Setting up and using connections in Bigin toppings

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.
Notes
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.
Notes
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.



Notes
Notes
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.

Notes
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>>                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

    • Recent Topics

    • Draft & Schedule Emails Directly in Bigin

      Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well. We're happy to announce a few recent enhancements we've made to email in Bigin. We'll go over each one in detail, but here's a quick overview: Previously, you couldn't draft or schedule emails in Bigin, but

    • TDS Filing

      Is there any option for automatic 26Q and 24Q filing in Zoho books. Even Tally has this option. Why don't Zoho has this ? Is there any customisation available for this ?

    • Zia’s AI Assist now helps you write clearer notes — in seconds

      After helping recruiters craft job descriptions, emails, and assessments, Zia’s AI Assist is now stepping in to make note-taking effortless too. Whether you’re recording feedback after an interview or sharing quick updates with your team, you can now

    • Shortcut to fill a range of cells

      Good evening: I'm writing because I haven't been able to find a feature that allows you to select a range of cells, type in one of them, and then use a key combination to type in all of them. In Excel, the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Enter. I haven't found

    • Object required error

      Hi, I am getting an 'Object required' error on the line Call HideColumnsOutsideRange(ws, startOfWeek, endOfWeek) when I run the ShowCurrentWeek macro but not when I run the ShowCurrentMonth macro. Any ideas? Regards, GW Option Explicit Sub HideColumnsOutsideRange(ws

    • Zoho CRM - Rename "Estimates" in CRM Finance Suite Integration to "Quotes"

      I'm not sure if it's been 2 or 3 years now since Zoho Books renamed Estimates to Quotes. I still see "Estimates" in the Zoho CRM integration. Could this be added to Translation settings so that some customisation could be made on an account by account

    • Its 2022, can our customers log into CRM on their mobiles? Zoho Response: Maybe Later

      I am a long time Zoho CRM user. I have just started using the client portal feature. On the plus side I have found it very fast and very easy (for someone used to the CRM config) to set up a subset of module views that make a potentially extremely useful

    • New Series Announcement - Ecommerce Marketing Tips

      Running an online business is more than just having a website. It’s about getting the right customers to discover you, trust you, and keep coming back. To support your growth journey, we’re launching a weekly Marketing Tips series right here on Zoho Commerce

    • Marketing Tip #7: Add a blog to your online store

      A blog is more than content. It’s a magnet for new customers. Sharing product guides, styling tips, or industry insights through blog posts builds trust and helps you rank higher on search engines. Try this today: Write one blog post answering a common

    • Allow Regular Users to Directly Transfer Ownership of Files & Folders

      Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, Hope you are doing well. We would like to request an important enhancement related to file and folder ownership management in Zoho WorkDrive. At the moment, a regular user cannot directly transfer ownership of their files or folders

    • Triggering rules on lead conversion

      There is no field on the Rule list for rule conversion to trigger an alert on liead conversion to a potential. I assigned a rule to file on any creation or update of a lead. The lead was changed a lead to a potential but no rule was fired. Rajesh Bhadra

    • Customised Funnel

      We are running the standard plan for our ZOHO CRM. I have been asked if there is a way to combine data from the Calls module, Deals module and Contact Module into 1 funnel, similar to the view you can get when viewing Deals By Stages, you can see the

    • Trigger Zapier on Deluge Insert Into Function?

      Hello, To get around the limitation of not being able to trigger a Zapier Zap on Record Update(this would be extremely useful to be able to do btw), I have created a Deluge script to copy the data from Form A to a Trigger Form B using the Insert Into expression from a Custom Action button on a Report from Form A.  This action does not trigger the Zapier Zap whereas manually adding a record or duplicating an existing record does trigger the Zap. Is Insert Into not the same as a manual Add in the context

    • Can you inject JS in an HML+CSS+Deluge Page?

      I have an HTML + CSS + Deluge page and need just a little vanilla JS functionality. However, it seems like Zoho Creator does not allow that. I'm required to create a JS widget. Is this correct? If so: 1. Won't this quickly consume my API limit if there

    • Zoho unified inbox

      The new changes have definitely improved things for switching between accounts.  But zoho still desperately needs a unified inbox.  It sucks to have to enter filters and folders for each and every inbox.  This seems like such a simple thing, i wonder why Zoho hasn't done it?

    • Best Practice for Penny Rounding & FX Adjustments in Zoho Books

      Hi everyone, I’m just looking for some clarity on the correct way to handle very small rounding differences in Zoho Books when dealing with foreign-currency payments. What I’m currently doing: • I enter the supplier bill exactly as shown. • When paying

    • Is there a problem with sharing workdrive files with links since last night?

      As per title, we can't access folders/files through share links since last night. I created ticket but we need quick solution and didn't hear back from the support yet. The files are still accessible by the main account but all zoho files that we are

    • Enable Screen Recording in Zoho WorkDrive Mobile Apps (Android & iOS)

      Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, How are you? We are enthusiastic Zoho One users and rely heavily on Zoho WorkDrive for internal collaboration and content sharing. The screen-recording feature in the WorkDrive web app (similar to Loom) is extremely useful- however,

    • Production Management Tool (MRP / BOM)

      Hi Guys, is there any recommended App available that works with zoho and covers the needed applications for a production? What we need is a system that covers the BOM (bill of materials), MRP (material ressources planning), MRP II (manufacturing ressources

    • Bug in Zoho Cliq Signup Flow – "%s" Placeholder Visible Instead of Product Name

      Hi Zoho Team, I would like to report a UI bug in the Zoho Cliq signup/enable flow. During the step where Cliq asks to enable the product for the company, the following text appears: Great! Your company is already available in Zoho, so you just have to

    • Exporting tickets

      I went to Setup -> Organization -> Import/Export in order to export tickets but found 2 issues: 1. The email body never gets exported. 2. There are some large numbers (like 5.57E+16) under certain columns of the exported CSV file. I could not find any export options. Please can you help with this?

