Setting up and using connections in Bigin toppings

When building a topping to extend Bigin's functionality and connect it with third-party applications, creating and handling connections is an important step. Connections provide a secure way for your topping to authenticate and communicate with other applications' APIs without exposing sensitive credentials to end users. This abstraction is both secure and makes the integration easier because it eliminates the need for developers to implement complex authorization flows manually or handle authorization tokens directly.

Bigin's Developer Console offers a feature called a connection, which acts as a bridge between your topping and the third-party application you wish to integrate with. Once a connection is configured, you can reference it in your topping's functionalities using its unique link name. This enables the topping to execute REST operations such as fetching, updating, or syncing data with the connected application securely.

Now that we've achieved a basic understanding of what a connection is and how it helps toppings interact with other applications, the next step is to understand the types of connections available in Bigin's Developer Console.

Establishing connections with services

The connections feature in Bigin's Developer Console offers two types of services to help developers configure integrations according to their requirements: default services and custom services. Default services are preconfigured services available in Bigin's Developer Console that simplify integrations with some Zoho and third-party applications. If the application you want to integrate with isn't listed in the default services, you can create a custom service and configure it according to the API specifications of the third-party application.

Default services

The connections feature offers certain default services as preconfigured options that can be easily integrated with Bigin. These services come with predefined settings such as authentication type, token endpoints, scopes, and headers, which reduces the need for manual configuration. Currently, there are around 50 default services available in the Developer Console, covering a wide range of applications and platforms. This enables developers to connect to services with minimal effort.

If the application you want to integrate with your topping isn't listed in the default services, you can create a new custom service.

Custom services

Custom services enable developers to configure all aspects of a connection manually, including the authentication type, endpoints, headers, and scopes, which enables integration with third-party applications.

When setting up a custom service, developers can specify the exact authentication flow required by the external application, whether it's basic authentication, OAuth, an API key, or another method.

Note:

Refer to the official API documentation of third-party applications when configuring these settings, as this will provide the necessary details for authentication and data access.

To create a custom service, navigate to the Connections section and choose Custom Services in the Developer Console. Based on the authentication type supported, configure the custom service for the required product.

For more details on creating and configuring custom services, please refer to this guide.

Note:

Always handle sensitive information such as client IDs, client secrets, and API keys securely, and never share them publicly. After configuring and authorizing a custom service, reference it in Deluge scripts and workflow functions by using its unique connection link name, just as you do with default services.

Next, let's look at how to implement the default service connection with an example.

Create a default service connection

Let's say you're developing a Bigin topping to synchronize contact information between Bigin and Zoho Books. This integration enables contacts created or updated in Bigin to be automatically reflected in Zoho Books. The topping uses Zoho Books APIs to create, update, and retrieve customer data using a default service connection.

To create a default service connection for the topping, choose Connections from the left panel of the Developer Console and click Get Started.

Next, navigate to My Connections or Default Services. To fetch data from the Contacts module in Bigin, create a connection first. From Default Services, select Bigin and then click Create Connection to set it up.

The system will prompt you to enter the connection details. Provide a name for the connection (for example: Bigin Connection). A connection link name is generated automatically.

Next, select the scopes required for the topping's functionality. In this use case, select ZohoBigin.modules.ALL to access data from Bigin's Contacts module.

After selecting the scope, click Create and Connect to initiate the authorization process. The system redirects you to the authorization page. Click Connect, and you'll be taken to the service's login page. Choose the Bigin organization for which the topping was created, click submit, and the connection will be created.

After establishing the connection with Bigin, you must also create a connection for Zoho Books to enable record creation. To do this, create a default service connection for Zoho Books, similar to the one created for Bigin. Select the scope ZohoBooks.fullaccess.ALL to grant complete access to modules and operations in Zoho Books.

Once you've created the connections for both Bigin and Zoho Books, the system will generate connection link names for each. These link names must be used in the business logic.

Note:

During development, authorize the connection in the Sandbox environment to test integration workflows safely.

To understand the authorization process and how to implement them, please refer to this guide on authorizing connections.

After you authorize the connection, set up a workflow rule in the Bigin Developer Console that gets triggered whenever you create or update a contact in your Bigin account. Here, we need to specify the conditions that apply to the workflow and check that the email field isn't empty.

Note:

In our use case, we'll use the email address to check whether the newly created contact in Bigin already exists as a customer in Zoho Books.

