Kaizen 223 - File Manager in CRM Widget Using ZRC Methods

Kaizen 223 - File Manager in CRM Widget Using ZRC Methods

Hello, CRM Wizards!



Here is what we are improving this week with Kaizen. 

we will explore the new ZRC (Zoho Request Client) introduced in Widget SDK v1.5, and learn how to use it to build a Related List Widget that integrates with Zoho WorkDrive. It helps users to preview and upload files directly from the record’s detail page.

Why ZRC?

ZRC is a unified client for making REST calls across all developer-facing components in Zoho CRM. It is currently supported in Widgets and CScript, and will soon be available for other features within the Developer Hub as well.

It simplifies external API usage with:
  1. async/await support
  2. Auto JSON parsing
  3. Unified API client for Zoho CRM developer tools (currently supported for CScript and widgets)
  4. Stronger error handling

Business Problem

Zylker, a real-estate company, stores documents, images, and property videos for each lead in a third-party cloud storage platform. 

However, some of these files exceed 20 MB, making the CRM’s built-in file upload field unsuitable. Their team also needs the ability to preview and upload files directly from the Lead detail page.

Solution Overview

Zylker can build a Related List Widget integrated with their third-party cloud storage platform using ZRC methods.

This widget will allow users to:
  1. Fetch and display files inside the folder linked to the Lead.
  2. Preview files (images, PDFs, videos) inside the widget.
  3. Upload new documents to the same folder.
  4. Create new subfolders to keep the data organized. 
  5. Navigate subfolders using breadcrumbs. 
To keep the demo simple, let us walk you through on building this widget for listing, previewing and uploading files using Zoho WorkDrive. 

Prerequisites

1. Create a Custom Field

Create a Single Line field named WorkDrive Folder ID in the Leads module. Check out the Working with Custom Fields document for guidance.

This stores the folder ID created for each lead through workflow rule that we build in the next steps.

2. Create WorkDrive and CRM Connection

  1. Go to Setup > Developer Hub > Connections and click Create Connection. 
  2. Choose Zoho WorkDrive with the scopes WorkDrive.files.CREATE and WorkDrive.files.READ. 
  3. Click the Create and Connect button and proceed to authorize the connection.

  1. Similarly, choose Zoho CRM with the ZohoCRM.modules.ALL scope and create the connection.
Refer to the Connections help doc for more information. Store the Connection Link Name to use while making API calls. 

3. Automate WorkDrive Folder Creation

  1. Go to Automation > Workflow Rules in the Setup page and click Create Rule. 
  2. Create a Workflow Rule with the following details:
Module: Leads
Trigger: On Record Creation
Condition: All Records
Action: Custom Action (Deluge Function)


Function Logic:

1. Create a new folder in the WorkDrive combining the lead's record ID and First Name as the folder's name. Use the Invoke URL task to make the Create Folder API call. 

responseMap = Map();
attributeInfo = Map();
dataInfo = Map();
headerMap = Map();
headerMap.put("Accept","application/vnd.api+json");

// First Name and Record ID from the argument

AttributeInfo.put("name",Name + recordId);

// Parent folder ID under which you want to maintain the lead folders

attributeInfo.put("parent_id","e8gn06f2d7b3a48044090b7217524be95c9ac");
dataInfo.put("attributes",attributeInfo);
dataInfo.put("type","files");
responseMap.put("data",dataInfo);
folderCreateResponse = invokeurl
[
url :"https://zohoapis.in/workdrive/api/v1/files"
type :POST
parameters:responseMap.toString()
headers:headerMap
        connection:"workdrive_oauth_connection" // Connection Link Name created in the prerequisites  
];
info folderCreateResponse;

2. Retrieve the folder ID from the API response.

3. Update the Lead’s WorkDrive Folder ID field with this folder ID using Update Records API call. 

requestBody = Map();
dataList = List();
record = Map();

// Set field values

record.put("WorkDrive_Folder_ID",driveId);

// Add record to list

dataList.add(record);

// Wrap data

requestBody.put("data",dataList);
updateLead = invokeurl
[
url :"https://zohoapis.in/crm/v8/Leads/" + recordId
type :PUT
parameters:requestBody.toString()
connection:"crm_oauth_connection"
];
info updateLead;

Assign values to the arguments using merge fields while associating the function with Workflow Rule.



