How to Add and Manage Custom Apps
What is a custom app?
The custom app allows you to display information from a external source on the ticket details, contact and contact group page, such as customer information, revenue, order details, and more.
How does it work?
BoldDesk calls your HTTPS end-point URL and displays the response when you click the custom app in the apps section of the ticket detail page. If you select a specific payload option while creating a custom app, the payload data will be sent to your HTTPS end-point URL.
Note: If you don’t specify a payload, an empty object is sent to your HTTPS endpoint URL.
Check out this video explaining Custom Apps
Sample custom app image
Customer annual revenue details are displayed on the ticket details page under the app section as shown below.
Response
Your custom app should return a JSON response with an HTML message, as shown in the following example
Success response:
{
“message”: “
Hello world
”,“statusCode”: “200”
}
Error response:
{
“message”: “Unauthorized”,
” statusCode”: “401”
}
Note: The HTML message should be escaped and validated before returning a response to BoldDesk.
Adding custom app
Follow the given steps to create a custom app:
- Click Admin menu > My Apps.
- Select Add Custom App on the My Apps page.
- Provide the custom app details on the Add Custom App page.
- Provide a suitable name for the custom app.
Note: Duplicate app names are not allowed.
- Describe the custom app. This is optional.
- Upload your app logo with a max file size of 2MB and the dimension of 200:40 pixels. This is optional.
Note: The default logo will be shown if you do not provide a logo.
- Enter your POST type HTTPS end-point URL.
- Enable authentication to verify the request sent by BoldDesk. This is optional.
- Enable signing to confirm that the received payload is not altered in transits. This is optional.
- Select the payload to send to your HTTPS end-point URL. This is optional.
- Set app permission to make the app visible based on the role.
- Click Add.
Editing custom app
Follow the given steps to update an existing custom app:
- Click Admin menu > My Apps.
- Find the custom app in My Apps page.
- Click the Kebab icon and select Edit to go Edit Custom App page.
- Modify the custom app details on the Edit Custom App page.
- Click Update.
Deleting custom app
Follow the given steps to delete a custom app:
- Click Admin menu > My Apps.
- Find the custom app in My Apps page.
- Click Kebab icon and select Delete.
- Click the Yes, Delete button in the confirmation dialog to delete a custom app.
Deactivating custom app
If you don’t want to delete a custom app permanently, you can deactivate the custom app from the active list.
Follow the given steps to deactivate a custom app:
- Click Admin menu > My Apps.
- Find the custom app on the My Apps page.
- Click the Kebab icon and select Deactivate.
- Click the Yes, Deactivate button in the confirmation dialog to deactivate a custom app.
Activating custom app
If you need to activate the custom app from the deactivated state, you can activate it from the inactive list.
Follow the given steps to activate a custom app:
- Click Admin menu > My Apps.
- Find the custom app in the My Apps page.
- Click the Kebab icon and select Activate.
- Click the Yes, Activate button in the confirmation dialog to activate a custom app.
Custom app payload
In payload, the ticket fields will be sent. By selecting the following options, you can send all of them or the required data.
Include all fields in payload (Optional)
All data will be sent in the payload when this option is enabled.
Payload (Optional)
The data from the selected field will only be sent in the payload. An empty object is sent as the payload if no payload is specified.
Custom app security
Your HTTPS end-point URL is publicly available and can be easily accessed by attackers. So, it is critical to ensure that the request is coming from BoldDesk. If this verification is not performed, an attacker may intercept the request and tamper with their data. Several options are provided for securing the payload data sent from the BoldDesk to your HTTPS end-point URL.
Custom app URL
The custom app request is the same as an HTTP request, a plain-text protocol. So, the data is readable when the request is sent. Attackers can easily intercept these requests and steal sensitive data such as user information.
BoldDesk ensures that all data sent is encrypted and thus unreadable using an HTTPS URL to safeguard the custom app data.
It supports only HTTPS URLs where data will be sent when a custom app is rendered.
Note: Local environments such as the localhost URL are not allowed.
Custom app authentication
When creating a custom app, you should enable authentication to securely send data to your HTTPS endpoint URL and verify that it is sent from the BoldDesk. You are strongly recommended to allow for the authentication, even though it is optional.
-
Password
When creating a custom app, you can use password authentication (Basic Auth) to provide the username and password. The credentials (Username:Password) will be Base64 encoded and sent in the Authorization header (Authorization: Basic<Credential>). -
API key
Users can use API authentication (Basic Auth) to provide the API key when creating a custom app. The API key will be Base64 encoded and sent in the Authorization header (Authorization: Basic<APKI Key>).
Custom app signature
When creating a custom app, you can use Request Signature authentication to provide the secret key. This key is used to sign the payload (HMAC-SHA256) and generate a signature that is Base64 encoded and sent in the header (x-signature). The secret key can be used to validate the payload’s integrity at the receiver end (X-Signature: <Signature>).
Custom app timeout
Each custom app will wait for 10 seconds to get a response from the endpoint URL. The request will be canceled if no response is received within 10 seconds.