When the workflow meets the specified conditions, an instant action - in this case, a function - which will execute a custom functionality that performs the following operations:

1. Retrieves the contact details from Bigin by referencing the established connection link name biginandbooksconnection0__booksconnection.
   
2. Searches Zoho Books for an existing contact that matches the email.
   
3. If a matching contact exists, update the contact's phone and contact person details in Zoho Books.
   
4. If the script doesn't find a matching contact, it creates a new contact in Zoho Books with the relevant information.

Below is the code that automates contact synchronization between Bigin and Zoho Books:

1. //Retrieve contact details from Bigin using the established connection
2. biginContact = zoho.bigin.getRecordById("Contacts",contact.get("Contacts.ID"),Map(),"biginandbooksconnectionnew__biginconnection");
3. //Extract relevant contact data
4. biginData = biginContact.get("data");
5. contactDetails = biginData.get(0);
6. email = contactDetails.get("Email");
7. phone = contactDetails.get("Phone");
8. mobile = contactDetails.get("Mobile");
9. fullName = contactDetails.get("Full_Name");
10. //Search Zoho Books for existing contacts by email
11. searchParams = Map();
12. searchParams.put("search_text", email);
13. booksContactsResponse = invokeurl
14. [
15. url :"https://books.zoho.com/api/v3/contacts"
16. type :GET
17. parameters:searchParams
18. connection:"biginandbooksconnectionnew__booksconnection"
19. ];
    
20. info "Searched by name in Books: " + booksContactsResponse;
21. booksData = booksContactsResponse.get("contacts");
    
22. if(booksData != null && booksData.size() > 0)
23. {
24. // Extract the existingContactId
25. existingContactId = booksData.get(0).get("contact_id");
26. // Update existing contact
27. updateParams = Map();
28. updateParams.put("contact_name",fullName);
29. updateParams.put("phone",phone);
30. updateParams.put("mobile",mobile);
31. updateParams.put("email",email);
32. // Define contact person details
33. contactPerson = Map();
34. contactPerson.put("last_name",fullName);
35. contactPerson.put("mobile",mobile);
36. contactPerson.put("phone",phone);
37. contactPerson.put("email",email);
38. contactPerson.put("is_primary_contact",true);
39. contactPersonsList = List();
40. contactPersonsList.add(contactPerson);
41. updateParams.put("contact_persons",contactPersonsList);
42. //Prepare and execute update request
43. parameters_data = Map();
44. parameters_data.put("JSONString",updateParams.toString());
45. info "parameters_data value:" + parameters_data;
46. updateResponse = invokeurl
47. [
48. url :"https://books.zoho.com/api/v3/contacts/" + existingContactId + "?organization_id=XXXXXXX"
49. type :PUT
50. parameters:parameters_data
51. connection:"biginandbooksconnectionnew__booksconnection"
52. ];
53. info "Updated Contact: " + updateResponse;
54. }
55. else
56. {
57. // Create new contact
58. contactDetails = Map();
59. contactDetails.put("contact_name",fullName);
60. contactDetails.put("email",email);
61. contactDetails.put("phone",phone);
62. contactDetails.put("mobile",mobile);
63. // Define contact person details
64. contactPerson = Map();
65. contactPerson.put("last_name",fullName);
66. contactPerson.put("mobile",mobile);
67. contactPerson.put("phone",phone);
68. contactPerson.put("email",email);
69. contactPerson.put("is_primary_contact",true);
70. // Add to contact persons list
71. contactPersonsList = List();
72. contactPersonsList.add(contactPerson);
73. contactDetails.put("contact_persons",contactPersonsList);
74. // Prepare and execute the create request
75. parameters_data = Map();
76. parameters_data.put("JSONString",contactDetails.toString());
77. createResponse = invokeurl
78. [
79. url :"https://books.zoho.com/api/v3/contacts?organization_id=XXXXXXX"
80. type :POST
81. parameters:parameters_data
82. connection:"biginandbooksconnectionnew__booksconnection"
83. ];
84. info "Created Contact: " + createResponse;
85. }

For details about the API endpoints and request formats used in this code, refer to the Bigin Deluge reference library and Zoho Books contacts API documentation.

After you configure the workflow and associate the function with the instant action, test the topping in the sandbox environment.

1. To do this, click Test Your Topping in the upper-right corner of the Developer Console. This action will redirect you to the Bigin sandbox account, where you can create a new contact to test whether the functionalities work properly.
   
