")
.addQueryParameter("page[size]", "")
.addQueryParameter("query", "carrot");
Request request = new Request.Builder()
.url(urlBuilder.build())
.method("GET", null)
.addHeader("Content-Type", "application/json")
.addHeader("Authorization", Credentials.basic("your-email", "your-password"))
.build();
Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();
javascript to search external content from a Help Center front-end as a logged in user
const externalSourceId = "" // some source id
const response = await fetch(
`https://${window.location.hostname}/api/v2/guide/search?filter[locales]=en-us&filter[external_source_ids]=${externalSourceId}`,
{
credentials: 'include',
headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' }
}
);
const data = await response.json();
data.results.forEach(something); // do something with the results
Nodejs
var axios = require('axios');
var config = {
method: 'GET',
url: 'https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/search',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
'Authorization': 'Basic <auth-value>', // Base64 encoded "username:password"
},
params: {
'filter[brand_ids]': '73%2C67',
'filter[category_ids]': '42%2C43',
'filter[content_types]': 'ARTICLE%2CPOST',
'filter[external_source_ids]': '01EC05A5T1J4ZSDJX4Q8JGFRHP',
'filter[locales]': 'en-us%2Cen-gb',
'filter[section_ids]': '42%2C43',
'filter[topic_ids]': '42%2C43',
'page[after]': '',
'page[size]': '',
'query': 'carrot',
},
};
axios(config)
.then(function (response) {
console.log(JSON.stringify(response.data));
})
.catch(function (error) {
console.log(error);
});
Python
import requests
url = "https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/search?filter[brand_ids]=73%2C67&filter[category_ids]=42%2C43&filter[content_types]=ARTICLE%2CPOST&filter[external_source_ids]=01EC05A5T1J4ZSDJX4Q8JGFRHP&filter[locales]=en-us%2Cen-gb&filter[section_ids]=42%2C43&filter[topic_ids]=42%2C43&page[after]=&page[size]=&query=carrot"
headers = {
"Content-Type": "application/json",
}
response = requests.request(
"GET",
url,
auth=('<username>', '<password>'),
headers=headers
)
print(response.text)
Ruby
require "net/http"
uri = URI("https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/search")
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form("filter[brand_ids]": "73,67", "filter[category_ids]": "42,43", "filter[content_types]": "ARTICLE,POST", "filter[external_source_ids]": "01EC05A5T1J4ZSDJX4Q8JGFRHP", "filter[locales]": "en-us,en-gb", "filter[section_ids]": "42,43", "filter[topic_ids]": "42,43", "page[after]": "", "page[size]": "", "query": "carrot")
request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri, "Content-Type": "application/json")
request.basic_auth "username", "password"
response = Net::HTTP.start uri.hostname, uri.port, use_ssl: true do |http|
http.request(request)
end
Example response(s)
200 OK
// Status 200 OK
{
"meta": {
"after_cursor": "WzEuMCwxNjld",
"before_cursor": "WzEuMCwxNjhd",
"has_more": true
},
"results": [
{
"title": "How to make fish stew",
"type": "ARTICLE",
"updated_at": "2021-10-11T15:02:22Z",
"url": "http://example.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/38393937-How-to-make-fish-stew"
},
{
"title": "Latest updates on fish stew",
"type": "EXTERNAL_RECORD",
"updated_at": "2021-11-12T15:02:22Z",
"url": "http://example.com/blog/fish-stew-latest"
}
]
}
Search Articles
GET /api/v2/help_center/articles/search
Returns a default number of 25 articles per page, up to a maximum of 1000 results. See Pagination. The per_page
parameter, if provided, must be an integer between 1 and 100.
The page
parameter, if provided, must be an integer greater than 0.
The results are sorted by relevance by default. You can also sort the results by created_at
or updated_at
.
The article objects returned by the search endpoint contain two additional properties:
Name | Type | Read-only | Mandatory | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|
result_type | string | yes | no | For articles, always the string "article" |
snippet | string | yes | no | The portion of an article that is relevant to the search query, with matching words or phrases delimited by <em></em> tags. Example: a query for "carrot potato" might return the snippet "...don't confuse <em> carrots</em> with <em> potatoes</em> ..." |
You must specify at least one of the following parameters in your request:
- query
- category
- section
- label_names
Pagination
- Offset pagination only
See Pagination.
Returns a maximum of 100 articles per page.
