Learn how to use Bigin's Developer Console to build toppings

Learn how to use Bigin's Developer Console to build toppings

Hey Biginners,

In our last post, we discussed what toppings are, why they're essential to extending Bigin's capabilities, and how the Bigin Developer Center serves as the starting point for building them. As a cloud platform, the Developer Center empowers developers with a dedicated space exclusively for creating and managing toppings, as well as publishing them to the Bigin Marketplace. Once they create their topping drafts in the Bigin Developer Center, developers can enter the Bigin Developer Console, which is where the actual development takes place.

The Developer Console provides all the resources needed for the entire development journey, from creating and automating to testing toppings before they go live. By using these features, you can create a unique topping that perfectly bridges the gap between Bigin and user-specific needs.


Now let's dive into each of the Bigin Developer Console's features for creating toppings.

Customization

When building a topping, you can include custom components from the Bigin Developer Console. These components range from simple fields to related lists that enable easier navigation through Bigin's user interface.

You can add custom fields in addition to the standard fields available in Bigin to handle your topping requirements. Using custom buttons and links can streamline actions in Bigin or integrate Bigin data with external URLs, applications, or systems. To establish a direct relationship between the records inside Bigin, you can use related lists.
For a step-by-step implementation guide to creating these custom components, please refer to the following links:
  1. Fields
  2. Buttons
  3. Links
  4. Related lists
  5. Widgets
Next, let's explore the Bigin Developer Console's automation features and incorporate them to adding more functionalities to your topping.

Automation features

The Bigin Developer Console offers features that automate repetitive tasks, simplify processes, reduce manual effort, and enhance user efficiency. You can incorporate automation features like workflows, schedules, functions, signals, and more.

A developer creating a topping to improve pipeline management in Bigin might seek to automate repetitive tasks, such as managing stages and assigning responsibilities. For instance, when a new deal enters the "Inquiry" stage in the Sales pipeline, the system promptly assigns it to an appropriate sales rep through an automatic owner assignment rule, which eliminates the need for manual intervention. Likewise, you can set a schedule to send automated email reminders to prospects who haven't responded within a week and define a signal that notifies users in real time when a recipient opens an email.

To learn more about how to implement these automation features in your toppings, check out our detailed implementation guide here. Alongside our automation features, we also enable developers to create custom functions using Deluge scripts.

Custom functions

The Bigin Developer Console enables developers to create custom functions using Zoho's Deluge scripting language. These functions serve to implement business-specific logic in toppings, and are invoked by other functions or components. They eliminate the need for manual repetitive tasks by enabling developers to define specific functions once and invoke them as needed.

Custom functions are categorized into two types: standalone functions and REST API functions.

Standalone functions are self-contained blocks of code that can be invoked from any part of the topping. They can also be invoked from other functions, which enables modular and reusable scripting. On the other hand, Bigin's REST API functions allow developers to expose Deluge code as an API endpoint, enabling external applications to invoke the custom logic hosted in the topping.

For a comprehensive understanding of custom functions, their types, and how to implement them, please refer to our Functions Guide.

While these features enhance the utilities of toppings and improve Bigin's native functionalities, there's another kind of feature that helps expand Bigin's capabilities by integrating it with other applications.

Connections

One sort of topping you may want to build is a connection that transfers data between Bigin and a third-party service. Connections simplify this integration process, ensuring seamless data exchange between applications. Once a connection is established, you can access authenticated data.

Preconfigured default services are available when you're creating a connection. For these services, developers only need to provide the connection details, select the necessary scopes from the available list, and establish the connection. If their preferred services aren't preconfigured, developers can create custom connections by providing service details and authentication credentials. In this case, understanding the authentication and authorization protocols these third-party applications follow is essential for successful integrations.

Consider a scenario in which a sales team wants to notify customers about the sales process by sending instant message notifications via Twilio. For example, when a deal advances to the Proposal Sent stage, Bigin can trigger an SMS notification via Twilio to provide the customer with proposal details. Similarly, when the deal status changes to Closed-Won, the system automatically sends a confirmation message from Bigin to update the customer about the deal's successful closure.

