Help Scout Mailbox 2.0 Node.js SDK

About this Module

This module was built to make using the Help Scout Mailbox API 2.0 endpoints as easy as possible.

It contains wrappers around each type of endpoint (Create, List, Update, etc.) to manage the authentication, callbacks, error handling, pagination, and other stuff you probably don't want to spend a lot of time coding for.

This module supports the Client Credentials Flow authentication method which is suited for apps you can create and manage, ideally suited for internal projects.

Disclaimer: This module is not in any way affiliated to or supported by Help Scout Inc. It's an open-source act of love to get to the fun part of writing code faster.

Installation

$ npm install helpscout-2.0

Initialization

Create an OAuth2 Application First things first, create an OAuth2 Application under your profile in Help Scout. We won't be using the OAuth flow so the redirect URL is not needed to use this Module.

Import the Module and Create a Client All API Methods are made available via a Help Scout Client. Once you create your OAuth2 application, we'll use the App Id and Secret provided to authenticate your API Calls.

It may look something like this when you're done:

var HelpScout = require('helpscout-2.0');

var HelpScoutClient = new HelpScout({
  "clientId": "26d567febd264ec8b7845a4adfXXXXXX",
  "clientSecret": process.env.HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET
});

🎉 Awesome, you now have a client that can use all of the helper methods below.

Testing

A full test suite is available for your convenience.

Step 1: Modify test/index.js to provide your Client Id and Secret obtained above.

Step 2: Run the tests

$ npm test

The output should look something like this:

Async/Await, Promise, and Callback Support

This library supports both promises and traditional callbacks. By default, all functions return a promise. If you supply a function into the optional callback params, the passed function will be called instead of the promise being resolved.

Examples of using await can be found in the tests above or examples below.

HTTP Methods

create();

Create a new Resource.

HelpScoutClient.create(type, data, parentType, parentId, error_callback, callback);

type: Type of Resource to create ("conversations", "customers", ..)

data: Object containing the resource data

parentType: Optional field to support resources that are created below an existing resource.

parentId: Optional field indicating Id the parent resource that this resource should be created under.

error_callback: Optional function that is called if an error occurred during creation of the specified resource.

callback: Optional function called after successful creation, the id of the object created is passed to this function.

Example 1: Create a new Customer

var customer = {
  "firstName" : "TestFirst",
  "lastName" : "TestLast",
  "emails" : [{"type": "work", "value": "test1234@gmail.com"}]
};

let customerId = await HelpScoutClient.create('customers', customer);

HelpScoutClient.create('customers', customer, '', '', console.error, console.log);

Example 2: Create a new note in a conversation

await HelpScoutClient.create('notes', { "text" : "Example Conversation"}, "conversations", 712477488);

Note: No id is passed from Help Scout when creating child objects like notes.

list();

Get a list of Resources, this module handles the pagination and rate-limiting for you. If no results are returned, an empty array is returned.

HelpScoutClient.list(type, queryParams, parentType, parentId, error_callback, callback);

type: Type of Resource to list ("conversations", "customers", ..)

queryParams: Query String to use - Help Scout supports a ton of super cool, super complex query strings like this or this. This parameter expects a string to put after the "?" in the request, do not include the "?" mark in the string you pass in.

parentType: Optional field to support resources that are created below an existing resource.

parentId: Optional field indicating Id the parent resource that this resource should be created under.

error_callback: Optional function that is called if an error occurred during retrieval, the error message / JSON will be passed to the function.

callback: Optional function that is passed an array of all resources meeting the criteria.

Example 1: Get all Mailboxes

let mailboxArr = await HelpScoutClient.list('mailboxes');

Example 2: Get all Customers

HelpScoutClient.list('customers',null,'','',console.error, function(customers) {
  console.log("there are " + customers.length + " customers currently.");
});

get();

Get a specific resource based on an id

HelpScoutClient.get(type, resourceId, embeddables, subType, error_callback, callback);

type: Type of Resource to get ("conversations", "customers", ..)

resourceId: Id of the resource you'd like to retrieve.

embeddables: On certain endpoints like Customers, Help Scout requires you explicitly ask for any lists of related resources. Pass in an array of related resource labels (as strings) to have those included in the object that comes back, see Example 1 below.

subType: Optional field for certain endpoints to return an array of Resources below the Resource you're getting, see Example 2 below.

error_callback: Optional function that is called if an error occurred during retrieval, the error message / JSON will be passed to the function.

callback: Optional function this is passed the resource requested to this function as an Object.

Example 1: Get Customers with Emails and Social Profiles

HelpScoutClient.get('customers', 218297277, ['emails', 'social_profiles'], '', console.error, console.log);

Example 2: Get Folders in a Mailbox

let folderArr = await HelpScoutClient.get('mailboxes', 166129, '', 'folders');

updatePut();

For certain Help Scout Endpoints, you'll want to use the "PUT" method when updating a Resource. The PUT method replaces all of the Resource's properties with the data you specify.

HelpScoutClient.updatePut(type, resourceId, data, parentType, parentId, error_callback, callback);

type: Type of Resource to update ("conversations", "customers", ..)

resourceId: Optional, Id of the resource you'd like to update. (i.e. Email Address for Customer)

data: Object containing the resource data that will replace the current data

parentType: Optional field to support resources that are updated below an existing resource.

parentId: Optional field indicating Id the parent resource that this resource should be updated under.

error_callback: Optional function that is called if an error occurred during update, the error message / JSON will be passed to the function.

callback: Optional function called after successful update of a resource, Help Scout returns no data to pass to your function.

Example 1: Update Email Address for a Customer

await HelpScoutClient.updatePut("emails",292627333, {
  "type" : "work",
  "value" : "test4@gmail.com"
}, "customers", 218297277);

updatePatch();

For certain Help Scout Endpoints, you'll want to use the "PATCH" method when updating a Resource. The PATCH method updates specific Resource properties while leaving other properties untouched. I highly recommend reviewing HelpScout's documentation of patching.

HelpScoutClient.updatePut(type, resourceId, data, parentType, parentId, error_callback, callback);

type: Type of Resource to update ("conversations", "customers", ..)

resourceId: Id of the resource you'd like to update.

data: Object containing the resource data that will replace the current data

parentType: Optional field to support resources that are updated below an existing resource.

parentId: Optional field indicating Id the parent resource that this resource should be updated under.

error_callback: Optional function that is called if an error occurred during update, the error message / JSON will be passed to the function.

callback: Optional function called after successful update of a resource, Help Scout returns no data to pass to your function.

Example 1: Update Conversation Subject Line

await HelpScoutClient.updatePatch("conversations",712477488, {
  "op" : "replace",
  "path" : "/subject",
  "value" : "Super cool new subject"
}, '', '');

Business Helpers

Something I'd like to do more of with this module is further abstract basic use-cases to make them incredibly easy and clean to perform.

For example, adding a note to a conversation. I feel it's a better experience to support something like:

await HelpScoutClient.addNoteToConversation(convoId, "Test Note");

as opposed to

await HelpScoutClient.create('notes', { "text" : "Test Note"}, "conversations", convoId);

The issue that makes this challenging to execute is what business logic gets implemented vs. which do we leave up to the developer.

To be figured out, but for now, "addNoteToConversation" is actually a real method the module supports in the above way, and mostly serves as an example of what could be.

Public Base Methods

getAccessToken();

Note: This sho