Allowed for
- Anonymous users
Filtering by Date
You can filter the search results by the creation or update date with the following parameters:
- created_before
- created_after
- created_at
- updated_before
- updated_after
- updated_at
GET /api/v2/help_center/articles/search.json?query={search_string}&updated_after=2014-01-01&updated_before=2014-02-01
When filtering by updated_*
, the results might not always match the updated_at
timestamps for the documents returned. The reason is that not all updates are propagated to the search index. Only updates that are meaningful for search, such as content changes, are re-indexed. As a result, it's possible for an article to have an updated_at
timestamp of "2019-10-31" but be returned in a search with the filter updated_before=2019-08-01
if no meaningful content changes have been made to the article.
Filtering by Labels
If you want to search for articles with specific labels, use the label_names
parameter and pass a comma-separated list of label names to filter the results:
GET /api/v2/help_center/articles/search.json?label_names=photos,camera
An article must have at least one of the labels to match. Also, matching is not case-sensitive. For example, 'camera' matches both 'Camera' and 'camera'.
This feature is only available on Professional and Enterprise.
Filtering by Locale
By default, searches are carried out in the default language specified in the Help Center settings. Use the locale
parameter to search for articles in another language.
GET /api/v2/help_center/articles/search.json?query={search_string}&locale={locale}
If you specify an invalid locale or a locale that's not enabled for Help Center, the default locale for the account is used for the search. You can check for valid locales with the API. See List all enabled locales and default locale.
If you use locale=*
, search is carried out across all valid locales and returns all article translations in all languages, that match the search criteria.
Filtering by Category
If you want to scope the result of your search within a given category, use the category
parameter.
GET /api/v2/help_center/articles/search.json?query={search_string}&category={category_id}
If you want to scope the result of your search with multiple categories, use the category
parameter as above and separate each value with a comma.
GET /api/v2/help_center/articles/search.json?query={search_string}&category={category_id},{another_category_id}
Filtering by Section
If you want to scope the result of your search within a given section, use the section
parameter.
GET /api/v2/help_center/articles/search.json?query={search_string}§ion={section id}
If you want to scope the result of your search with multiple sections, use section
parameter as above and separate each value with a comma.
GET /api/v2/help_center/articles/search.json?query={search_string}§ion={section_id},{another_section_id}
Filtering by Brand
Use the multibrand
parameter to search across all brands, or brand_id
to scope the result of your search to a specific brand.
GET /api/v2/help_center/articles/search.json?query={search_string}&brand_id={brand_id}
GET /api/v2/help_center/articles/search.json?query={search_string}&multibrand=true
If you use multibrand=true
in your request and no brand_id
, search will return results from all brands that match the query criteria. If you use brand_id
in your request, the search results will be scoped to the specified brand, regardless of the use of the multibrand
parameter.
Parameters
Name | Type | In | Required | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
brand_id | integer | Query | false | Search for articles in the specified brand. |
category | integer | Query | false | Limit the search to this category id. See Filtering by Category |
created_after | string | Query | false | Limit the search to articles created after a given date (format YYYY-MM-DD). |
created_at | string | Query | false | Limit the search to articles created on a given date (format YYYY-MM-DD). |
created_before | string | Query | false | Limit the search to articles created before a given date (format YYYY-MM-DD). |
label_names | string | Query | false | A comma-separated list of label names. See Filtering by Labels |
locale | string | Query | false | Search for articles in the specified locale. See Filtering by Locale |
multibrand | boolean | Query | false | Enable search across all brands if true. Defaults to false if omitted. |
query | string | Query | false | The search text to be matched or a search string. Examples: "carrot potato", "'carrot potato'". |
section | integer | Query | false | Limit the search to this section id. See Filtering by Section |
sort_by | string | Query | false | One of created_at or updated_at. Defaults to sorting by relevance |
sort_order | string | Query | false | One of asc or desc. Defaults to desc |
updated_after | string | Query | false | Limit the search to articles updated after a given date (format YYYY-MM-DD). |
updated_at | string | Query | false | Limit the search to articles updated on a given date (format YYYY-MM-DD). |
updated_before | string | Query | false | Limit the search to articles updated before a given date (format YYYY-MM-DD). |
