Kaizen #122 - Data Synchronization using Bulk Read and Notification APIs

Kaizen #122 - Data Synchronization using Bulk Read and Notification APIs

Hello everyone!
Welcome back to yet another insightful post in our Kaizen series.

Consider that your organization is involved in selling laptops. Your sales team uses Zoho CRM for their daily activities, managing Leads, Deals, and inventory modules, whereas your Accounts team relies on a legacy application. It is important to maintain data synchronization from Zoho CRM to the legacy system to ensure that the Accounts team always works with the latest information.
To ensure that this synchronization happens in near real-time, the legacy application uses Zoho CRM's Bulk Read API and Notification API.

In this article, we'll discuss how one-way data sync will be achieved for the "Leads" module.

Bulk Read API 

This asynchronous API facilitates the export of up to 200,000 records from a module in a single job. If there are more than 200,000 records, additional API calls are required to fetch all the records.

Notification API

This API allows you to subscribe to events such as creating, updating, and deleting a record in a module through a webhook URL. Each of these actions triggers a corresponding HTTP request to your webhook.

Flow Diagram

The above diagram represents the initial sync on how the legacy application syncs data from Zoho CRM.

Step 1: Sync Start

This is the starting point of the code for the data sync from Zoho CRM to the legacy application and keeping the data updated in near real-time.

Step 2: Subscribe to the channel via Notification API

First, subscribe to events (create, update, and delete) occurring in the Leads module through a channel created via the Notification API, and then trigger the Bulk Read API (Step 3) to synchronize the entire data in Zoho CRM.

Reason:

During the asynchronous execution of the Bulk Read API job, all records from the specific module are saved to a CSV file. Let's consider a scenario where a record that has already undergone processing by the Bulk Read API is updated through the web UI or any other source. This means that the data in the Bulk Read CSV may become outdated by the time the job concludes.

To address this issue, you can leverage the Notification API. You subscribe to a channel, actively monitoring any actions performed on records in that module. When an action occurs, you will receive a notification through the configured URL. Subsequently, upon receiving this notification, you can store the updated data in the legacy database, including the modified time. This ensures that only the most recent data is stored in the database.

Sample Request URL: {{api-domain}}/crm/v6/actions/watch
Request Method: POST

Sample Input
{
    "watch": [
        {
            "channel_id": "10000",
            "events": [
                "Leads.create",
                "Leads.edit",
                "Leads.delete"
            ],
            "channel_expiry": "2024-01-21T00:13:59-08:00",
            "token": "leads.all.notif",
        }
    ]
}

Sample Response
{
    "watch": [
        {
            "code": "SUCCESS",
            "details": {
                "events": [
                    {
                        "channel_expiry": "2024-01-21T00:13:59-08:00",
                        "resource_uri": "https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v6/Leads",
                        "resource_id": "5725767000000002175",
                        "resource_name": "Leads",
                        "channel_id": "10000"
                    }
                ]
            },
            "message": "Successfully subscribed for actions-watch of the given module",
            "status": "success"
        }
    ]
}

The response confirms a successful subscription for actions-watch on the "Leads" module. For more information about the Notification API, refer to this Kaizen post on the Notification API.

Step 2.1: On each notification, update that record in DB along with the modified time

If a record gets updated or a new record is created, or a record is deleted in the Leads module, you are notified about the change in data via the subscribed notification channel and stored in the legacy database along with the modified time.

Sample JSON Notification Response 

Note: The primary purpose of subscribing to the channel via notification is not to miss any data that has been modified or created during the data backup.

Step 3: Bulk Read Initialize

Initiate the data backup by using the Bulk Read API after subscribing to the channel via Notification API.  As the API is an asynchronous one, a bulk read job is scheduled. After the job is completed on the Zoho CRM end, a notification will be sent via the callback URL. Also, the application can periodically check the job status using the Get the Status of the Bulk Read Job API. 
Note: For the Bulk Read API, the records will be sorted based on the id field in ascending order.

