Creator roadmap for the rest of 2022

Creator roadmap for the rest of 2022

Hi everyone,

Hope you're all good!

Thanks for continuing to make this community engaging and informative.

Today we'd like to share with you our plans for the near future of Creator.  We always strive to strike a good balance of features and enhancements to cater to the different segments of the Creator audience. While we've got some exciting features lined-up that you've been expecting from us, we're also thrilled to announce that there are a few surprises and some key market differentiators as well!

The following roadmap gives you the gist of what's coming up, and more details about each feature will be posted here as we close on the various release dates.

Read on to know about the features planned to be rolled out during Quarter 3, 2022.

AR library
We're delighted to announce that we'll soon be bringing augmented reality (AR) in Zoho Creator! The AR library enables you to set up an immersive augmented reality experience for your users. An application can have 3D objects in its AR library, which can be accessed via AR fields and annotated in the real world using compatible iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. This real-time digital interaction provides better data visualization and enhances end-user experiences, providing you with exciting new business opportunities.

Released on: Sep-2022

Company logo
Your apps will soon be able to better reflect your company image with customized branding details. With this feature, a company logo and favicon can be uploaded and will be displayed when you access your application in live.

Released on: Oct-2022

Theme colors
The color scheme of an application not only makes it more attractive but also keeps it distinct from your portfolio of other apps. With this update, you'll be able to select a color of your own choice for your application theme, to make them visually more appealing and maintain branding guidelines across apps.

Released on: Oct-2022

Application fonts
Font choice plays an important role in the readability and aesthetics of an application and determines the brand perception. With this update, you'll be able to choose fonts from a predefined list, as a part of theme customization.  You can also choose different fonts for different form factors, like web, mobile, and tablet.

Released on: Oct-2022
Reference: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/creator/developer-guide/applications/articles/set-theme-for-your-application#Choose_Font

Push notifications
Notifications are the modern-day solution to keep your users informed and engaged. Push notifications are a powerful means to reach your app users anytime, whether or not they are in your app, to capture their attention and reengage them. Creator notifications are undergoing a major makeover to support real-time notifications for approval workflows, blueprint workflows, and record comments across web, mobile, and tablet devices.


Form titles
Interaction with forms can become more meaningful when we have contextual information. We're going to introduce form titles that'll enable you to set different display titles for the two primary actions in a form — adding a record and editing a record.  

Released on: Aug-2022


Dark mode for Android
Yes, you heard it right! We're going to extend dark mode support to Android apps. Dark mode, which is great for low-light situations and is easier on your eyes, will be automatically enabled based on your default system settings.  

Released on: Sep-2022

Blueprint analytics
Understanding the performance of a blueprint workflow and gaining insights to optimize its efficiency is a key aspect of every business management process. We'll soon be introducing blueprint analytics to provide vital information like average time taken per blueprint, average time taken per stage/transition, total number of transition occurrences, etc., to give complete insights into your apps' blueprints.




Custom connectors
Prebuilt services available in Connections help you seamlessly integrate your Creator application with various other cloud services. In certain scenarios, organizations might have unique requirements that would require usage of other third-party connectors, not supported by Creator. Such integrations can be achieved by adding them via custom connectors.


To know about the features planned to be rolled out during Quarter 4, 2022, scroll further!

Custom AI models
AI fields in Creator make your applications smarter by utilizing advanced machine learning techniques. Custom AI models can help your applications become more intelligent using custom-trained OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and object detection algorithms, based on the images you upload.  Custom-trained OCR makes predictions and processes written text from digital images into machine-readable text.

Released on: Feb-2023
Reference: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/creator/developer-guide/microservices/ai-modeler/articles/understand-ai-modeler#Model_Types

Pop-up subforms
Vertical scrolling is conventional and intuitive when working with subforms that contain numerous fields. This feature will open a subform in a pop-up while adding and editing a row, which ensures better user experience and space management.    

List-type subforms
We're introducing a table-like subform without inline inputs, which looks similar to our list report. This is suitable for subforms, that you expect to experience less-frequent modifications and have a large number of line items.

