Zendesk, Inc.
Middleware pipeline that provides access to external servers to facilitate customer-support conversations

Abstract:

The disclosed embodiments relate to a system that facilitates accessing external servers to process messages during customer-support conversations in an online customer-support system. During operation, the system receives a message from a sender while the message is in transit between the sender and a receiver during a customer-support conversation, wherein the customer-support conversation is between a customer and a responsive entity, and wherein the customer-support conversation relates to an issue the customer has with a product or a service used by the customer. Next, the system feeds the message through a pipeline of processors, wherein each processor in the pipeline is configured to make a call to an associated external server to perform an operation on the message before forwarding the message to a subsequent stage of the pipeline. Finally, when the message finishes transiting the pipeline, the system forwards the message to the receiver.