Zoho Creator Upcoming Updates — February 2023

Zoho Creator Upcoming Updates — February 2023

Hello all!

A very happy new year to all of you! We're back with the very first monthly update of the year! Your support has made Creator's journey in 2022 both momentous and remarkable, and we'll be striving hard to make sure 2023 is even more incredible. Moreover, we're overwhelmed by your response to our brand new Product Roadmap page—thank you so much!

We'd like to welcome you to the new year with a slew of crucial updates:
  • Blueprint Deluge tasks
  • Inactive accounts deletion
  • Old [C4] payment deprecation
  • Upgrading to new sharing for user and customer portals
  • Dynamically embed components in pages
  • Import data to reports via permalink
  • Parent window navigation for widgets
  • AI-model assistant to create apps from files
  • OpenAPI specification
- - - - - - - - - -

Blueprint Deluge tasks
 
We thought a rendezvous between two major Zoho Creator features—Deluge and Blueprint—would open up infinite possibilities. So we pulled up our socks to get working and came up with two new Deluge tasks related to blueprints. 
  1. thisapp.blueprint.executeTransition - This is a task that will let you execute a transition and move a record from one stage to another. This task is handy when you need to perform bulk actions on a large number of records.
  2. thisapp.blueprint.changeStage - This task will let you move from one stage to another stage without having to execute a transition. Moreover, this task will be applicable in a bidirectional way, meaning that you can use it to move to a stage that is present before or after the current stage in the blueprint.
Crucially, we've also managed to overcome the limitation which prevented records manipulated using Deluge from being a part of any Blueprints. Going forward, even records added/updated using Deluge tasks can partake in the blueprint process.

How do I benefit?
The ability to work with blueprint workflows using Deluge programming will help vastly improve the automation of business processes.
 
Applicable for: C5, C6
Availability: All DCs
Released on: 08-Feb-23
 
Note: Blueprint Deluge tasks will be rolled out in a phased manner. Initially, they will be available only for new signups, but then later will be rolled out for all.
 
- - - - - - - - - -
 
Inactive accounts deletion
 
In order to enhance performance, preserve security, reduce data retention, and safeguard the privacy of Creator users, we've decided to make the hard choice to delete inactive accounts. While we're sad to see some people leave Creator, we also see this as an opportunity to improve the performance of those who choose to stay with us. Any account that hasn't been accessed for 180 days will be considered as inactive and marked for deletion.
 
How will it work?
  1. After prolonged inactivity, an account will be listed for deletion.
    Note: Only inactive accounts with a free, expired, or unpaid subscription will be considered.
  2. The account admin will be informed via email of the impending deletion. Multiple reminders will follow.
  3. Finally, on a predetermined and well-publicized date, the account will be deleted.
  4. If the admin changes their mind and wants to retain their account, they can do so at any time before the deletion deadline, simply by clicking the Reactivate account button in the emails they've received.
How do I benefit?
Once this entire process is complete, the load on our systems will be reduced considerably, and we'll be able to reuse resources to serve you better. And finally, we're making rapid progress towards our ultimate aim of making Zoho Creator the fastest low-code development platform available.
 
Applicable for: C5
Availability: All DCs
Released on: 09-March-23
 
- - - - - - - - - -
 
Old [C4] payment deprecation
 
Creator vets will remember that you used to be able to configure payments from within Form properties in C4. While it worked well, we came up with something even better in C5—Payment workflows.
 
Upon its launch, we began a process of slowly consolidating all payments under Workflows. Then, awhile later, we deprecated support for the creation of new payments from form properties. But, by popular request, we allowed existing payment configurations to continue functioning as before.
 
Although old C4 payments were permanently disabled, the payment field was retained to store the payment configuration and its associated data. However, old C4 payment configurations will soon reach their end of life.
 
What should I do?
  1. Go to Form -> Form properties.
  2. Then navigate to the Payment section.
    i. If a payment configuration is present, then click the Delete icon.
    ii. If the payment configuration was removed earlier, then the payment field alone will be present. In this case, click Delete old payment.
    iii. If you don't see anything under the payment section, then you don't need to do anything. You're already good to go.
 
How do I benefit?
Shifting to payment workflows will enable you to collect payments by integrating with a large number of payment gateways. Additionally, any application which still has old payment configurations cannot become part of Environments. You don't want to miss out on that functionality!
 
Applicable for: C5, C6 users who are using the old payment method
Availability: All DCs
 
- - - - - - - - - -

Upgrading to new sharing for Users and Customer portal 

A small but significant percentage of Creator users continue to stick with the old sharing setup for users and customer portals. All good things come to an end, but this time around they'll be superseded by something vastly superior. The new sharing model brings with it massive upgrades—customizable permissions, field permissions, the ability to restrict visibility, and much more—to the process of sharing with users and customers. We're sure that you'll love the upgrade!
 