2. After creating a new contact in Bigin, navigate to the Customers module in the Sales section of Zoho Books. When you set up the integration correctly, you'll see the newly created contact here, which confirms that Bigin and Zoho Books are synchronizing as expected. This process provides a safe and effective way to validate the workflow before deploying the topping to a production environment.
   

In this post, we've explained that default service connections in Bigin simplify authentication and connection with third-party applications by using predefined settings such as authentication type, token endpoints, and scopes. These connections are convenient because the Developer Console pre-configures the authentication flow and endpoints of the application you're integrating with.

To sum up: Bigin's connections feature provides a flexible foundation for integrating with a wide range of external services, and using these connections, developers can extend Bigin's integration capabilities.

Stay tuned for more about developing toppings and exploring other related features available in the Bigin Developer Console.

<< Previous                                                                                                                                                      Next>>                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

• Topic Participants

• Sabitha M

  

• Sticky Posts

• Building Toppings #5 - Creating and configuring custom service connections in Bigin Toppings

  Hello Biginners, Integrating Bigin with external applications extends its capabilities and enables customized functionalities. In our last post, we saw how to create a default service connection. Today, we'll see how to create a custom service connection

• Building Toppings #4 - Setting up and using connections in Bigin toppings

  When building a topping to extend Bigin's functionality and connect it with third-party applications, creating and handling connections is an important step. Connections provide a secure way for your topping to authenticate and communicate with other

• Building Toppings #3 -Testing and publishing Bigin toppings

  Hey Biginners! In previous forum posts, we discussed what a Bigin topping is and explored the Bigin Developer Console's features. In this post, we're going to create a topping from scratch and discuss how to test and publish it. Our topping will automate

• Building Toppings #2 - 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

• Building Toppings #1 - Serving your needs with Bigin Toppings

  Hey Biginners! We're excited to kick off our Developer Community series on building toppings for Bigin, and our goal is to provide an accessible, beginner-friendly, and relevant path for every developer. Imagine creating tiny pieces of software that unlock

• Recent Topics

• External Share > Edit: Cannot Create Zoho Files

  Hi Zoho, When we create an external share link with Edit permission, our external users are unable to create a Zoho file (Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet and Zoho Show). They can only upload files. They can edit the Zoho files if we create them internally and

• Zoho Mail iOS app update - RTL languages support and access emails using permalink and universal link, image upload resolution

  Hello everyone! In the most recent version of the Zoho Mail iOS app update, we have brought in support for RTL languages(Arabic and Urudu), providing a seamless reading experience with proper text alignment and layout throughout the app. We have also

• Why are emails sending with @viazohocrm.com ?

  I just sent out mass emails from CRM. They are sending from the email below and people cannot reply, and they are getting this message: Address not found Your message wasn't delivered to sales.XXXXXXXX.com.au@viazohocrm.com because the address couldn't

• Duplicating and referencing datasets

  I am moving from PowerBI to Zoho Analytics and while I find Zoho easier to use in many ways, there is one function that I use in PowerBI that I have not been able to find in Zoho.   I have several data sets that I need to modify in different ways to get

• Zoho Inventory Now Supports VeriFactu for Businesses in Spain

  Starting from January 1, 2026, Spain requires real-time invoice reporting for all B2B transactions. From July 2026, this requirement will extend to B2C transactions as well. All reporting must be carried out through the VeriFactu to AEAT (Agencia Estatal

• Enhancements to Zoho Map integration tasks

  Hello everyone, We're excited to announce enhancements to the Zoho Map integration tasks in Deluge, which will boost its performance. This post will walk you through the upcoming changes, explain why we're making them, and detail the steps you need to

• Let’s Talk Recruit: Meet Zia, your all-in-one AI assistant (Part-3)

  Welcome back to the Let’s Talk Recruit series. In the part 2 post, we explored how Zia has evolved with smarter summaries and seamless AI-assisted content creation. This time, we’re diving into the latest upgrades that take productivity even further —

• Announcing Early Access to "Zoho CRM for Everyone" — A new and exciting update to Zoho CRM

  Update : Zoho CRM For Everyone's Nextgen Interface gets an upgrade! Hello everyone, We’ve updated the Zoho CRM for Everyone Nextgen interface based on your feedback. The UI is now simpler with a unified sidebar, a more visible global search and features

• Unable to verify domain for Zoho People

  I have added TXT records in my DNS (GoDaddy) [screenshot attached], but unable to verify even after 12 hours after adding. On checking the console, it shows some errors [screenshot attached]. It appears that the verification flow is broken - please provide