Now every Lead has its own WorkDrive folder before the widget loads. 

Notes
Note:

The complete code snippet for the deluge function is attached to the post for your reference. 

Building the Related List Widget

Step 1: Initialize the Widget Project

Review the basics from our earlier Kaizen on CLI Installation, Creating a Widget Project, and Internal hosting of the same.

Step 2: Develop your Widget

After setting up the widget project using CLI, implement the following code logic for the case we are discussing:
  1. Get the current record's ID from the PageLoad event. 
  2. With the record ID, fetch the lead details using the GET Records API call using the GET ZRC method as shown here. 
// data.Entity and data.EntitiyId are the module and record ID from PageLoad
const response = await zrc.get(
      "/crm/v8/" + data.Entity + "/" + data.EntityId
    );
 var workdriveFolderId = response.data.data[0].WorkDrive_Folder_ID;
  1. Extract the WorkDrive Folder ID from the response to get the list of files from the folder. 
  2. Since we'll be using WorkDrive APIs multiple times, let’s create a reusable instance with the Connection Link Name and API's base URL. This way, we avoid repeating the same setup for every API call.
Following is sample of how to create a custom instance:

workDriveZrc = zrc.createInstance({
    baseUrl: "https://www.zohoapis.in/workdrive/api/v1",
    connection: "workdrive_oauth_connection",
 });

You can also check out the Create Instance in the requestConfig help section to learn more. 
  1. Now, let us make the GET List of Files/Folder API call using the newly created ZRC instance.  
let apiResponse = await workDriveZrc.get(
        "/files/" + workdriveFolderId + "/files",
        {
          headers: {
            Accept: "application/vnd.api+json",
          },
        }
 );
  1. Display the file details like File Name, Type and Modified Time in a table from the API response. Save the File ID in a variable for displaying preview. 
  2. When user clicks a particular file, use the file ID to fetch the preview URL using the GET Preview Meta Data API. Then load the preview URL in an iframe to display the file. 
try {
      const previewResponse = await workDriveZrc.get(
        "/files/" + resourceId + "/previewinfo",
        {
          headers: {
            Accept: "application/vnd.api+json",
          },
        }
      );
      parsed = JSON.parse(previewResponse.data);
      console.log("Preview Data:", parsed);

      // Extract the preview_url from the expected location

      previewUrl = parsed && parsed.data && parsed.data.attributes && parsed.data.attributes.preview_url || null;

      // Remove surrounding quotes if server wrapped the url in quotes

      if (typeof previewUrl === "string") {
        previewUrl = previewUrl.replace(/^"(.*)"$/, "$1").trim();
      }
    } catch (err) {
      console.error("Error fetching preview info for resource:", resourceId, err);
 }
function showPreview(previewUrl, fileName, permalink) {
  var modal = document.getElementById("modal-container");
  var thumbnailFrame = document.getElementById("thumbnail-img");
  var caption = document.getElementById("caption");
  var workdriveLink = document.querySelector(".redirect-workdrive");

  // Load the preview URL into the iframe

  thumbnailFrame.src = previewUrl;

  // Set the file name in caption and workdrive link

  caption.textContent = fileName;
  workdriveLink.setAttribute("data-link", permalink);

  // Show the modal

  modal.style.display = "block";
}
  1. Create an Upload button for users to select files from their local. Convert the streamed files to blob and execute Upload API call using the custom ZRC instance. 
async function workdriveUpload(file, fileType, fileName, folderId) {
  const fileBlob = new Blob([file], { type: fileType });
  try {
    const formData = new FormData();
    formData.append("filename", fileName);
    formData.append("parent_id", String(folderId).trim());
    formData.append("content", fileBlob);
    const uploadResponse = await workDriveZrc.post(
      "/upload", formData,
      {
        headers: {
          "Content-Type": "multipart/form-data",
        },
      }
    );
    console.log("Upload response:", uploadResponse.data);
    return uploadResponse;
  }
  catch (error) {
    console.error("Error uploading file:", error);
    throw error; 
  }
}

Step 3: Validate and Pack

Follow the steps given in the Widget help page to validate and package the widget.