To implement this functionality, developers can create a connector to integrate Bigin with Twilio, as well as to include the logic necessary for sending the message. Also, by incorporating Bigin automation features like workflows, developers can set up triggers that execute functions when certain conditions are met. This streamlines communication, enhances customer satisfaction, and keeps customers informed throughout the sales process. For more information on creating and managing connections, please refer to our detailed guide.

While connections handle backend integrations to enable data exchange between Bigin and other applications, connected apps comes into play when you need an interactive way to engage with both internal data and data from external applications directly within the Bigin interface.

Let's see how Bigin's connected app functionality facilitates this interaction!

Connected apps

A connected app enables an external application to integrate with Bigin through an interface, which is a widget that enhances Bigin's functionality and provides users with a seamless experience in Bigin. You can design your own UI interface and have complete control over the widget.

For example, sales teams often need customers to sign contracts or agreements before closing deals. With a connected app, you can embed an e-signature widget like Zoho Sign directly into Bigin. This enables users to send documents for signatures, track their statuses, and receive signed copies—all without leaving Bigin.

Read here to learn how to build a connected app, create a widget, and embed it into Bigin's UI.

Once you've built all the custom components you need for your topping, you can test it out inside the Bigin Developer Center itself. Let's explore how!

Testing and publishing your topping

Testing ensures that the topping is working as expected, and is important to do before publishing. The Bigin Developer Console provides a sandbox environment wherein you can thoroughly test all your customization components, connections, widgets, and workflows.
Once testing is complete, you can publish the topping through either of the following methods:
  1. Private: Make the topping available to specific users.
  2. Marketplace: The topping becomes accessible to all Bigin users after being validated by the Marketplace approval team.
In the next post, we'll explore testing and publishing in detail and implement real-time use cases.

Stay tuned!

<< Previous                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Next>>

    • Recent Topics

    • PDF Annotation is here - Mark Up PDFs Your Way!

      Reviewing PDFs just got a whole lot easier. You can now annotate PDFs directly in Zoho Notebook. Highlight important sections, add text, insert images, apply watermarks, and mark up documents in detail without leaving your notes. No app switching. No

    • Bulk update Profile Permissions

      Dears, What should we do if we add new forms or reports and need to update more than 20 permissions? Updating them one by one feels pretty harsh, doesn’t it?

    • Feature Request - Ability to Customise Contact Info Card on Ticket Details View

      Hi Desk Team, I've added a "Contact Priority" and "Account Prioirty" field and it would be very useful to agents if they could see that information in the Contact Info card on the Ticket Details view. It would be great if we could choose some fields to

    • Customizable UI components in pages | Theme builder

      Anyone know when these roadmap items are scheduled for release? They were originally scheduled for Q4 2025. https://www.zoho.com/creator/product-roadmap.html

    • Feature Requests - Contact Coloured Picklist Visibility & Field Visibility During Ticket Creation

      Hi Desk Team, I have 2 feature requests for you. Since Coloured Picklists are now available in Desk, It would be great if the colours were visible on the Related Details (Contact Information) when creating a ticket. In the screenshot below, I have 2 fields

    • Unify Overlapping Functionalities Across Zoho Products

      Hi Zoho One Team, We would like to raise a concern about the current overlap of core functionalities across various Zoho applications. While Zoho offers a rich suite of tools, many applications include similar or identical features—such as shift management,

    • Filter in fields from Jira extension

      We have installed the Jira extension so we can maken Jira issues from Zoho desk. In Zoho desk I can also see the Jira issue status for example but I can not filter on this field. I would like to setup an filter showing me the closed Jira issues. How can

    • text length in list report mobile/tablet

      Is there a way to make the full text of a text field appear in the list report on mobile and tablet? With custom layouts, the text is always truncated after a certain number of characters.