• Zoho Invoice Now Supports VeriFactu for Businesses in Spain

  Starting from January 1, 2026, Spain requires real-time invoice reporting for all B2B transactions. From July 2026, this requirement will extend to B2C transactions as well. All reporting must be carried out through the VeriFactu to AEAT (Agencia Estatal

• Zoho Billing Now Supports VeriFactu for Businesses in Spain

  Starting from January 1, 2026, Spain requires real-time invoice reporting for all B2B transactions. From July 2026, this requirement will extend to B2C transactions as well. All reporting must be carried out through the VeriFactu to AEAT (Agencia Estatal

• Weekly Tips : Make your email content error free with Spell check in Zoho Mail

  As someone who writes multiple emails a day, we are bound to make both grammatical and spelling errors. Most of them we may not even notice, and even if we do, we may not have the time to correct each one individually when we are in a hurry. So how do

• Introducing Enhanced Storage Management

  We’re excited to roll out two new enhancements in Zoho Recruit, Subscription Information and Storage Management — designed to give admins complete visibility into subscription details, feature limits, and storage consumption — all from one place inside

• how to download all my files

  We are in the middle of zoho docs to zoho workdrive migration. I can not access my zoho docs page. I get redirected immediately to a zoho workdrive page. I would like to download all my files so that I have a backup in case something goes wrong with the

• Convert Zoho Books SalesOrder - Invoice

  Converting a Zoho Books Sales Order into an Invoice Using the SalesOrder Convert API Hello Zoho Developers, Today, we are sharing a simple and effective solution to convert a Zoho Books Sales Order into a Zoho Books Invoice using the SalesOrder Convert

• Zoho Expense - Report Templates

  Hi Expense Team, I do a recurring trip once every week which has the same cost: Per diem Milage Toll Payment It would be great if there was a feature which allowed me to clone a previously submitted report or create a template reports. This would save

• Tip #51- Centralized Contact Management for Better Remote Support- 'Insider Insights'

  For our final topic of November, we’re diving into one of the most helpful features in Zoho Assist, the Contacts section on Zoho Assist;s dashboard. Whether you’re managing multiple clients, tracking past sessions, or simply looking to streamline your

• Say Hello to Telephony in Zoho FSM

  Zoho FSM now brings complete telephony support so your team can manage inbound and outbound calls without switching tabs. Faster responses, smarter routing, and total call visibility—all in one place. Choose the telephony setup that works for you Zoho’s

• E-Invoicing in Belgium with Zoho Inventory

  Starting January 1, 2026, Belgium is introducing mandatory electronic invoices (e-invoicing) for all B2B transactions between VAT-registered businesses. Invoices and credits notes must be exchanged in a prescribed digital format. How E-Invoicing Works

• Employee ID is not correct in get records api V2 for leave

  Hi Team, We are facing an issue when calling the Get Records API V2. The employee.id returned in the response is not the actual employee record ID in Zoho People. As a result, our integration is forced to make an additional Get Record API call for every

• Formatting Mailing Labels

  I want to use the "Print Mailing Labels" function on the drop down list, but I am not seeing a way to change the formatting on the mailing labels. At the moment, the information that appears on the mailing labels ARE NOT mailing addresses, but random

• Canvas View - Print

  What is the best way to accomplish a print to PDF of the canvas view? Latest update (27th November 2025): We are excited to announce that the Canvas Print View is now available! We encourage you all to try it out and share your feedback with us. Learn

• Zia Conversation Summary: Context at a glance for every customer interaction

  Hello everyone! Every customer conversation tells a story—but in CRM, that story is rarely in one place. A sales rep moving between multiple leads has to reopen long email threads, check call remarks, and revisit meeting notes just to remember what was

• How to set a fixed width of column/cells

  Is there a way to set a 'fixed' width for cells in zoho sheet?   I know how to adjust the size of the colums.... but after I past a large block of text into a cell, it expands the cell size again. (yes, I have turned off word wrap)   How can I set a fixed width so the cells don't change size each time I add data to a cell?   Thanks.