Sample Request for Initial Bulk Read

Request URL:  {{api-domain}}/crm/bulk/v6/read
Request Method:  POST

Sample Input
{
    "callback": {
        "url": "https://www.xyz.com/callback",
        "method": "post"
    },
    "query": {
        "module": {
            "api_name": "Leads",
            "page" : 1
        }
    }
}

Sample Response
{
    "data": [
        {
            "status": "success",
            "code": "ADDED_SUCCESSFULLY",
            "message": "Added successfully",
            "details": {
                "id": "5725767000002002008", //job_id
                "operation": "read",
                "state": "ADDED",
                "created_by": {
                    "id": "5725767000000411001",
                    "name": "Patricia Boyle"
                },
                "created_time": "2024-01-20T04:01:48-08:00"
            }
        }
    ],
    "info": {}
}
For more details and examples, refer to the Create Bulk Read Job API help document. 

Get the Status of Scheduled Bulk Read Job

Check the status of the scheduled bulk read job using the job_id you received.
Request URL: {{api-domain}}/crm/bulk/v6/read/{job_id}
Request Method: GET

Sample Response
{
    "data": [
        {
            "id": "5725767000002025007",
            "operation": "read",
            "state": "COMPLETED",
            "result": {
                "page": 1,
                "per_page": 200000,
                "count": 142,
                "download_url": "/crm/bulk/v6/read/5725767000002025007/result",
                "more_records": false
            },
            "query": {
                "module": {
                    "id": "5725767000000002175",
                    "api_name": "Leads"
                },
                "page": 1
            },
            "created_by": {
                "id": "5725767000000411001",
                "name": "Patricia Boyle"
            },
            "created_time": "2024-01-24T21:35:11-08:00",
            "file_type": "csv"
        }
    ]
}

The above response contains the status of the scheduled job as either ADDED, IN PROGRESS, or COMPLETED.
When the job is complete, the response contains the result JSON object with the keys page, count, more_records, and download_url. The download_url in the callback response from which you can download the zip file containing the CSV file.

Step 4: Sync the Bulk Read data with the legacy DB, if it has a more recent modified time

Once the bulk-read data CSV is available, the data will be updated in the database. If any record's modified time in the CSV file is less than the modified time already present in the database, then it's an outdated record and need not be updated in the legacy's database, as it has already been handled via the Notification API's subscribed channel.

If the CSV contains exactly 200,000 records, there is a possibility of having more records. In the response of the Status of the Bulk Read Job API, if the more_records key is true, it indicates additional records to be exported. To retrieve them, simply update the value of the page key in the POST request and schedule another bulk read job to fetch the next set of records. By default, you can fetch up to 200,000 records in a single API call. Repeat this process until all the records are fetched from the CRM side. For more details on how to download, refer to this Kaizen post about the Bulk Read API.

Channel Resubscription

The channel subscription will remain active for a maximum of one day. After this period, it needs to be re-subscribed using the Enable Notification API to continue receiving notifications for create/update/delete actions in the Leads module. It is recommended to perform the re-subscription every 23 hours and 55 minutes, just short of 24 hours. Note that if the expiry time is not specified during the subscription, it will expire within one hour.

Troubleshooting

There are some scenarios where data synchronization may fail. 
For instance,
1. Unreachable Webhook URL: If the webhook URL is down, Zoho CRM cannot notify data updates through it.
2. Notification Expiry : If the notification expires before resubscribing to the channel, there is a risk of losing newly registered leads in between.
3. The code logic in the Webhook URL may break due to unforeseen reasons.
To handle such scenarios, store the last successful data sync time. Use this stored time as the modified time criteria in the bulk-read API to fetch any missed data and update the database.

We trust that this post meets your needs and is helpful. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section or reach out to us at support@zohocrm.com
Stay tuned for more insights in our upcoming Kaizen posts!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Previous Kaizen Post : Kaizen #121 - Customize List Views using Client Script
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Related Links





    • 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

    • How to report 'Response violation' OR 'Resolution violation'

      Hi, I want to report on SLA Violation Type. I grouped my tickets on this column. It seems I only get 'Response and Resolution Violation' or 'Not Violated'. The former seems to be given to a ticket if only the Response Time was violated. I would expect

    • [Webinar] Automate sales and presales workflows with Writer

      Sales involves sharing a wide range of documents with customers across the presales, sales, and post-sales stages: NDAs, quotes, invoices, sales orders, and delivery paperwork. Generating and managing these documents manually slows down the overall sales

