How can customers automatically login from my website to the Zendesk help center?

Question

I use Single Sign-On (SSO) from my website. How can I seamlessly authenticate end users from my website to the help center?

Answer

It's possible to set up your help center to use the same authentication method as your external site by setting up SSO. However, when the end user visits your help center in the same session as the one they signed in to your external site, they still need to use the sign-in option on the help center to be signed in there.

To remove this extra step, you can use different methods:

With a JSON Web Token

Without a JSON Web Token

With a JSON Web Token

If you use a JSON Web Token (JWT) create a custom script with JWT authentication and automatically send login data from your website to Zendesk. The user is allowed to access Zendesk without entering separate sign-in credentials.

Zendesk Customer Support does not support scripts however, you can use this documentation:

Enabling JWT single sign-on

Technical implementation worksheet

Without a JSON Web Token

Otherwise, configure your help center so that it requires sign-in to access when visitors are signed into your external site in the same browser session. This way the help center carries across the external authentication automatically when they visit it.

If you don't want to require sign-in to access the entire help center, link to a section that requires sign-in, for example, an article that is restricted to signed-in users only. When the user is directed to that page, the authentication kicks in, signing them in automatically. This option doesn't work in an open help center if the user navigates directly to your home page.

Tip: In case they require it, end users can turn on two-factor authentication for the help center.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for instructional purposes only. Zendesk does not support or guarantee custom scripts and codes. Post any issues you have in the comments section or try searching for a solution online.