Building extensions #10: Fetch customized user inputs, store them globally at the app level, and access them across entities

Building extensions #10: Fetch customized user inputs, store them globally at the app level, and access them across entities

This data storage concept enables you to store data related to your extension for both entity properties and extension properties.

In our previous piece, we looked at how to store data for entities using entity properties. In this post, we'll look at an example of using extension properties effectively. Extension properties enable you to record data for an app in its entirety. Refer to this article on the limitations of extension properties for additional details.

Scenario

Let's say that as a developer you want to gather feedback/reviews through your extension. In general, reviews and feedback help you gain insights into users' perspectives.

When designing a review/feedback template, using a standard question with predefined options will restrict the feedback/review process to certain specific standards/requirements. However, your clients may use Zoho Projects to manage a variety of businesses, each with its own set of processes tailored to the needs of that company.

What can you do to standardize and streamline this process for all clients?
It would be beneficial to create a standard feedback/review template for your customers and then enable them to customize the question and its options to meet their own company feedback requirements.

Goal: Create a generic feedback/review template that enables clients to provide their personalized inputs to customize the review/feedback question per their company needs.

Solution

To accomplish this goal, we'll incorporate both entity and app data storage—as well as a few other capabilities—into our extension. Let's look at the features and steps we'll be taking to develop this example.
  • First, we must gather the question and options that the user wants for their feedback/review form. To accomplish this, we can create a bottom navigation bar widget called "Feedback or Review template settings" that enables the user to provide their personalized feedback/review question along with its options as input. We can accomplish this using the widgets approach explained earlier in this post.
  • Next, we must save the values the user provides for the question and options. We can accomplish this by using the data storage extension properties, which will store the data and make it available across the app/extension. (Now that we have the values stored for the entire extension/app, we can retrieve the data and access it across the necessary entities.)
  • In our example, we want to collect feedback/reviews from users for the tasks and issues entities. For this, we can create a widget called "Feedback or Review" in the details page of the task and issue entities, respectively.
  • In this widget, we must populate the question with the options the user previously provided as part of the "Feedback or Review template settings" widget. We can accomplish this by retrieving the previously saved details and displaying them in the relevant entities (tasks and issues, in our example).
  • Once we've displayed the question and options to the user, they can select an option to provide feedback or a review for the entity they're working on.
  • Furthermore, we can save the user's option selection and associate it with the entity. This will enable us to display the previously selected option for that question each time the user accesses the "Feedback or Review" widget, which we can accomplish using the data storage-entity properties concept.
Required components
  • An extension configuration process includes the following:
    • Creating an extension.
    • Configuring the plugin manifest.
    • Setting up the widget code.
  • Bottom navigation bar widget (top_band): Enables the user to input their customized values for the feedback/review template's question and its options.
  • Task details tab widget (task_tab)/Issue details tab (issue_tab): Enables us to fetch and display the value the user enters for the feedback/review template in the respective entities.
Let's explore these components now.

Extension configuration

Extension creation: We've created a new extension for Zoho Projects. Learn more about the steps to create an extension.
                                                                  

Plugin-manifest.json configuration: Once we created the extension, we configured the plugin-manifest.json file to include the widgets. For a more detailed understanding of how to configure the plugin-manifest.json file, refer to our earlier post.

For our extension use case, the plugin-manifest.json file is configured as shown in the screenshot below.

Note: We'll have to set the storage key to true in order for storage space to be allocated in the Zoho Projects product for this extension. By default, the value will be false.
                                                

Setting up the widget code

Now that we've set up the other components, let's move on to writing our widget code and incorporating the data storage feature.

Feedback or Review template settings widget (Bottom navigation bar - top_band) - Enables us to gather personalized user input for the feedback/review template. Please find the index.html code snippet attached in the post.
  • In the code snippet above for the bottom navigation bar widget, the user is presented with two text boxes: one for entering their customized question for feedback/review and the other for entering their customized options, each separated by a comma.
➤ The app.store method in the extension properties is used to store this data against the extension in the form of key-value pairs.
➤ The values for the question and options are constructed as a JSON object and then stored against the key "storedappvalue" using the app.store method.
Note: For user-entered options separated by a comma, these options are converted to an array using the split() method, with the comma serving as the criteria, and then stored against the key.
➤ Finally, when the values are successfully stored after clicking the Add button, the zohoprojects.invoke method is used, and the user is notified with the alert "Data added".
  • Additionally, every time this widget loads, the data stored at the app level in the key "storedappvalue" is obtained using the app.retrieve method.
  • From this retrieved value, any previously stored data against the key "storedappvalue" is removed using the app.remove method.
  • This is done because whenever a user wishes to change their feedback/review question and options, the new data will be added and stored against the key as well. Since we require the newly entered values to be displayed as part of our "Feedback or Review" widget in the tasks and issues entities, the previously stored data is removed, and the new values entered are stored against the key upon clicking on the Add button.