Subform custom sorting
Using this feature, users can manually reorder the row sequence of a subform, while adding and editing records. This feature is great for use cases beyond field-based ordering, when the fields in the subform need to be sorted in a specific order.

Form cache
At times, a user might close the browser window or navigate to another component accidentally while filling in a form. To avoid data loss in these scenarios, we'll be storing the form data temporarily, so that users can continue from where they were when they accidentally left the form.

Blueprint Deluge tasks
Programmatic controls for blueprint workflows help automate business processes. We'll be introducing Deluge tasks to change the stages and transitions of a blueprint. Also, blueprints will be automatically initiated for records added through Deluge.

User connections
Workflows involving connections will soon prompt user authentication when accessing applications in live. This will help identify the exact user using the third-party services, and permissions will be applied based on that service.

Extensions
Zoho Marketplace is a unified platform that hosts low-code apps published by developers that can be utilized by clients on multiple platforms. In the Marketplace, you can now publish one or more app components, which can be installed into existing applications. For the first phase, widgets can be published and installed into an existing application.

Early 2023 releases

We are excited to announce a few of our features that are expected to be launched early next year!
    
Canvas builder
We'll be introducing a Canvas builder for creating flexible and visually appealing detail views of reports. In the initial phase, this builder will be supported only in the web interface.

Subforms in stateless forms
With this update, you'll be able to add subforms in stateless forms. Since stateless forms don't store any data, users can use subform insert row, clear row, and access field Deluge tasks to manage subform data.

Advanced email analytics
Gaining insights about emails sent from your apps can help complete the email notification life cycle. To achieve this,  we'll be introducing advanced email analytics that'll inform you about delivery status, enable recipient activity tracking, and provide you with a detailed log to improve email performance powered by Zoho ZeptoMail.

OTP login
Portal users who don't have email addresses will be able to use their phone number as an alternate method for signing up and signing in, with OTP-based authentication.

Login template
Creator offers a default and robust design for each of the customer portal pages, which you can further customize using the portal page designer. With this update, we'll be supporting prebuilt templates and additional customization controls for portal login, signup, and reset passwords pages.

Deluge editor
Similar to your application IDE, intuitive error messages will be shown in the Deluge editor while scripting itself i.e. before saving your script.  Apart from this, customizing keyboard shortcuts, full screen mode and a few other enhancements are on the way.

App installation setup
Installing applications from the marketplace requires basic information to guide/setup the user configurations.  For example, this includes selecting the timezone, date format etc., Using predefined configurations before publishing apps to marketplace will help users during the installation process.



We appreciate that you have all been patient with us. It's your continued support and understanding that motivates us to keep pushing our boundaries and add exciting new features.  Also, we are aware that some of your requests were not fulfilled at this time, but please be assured that we are still working on them.

We hope this announcement post will help you in planning your upcoming projects and apps in advance. Finally, please note that there could be small changes to the scope of these features and release timelines, but we're committed and confident that we'll be able to deliver on all the exciting updates we've announced.

Wait! This isn't the complete list. We have even more surprises cooking in our labs, and can’t wait to share all of that with you! So stay tuned and keep watching this space for updates. Meanwhile, do keep using Creator and keep the feedback coming!
 
Prakash,
Product Management,
The Zoho Creator team.




    • Recent Topics

    • Ability to configure a schedule/shift for each user and/or crew in Zoho FSM

      Hello, In our team of Field Agents, we have different shifts. Some field agent always work from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM while others work the evening shift like 4:00 PM to 11:00 PM. Sometime shift are on weekdays only or on weekend. It would be great to be

    • Free webinar: Streamlining customer service paperwork with the Zoho Sign extension for Zoho Desk

      Hello Everyone! Have you been wondering about bridging the gap between digitised customer service and business paperwork? Join our free webinar to learn how you can do this by connecting Zoho Sign, our digital signature app, with Zoho Desk, our online

    • Zoho Books | Product updates | July 2025

      Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From plan-based trials to the option to mark PDF templates as inactive, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience. Introducing Plan Based Trials in Zoho

    • Mail Search should allow grouping by conversation like Gmail.