Code Samples
curl
# If using the command line, use commas to separate multiple search terms. Example:
# search.json?query=print,orders
curl "https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com/api/v2/help_center/articles/search.json?query=Printing&updated_after=2014-01-01&updated_before=2014-02-01" \
-v -u {email_address}:{password}
Go
import (
"fmt"
"io"
"net/http"
)
func main() {
url := "https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/help_center/articles/search?brand_id=&category=&created_after=&created_at=&created_before=&label_names=&locale=&multibrand=&query=§ion=&sort_by=&sort_order=&updated_after=&updated_at=&updated_before="
method := "GET"
req, err := http.NewRequest(method, url, nil)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
return
}
req.Header.Add("Content-Type", "application/json")
req.Header.Add("Authorization", "Basic <auth-value>") // Base64 encoded "username:password"
client := &http.Client {}
res, err := client.Do(req)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
return
}
defer res.Body.Close()
body, err := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
return
}
fmt.Println(string(body))
}
Java
import com.squareup.okhttp.*;
OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();
HttpUrl.Builder urlBuilder = HttpUrl.parse("https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/help_center/articles/search")
.newBuilder()
.addQueryParameter("brand_id", "")
.addQueryParameter("category", "")
.addQueryParameter("created_after", "")
.addQueryParameter("created_at", "")
.addQueryParameter("created_before", "")
.addQueryParameter("label_names", "")
.addQueryParameter("locale", "")
.addQueryParameter("multibrand", "")
.addQueryParameter("query", "")
.addQueryParameter("section", "")
.addQueryParameter("sort_by", "")
.addQueryParameter("sort_order", "")
.addQueryParameter("updated_after", "")
.addQueryParameter("updated_at", "")
.addQueryParameter("updated_before", "");
Request request = new Request.Builder()
.url(urlBuilder.build())
.method("GET", null)
.addHeader("Content-Type", "application/json")
.addHeader("Authorization", Credentials.basic("your-email", "your-password"))
.build();
Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();
Nodejs
var axios = require('axios');
var config = {
method: 'GET',
url: 'https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/help_center/articles/search',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
'Authorization': 'Basic <auth-value>', // Base64 encoded "username:password"
},
params: {
'brand_id': '',
'category': '',
'created_after': '',
'created_at': '',
'created_before': '',
'label_names': '',
'locale': '',
'multibrand': '',
'query': '',
'section': '',
'sort_by': '',
'sort_order': '',
'updated_after': '',
'updated_at': '',
'updated_before': '',
},
};
axios(config)
.then(function (response) {
console.log(JSON.stringify(response.data));
})
.catch(function (error) {
console.log(error);
});
Python
import requests
url = "https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/help_center/articles/search?brand_id=&category=&created_after=&created_at=&created_before=&label_names=&locale=&multibrand=&query=§ion=&sort_by=&sort_order=&updated_after=&updated_at=&updated_before="
headers = {
"Content-Type": "application/json",
}
response = requests.request(
"GET",
url,
auth=('<username>', '<password>'),
headers=headers
)
print(response.text)
Ruby
require "net/http"
uri = URI("https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/help_center/articles/search")
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form("brand_id": "", "category": "", "created_after": "", "created_at": "", "created_before": "", "label_names": "", "locale": "", "multibrand": "", "query": "", "section": "", "sort_by": "", "sort_order": "", "updated_after": "", "updated_at": "", "updated_before": "")
request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri, "Content-Type": "application/json")
request.basic_auth "username", "password"
response = Net::HTTP.start uri.hostname, uri.port, use_ssl: true do |http|
http.request(request)
end
Example response(s)
200 OK
// Status 200 OK
{
"results": [
{
"author_id": 888887,
"draft": false,
"id": 35467,
"locale": "en",
"permission_group_id": 123,
"title": "Printing orders",
"user_segment_id": 12
}
]
}
Search Posts
GET /api/v2/help_center/community_posts/search?query={query}
Returns a maximum of 25 posts per page, up to a maximum of 1000 results. See Pagination.
The results are sorted by relevance by default. You can also sort the results by created_at
or updated_at
.
Pagination
- Offset pagination only
See Pagination.
Returns a maximum of 100 articles per page.
Allowed for
- End users
Filtering by Date
You can filter the search results by the creation or update date with the following parameters:
- created_before
- created_after
- created_at
- updated_before
- updated_after
- updated_at
GET /api/v2/community/posts/search.json?query={search_string}&updated_after=2014-01-01&updated_before=2014-02-01
Filtering by Topic
If you want to scope the result of your search within a given topic, use the topic
parameter.