We realize that this could be a big change for some of you, though. With that in mind, we came up with a pretty helpful Upgrade wizard to assist you with the upgrading process. The upgrade wizard will give you a detailed preview of how the user and customer portal permissions and other configurations will be mapped after the upgrade.
 
How do I upgrade?
  1. Visit the Updates section under Account Setup and choose the Users and Customer Portal upgrade.
  2. In the upgrade wizard, select the application which should be upgraded to the new sharing.
  3. A preview of how the permissions will look after upgrading to the new sharing will be displayed.
  4. After carefully reviewing the permissions, you can finalize the upgrade.
 
How do I benefit?
  • The new sharing setup comes with the benefit of better-structured access control policies using permissions and roles.
  • Permission to access, view, edit, delete, import, and export records can be set as part of the new sharing process.
  • Getting the new sharing setup for user and customer portal is a mandatory prerequisite to upgrading to C6, the most powerful and innovative version of Creator yet.
  • You (already are and) will continue missing out on exciting updates by sticking with the old sharing setup. We intend to focus our developmental resources only on the new sharing version.
Applicable for: C5 users who are using the old sharing model
Availability: All DCs
 
- - - - - - - - - -
 
Dynamically embed components in pages

Currently, you can embed other Creator components (like forms, reports, etc.) in a page. Now we're taking it up a notch by opening up the possibility of embedding Creator components in a page as: 
  • Popup windows
  • Embed containers within the same page (both as HTML and iframe)
  • <div> containers
What do I need to do?
Just use the new zc_LoadIn page parameter to dynamically embed components into pages.
 
How do I benefit?
Apart from allowing you new ways to embed components into a page, the other advantage of this parameter is that now the page can show dynamic real-time values, without having to refresh the entire page. With the older fixed embed, you needed to refresh the page to get updated data.
 
Applicable for: C5, C6
Availability: All DCs
Released on: 06-Feb-23

- - - - - - - - - -

Import data to reports via permalink
 
We'll be launching standardized functionality-based URLs that'll allow your users to import data directly to reports. Save your users' time, as they'll no longer need to go to that particular report to upload data.
 
How will it work?
The import permalink will have the following pattern:
https://<base_url>/<account_owner_name>/<application_name>/report/<report_link_name>/import

Use it anywhere in any component to quickly direct the user to the import interface.
 
How do I benefit?
This standalone import permalink can provide you with innumerable ways to enable users to upload data to reports. Apart from saving them the hassle, the permalink can be added to other components, like pages, forms, workflows, and more.
 
Applicable for: C5, C6
Availability: All DCs
Released on: 06-Feb-23
- - - - - - - - - -
 
Parent window navigation for widgets

As you're probably aware, Widgets help you build components that aren't always possible using Creator's built-in functionalities. But, due to certain restrictions, you couldn't execute actions from widgets to their parent window (creatorapp.zoho.com). Annoying, right?
 
To overcome this limitation, we've come up with a new method, navigateparentURL(), which will ‌allow you to execute an action in the parent window from the child window itself. This method can handle the open, back, reload, close, and close all actions.
 
How will it work?
Just use the navigateparentURL() method present under the ‌ZOHO.CREATOR.UTIL with JavaScript functions. The action that's required to be performed (back, close, etc) should be passed as a param.
 
Syntax:
var param = {
action:${ACTIONVALUE}
url: ${URL}
window: ${WINDOWTYPE}
}
ZOHO.CREATOR.UTIL.navigateParentURL(param)
 
How do I benefit?
With the new method, you can provide a powerful yet greatly simplified experience to your users, with the help of UI buttons which perform actions in the parent window.
 
Applicable for: C5, C6
Availability: All DCs
Released on: 13-Mar-23
Reference: 
 
- - - - - - - - - -
 
AI-model assistant to create apps from files

Trying to create an app or form by importing a file containing large amounts of data can be a real headache! That's why we've come up with an AI-powered tool to help you achieve data normalization while importing files. Data normalization is the process of breaking down data into smaller tables with a more organized structure.
 
Our AI will quickly analyze the data you're importing and provide you with a list of suggestions to split them into smaller tables along with suitable relationships that can be established by showing you a list of reference forms and lookup fields.
 
What should I do?
  1. In the Import from file window when creating a new application in the wizard, click Restructure table under the Data section.
  2. You'll then be shown a list of suggestions. Choose the most suitable one and, if needed, make any changes as per requirements.
 
