Kaizen #108 - Integrating Third Party Application with Zoho CRM using Java SDK

Kaizen #108 - Integrating Third Party Application with Zoho CRM using Java SDK

Hello, everyone! Welcome to another Kaizen week. In this post, we will discuss how third-party applications can integrate with Zoho CRM using Java SDK 5.0.

Use case 

Zylker is a real-estate app which can integrate with any CRM vendor and uses that data for it's use-cases. Zylker uses Java for the backend server code. Now they want to integrate with Zoho CRM.  How will they do it? Those users could be in different Zoho data centers like Europe (.eu), USA(.com), India(.in), Australia(.com.au) etc. With Zoho CRM's Java SDK 5.0, which consumes Zoho CRM v5 APIs, we can to do authorization and establish this integration. Zylker will write one common code and it should be usable for any CRM orgs across all DCs. 

Java SDK Project dependency

Include the Java dependency using either Maven or Gradle. The maven dependency is as below:

<repositories>
<repository>
<id>zohocrmsdk-5-0</id>
</repository>
</repositories>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.zoho.crm</groupId>
<artifactId>zohocrmsdk-5-0</artifactId>
<version>4.0.0</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>


If you are not using Maven or Gradle, please include the Zoho CRM Java SDK JAR and dependant JARs directly into the Java build path.

Setting up the OAuth client 

Create a Server-based Application in the corresponding API console page (https://www.zohoapis.{com/in/eu/com.au}). Enable "Multi-DC" under Settings of the app. Choose "Use the same OAuth credentials for all data centers". With this, you can use the same client ID, client secret, and redirect URI to authorize any Zoho account in any data center. Please refer to our previous posts to know more about domains and environments [Part -1] and [Part - 2].

Integrating the client with your application

In Zylker's web UI, there will be an option to integrate with Zoho CRM. The integration can be initiated from a link or a button containing the authorization URL, along with the corresponding client ID, state, redirect URI, and OAuth scopes. Once the user clicks on this link/button and completes the OAuth authorization process on Zoho, they will be redirected to the specified redirect URI with HTTP parameters location, code, accounts server, and state. These parameters can be utilized within the Java code logic of the redirect URI to begin using the Zoho CRM Java SDK.
The codes used in this post are hosted here for reference. We will focus on two distinct steps as mentioned below, for Zylker integration with Zoho CRM using Java SDK.
     1.  Authorize with Zoho CRM
     2. Fetching data from Zoho CRM

1. Authorize with Zoho CRM 

The aim of this step is to connect with the user's Zoho CRM and store the token details such as refresh token, access token and expiry time in the preferred datastore like MySQL, pgSQL etc. Once the user lands on the redirect URI after the OAuth2.0 authorization, we can extract the email of the logged-in user from zylker.com cookies. We also obtain the grant token and location from the redirect_uri of the authorization request. We pass these three values to the below integrateZohoCRM() function. This function takes care of creating a token for the connected Zoho CRM account and persisting it in the preferred datastore.


public static Boolean integrateZohoCRM(String location, String grant_token, String user_email) 
{
Boolean integrationStatus = Boolean.FALSE;
try {
Environment environment = DataCenter.get(location);
OAuthToken userToken = new OAuthToken.Builder()
                .clientID(OAuthClientDetails.CLIENT_ID)
                .clientSecret(OAuthClientDetails.CLIENT_SECRET)
                .grantToken(grant_token)
                .redirectURL(OAuthClientDetails.REDIRECT_URL)
                                 .userSignature(new UserSignature(user_email)) //email of the user who is trying to integrate with Zoho CRM          
                                 .build();
new Initializer.Builder().environment(environment).token(userToken).initialize(); 
integrationStatus = Boolean.TRUE;
    } catch (SDKException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
    }
return integrationStatus;
}

Refer here for the exact code section.