    • Zoho Creator customer portal limitation | Zoho One

      I'm asking you all for any feedback as to the logic or reasoning behind drastically limiting portal users when Zoho already meters based on number of records. I'm a single-seat, Zoho One Enterprise license holder. If my portal users are going to add records, wouldn't that increase revenue for Zoho as that is how Creator is monetized? Why limit my customer portal to only THREE external users when more users would equate to more records being entered into the database?!? (See help ticket reply below.)

    • Link Contacts to Billed Accounts

      Hello, I want to do a survey on all my customers of 2025. For that I want to select all contacts linked to accounts who where billed in 2025. How to I create this link to I can then use Zoho Survey with this database of contacts?

    • Export all of our manuals from Zoho Learn in one go

      Hi, I know there's a way to export manuals in Zoho Learn, but I want to export everything in one go so it won't take so long. I can't see a way to do this, can I get some assistance or is this a feature in the pipeline? Thanks, Hannah

    • Bring Zoho Shifts Capabilities into Zoho People Shift Module

      Hello Zoho People Product Team, After a deep review of the Zoho People Shift module and a direct comparison with Zoho Shifts, we would like to raise a feature request and serious concern regarding the current state of shift management in Zoho People.

    • Historical Sales Info - Blend with Finance Invoice Line Items, Access in CRM and Desk

      My company has been using Zoho One since 2021, with sales data going back through 2020. However, we have been in business much longer, and we have historical sales information that we want to have at our fingertips when talking with customers (usually

    • Is there API Doc for Zoho Survey?

      Hi everyone, Is there API doc for Zoho Survey? Currently evaluating a solution - use case to automate survey administration especially for internal use. But after a brief search, I couldn't find API doc for this. So I thought I should ask here. Than

    • Pre-Zoho Sales Info - Best Way to Add to Desk / CRM

      My company has been using Zoho One since 2021, with sales data going back through 2020. However, we have been in business much longer, and we have historical sales information that we want to have at our fingertips when talking with customers (usually

    • Shift-Centric View for Assigning and Managing Shifts in Zoho People

      Hello Zoho People Product Team, Greetings and hope you are doing well. This feature request is related to Zoho People - please don't move it to zoho one! We would like to submit a feature request regarding the shift assignment and management view in Zoho

    • CRM function REST API response format

      Is there a way to control the JSON response returned by the CRM function REST API? If I call a function using either OAuth or an API key it returns a 200 OK response with a string in the format shown below. I am using a particular feature of an external

    • Add Employee Availability Functionality to Zoho People Shift Module

      Hello Zoho People Product Team, Greetings and hope you are doing well. We would like to submit a feature request to enhance the Zoho People Shift module by adding employee availability management, similar to the functionality available in Zoho Shifts.

    • Using MPN across multiple SKUs and inventory tracking

      I have several different SKU's that share a common MPN and would like to track inventory by MPN. SKU1 has MPN1 assigned SKU2 has MPN1 assigned Here is an example If I start with 5 of MPN 1 in stock I want each SKU1 and SKU2 to show as 5 in stock, If I

    • Unable to Access Application:

      Whenever I try to access my application from the desktop, say I am editing it and want to test something in the desktop environment I get: An error has occurred. An internal error has occurred. Please check the URL , or try refreshing the page I can edit

    • CRM gets location smart with the all new Map View: visualize records, locate records within any radius, and more

      Hello all, We've introduced a new way to work with location data in Zoho CRM: the Map View. Instead of scrolling through endless lists, your records now appear as pins on a map. Built on top of the all-new address field and powered by Mappls (MapMyIndia),

    • Cannot see Application from Lookup field

      Hi all, I am trying to access data for an application on our account via a lookup field; however, the application doesn't appear in the dropdown at all. Can anyone shed any light on this, please? I have asked Zoho support; however, they're just as confused,

    • Cannot see correct DNS config for mail after moving domain to another provider

      I have moved my domain from one provider to another and after that zoho mail stopped working (expected). Problem is, zoho mail admin panel still shows (10 hours after move) that all records are correct while I haven't changed anything in my domain DNS

    • Zoho CRM Meetings Module Issues

      We have a use-case that is very common in today's world, but won't work in Zoho CRM. We have an SDR (Sales Development Rep) who makes many calls per day to Leads and Contacts, and schedules meetings for our primary Sales Reps. He does this by logging

    • Zoho Books integration sync from Zoho CRM does not work

      Hi Zoho Community & Zoho Support We just tried to get a sync some products into Zoho Books from CRM using the native sync and we're getting an error: "It looks like some mandatory fields you're trying to map are empty. Please provide valid field names

    • P & L Sub-categorized accounts

      How can I show sub-categorized Income and Expense accounts on the P & L report?