    • Power of Automation :: Quick way to associate your Projects with Zoho CRM

      A custom function is a software code that can be used to automate a process and this allows you to automate a notification, call a webhook, or perform logic immediately after a workflow rule is triggered. This feature helps to automate complex tasks and

    • Date triggering Workflow rule

      I have a function triggered by a workflow rule. The function takes a date and creates a task for that date and fills in a field with the name of the day for that date. It also updates the status field of the record. The workflow rule is set to run whenever

    • Restricting contact creation

      Hi all! I am looking to use Zoho Desk in a part of the business that takes end user enquiries. These are generally single interactions, and not linked to an account name. As Desk is Account centric, has anyone designed a way to manage these incoming emails

    • Import Holiday Calendars

      HI Zoho Is there anyway of importing an online calendar like https://www.calendarlabs.com into the business hours calendars, to speed up setup of holiday calendars. Also could we also request a feature where you can specify a Holiday as hours, i.e it could be that the company is on a 1/2 day due to a holiday or when it is Eid in the UAE and they are only allowed to work restricted hours so we need the calendar to be flexible to allow for this. Regards Jamie

    • Filtering Tickets based on Email headers

      We're starting to get a lot more junk coming into our Zoho Desk, which is then triggering unnecessary email alerts to agents. Once thing we could do to cut this junk in half, is to filter tickets based on email headers. Any email containing the `List-Unsubscribe`

    • Error 550 5.4.1

      I’ve tried sending an email to someone but keep receiving this back. Any help would be greatly appreciated 

    • Billing Management: #2 Fair way of Billing- Prorated Billing

      Hello, From speaking about the traditional ways of billing in the previous post, we are moving into the deep sea of billing. We are now in a zone to break out the most complex yet, I would call it the fairest way of billing, the Prorated Billing. Prorated

    • Has Anyone successfully integrated Zoho and Sage Intact?

      Hey all, We’re evaluating Zoho One + Sage Intacct and I’m trying to connect with anyone who has actually implemented the two together.Specifically, I’d love to know: -- Which functions you kept in Zoho vs. Intacct (e.g., Product Catalog, AR/AP, invoicing,

    • How can I filter a field integration?

      Hi,  I have a field integration from CRM "Products" in a form, and I have three product Categories in CRM. I only need to see Products of a category. Thanks for you answers.

    • Adding image in HTML report page

      Hi, I want to know two things: 1. Can anyone advise how to add an image in HTML report. The tagged used is <img> but what path do I mention for the image to be added in the HTML report. 2. Also, I want to know if I am creating an application for the market

    • How to change view of HTML report based on device but always print in A4

      Hello everyone, I am aware that HTML report view can be configured to adjust according to the screen size like Laptop, Tablet and mobile using media queries. But my concern is no matter on which device the reports is opened when printed should always

    • Age Calculation

      I've attempted to calculate the age of someone based on their birthday input by using the formula field. It works but I don't want all those decimals on there. I then tried to use "set variable" after birthday input but I get a field type mismatch, long vs. floating. Any ideas would be wonderful.

    • Search on Custom Field

      We're working on an integration with the Zoho FSM API and are trying to retrieve companies based on a custom field we added to the Companies module. However, we can't find a way to filter or query records using custom fields through the API. We have a

    • Sendmail function / custom action?

      I've setup a function hoping to email various business departments the details of a record once all work in that record is complete so gone about setting up a custom action in such way that each record line on the report has a button to click. Question is how do I actually include data from that record in the email that is sent when the button is clicked? I had thought that since this were being sent per record the email would include the data which had been entered

    • API to post drafts for social media

      I we want to post draft posts to our zoho social account and then approve and schedule them within Zoho social. is this possible with for example: https://apis.zoho.com/social/v2/post TIA Jon

    • Canvas View in Zoho Recruit

      Is it possible or would it be possible to have the new 'Canvas View' in Zoho Recruit?

    • What impactful sales coaching techniques have you used to boost your team's performance?