OAuthToken.Builder() creates a new instance of the builder for the OAuthToken class. It allows you to conveniently set up the necessary details for creating an OAuth token for authentication purposes. On passing the client ID, client secret, grant token, redirect URL, and user signature to the OAuthToken.Builder() method, we get the userToken object. One more important thing to note is that we have set the user signature as .userSignature(new UserSignature(user_email)) . This means that we are referring to the token uniquely by the email id of the logged-in Zylker user. The same signature should be used for any further operation to be done in Zoho CRM on behalf of this user.
Now that we have the OAuthToken object, we can send it to the Initializer class (as shown below) to create the refresh/access tokens and persist it.


 new Initializer.Builder().environment(environment).token(userToken).initialize(); 


As we haven't mentioned anything about where to do the persistence, by default the token details are persisted in a file named 'sdk_tokens.txt' using File Persistence. The content of the file would look like the following:


"id","user_name","client_id","client_secret","refresh_token","access_token","grant_token","expiry_time","redirect_url","api_domain" //Do not clear this default format, or else you will need  to generate a grant token again  in order to run the program.
"1","patricia@gmail.com","1000.xxxxx","xxxxxx","1000.xxxxxx.xxxx","1000.xxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxx","1000.xxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxx","1697370902510","https://www.zoho.com","https://www.zohoapis.com"



Apart from File Persistence, tokens can be persisted using Database persistence or Custom persistence.

Note

When Zoho introduces a new DC in future, it will be enough to update the project with the latest version of Zoho CRM Java SDK 5.0 and no further code change will be required. 

2. Fetching data from ZohoCRM

Once the integration is done, we can create OAuthToken with the user's email as UserSignature and call Zoho CRM Java SDK function. This will fetch the data specific to the user. The following fetchCRMData() function is a sample to fetch data from Zoho CRM.


public static void fetchCRMData(String email) throws Exception {
    OAuthToken userToken1 = new OAuthToken.Builder()
        .userSignature(new UserSignature(email))
        .build();
    new Initializer.Builder().token(userToken1).initialize();
    RecordOperations ro = new RecordOperations();
    ParameterMap paramInstance = new ParameterMap();
    List < String > fieldNames = new ArrayList < > (Arrays.asList("Company", "Email"));

    paramInstance.add(RecordOperations.GetRecordsParam.FIELDS, String.join(",", fieldNames));

    @SuppressWarnings("rawtypes")

    APIResponse response = ro.getRecords("Leads", paramInstance, null);

    .

    .

    .

}
 

Refer here for the exact code section.


In this example, we use the SDK's RecordOperations()  for retrieving records from the Leads module. This is done in the following steps:
  •  A new instance of RecordOperations is being created and assigned to the variable ro. This object handles operations related to records in Zoho CRM.  
  • ParameterMap instance is used to specify request parameters for the API calls. We can fetch the Company and the Email fields from the Leads module by passing them as the FIELDS parameter. 
  • We use the getRecords() method to make the API request via SDK, which fetches the respective CRM data.


We hope you found this post useful and interesting.  Stay tuned for more exciting posts.

Previous Kaizen Post : #107 Field Trackers in Zoho CRM

For more topics on Kaizen, please refer to our Kaizen collection here.







    • Sticky Posts

    • Kaizen #197: Frequently Asked Questions on GraphQL APIs

      🎊 Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – We want to hear from you! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.

    • Kaizen #198: Using Client Script for Custom Validation in Blueprint

      Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – 1 More to the Big Two-Oh-Oh! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.

    • Celebrating 200 posts of Kaizen! Share your ideas for the milestone post

      Hello Developers, We launched the Kaizen series in 2019 to share helpful content to support your Zoho CRM development journey. Staying true to its spirit—Kaizen Series: Continuous Improvement for Developer Experience—we've shared everything from FAQs

    • Kaizen #193: Creating different fields in Zoho CRM through API

      🎊 Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – We want to hear from you! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.

    • Client Script | Update - Introducing Commands in Client Script!

      Have you ever wished you could trigger Client Script from contexts other than just the supported pages and events? Have you ever wanted to leverage the advantage of Client Script at your finger tip? Discover the power of Client Script - Commands! Commands

    • Recent Topics

    • Kaizen #71 - Client Script ZDKs for Detail (Canvas) Page

      Hello everyone! Welcome back to another interesting Kaizen post. In this post, we can discuss Client Script ZDKs support for Detail (Canvas) Page. What is Detail (Canvas) Page? A Detail(Canvas) Page allows you to customize the record detail page to your

    • how to use validation rules in subform

      Is it possible to use validation rules for subforms? I tried the following code: entityMap = crmAPIRequest.toMap().get("record"); sum = 0; direct_billing = entityMap.get("direct_billing_details"); response = Map(); for each i in direct_billing { if(i.get("type")

    • Add Custom Reports To Dashboard or Home Tab

      Hi there, I think it would be great to be able to add our custom reports to the Home Tab or Dashboards. Thanks! Chad

