Searching for Content in Attachments in Zendesk

Goal

You want to search directly within Zendesk for content from attachments. However, the default Zendesk search does not fully index attachments, so content from PDFs, JPGs, or PNGs is not always found directly.

Solution

With the app Convert PDFs Scans Images to Text by Knots, you can extract content from attachments such as PDFs, JPGs, or PNGs using text recognition and save it as an internal note in the ticket.

Once the recognized text is available as an internal comment in the ticket, the standard Zendesk search can find this content. No changes to the Zendesk search function itself are necessary.

Use Cases

A typical use case is when a customer sends a PDF file or an image that contains a business-relevant number or ID, for example:

• Order number
• Customer number
• Serial number
• Item number

If this information is extracted via OCR and saved in the ticket, you can then specifically search for tickets containing this ID.

Tip

With the app Ticket Parser Extract Patterns by Knots, such IDs can also be automatically recognized and directly saved in separate ticket fields.

Feel free to contact us if you want to learn more about this