Step 4: Upload to Zoho CRM

  1. Go to Zoho CRM > Setup > Developer Hub > Widgets and click Create New Widget.
  1. Fill in the required details such as:
Name: Zoho WorkDrive
Type: Related List 
Hosting: Zoho 
File Upload: Upload the ZIP created in the dist folder within the widget project directory after packaging in the Step 3. 
Index page: /widget.html
  1. Create a related list in the Leads module and associate this widget. Refer to the Customize Related Lists help page for more information on creating a related list.

Try it Out!

A complete working code sample of this widget is attached at the bottom of this post for reference. 

Now let us see how this works from the Lead's detail page:

1. Listing the available files from Zoho WorkDrive on page load. 


2. Uploading new files to the folder.


3. Previewing all the listed files.


We hope this Kaizen helps you explore the new ZRC capabilities and build seamless file-management experiences in Zoho CRM.

Have questions or suggestions? Drop them in the comments or write to us at  support@zohocrm.com. 

We will circle back to you next Friday with another interesting topic. 

On to Better Building!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Related Reading

2. Connections - An Overview
4. CRM APIs - GET Records and Update Records 
6. CRM Customizations - Related Lists and Custom Fields.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Idea
Previous Kaizen: Client Script Support for Notes Related List | Kaizen Collection: Home


    • Sticky Posts

    • Kaizen #226: Using ZRC in Client Script

      Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. In today's post, lets see what is ZRC (Zoho Request Client) and how we can use ZRC methods in Client Script to get inputs from a Salesperson and update the Lead status with a single button click. In this

    • Kaizen #222 - Client Script Support for Notes Related List

      Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. The final Kaizen post of the year 2025 is here! With the new Client Script support for the Notes Related List, you can validate, enrich, and manage notes across modules. In this post, we’ll explore how

    • Kaizen #217 - Actions APIs : Tasks

      Welcome to another week of Kaizen! In last week's post we discussed Email Notifications APIs which act as the link between your Workflow automations and you. We have discussed how Zylker Cloud Services uses Email Notifications API in their custom dashboard.

    • Kaizen #216 - Actions APIs : Email Notifications

      Welcome to another week of Kaizen! For the last three weeks, we have been discussing Zylker's workflows. We successfully updated a dormant workflow, built a new one from the ground up and more. But our work is not finished—these automated processes are

    • Kaizen #152 - Client Script Support for the new Canvas Record Forms

      Hello everyone! Have you ever wanted to trigger actions on click of a canvas button, icon, or text mandatory forms in Create/Edit and Clone Pages? Have you ever wanted to control how elements behave on the new Canvas Record Forms? This can be achieved

    • Recent Topics

    • Support for Custom Fonts in Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal

      Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you're doing well. We would like to request the ability to use custom fonts in the Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal. Currently only the default fonts (Roboto, Lato, and Montserrat) are available. While these

    • String handling

      If I cut a currency string from a quote and try and paste it into the Deal "Amount", it will fail unless I manually delete any commas. Dollar signs are no problem, but comma's seem to fail. Please correct this Input Validation error.

    • YouTube Live streaming? how to? Zoom has this feature, built-in. Can't find it on zoho meetings.

      YouTube Live streaming? how to? Zoom has this feature, built-in. Can't find it on zoho meetings.

    • Feature Request - A Way To Search Item Groups

      Hi Inventory Team, I can't find any way to filter or search by fields of Item Groups. It would be great to see that functionality added. I have a use case where a single product might come from 5 or more suppliers and each supplier's item is an Item in

    • Feature Reqeust - Include MPN In Selectable FIelds

      I have noticed that the MPN is not available to show in the list view of Items. Please consider adding it as EAN, UPC and ISBN are all available, so it doesn't make much sense to exclude this similar option. Thanks for considering my feedback.