Feedback or Review widget (task details tab - task_tab) - Displays the feedback question and options and enables the user to provide feedback for the entity they're working on. Please find the Taskfeedback.html code snippet attached in the post.
  • In the code snippet above—for task/issue details tab—we're first retrieving the value stored against the extension (in the bottom-band navigation bar) by invoking the app.retrieve method using the key "storedappvalue".
  • From this retrieved value, we fetch the question and its options. The options for the question are displayed in the widget in radio button format, which enables the user to choose one option for the feedback/review question.
  • Once the user chooses an option and clicks the Save button, the data is saved using the entity properties in data storage feature.
➤ Here, the selected review option (selectedreview) value and its index position (selectedoptionnumber) in the radio button element are stored using the entity.store method. We use entity storage here since this value chosen is specific to the entity the user is working on.
  • Every time the widget loads, the chosen value stored using the entity.store method is retrieved using the entity.retrieve method and checked against the radio element options. This allows the chosen value to be enabled and displayed to the user every time the widget loads.
We can use the same snippet across the issue entity as well.

Now that we've completed the setup for both the widgets and have all the extension components ready, let's go ahead and see the output.

Sample output:
                                                

This example demonstrates how to efficiently use data storage for extension properties. The data stored against an extension/app can be retrieved across multiple entities to perform logical functions. Additionally, in this example, we also witnessed code reusability across multiple entities. You may enhance this example by incorporating more than one feedback/review question.

In this way, you can use extension properties to store data across an extension/app. We hope you found this information useful. Follow this space for more insights!

Sign up for a Zoho Developer account and start developing extensions for Zoho Projects using Sigma.

SEE ALSO



    • Recent Topics

    • Latest updates in Zoho Meeting | An improved Analytics tab and user interface, an invite pop-up revamp, an enhanced Zoho Meeting iOS app, a recording feature in the Android app, and more

      Hello everyone, We’re excited to share a few updates and enhancements in Zoho Meeting. Here's what we've been working on lately: Improved analytics for meetings, an invite pop-up revamp, a multi-video feed interface in the iOS app, a recording feature

    • Inquiry Regarding Automated Assignment of Zoho TeamInbox Messages using Zoho Flow and Deluge

      Hello, Our company is currently using Zoho TeamInbox, and we are interested in automating the assignment of responsible parties using tools such as ZOHO Flow and Deluge. Is it possible to achieve this? Allow me to provide more details. Currently, when

    • [Bug] WebAuthn passkey registration blocked on rpIds with TLDs longer than 6 characters (.accountant, .technology, etc.) — isValidDomain regex too strict

      Hi, Filing on behalf of an enterprise customer where Zoho Vault is deployed across the company. The Chrome extension blocks WebAuthn passkey registration on legitimate sites whose Relying Party ID (rpId) has a TLD longer than 6 letters. This affects every

    • Celebrating the businesses behind Bigin: Customer Awards 2026

      Hello Biginners, We're excited to announce the very first Bigin Customer Awards! If Bigin has played a role in your organization's journey, we'd love to hear about it. Share your story for a chance to be recognized among the best Bigin users across industries.

    • Zoho Desk: Auto-resizing of the "Description" textarea when creating a ticket.

      I would like to suggest an improvement for Zoho Desk regarding the Auto-Height-Resizing for Description field on the “Create a Ticket” page. It would be highly beneficial if the editor supported auto-resize functionality, allowing it to adjust dynamically

    • Is there an API endpoint to retrieve the remaining email credit balance?

