Data action fails with 400 when mapping zendesk ticket fields to gc attributes

does anyone know how to properly map complex zendesk ticket fields to genesys cloud interaction attributes during a migration?

we are in the middle of moving from zendesk to genesys cloud. in zendesk, we rely heavily on custom ticket fields for routing and reporting. we tried to replicate this by creating a data action in genesys cloud to fetch ticket data via the zendesk api and then map it to the interaction context.

the issue is that when the data action tries to write to the interaction attributes, it throws a 400 bad request error. the error message says “invalid attribute value type”. we are using the genesys cloud architect flow version 2.0.

here is the specific setup:

1. we use a “get data” action to call the zendesk api endpoint /api/v2/tickets/{{ticket.id}}.
2. we then use a “set data” action to map the zendesk custom field cf_123456 to a genesys cloud interaction attribute custom_field_1.
3. the zendesk field returns a string value, but genesys cloud expects a specific format or type for the interaction attribute.

we have checked the data types in genesys cloud, and the attribute is set as a string. however, the error persists. we suspect there might be a mismatch in how the data action handles the json payload from zendesk versus what genesys cloud expects for interaction attributes.

in zendesk, we could just map the field directly in the automation rules. in genesys cloud, the process seems more rigid. we are using the latest version of the genesys cloud sdk for python to test this locally, but the error is consistent.

any ideas on how to troubleshoot this? we have tried debugging the json payload, and it looks correct. the field value is a simple string like “priority-high”.

we are based in europe/paris timezone, so our testing windows are limited. any help would be greatly appreciated. we want to ensure that the historical data from zendesk is accurately reflected in genesys cloud interactions for reporting purposes.

thanks in advance for your help. we are excited about the migration but hitting these technical walls is frustrating.

You might want to check at the JSON structure you are sending in the body of your data action request. The 400 error usually indicates a schema mismatch or a type conversion failure rather than an authentication issue. When mapping complex Zendesk custom fields, the Genesys Cloud interaction context expects specific data types. If the Zendesk API returns a nested object or an array for a custom field, but the target Genesys attribute is defined as a simple string, the write operation will fail. Try using a Set Variable block in your Architect flow before the data action. This allows you to sanitize and flatten the payload. For example, if the Zendesk field returns {"id": 123, "value": "High Priority"}, you should extract just the value string. Here is a sample mapping structure that works in our load tests: { "externalId": "${zendesk_ticket.id}", "customFields": { "priority": "${zendesk_ticket.custom_fields.priority.value}" } }. Also, check the documentation for the specific Zendesk data action version. Some older versions do not handle null values well. If a custom field is empty in Zendesk, it might return null, which can break the schema validation in Genesys. Setting a default value in the Set Variable block helps avoid this. We saw similar issues during our recent migration tests where the throughput dropped significantly due to these validation errors. Ensuring the payload matches the expected schema exactly before sending it to the data action endpoint resolves most 400 errors. Keep the payload small to maintain API throughput, especially if you are running this at scale.

Have you tried validating the JSON payload structure before the write operation?

The 400 error typically indicates a schema mismatch between the Zendesk response and the Genesys interaction context. Ensure nested custom fields are flattened to match the expected attribute types in your flow configuration.