    • 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

    • Feature Request - Option To Hide Default System Fields on Items

      Hi Zoho Inventory Team, As far as I know it is not possible to hid some of the defult system fields on Items, such as UPC, MPN, EAN, ISBN. A good use case is that in many cases ISBN is not relevant and it would be an improved user experience if we could

    • Making an email campaign into a Template

      I used a Zoho Campaign Template to create an email. Now I want to use this email and make it a new template, but this seems to be not possible. Am I missing something?

    • Campaigns does not work!

      I am running into so many problems trying to use Zoho Campaigns, that I am seriously considering dropping the app from my (shrinking) list of Zoho applications I actually use. Apart from having to fight the software trying to create a design and email,

    • email address somehow still not verified (?!)

      L.S. After creating a new email template in CRM I was about to send a group email to my clients, then Zoho CRM announced that they would change the sender address to some kind of Zoho-e-ddress because my email address "has not been verified". Not only

    • Feature Request - Make Available "Alias Name" Field In Item List View

      Hi Zoho Inventory Team, I have noticed that the "Alias Name" field does not appear on the list of selectable columns in the Customise Columns feature in the Items module. This would be very useful to see for businesses who are using the Alias Name field

    • Marketing Automation

      L.S. Marketing Automation is and has always been part of the Zoho One bundle - according to the information provided on the Zoho Website. Why when I open Marketing Automation do I get the following message?: "Your trial has expired. We hope you enjoyed

    • Cliq iOS can't see shared screen

      Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? Regards

    • Bigin, more powerful than ever on iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe, and watchOS 26.

      Hot on the heels of Apple’s latest OS updates, we’ve rolled out several enhancements and features designed to help you get the most from your Apple devices. Enjoy a refined user experience with smoother navigation and a more content-focused Liquid Glass

    • Notes badge as a quick action in the list view

      Hello all, We are introducing the Notes badge in the list view of all modules as a quick action you can perform for each record, in addition to the existing Activity badge. With this enhancement, users will have quick visibility into the notes associated

    • Claude + MCP Server + Zoho CRM Integration – AI-Powered Sales Automation

      Hello Zoho Community 👋 I’m excited to share a recent integration we’ve worked on at OfficehubTech: ✅ Claude + MCP Server + Zoho CRM This integration connects Zoho CRM with Claude AI through our custom MCP Server, enabling intelligent AI-driven responses

    • 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

    • How to filter Packages in zoho inventory api

      Hi Team, I want to perform some tasks in a schedular on the packages which are in "Shipped" state. I tried to use filter_by in my api call but in return I get response as {"code":-1,"message":"Given filter is not configured"} My Api request is as follows

    • CRM

      Is anyone else experiencing this issue? Our company is not moving out of using Gmail's web app. It just has more features and is a better email program than Zoho Mail. Gmail has an extension (Zoho CRM for Gmail) that we're using but we've found some serious

    • Automate pushing Zoho CRM backups into Zoho WorkDrive

      Through our Zoho One subscription we have both Zoho CRM and Zoho WorkDrive. We have regular backups setup in Zoho CRM. Once the backup is created, we are notified. Since we want to keep these backups for more than 7 days, we manually download them. They

    • Syncing with Google calendar, Tasks and Events

      Is it possible to sync Zoho CRM calendar, task and events with Google Calendar's tasks and events. With the increasing adoption by many major tool suppliers to sync seamlessly with Google's offerings (for instance I use the excellent Any.do task planning

    • IMAP mail after specify date

      Hi My customer's mail server is on premise and mail storage is very huge. So It never finish sync. and finally stop sync. Cloud CRM have a option like zoho mail sync mail after some date.

    • How can i view "Child" Accounts?

      It can be very useful in our field of business to know the parent-child account relationship. However, there seems to be a shortcoming in the parent account view: no child account list. How can we view the child accounts per each account?