      Hi everyone, Is there any way to retrieve the remaining email credit balance programmatically through the API? I've gone through the full API documentation and it seems like there's no endpoint for this — everything related to credits is only visible

    • Switch between multiple LLMs instantly for tailored Zia experiences

      Availability Editions: Professional , Enterprise, Ultimate , CRMPlus , ZohoOne Release Plan: Available for all DCs Hello everyone, Previously, the multi-LLM feature supported only one LLM at a time for Zia Record Assistant, which restricted users' flexibility

    • Zoho CRM Community Digest - April 2026 | Part 2

      Hello Everyone! We're back with Part 2 of the April Zoho CRM Community Digest to wrap up our monthly roundup. This week, the spotlight is on smart database connections, proactive error tracking, and optimizing subform line items without breaking your

    • 【西日本初開催】「AI and DX Summit 2026」のご案内

      ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは！ 西日本初開催となるZoho ユーザー / 検討中の方々向けイベントのご紹介です。 AI・DX大型カンファレンス「AI and DX Summit 2026」を、2026年7月16日（木）に開催します。 会場は、ウォルドーフ・アストリア大阪。 グラングリーン大阪直結のラグジュアリーな空間で、AIとDXの最新トレンド、実践事例、 展示、ネットワーキングが集結する、特別な1日をお届けします。 👉イベントページを見る ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ AIとDXの“今”を、体感。

    • Stop by and explore our six updates in ABM for Zoho CRM

      Dear Customers, We hope you're well! ABM for Zoho CRM is built to sharpen your database so that you engage with the right set of customer accounts. To fine-tune it further, we have six new updates: New access location for ABM Refined account entry criteria

    • Tracking Emails sent through Outlook

      All of our sales team have their Outlook 365 accounts setup with IMAP integration. We're trying to track their email activity that occurs outside the CRM. I can see the email exchanges between the sales people and the clients in the contact module. But

    • Enhancement in Zoho CRM: Introducing New Return Types for String Fields Based on Character Length

      Dear Customers, We hope you’re well! In Zoho CRM, formula field with string return type is used in various scenarios where text is involved like concatenating customers’ first and last names, trimming characters from texts, performing find and replace

    • Incoming Rules: Define how incoming emails are evaluated and handled

      As organizations grow, managing incoming emails manually becomes increasingly difficult. Administrators often need more control than what a standard spam filtering can provide. Whether that's enforcing company-wide email policies, handling messages from

    • Zia Emails Summary: Instant context from past emails

      Hello all, Reading all of the past emails associated with a specific record can be tedious, which in turn makes it difficult to understand the context quickly, as these messages often include irrelevant details that waste time. This is true for everyone

    • Boost your CRM communication with new font types, sizes, and default reply-to options while composing emails

      Hello Everyone, We’re excited to introduce a series of impactful enhancements to the email composer settings in Zoho CRM. These updates enable you to personalize and optimize your customer interactions with greater efficiency. So what's new? Add custom

    • Bing ads integration and tracking

      Hi, Is there any way to track Bing ads in the same way that we are able to track google adwords?  It is important for us to be able to determine the conversion rate of our Bing ads.  If this is not possible now, will this feature be added in the future?

    • Zoho Creator Calendar - Sorting Events

      Hi, I have a calendar view to hold the schedule for a group of engineers. I have created a formula field to show the combination of fields I want visible as the title of the event, but I need to be able to sort the list by something other than the event

    • Upcoming Update: Disposition Sync for Indeed

      We’re updating our Indeed integration to support Disposition Sync, improving how candidate application statuses are communicated. This change is scheduled to go live on 15 June, 2026. What’s changing? Once enabled, this allows candidate application statuses

    • Joining Two Tables on Multiple Ids

      Hello all, I'm guessing there is an obvious solution for this, but definitely not an expert in sql. On our Deals module, we have two user lookup fields. In Analytics, those fields have the user's ids in those table rows, and I'm trying to create a query

    • auto update of item purchase cost

      Would be nice if, when entering bills, the price of the item varied from the stored item price, we could have a user dialogue "Update item price" | "yes / no". Simple, but saves a lot of additional work !

    • Journeys - How to set up a webhook that triggers when a contact meets the goal criteria?

      Hi there, I'm setting up a journey on Marketing Automation. The main goal of the journey is to get the leads to reply our emails. Is there a way to trigger a webhook when that goal is met? The webhook would then trigger a notification. Is that possible?

    • Latest updates in Zoho Meeting | Personal Meeting Rooms and Zoho Meeting Annotator

      Hello everyone, We’re excited to share a few updates for Zoho Meeting. Here's what we've been working on lately: Introducing Personal Meeting Rooms - Tailored for private discussions, this secure meeting space is yours alone, accessible via a unique link.