    • Report showing Bill Details with Project and Sales Invoice Number

      Hi There, I am hoping that someone can help, I am looking for report that can show the bill and expense details along with project its as assigned to and the invoice number that the sales has been raised in. The goal is I can filter a customer/project

    • Advanced Payment for Inventory Items with serial numbers

      Hello, We sell equipment that we track the unique serial numbers on using Sales Orders. We can charge the customers an advanced payment, then the balance on delivery. We cannot figure out a way to do this in Books/Inventory: - Cannot part invoice a SO

    • Is it possible to restrict ZCRM user to see only custom views created by administrator

      I have segmented data in my CRM and I want to allow different users to be able to see only parts of it based on some criteria. I've tried to create and share a custom view, but then there is always an option for user to see all open lead for example.

    • Issues Logging into ZOHO

      Hello, one of my coworkers is having issues logging into ZOHO, she has requested a code when entering and the email is correct but she has not received the code. can you help us with this?

    • Google Fonts Integration in Pagesense Popup Editor

      Hello Zoho Pagesense Team, We hope you're doing well. We’d like to submit a feature request to enhance Zoho Pagesense’s popup editor with Google Fonts support. Current Limitation: Currently, Pagesense offers a limited set of default fonts. Google Fonts

    • Add Popup Rejection Metrics to Reports

      Hello Zoho PageSense Team, We would like to request improved reporting for popup interactions. Current Limitation: PageSense currently provides conversion data, but there is no clear visibility into: Popup rejections Popup closes (✕ button clicks) Dismissals

    • Ability to Reset / Reinitialize Popup Cookies

      Hello Zoho PageSense Team, We would like to request the ability to manually reset popup cookies. Current Limitation: At the moment, it is not possible to initiate a new popup cookie from the our side. Visitors who rejected or closed a popup will not see

    • Control Popup Cookie Expiration Duration

      Hello Zoho PageSense Team, We would like to request an enhancement related to popup cookie management. Current Limitation: Currently, PageSense popup cookies remain active for 365 days, and this duration cannot be modified by us. If a visitor closes or

    • Clone / Export Popup Design Across PageSense Projects

      Hello Zoho PageSense Team, We hope you’re doing well. We would like to request an enhancement that allows popup designs to be reused across different PageSense projects. Problem Statement: Currently, Zoho PageSense allows popups to be duplicated only

    • Are there settings for hyperlinks?

      Clicking a hyperlinked cell in Sheet creates this little pop-up with the actual hyperlink inside. Is it possible to have a 1-click link where if you click the cell it opens the link directly with no pop-up?

    • Automatically include all ticket attachments in the ticket resolution email

      Hello Zoho Community, We are implementing Zoho Desk in a real customer-facing production environment and have run into a limitation that is becoming a blocking requirement for our clients. The problem When a ticket is closed or resolved, Zoho Desk sends

    • adding several team members to an Opportunity

      How can we add several team members to one opportunity for collaboration? I have researched and only found something called Deal Team which I cannot find in my CRM to configure.

    • Finding text within a ticket: Expand All or Search this Ticket

      The auto-collapse feature within a ticket is nice for screen scrolling, however it makes it difficult to find text within the ticket if the email is collapsed. In fact you cannot find text if it is collapsed. I would like to propose a feature that allows

    • Books & Desk. Client mapping

      Hi, I’ve been using Zoho Books for several years and am now looking to improve my customer service. I'm experimenting with Zoho Desk and want to sync and map my client data from Zoho Books. However, it seems that mapping requires both contacts to have

    • Next Page