• Single Portal for Multiple Apps

  Hello, I'm just getting started with Zoho and I'm very overwhelmed. I am currently using the free trial of Zoho One, but if I can figure it out, I intend to upgrade to the paid version. Zoho One, of course, gives me  access to an entire suite of services/applications. One of the things I'd like to do is have a single place for clients (customers?) to log in and view current projects, invoices, contact information, etc. A single login for my clients. A single portal. I've come across documentation

• 【開催報告】 大阪 ユーザー交流会 2025/11/20（木）Zoho CRM Plus 活用のアイデアとデータの“見える化”

  皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの中野です。 11/20（木）に、大阪 ユーザー交流会を開催しました。本投稿では、その様子をお届けします。 当日の登壇資料などもこちらに共有しますので、参加できなかった皆さまもご参照ください。 （Zoho 社員セッションの登壇資料については、11/28(金)に開催予定の東京回の開催報告で共有いたします） 今年2回目の開催となる大阪 ユーザー交流会では、株式会社KDDIウェブコミュニケーションズ 山田さんによる Zoho CRM Plus の事例セッションのほか、「Zoho

• Every rating counts: Shaping customer experience

  We are back to that beautiful time of the year. It is the season to reflect, be thankful, and appreciate everything that has happened throughout the year. Thanksgiving is a time we connect with our family, friends, and relatives to strengthen relationships,

• How to remove duplicate contacts

• Custom Field for Subscription

  Hi, I can't find a way to add a custom field (to contain a license key generated from our software) against a subscription? Is the only place to add this information in the Invoice module (as custom field for invoice)? When a customer views his subscription via the customer portal, there appears no way to display a license key for them? The invoice is not the natural place to store a license key for a particular subscription, so where else can this be stored and displayed?

• Custom View and Custom Fields on Zoho Books

  Hi, I have some custom fields on Estimates and Invoices. I also use Custom Views so I can have a lot of information at a glance. I want to include my custom fields as columns in my custom views of estimates / invoice, but it looks like is not possible.

• Dropdown data depends on filters in another field.

  In my quote form I have a lookup field called Reseller that pulls from Accounts. I would like it to pull from Accounts, but only those accounts with an account field 'Type' where that is 'Reseller'. Does anyone know a way to do this? Similarly, I'd like

• Is it possible to adjust the web browser tab title (when a ZoHo Desk ticket is opened)

  Hi All, When I open a ZoHo Desk ticket in a web browser, the tab title (text that appears at the top of the browser tab) uses the logic: *company icon picture* (xxxx) #ticket number - company name See below (highlighted in red) for reference. Company

• Collections Management: #7 Common Mistakes during Payment Collection

  Payment collection may appear straightforward in most cases. Still, as your customer base expands and transaction volume increases, it becomes clear that even small inefficiencies can lead to delayed payments, increased support load, or even revenue loss.

• Rename Record Summary PDF in SendMail task

  So I've been tasked with renaming a record summary PDF to be sent as part of a sendmail task. Normally I would offer the manual solution, a user exports the PDF and uploads it to a file upload field, however this is not acceptable to the client in this

• Text/SMS With Zoho Desk

  Hi Guys- Considering using SMS to get faster responses from customers that we are helping.  Have a bunch of questions; 1) Which provider is better ClickaTell or Screen Magic.  Screen Magic seems easier to setup, but appears to be 2x as expensive for United States.  I cannot find the sender id for Clickatell to even complete the configuration. 2) Can customer's reply to text messages?  If so are responses linked back to the zoho ticket?  If not, how are you handling this, a simple "DO NOT REPLY" as

• Custom Field in Zoho Projects pulling into Analytics

  We have a client that we have built our their new business process using Zoho Projects, and we have build a lot of custom fields with their their Projects where they are capturing specific data points that we want to be able to track and pull data, as

• Marketer's Space - Holiday season email marketing tips you should know

  Hello Marketers! Welcome back to another post in Marketer's Space! 'Tis the season—that time of the year everyone eagerly anticipates. While most look forward to relaxing, marketers will be super-busy from late November to early January. Mistakes can

• Zia Competitor Alerts made easy with Zia's suggestions

  Hi everyone, In addition to the existing manually added competitors, Zia will now find your competitors for you - instantly. Earlier, you had to identify competitors through research manually, support tickets, or tradeshows—a time-consuming process that

• Add Custom Field Inside Parts Section

  How to Add Custom Field Inside Parts Section in Workorder like Category and Sub- Category

• Zoho CRM Community Digest October 2025 | Part 2

  Hello Everyone! From new mobile capabilities and smarter integrations to real-world workflow fixes and developer insights, all the highlights from the second half of October is covered right here. Let’s dive in. Product Updates: Zoho CRM Mobile Updates:

• Next Page