    • Emoji support in workdrive

      Hello, We are using emojis in our filenames and folder to help visually find relevant data. Currently Workdrive is stripping out emojis and the rest of the filename (along with the suffix), making the file unreadable when they are synchronized with desktop.

    • The reason I switched away from Zoho Notebook

      My main reason for switching to Zoho was driven by three core principles: moving away from US-based products, keeping my data within India as much as possible, and supporting Indian companies. With that intent, I’ve been actively de-Googling my digital

    • Introducing the enhanced Zoho People integration

      We're excited to announce an enhancement to the integration between Zoho Recruit and Zoho People, designed to streamline your data management processes and boost efficiency across your recruitment and HR workflows. With this latest update, you can now

    • Zia should track how customer relationships evolve over time

      Here's a feature idea that I've been thinking about The Problem Zia is great at analyzing individual interactions email sentiment, call transcription, best time to contact. But here's what it can't do: tell you how a relationship has evolved over time.

    • Add an option to disable ZIA suggestions

      Currently, ZIA in Zoho Inventory automatically provides suggestions, such as sending order confirmation emails. However, there is no way to disable this feature. In our case, orders are automatically created by customers, and we’ve built a custom workflow

    • Filter our rejected quote items from the inventory quote template

      Hello, I am trying to have rejections at the line level on my quotes so I can track what items are often removed, I do not want to claim the whole quote as lost just the individual items for better data tracking. However I cannot figure out how to filter

    • Error AS101 when adding new email alias

      Hi, I am trying to add apple@(mydomain).com The error AS101 is shown while I try to add the alias.

    • Gamescope is leveling upto Motivator for Zoho CRM

      Hello,   As you are aware, we recently made Motivator for Zoho CRM available for Zoho One, CRMPlus and CRM Ultimate editions. Since Motivator has all the features of Gamescope and even more advanced gamification, we are planning to EOL Gamescope on 30th

    • Print JV of an Expenses in ZohoBooks

      When an expense is created in Zoho Books, the related journal entry can be viewed at the bottom of the expense record. However, when printing the expense, the journal entry is not included in the printed document, and there does not appear to be an option

    • Kiosk waiting for completion breaks previous field updates from occurring, yet timeline of record show changes

      hi 1) I set to statuses on a Get record . 2) Next i run a function and capture the result i.e. wait for completion 3) Then a Screen The record's timeline show the status changes. Yet the record has not changed. I can repeat this. I had another route in

    • Write-Off multiple invoices and tax calculation

      Good evening, I have many invoices which are long overdue and I do not expect them to be paid. I believe I should write them off. I did some tests and I have some questions:  - I cannot find a way to write off several invoices together. How can I do that,

    • Partner with HDFC And Sbi Bank.

      Hdfc and sbi both are very popular bank if zoho books become partner with this banks then many of the zoho books users will benefit premium features of partnered banks.

    • Print shipping label on Zebra Label printer from ZOHO Creator deluge

      Hi All, Allow me to guide you through the process of printing a shipping label from ZOHO Creator to a Zebra label printer (ZD421D). Step 1: To start, configure the SendFileToPrinter API, which enables the transmission of a file to a Zebra Link-OS printer.

    • Simple Custom Function to Update Candidate status

      Hi folks, We are currently using Zoho Recruit and have sources from where candidates are applying. Currently all candidates are being set to 'Associated' when they apply via 3rd party sources but that is not useful for us under our business process. I

    • Zoho FSM Work Order Creation Failure

      Hello FSM team and Latha, This automation is built in Zoho Creator and is triggered when a “New Repair Order” is created or updated through form submission. Once the form is submitted, the script automatically retrieves the related customer and company

    • Options on the New Auto Logged In User Profile for the Name Field

      Hi, I love the new function, but when used it automatically formats the record and therefore the export with comma separated values, so id you enable First Name & Last Name it puts "First Name, Last Name" rather than just "First Name Last Name". Could

    • Zoho Practice Roadmap

      Hi - interested to understand the roadmap for this product. I think a number of people are watching to see if this is receiving investment prior to exploring more - but it appears to be very quiet on the development front.

    • CRITICAL DOWNTIME IN ZOHO PRACTICE!! NO RESPONSE FROM SUPPORT TEAMS

      Dear Team, We are randomly unable to login to Zoho Practice since this morning. All our team members are reporting this issue. Work has come to a grinding halt and we are not getting any support or answers. This is a highly serious matter of concern for

    • Next Page