      Having switched from gmail I have found the search function hard to use. Mostly because mail is not grouped by conversation in search. If I search for a word when looking for a conversation had with someone then sometimes 10 emails will come up from the

    • Improve Zoho Learn updated article notifications

      I noticed today while updating an article, that the notification users get says "[User Name] has published article [Article Name]..." My feedback to the product team is that it would be really helpful for an end user, if the system notification differentiated

    • Safari Support

      Safari, the world's second largest browser, zoho desk does not officially or fully support. That needs to change.

    • Can I get images from an "Image Upload" field in a webhook?

      I want to send images from 2 "image upload" fields via a webhook. Is this possible?

    • Ticket closure notification - all contacts cc'd on email thread

      Hello, If a client sends an email to our service desk and cc's in other people that work at the same company - so that they are in the loop of the service request. When the we close the ticket, only the ticket owner (person who emailed us - which created

    • Inactive account cleanup policy for Zoho Sign

      Zoho Sign reserves the right to delete accounts that are license free and inactive for more than 120 days. The account deletion will be initiated only after the user receives prior email notice about possible data deletion and how to backup the data.

    • Missde API documentation for Sales Receipt

      Hi! I noticed that the Sales Receipt endpoint is not currently listed in your API documentation (https://www.zoho.com/books/api/v3/introduction/). Could you please provide any available temporary documentation for this endpoint, along with a detailed

    • Multi-currency in Zoho CRM Forecast and Reports

      As a company we have branches in 4 different countries with as many different currencies. Our Sales Teams would like to work with their local currency as much as possible. The Forecast module using only 1 currency is practically usable only by the sales

    • How to select from pricebook when creating a salesorder or quote

      I am creating a sales order and when selecting the Products I do not see any where to select from pricebooks. How do i associate this to my orders?

    • Proposal for Creating a Unique "Address" Entity in Zoho FSM

      The "Address" entity is one of the most critical components for a service-oriented company. While homeowners may change and servicing companies may vary, the address itself remains constant. This constancy is essential for subsequent services, as it provides

    • Automatic Matching from Bank Statements / Feeds

      Is it possible to have transactions from a feed or bank statement automatically match when certain criteria are met? My use case, which is pretty broadly applicable, is e-commerce transactions for merchant services accounts (clearing accounts). In these

    • I cannot find my older documents from 2024 and 2023

      I cannot find my older documents from 2024 and 2023.

    • System default SLA descriptions can't be modified

      The system default SLAs have identical descriptions for all SLA levels, but their settings differ. However, I am facing an issue where I cannot modify these descriptions and save the changes. The content of the description box can be edited but the changes

    • Customising Help Center

      Hi I don't think it is possible to add custom pages to help center? We'd like to use this as a customer portal with support tickets, FAQ/Guides, Billing and contracts. Is there any plans to add a feature like this or an alternative way to do it other

    • Replies sometimes creating separate ticket

      Sometimes when a customer responds to an email coming from Zoho Desk, instead of adding a reply to the original ticket, a separate ticket is created. This happens even though the response subject line contained the ticket number, and the person responding

    • Ticket Approvals - External Users

      The ticket approval option - we need to be able to select external users (Contacts) for approvals. Sometimes we are working with an end user and their boss needs to approve a purchase. For example, working with a cashier on a broken cash register and

    • Force Users to Ask Answer Bot a question... First

      End users will always skip talking to a bot. It would be nice if Zoho adopted the standard and forced users to first ask a question to answer bot (or zia in some fashion) and then pass to the agent if it wasn't answered. Options to force the user to speak

    • View Answer Bot conversations?

      We are trialing Zia and are experimenting with Answer Bot on our knowledge base. So far so good! Management asks me if it is possible to view Answer Bot conversations, the purpose being to look over its shoulder and confirm that it is working as des

    • Mass Email an Account

      It would be nice to mass email an account stating there is an outage at their business or something specific to an account is needed to be mass communicated. Even if it makes a ticket for every Email Out to every contact in the Account. Think: the customer

    • Multiple Topics assigned to a single Campaign

      Hello, is it possible to assign multiple Topics to a single Campaign? We frequently write a content to our subscribers that spans multiple Topics and we would like to send it to all Contacts that are subscribed to at least one of the Topics. But it looks

    • Bigin Android app update: User management

      Hello everyone! In the most recent Bigin Android app update, we have brought in support for the 'Users and Controls' section. You can now manage the users in your organization within the mobile app. There are three tabs in the 'Users and Controls' section:

    • Zoho Projects Fonts and Accessibility missing

      I cannot find any more the tab where I can change the font in Zoho Project. I also checked the knowledgebase and there they have accessibility tab which I am completely missing. Is there some setup I am missing or is it a problem with our account?