    • Ability to assign Invoice Ownership through Deluge in FSM

      Hi, As part of our process, when a service appointment is completed, we automated the creation of the invoice based on a specific business logic using Deluge. When we do that, the "Owner" of the invoice in Zoho FSM is defaulted to the SuperAdmin. This

    • Easily perform calculations using dates with the new DATEDIF function

      Hey Zoho Writer users! We've enhanced Zoho Writer's formula capabilities with the new DATEDIF function. This allows you to calculate the difference between dates in days, months, and years. Function syntax: =DATEDIF(start_date, end_date, unit) Inputs:

    • Adding Comments Using Workflows - How to Change User Attributed

      We have worklflows in Desk where a comment is added to a ticket based on certain criteria. It seems that the comment added is always attributed to the user who last edited the workflow. This does not make sense for us because: - It's misleading to other

    • Add Attachment Support to Zoho Flow Mailhook / Email Trigger Module

      Dear Zoho Support Team, We hope you are well. We would like to kindly request a feature enhancement for the Mailhook module in Zoho Flow. Currently, the email trigger in Zoho Flow provides access to the message body, subject, from address, and to address,

    • Conect chat of salesiq with zoho cliq

      Is there any way to answer from zoho cliq  the chat of salesiq initiated by customers?

    • Les dernières avancées en saisie de données et collaboration

      Après une année dédiée à la recherche et au développement, notre équipe est prête à dévoiler des améliorations majeures pour Zoho Sheet. Ces nouveautés seront lancées par étapes afin d’en assurer une prise en main optimale. Nous commençons avec des fonctionnalités

    • Deluge Learning Series – Client functions in Deluge | January 2026

      We’re excited to kick-start the first session of the 2026 Deluge Learning Series (DLS) with Client functions in Deluge. For those who are new to DLS, here’s a quick overview of what the series is all about: The Deluge Learning Series takes place on the

    • Rich Text For Notes in Zoho CRM

      Hello everyone, As you know, notes are essential for recording information and ensuring smooth communication across your records. With our latest update, you can now use Rich Text formatting to organize and structure your notes more efficiently. By using

    • display call description in the notes section of a contact or add notes field to completed call screen

      When completing a call, we type in the result of the call in the description. However, that does not show up under the notes history on the contact. We want to be able to see all the calls that have taken place for a contact wihtout having to go into each completed call. The other option is to add the notes field to the completed call screen.

    • Implement Meeting Polls in Zoho Bookings

      Dear Zoho Bookings Support Team, We'd like to propose a feature enhancement related to appointment scheduling within Zoho Bookings. Current Functionality: Zoho Bookings excels at streamlining individual appointment scheduling. Users can set availability

    • Zoho Bookings and Survey Integration through Flow

      I am trying to set up flows where once an appointment is marked as completed in Zoho Bookings, the applicable survey form would be sent to the customer. Problem is, I cannot customise flows wherein if Consultation A is completed, Survey Form A would be

    • Service Account Admin for API Calls and System Actions

      Hello, I would like to request the addition of a Service Account Admin option in Zoho product. This feature would allow API calls and system actions to be performed on behalf of the system, rather than an active user. Current Issue: At present, API calls

    • How to apply customized Zoho Crm Home Page to all users?

      I have tried to study manuals and play with Zoho CRM but haven't found a way how to apply customized Zoho CRM Home Page as a (default) home page for other CRM users.. How that can be done, if possible? - kipi Moderation Update: Currently, each user has

    • Please can the open tasks be shown in each customer account at the top.

      Hi there This has happened before, where the open tasks are no longer visible at the top of the page for each customer in the CRM. They have gone missing previously and were reinstated when I asked so I think it's just after an update that this feature

    • How to Customize Task Creation to Send a Custom Alert Using JavaScript in Zoho CRM?

      Hello Zoho CRM Community, I’m looking to customize Zoho CRM to send a custom alert whenever a task is created. I understand that Zoho CRM supports client scripts using JavaScript, and I would like to leverage this feature to implement the alert functionality.

    • Send Whatsapp with API including custom placeholders

      Is is possible to initiate a session on whatsapp IM channel with a template that includes params (placeholders) that are passed on the API call? This is very usefull to send a Utility message for a transactional notification including an order number

    • Configurable Zoho Cliq Notifications for Zoho People Alerts

      Hello Zoho People Product Team, Greetings and hope you are doing well. We would like to request an enhancement to Zoho People notifications, enabling a native delivery via Zoho Cliq with admin-level control, similar to the notification settings available

    • Next Page