User Images

You can use the User Images API to let end users upload images to a help center instance.

Uploading a user image is a three-step process:

1. Make a request to create an image upload URL and a token. See Create Image Upload URL and Token.

2. Make a PUT request to the image upload URL to upload the image. See Uploading the image with the upload URL.

3. Make a request to create the image path in the help center. See Create Image Path.

   You can use the path in the body of a post comment to display the image inline.

Create Image Upload URL and Token

• POST /api/v2/guide/user_images/uploads

Returns an upload URL and token. Use the upload URL in a PUT request to upload the image to the help center. See Uploading the image with the upload URL below.

After uploading the image, use the image token to create the image path. See Create Image Path.

Uploading the image with the upload URL

The endpoint returns an object with the url and headers properties:

"headers": {
  "Content-Disposition": "attachment; filename=\"01GC9JEN2X052BAKW905PH9C36.jpeg\"",
  "Content-Type": "image/jpeg",
  "X-Amz-Server-Side-Encryption": "AES256"
},
...
"url": "https://aus-uploaded-assets-production.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/20/13633840/01GC9JEN2X052BAKW905PH9C36?Content-Type=image%2Fjpeg&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ACCESS_KEY%2F20220906%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20220906T141448Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-Signature=476f8f09a97cae0bb582716d54dc58cdfbc754c5e20a2c492515d7ffce954971&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=content-disposition%3Bhost%3Bx-amz-server-side-encryption&x-amz-server-side-encryption=AES256"

To upload the image, make a PUT request to the URL and with the specified headers. Agents, end users, or anonymous users can make the request. The maximum file size is 2MB.

The following curl example uploads the image:

curl -L -X PUT 'https://aus-uploaded-assets-production.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/20/13633840/01GC9JEN2X052BAKW905PH9C36?Content-Type=image%2Fjpeg&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ACCESS_KEY%2F20220906%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20220906T141448Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-Signature=476f8f09a97cae0bb582716d54dc58cdfbc754c5e20a2c492515d7ffce954971&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=content-disposition%3Bhost%3Bx-amz-server-side-encryption&x-amz-server-side-encryption=AES256' \
  -H 'Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="01GC9JEN2X052BAKW905PH9C36.jpeg"' \
  -H 'Content-Type: image/jpeg' \
  -H 'X-Amz-Server-Side-Encryption: AES256' \
  --data-binary "@{file}"

A successful response will return:

Status 200 OK

Request Body Format

The request body of POST /api/v2/guide/user_images/uploads must be a JSON object with the following properties:

Name	Type	Mandatory	Description
content_type	string	true	The content type of the file to upload
file_size	number	true	Size of the file in bytes. Max size is 2000000 (2MB).

Allowed for

• Anonymous users

Code Samples

curl

curl -X POST https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/user_images/uploads \
  -u {email_address}/token:{api_token} \
  -d '{"content_type": "image/jpeg", "file_size": 169846}'

Go

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
)

func main() {
	url := "https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/user_images/uploads"
	method := "POST"
	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 "{email_address}/token:{api_token}"

	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/user_images/uploads")
		.newBuilder();
RequestBody body = RequestBody.create(MediaType.parse("application/json"),
		"""
""");
String userCredentials = "your_email_address" + "/token:" + "your_api_token";
String basicAuth = "Basic " + java.util.Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(userCredentials.getBytes());

Request request = new Request.Builder()
		.url(urlBuilder.build())
		.method("POST", body)
		.addHeader("Content-Type", "application/json")
		.addHeader("Authorization", basicAuth)
		.build();
Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();

Nodejs

var axios = require('axios');

var config = {
  method: 'POST',
  url: 'https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/user_images/uploads',
  headers: {
	'Content-Type': 'application/json',
	'Authorization': 'Basic <auth-value>', // Base64 encoded "{email_address}/token:{api_token}"
  },
};

axios(config)
.then(function (response) {
  console.log(JSON.stringify(response.data));
})
.catch(function (error) {
  console.log(error);
});

Python

import requests
from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth

url = "https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/user_images/uploads"
headers = {
	"Content-Type": "application/json",
}
email_address = 'your_email_address'
api_token = 'your_api_token'
# Use basic authentication
auth = HTTPBasicAuth(f'{email_address}/token', api_token)

response = requests.request(
	"POST",
	url,
	auth=auth,
	headers=headers
)

print(response.text)