    • Introducing Version-3 APIs - Explore New APIs & Enhancements

      Happy to announce the release of Version 3 (V3) APIs with an easy to use interface, new APIs, and more examples to help you understand and access the APIs better. V3 APIs can be accessed through our new link, where you can explore our complete documentation,

    • Zoho Books Custom Widgets Deprecation Error

      I created a simple sample widget with zet and published it using sigma Both in the Sandbox and Production the Widgets are showing this error

    • Problems with PDF files in notebook

      I'm evaluating Zoho Notebook as an alternative to Evernote and imported my Evernote account to Zoho Notebook. First issue is that notes in Evernote that comprise a PDF are turned into a 'group' with a single note page (that has the text from the Evernote

    • API (v3) Tasks sorting issue

      We are using the v3 API for Projects. When we gat all tasks, per page of 100 tasks, we get the task info alright. But when we try to sort based on DESC(last_modified_time) we don't get the correct sort order. It is roughly sorted by the last_modified_time,

    • Assemblies make my stock go negative

      I am sure this is just the way that we are using this feature, but we use assemblies, a lot. The issue for us is the way that the relive inventory and the fact that it makes our composite item stock go negative. I have added flows to auto assemble and

    • User Activity Reports

      I'd like to get data related to user activity.  For example, Login and logout times, emails sent/received, new records created , etc. Is that currently available. I just can't seem to find anything . Thanks, Dave

    • Help: Populate “Contact Owner” details into Customer custom fields (for email templates) in Zoho Books

      We want to send invoices on behalf of our sales agents, and include the agent’s name, email, and phone in the email body using placeholders. Plan is to copy the Customer Owner details into three Customer custom fields, so they can be used as placeholders

    • Undocumented Books API error message - 1000 - The requested action could not be completed. Please try again. | Unexpected error

      This code sometimes throws this error 1000 - The requested action could not be completed. Please try again. | Unexpected error What does it mean? result = zoho.books.updateRecord("salesorders",organization.get("organization_id"),salesorder_id,sales_

    • Partial payments for retainer invoices

      When a customer does not pay the entire retainer invoice there is no way to apply a partial payment. PLEASE add this function.

    • Making Tags Mandatory

      When creating an expense, is it possible to make the Tags field mandatory?  I see the option in settings to make other fields mandatory, like Merchant, Description, Customer, etc, but nothing about Tags. Thanks! Kevin

    • Mass Update not trigger workflows

      Hi, I have performed a mass update of all records in a custom module using a custom view. I have a dummy checkbox on my module that I turn on or off - hoping to trigger all the new workflows that have been created for that module. However, no workflows

    • Multi-Select lookup field has reached its maximum??

      Hi there, I want to create a multi-select lookup field in a module but I can't select the model I want the relationship to be with from the list. From the help page on this I see that you can only create a max of 2 relationships per module? Is that true?

    • Generating CRM reports based on date moved in staged history

      Hi everyone, I'm trying to generate CRM reports of jobs (I think these are called usually deals) based on when they were moved to a particular stage, ie all jobs that were moved to Proposal/Quote in the previous financial year. I can see from other similar

    • Modules for missed calls, emails, texts etc

      Hi there. Is there a way to create a module that would automatically show a list of all inbound calls that were missed by our users, as well as any inbound SMS's, emails & WhatsApp messages. That way, a user who is available, can work through that list

    • Subforms and automation

      If a user updates a field how do we create an automation etc. We have a field for returned parts and i want to get an email when that field is ticked. How please as Zoho tells me no automation on subforms. The Reason- Why having waited for ever for FSM

    • Next Page