GET /api/v2/community/posts/search.json?query={search_string}&topic={topic id}
Parameters
Name | Type | In | Required | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
created_after | string | Query | false | Search posts created after a given date (format YYYY-MM-DD) |
created_at | string | Query | false | Search posts created on a given date (format YYYY-MM-DD) |
created_before | string | Query | false | the search to posts created before a given date (format YYYY-MM-DD) |
query | string | Query | true | Search text to be matched or a search string. Examples: "carrot potato", "''carrot potato''"' |
sort_by | string | Query | false | Sort by created_at or updated_at . Defaults to sorting by relevance |
sort_order | string | Query | false | Sort in ascending or descending order. Default is descending order. |
topic | integer | Query | false | Search by topic ID. See Filtering by Topic |
updated_after | string | Query | false | Search posts updated after a given date (format YYYY-MM-DD) |
updated_at | string | Query | false | Search posts updated on a given date (format YYYY-MM-DD) |
updated_before | string | Query | false | Search posts updated before a given date (format YYYY-MM-DD) |
Code Samples
curl
# If using the command line, use commas to separate multiple search terms. Example:
# search.json?query=print,orders
curl "https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com/api/v2/help_center/community_posts/search.json?query={search_string}" \
-v -u {email_address}:{password}
Go
import (
"fmt"
"io"
"net/http"
)
func main() {
url := "https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/help_center/community_posts/search?created_after=&created_at=&created_before=&query=help+center&sort_by=&sort_order=&topic=&updated_after=&updated_at=&updated_before="
method := "GET"
req, err := http.NewRequest(method, url, nil)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
return
}
req.Header.Add("Content-Type", "application/json")
req.Header.Add("Authorization", "Basic <auth-value>") // Base64 encoded "username:password"
client := &http.Client {}
res, err := client.Do(req)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
return
}
defer res.Body.Close()
body, err := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
return
}
fmt.Println(string(body))
}
Java
import com.squareup.okhttp.*;
OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();
HttpUrl.Builder urlBuilder = HttpUrl.parse("https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/help_center/community_posts/search")
.newBuilder()
.addQueryParameter("created_after", "")
.addQueryParameter("created_at", "")
.addQueryParameter("created_before", "")
.addQueryParameter("query", "help center")
.addQueryParameter("sort_by", "")
.addQueryParameter("sort_order", "")
.addQueryParameter("topic", "")
.addQueryParameter("updated_after", "")
.addQueryParameter("updated_at", "")
.addQueryParameter("updated_before", "");
Request request = new Request.Builder()
.url(urlBuilder.build())
.method("GET", null)
.addHeader("Content-Type", "application/json")
.addHeader("Authorization", Credentials.basic("your-email", "your-password"))
.build();
Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();
Nodejs
var axios = require('axios');
var config = {
method: 'GET',
url: 'https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/help_center/community_posts/search',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
'Authorization': 'Basic <auth-value>', // Base64 encoded "username:password"
},
params: {
'created_after': '',
'created_at': '',
'created_before': '',
'query': 'help+center',
'sort_by': '',
'sort_order': '',
'topic': '',
'updated_after': '',
'updated_at': '',
'updated_before': '',
},
};
axios(config)
.then(function (response) {
console.log(JSON.stringify(response.data));
})
.catch(function (error) {
console.log(error);
});
Python
import requests
url = "https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/help_center/community_posts/search?created_after=&created_at=&created_before=&query=help+center&sort_by=&sort_order=&topic=&updated_after=&updated_at=&updated_before="
headers = {
"Content-Type": "application/json",
}
response = requests.request(
"GET",
url,
auth=('<username>', '<password>'),
headers=headers
)
print(response.text)
Ruby
require "net/http"
uri = URI("https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/help_center/community_posts/search")
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form("created_after": "", "created_at": "", "created_before": "", "query": "help center", "sort_by": "", "sort_order": "", "topic": "", "updated_after": "", "updated_at": "", "updated_before": "")
request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri, "Content-Type": "application/json")
request.basic_auth "username", "password"
response = Net::HTTP.start uri.hostname, uri.port, use_ssl: true do |http|
http.request(request)
end
Example response(s)
200 OK
// Status 200 OK
{
"results": [
{
"author_id": 4333787,
"id": 4212256,
"title": "How do I make a return?"
}
]
}