    • Copy field information to clipboard

      I need to be able to transfer some field information in to the clipboard, so that I can then paste it in to our helpdesk system. Is there a way I could add a button to a detail report that does this?

    • Issuing reconciling a bank statement

      HELP! I'm trying to reconcile a bank statement. The prior month reconciled perfectly. Beginning balance is correct yet I'm off by the same amount each time. Both myself and my office manager, separately and together, have tried to complete this reconciliation

    • Detect and ignore bots in visitors

      The SalesIQ visitor numbers are basically useless to us because there is no bot detection. We get the same bots coming in from the same countries looking at the same pages every day. It can't be that difficult to tell the difference between an actual

    • Add Real-Time Microphone Audio-Level Indicator During Screen Recording

      Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, Hope you are doing well. We would like to request an important enhancement to the Zoho WorkDrive screen-recording experience. Current Limitation: During a recording session, there is no visual indication that the microphone is

    • Zero Personalization of the File Sharing Experience

      By now (2025) this is the maximum level of personalization available for a Zoho sharing link. We gently asked Zoho if we could modify at least the background, and they replied that it cannot be customized. We're truly disappointed – and surprised every

    • Request for Solution to Reverse $500,000+ FY2024 Inventory/COGS Discrepancy in Zoho

      Dear Zoho Support Team, I hope you are doing well. We are contacting you regarding a significant discrepancy in our financial data within Zoho Books/Inventory, and we urgently need your guidance on how to correct and reverse these issues. After reviewing

    • Two factor authentication for helpdesk users

      The company i work for wants use the helpdesk site in Zoho desk, as a place for their distribution partners to ask question and look for information about our product. The things there is suppose to go up there is somewhat confidential between my company

    • Kiosk can't merge picklist or multiselect

      There is no ability to load a multiselect or picklikst field into a kiosk with the values that have been previously selected. So, I essentially have 3 unacceptable options: 1.)Load the value into a text string and include instructions like this: "Picklist

    • AGE field from DATE OF BIRTH Field.

      HI! I have a field called date of birth in my CRM (LEADS, CONTACT etc…)     How can I know the AGE today   I would like to create a field AGE. I now how to create a field but I don´t which calculation (CUSTOM FUCTION) to make ¿ANY HELP?

    • How to update/remove file in zoho creator widgets using javascript API

      Hi Team, I have developed a widget which allows inserting and updating records I have file upload field with multiple file upload. Now while doing insert form record, I am using uploadFile API to upload files for that record. I am using updateRecord API

    • Announcing new features in Trident for Windows (v.1.34.4.0)

      Hello Community! Trident for Windows just got better! With this update we have features that make your daily work easier and more efficient. We've added some features that are exclusive to our app and we're sure you'll find them useful. Let’s dive into

    • Report Hover Setting

      Would be great if we will able to show information to the user while hovering a record in a report.

    • Vertical images displayed as horizontal

      Some pictures that originally are in vertical position are displayed in horizontal after the upload. It seems that system rotates them by 90 degrees. How can I fix this issue?

    • Plug Samples #12: Verify Customer Mobile Numbers with OTP to Avoid Spam Entries

      Hi Everyone! Verifying customer information is critical in business to filter out junk data and spammers. Whether it’s lead generation, appointment booking, or any other operation, ensuring quality data is essential for driving meaningful outcomes. A

    • Zoho Desk iOS app update: Saved filters and sort options

      Hello everyone! Saved filters created on the web(desk.zoho.com) for tickets are now accessible on the Zoho Desk iOS app. You can easily rename, delete, or clear filters on the go. We have also introduced Sort options on the ticket listing screen, allowing

    • Big Things Just Dropped in the SalesIQ Universe: Top Upgrades You’ll Love in Nova’25

      Nova'25 has landed, and it’s packed with meaningful upgrades to help you engage smarter, work faster, and scale with ease. Whether you're into proactive messaging, smarter automation, or better admin control, there's something here for everyone. Here's

    • Time Entries in Analytics

      I am trying to import a zoho sheet into zoho analytics. In my sheets one of the columns has "time Entries" in this "format HH:MM am/pm" example 11:00 PM. After import, i noticed that analytics converted the time to "00 Jan 1900 23:00:00".. how do i maintain

    • Amazon invoice in Zoho Books

      I have just made my first few sales on Amazon India. Amazon Seller account generates invoices for the sales made on Amazon. These invoices are sent to customers also. Now when I was only making offline sales, I used to create Invoices in Zoho Book. Now

    • Zoho Creator Upcoming Updates - November 2025

      Hello everyone, Welcome to your monthly roundup of new features and enhancements! We hope you've already taken a look at Release Projection 2—it details the features coming your way for the rest of the year. And this month, we're excited to start rolling

    • Next Page