    • Rich-text fields in Zoho CRM

      Hello everyone, We're thrilled to announce an important enhancement that will significantly enhance the readability and formatting capabilities of your information: rich text options for multi-line fields. With this update, you can now enjoy a more versatile

    • Zoho Reports Duplicating Entries

      I have a custom costing tab with a table where we entre invoices. These are under a Heading (PO Subject) and notes added in the form with different line items. In the reports, I have organised the report to group per PO Subject, with the total of the

    • Validation Rule Not Working for Mandatory Field in Zoho Blueprint

      As a Zoho user, we created a validation rule for a specific field. However, we noticed that when we made the same field mandatory within a Blueprint, the validation rule we defined did not work. When we reported this issue to Zoho Support, they stated

    • Notes Issues

      Been having issues with Notes in the CRM. Yesterday it wasn't showing the notes, but it got resolved after a few minutes., Now I have been having a hard time saving notes the whole day. Notes can't be saved by the save button. it's grayed out or not grayed

    • Export from Contacts module to Products module in Zoho CRM

      Good afternoon, I would like to send a number of contact info from the Contacts module into the customized module (tickets to an event) in one operation. I have selected several contacts in the Contact module (people who I have labelled as people I want

    • Zoho Commerce

      Hi, I have zoho one and use Zoho Books. I am very interested in Zoho Commerce , especially with how all is integrated but have a question. I do not want my store to show prices for customers that are not log in. Is there a way to hide the prices if not

    • Can’t receive emailI c

      I have generated a basic for but when I submit it I don’t get a email, I’ve been in the settings and tested me email, all appears correct, can you please help me

    • Data Capture for Historical Activity (Especially One Lead Downloading Variois reports without Overwriting the info)

      Is there a better way in Zoho CRM to capture and archive a lead’s historical activity—specifically whenever they download reports—so that the data is stored without being overwritten?”

    • Client Script - Updating Field Value in Detail Page of a Lead

      Hello, I'm trying to use Client Script To enrich some data of the Lead when one of my User fill the "City" field in the detail page of the Lead. This is my Script: log (value); var response = ZDK.Apps.CRM.Functions.execute("getInfoCitta", { "nomeCitta":

    • Auto shapes in Zoho sheet.

      Does Zoho sheet supports inserting auto shapes (rectangle, circle...). I did not see any option to do so.  If its not supported currently, is there any plans on bring in this features. Any timelines ?

    • I Can't Clone Webinar that I Co-Organize

      How do i get our account admin to give me permission to clone our webinars? I am a co-organizer

    • I want to Make the due date of the project appears automatically

      hello everyone I want to know if the zoho projects app can add automatically the END DATE of the project I added the duration, start after dates of each tasks in the project template & the starting date of the project itself and the end date of it doesn't

    • Introducing Profile Summary: Faster Candidate Insights with Zia

      We’re excited to launch Profile Summary, a powerful new feature in Zoho Recruit that transforms how you review candidate profiles. What used to take minutes of resume scanning can now be assessed in seconds—thanks to Zia. A Quick Example Say you’re hiring

    • How to get the call recording external ID via desk API

      I have enabled phonbridge integration with Zoom Call. I am trying to access the call recording in Zoom by calling Zoom API. I have built a Desk workflow to trigger on a new call, to call a custom function. when calling the API, the response doesn't contain

    • Can't View Project Names in Mobile App

      I can't view project names on PO's in the app, nor can I add that as a viewable PDF field in inventory on the computer. I've attached screenshots showing that in the mobile version whether you are on the PO, editing the PO, or viewing the PO line items,

    • How do you print a refund check to customer?

      Maybe this is a dumb question, but how does anyone print a refund check to a customer? We cant find anywhere to either just print a check and pick a customer, or where to do so from a credit note.

    • Notebook

      I have purchased the monthly pro subscription of Notebook. But it does not support my XP-Pen to write something in it. So it is not useful to me. Hence I am requesting you to help me to discontinue this subscription.

    • Domain Mapping & Image Publishing Issues on Zoho Sites

      Hello, I am facing two issues with my Zoho Sites account: 1. Images not visible after publishing. 2. Domain mapping error: "Domain already exists". I am a paid customer. Please connect me with Live Chat Support or Zoho Assist so I can show my issue

    • Prevent duplicate with custom fields?