Ruby

require "net/http"
require "base64"
uri = URI("https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/user_images/uploads")
request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(uri, "Content-Type": "application/json")
email = "your_email_address"
api_token = "your_api_token"
credentials = "#{email}/token:#{api_token}"
encoded_credentials = Base64.strict_encode64(credentials)
request["Authorization"] = "Basic #{encoded_credentials}"
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

{
  "upload": {
    "headers": {
      "Content-Disposition": "attachment; filename=\"01F1D8HVJ3TK6CZH8HM51YEQRG.jpeg\"",
      "Content-Type": "image/jpeg",
      "X-Amz-Server-Side-Encryption": "AES256"
    },
    "token": "01F1D8HVJ3TK6CZH8HM51YEQRG",
    "url": "https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com.com/aus-uploaded-assets/1/42/01F1D8HVJ3TK6CZH8HM51YEQRG?Content-Type=image%2Fjpeg&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ACCESSKEY%2F20210322%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20210322T152346Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-Signature=a5fd09fb179fe3dc3e085398423988f1c5fc5f6a6eb66a0c020905f47b72f11b&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=content-disposition%3Bhost%3Bx-amz-server-side-encryption&x-amz-server-side-encryption=AES256"
  }
}

Create Image Path

• POST /api/v2/guide/user_images

Returns the image path that you can use to display the image in a community post.

You should only use this endpoint after uploading the image. See Uploading the image with the upload URL.

Request Body Format

The request body must be a JSON object with the following properties:

Name	Type	Mandatory	Description
token	string	true	The image token. See Create Image Upload URL and Token
brand_id	string	true	The ID of the brand where this image was uploaded

Allowed for

• Anonymous users

Code Samples

curl

curl -X POST https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/user_images \
  -u {email_address}/token:{api_token} \
  -d '{"token": "01GC9JEN2X052BAKW905PH9C36", "brand_id": "10016"}'

Go

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
)

func main() {
	url := "https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/user_images"
	method := "POST"
	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 "{email_address}/token:{api_token}"

	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/user_images")
		.newBuilder();
RequestBody body = RequestBody.create(MediaType.parse("application/json"),
		"""
""");
String userCredentials = "your_email_address" + "/token:" + "your_api_token";
String basicAuth = "Basic " + java.util.Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(userCredentials.getBytes());

Request request = new Request.Builder()
		.url(urlBuilder.build())
		.method("POST", body)
		.addHeader("Content-Type", "application/json")
		.addHeader("Authorization", basicAuth)
		.build();
Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();

Nodejs

var axios = require('axios');

var config = {
  method: 'POST',
  url: 'https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/user_images',
  headers: {
	'Content-Type': 'application/json',
	'Authorization': 'Basic <auth-value>', // Base64 encoded "{email_address}/token:{api_token}"
  },
};

axios(config)
.then(function (response) {
  console.log(JSON.stringify(response.data));
})
.catch(function (error) {
  console.log(error);
});

Python

import requests
from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth

url = "https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/user_images"
headers = {
	"Content-Type": "application/json",
}
email_address = 'your_email_address'
api_token = 'your_api_token'
# Use basic authentication
auth = HTTPBasicAuth(f'{email_address}/token', api_token)

response = requests.request(
	"POST",
	url,
	auth=auth,
	headers=headers
)

print(response.text)

Ruby

require "net/http"
require "base64"
uri = URI("https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/guide/user_images")
request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(uri, "Content-Type": "application/json")
email = "your_email_address"
api_token = "your_api_token"
credentials = "#{email}/token:#{api_token}"
encoded_credentials = Base64.strict_encode64(credentials)
request["Authorization"] = "Basic #{encoded_credentials}"
response = Net::HTTP.start uri.hostname, uri.port, use_ssl: true do |http|
	http.request(request)
end

Example response(s)

201 Created

// Status 201 Created

{
  "user_image": {
    "content_type": "image/jpeg",
    "path": "/hc/user_images/Bvj4bPDuRd-7d5hFVszvmQ.jpeg",
    "size": 169846
  }
}