How do I benefit?
This features brings order to your disorganized data, segments it in a disciplined fashion, and makes it more suitable for consumption.
 
Applicable for: C5, C6
Availability: All DCs
Released on: 06-Feb-23
 
- - - - - - - - - -
 
OpenAPI specification

As part of our continuing process of standardizing the APIs across our products, Zoho Creator v2 APIs are now defined using OpenAPI specifications. The key advantage of embracing OAS is that it includes a standard and language-agnostic interface for describing APIs in a manner in which they are both machine-readable and interpretable by human readers.
 
How to get them?
  1. Visit the OpenAPI page under the API docs. There, you can download the OAS files as a whole or individually, as per your requirement.
  2. Alternatively, when you visit any individual API page (say Add records, for example) you'll see a Download OAS button. Use it to get the OAS file.
  3. Then use them in Swagger.
 
How do I benefit?
Since OAS is the industry standard, you can steeply reduce the learning curve of APIs. Anyone can easily determine how an API works, as the OAS files contain detailed information about the endpoints, components, and meta information.
 
Applicable for: C5, C6
Availability: All DCs
Released on: 06-Feb-23
 
- - - - - - - - - -
 
We'll notify you as these features are rolled out. In the meantime, let us know what you think about these updates in the comments below!
 
Regards,
Zoho Creator Team

    • Sticky Posts

    • Introducing Zoho Creator's 2025 Release Projection 2

      Hello Creators! I'm Prakash, from the Creator product management team, and today I'm delighted to unveil our next set of features as part of Release Projection 2 for 2025. With thoughtful analysis and planning, we've curated powerful new capabilities

    • Zoho Creator - 2023 Release Projection 1

      Hello everyone! A very Happy New Year to you and your family. Hope you're all good and having a great time using Zoho Creator to make your lives easier and your businesses prosper. 2022 was an action-packed year for us at Creator, and we hope to continue

    • Zoho Creator User Group meetups in a city near you! - Oct - Nov, 2023

      Greetings from the Zoho Creator team! We're hosting a series of Zoho Creator meetups in various cities across the globe, and we'd love to meet you there! Our meetups are a great opportunity to network with industry peers, exchange ideas and best practices,

    • Zoho Creator - 2023 Release Projection 2

      Hello everyone! Time truly flies when you're having an incredible journey, and today we mark the completion of an eventful and action-packed six months. It feels like just yesterday when we embarked on this adventure together with the launch of our new

    • Upcoming Updates - August 2022

      Hi all, Greetings from the Zoho Creator team! Today we've got news for you on some exciting updates. And rest assured— there’s more to come! In this post, we'll be going over the upcoming features and improvements for this month as mentioned below. A

    • Recent Topics

    • Cannot see Application from Lookup field

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

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

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

    • Zoho CRM Meetings Module Issues

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

    • Zoho Books integration sync from Zoho CRM does not work

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

    • P & L Sub-categorized accounts

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

    • Report showing Bill Details with Project and Sales Invoice Number

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

    • Advanced Payment for Inventory Items with serial numbers

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

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

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

    • Issues Logging into ZOHO

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

    • Google Fonts Integration in Pagesense Popup Editor

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

    • Add Popup Rejection Metrics to Reports

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

    • Ability to Reset / Reinitialize Popup Cookies

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

    • Control Popup Cookie Expiration Duration

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

    • Clone / Export Popup Design Across PageSense Projects

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

    • Are there settings for hyperlinks?

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

    • Automatically include all ticket attachments in the ticket resolution email

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

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

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

    • Books & Desk. Client mapping

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

    • 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.

    • What's new in Zoho Sheet: Simplify data entry and collaboration

      Hello, Zoho Sheet community! Last year, our team was focused on research and development so we could deliver updates that enhance your spreadsheet experience. This year, we’re excited to deliver those enhancements—but we'll be rolling them out incrementally

    • Feature Request - Allow Customers To Pick Meeting Duration

      Hi Bookings Team, It would be great if there was an option to allow customers to pick a duration based on a max and minimum amount of time defined by me and in increments defined by me. For example, I have some slots which are available for customers

    • 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

    • 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.

    • 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,

    • 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

    • project name field issue- n8n

      Hey guys, I have a question. I want to create a new product using the workflow. The problem is with the product name field; I don't know how to fill it in. The workflow starts with retrieving information from the leads table, retrieving links to scrape

    • 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

    • ZOHO add-in issue

      I cannot connect ZOHO from my Outlook. I am getting this error.

    • 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

    • 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:

    • Next Page