      I was wondering something about custom field/custom modules in Zoho Desk. For some reason you can make a custom field mandatory but not unique? For example, if I create a custom module to manage equipment and renewal and make a field serial number no

    • Round robin

      Hi, I'm trying to set up a round robin to automatically distribute tickets between agents in my team but only those tickets that are not otherwise distributed by other workflows or direct assignments. Is that possible and if so which criteria should I

    • "Is Zoho CRM customer" vs "Is linked with Zoho CRM"

      Recently while building a Flow, I was setting up a Decision action following a Zoho Invoice Fetch record action. There were 2 choices that I had not seen as something I could manually action in Zoho Invoice: "Is Zoho CRM customer" and "Is linked with

    • Two currencies

      More and more I am finding that internattional payments' fees are unpredictable. I would like, on my invoices that are in a foreign currency (eg. USD$ or EUR€) for there to be a GBP£ TOTAL display alongside the invoice's currency total. This would make

    • 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

    • Generate leads from instagram

      hello i have question. If connect instagram using zoho social, it is possible to get lead from instagram? example if someone send me direct message or comment on my post and then they generate to lead

    • Zoho PDF editor has a lot of issues.

      Zoho PDF editor needs a lot of work. It hangs and glitches a lot. Deletes annotations and clearings randomly.

    • Where is the desktop app for Zoho Projects???

      As a project manager, I need a desktop app for the projects I manage. Yes, there's the web app, which is AWESOME for cross browser and platform compatibility... but I need a real desktop app for Projects that allow me to enter offline information where

    • How to Automate Monthly PDF Reports with Filters in Zoho Creator

      Hi everyone, I’m trying to build an automated monthly reporting process in Zoho Creator and would appreciate suggestions or best practices from anyone who has done something similar. What I’m trying to do: I have a form called New_Customer with fields

    • Feedback: Streamlining Note Management in Zoho Notebook

      Dear Team/Support, I would like to share some feedback regarding the note management system that could help improve usability and accessibility for users like myself. Notebook 1 (screenshot attached): Currently, the system does not allow selecting and

    • showing Limit exceeded

      Good afternoon...trust you're good. I've been having issues working with but it's not responding. it's showing Limit exceeded, sorry it seems like too many people are working on the sheet right now please try again later. meanwhile no one is working on

    • Converting Sales Order to Invoice via API; Problem with decimal places tax

      We are having problems converting a Sales Order to an Invoice via API Call. The cause of the issue is, that the Tax value in a Sales Order is sometimes calculated with up to 16 decimal places (e.g. 0.8730000000000001). The max decimal places allowed in

    • Sorting columns in Zoho Projects

      Hi, In project management best practice, sorting columns (ascending, descending) is an important tool. Sorting dates to see the order of tasks starting, sorting on priority or even on planned hours is a must for an efficient project control. Currently,

    • Business Continuity - Disaster Recovery

      I know about the Zoho CRM backup .zip files, however, this doesn't include any of the infrastructure with like custom fields or custom modules. I am curious on what everyone has in place for a true backup or what your plan is if your Zoho instance were

    • Upload API

      I'm trying to use the Upload API to upload some images and attach them to comments (https://desk.zoho.com/DeskAPIDocument#Uploads#Uploads_Uploadfile) - however I can only ever get a 401 or bad request back. I'm using an OAuth token with the Desk.tickets.ALL

    • Losing description after merging tickets

      Hello, We merge tickets when they are about the same topic from the same client. It happens sometimes. We recently noticed that after the merger only the description from the master ticket is left in a thread. And the slave-ticket description is erased.

    • update linked contacts when update happens in account

      Hi, I have a custom field called Licence in the Accounts module. When someone buys a licence, I’d like to update a custom field in the related Contacts. How can I achieve this? I noticed that workflows triggered on Accounts only allow me to update fields

    • Problem Management Module

      I am looking for a Problem Management module within Zoho Desk. I saw in some training videos that this is available, and some even provided an annual price for it. I want an official confirmation on whether this is indeed available. This is not a particularly

    • Deluge sendmail in Zoho Desk schedule can't send email from a verified email address

      I am trying to add a scheduled action with ZDesk using a Deluge function that sends a weekly email to specific ticket client contacts I've already verified the email address for use in ZDesk, but sendmail won't allow it in its "from:" clause. I've attached

    • Next Page