      I'm curious about the real-world impact of sales coaching on team performance. What specific techniques or strategies have you found most effective in driving consistent improvement and growth in your sales team? Any success stories or lessons learned

    • Adding Taxes to paid consultations in Zoho Bookings

      I created a 'paid' consultation under Zoho Booking and integrated it with payment gateways for online/instant payment before a booking is done. How can I add 'taxes' to the price of consultation? I can add taxes to other Zoho apps (liks Books, Checkout,

    • Zoho Finance Suite - Customer Custom Tabs - Dynamic Link

      Hi Finance Suite team, When creating a Custom Tab for a Client Portal, there is no option to add dynamic parameters. This would be very helpful for adding Zoho Analytics dashboards which can be dynamically filtered through the URL to only show information

    • Possible to bold or indent text in the description field?

      As part of one item, I often have a detailed description that would be much easier to read if there was the ability to have a bulleted list or bold text and the like. Is this possible? My last invoicing software allowed markup in the field so, for example, an asterisk meant a bullet. I haven't been able to find any documentation related to this.  Any information would be appreciated. Thank you.

    • How can I setup Zoho MCP with Chat GPT

      I can set up custom connections with Chat GPT but I cat an error when I try to set it up. The error is: "This MCP server can't be used by ChatGPT to search information because it doesn't implement our specification: search action not found" Thoughts?

    • Formatting of Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Reports

      The default format of the Balance Sheet and P&L Reports are based on the Account Types and then the individual accounts within the Chart of Accounts. These are then ordered alphabetically under these sub-headings and one is unable to re-order these or

    • UK MTD reports concerning turnover and cerash accounting

      Hi I am a sole trader, and I have just started with Zoho Books in order to comply with the new HMRC requirements. I use 'cash basis' - which I understand to mean that income is when the cash comes in (not the invoice date) and expenses are when they are

    • Retainer Invoice.

      Why ZOHO not have facilities to deduct partially advance payment from an invoice.

    • IMAP Server not responding.

      Trying to connect a phone via IMAP and getting "imap.zoho.com not responding." Is the server down, for maintenance or otherwise? I've tried this on two different devices and got the same error on both.

    • Share saved filters between others

      Hi, I am in charge to setup all zoho system in our company. I am preparing saved filters for everybody, but the only one can see its me. How can others see it? Thanks

    • GST Slabs Redefined: Stay Compliant Using Zoho Books!

      Hello Everyone! The Government of India is rolling out new GST rates, a major reform aimed at simplifying the current tax structure starting 22 September 2025. GST will move from four slabs (5%, 12%, 18%, 28%) to two main slabs (5% and 18%), plus a special

    • Kanban view on Zoho CRM mobile app!

      What is Kanban? The name doesn't sound English, right? Yes, Kanban is a Japanese word which means 'Card you can see'. As per the meaning, Kanban in CRM is a type of list view in which the records will be displayed in cards and categorized under the given

    • Presenting ABM for Zoho CRM: Expand and retain your customers with precision

      Picture this scenario: You're a growing SaaS company ready to launch a powerful business suite, and are looking to gain traction and momentum. But as a business with a tight budget, you know acquiring new customers is slow, expensive, and often delivers

    • No practical examples of how survey data is analyzed

      There are no examples of analysis with analytics of zoho survey data. Only survey meta data is analyzed, such as number of completes, not actual analysis of responses, such as the % in each gender, cross-tabulations of survey responses. One strange characteristic

    • Zoho Creator as LMS and Membership Solution

      My client is interested in using Zoho One apps to deploy their membership academy offer. Zoho Creator was an option that came up in my research: Here are the components of the program/offer: 1. Membership portal - individual login credentials for each

    • Adding Chargebee as a Data Connector

      Is it possible to get Chargebee added as a Zoho Analytics data connector?

    • Webform & spam

      Hi, We set up 2 webform on our website, fowarding the content to Zoho CRM. Since it has been opened up, we are getting lot of spam message (for now about 20 a day). To lower the  amount of false new leads we added the captcha field and new enquieries are send to the Approval Leads list. However we still get some spam. Is there any "anti spam" mechanism built in Zoho CRM, or how is the best way to avoid these kind of spam ? Thanks

    • Dropbox to Workdrive

      Namaste, Trust you all are doing well. Wanted to check how this can be done with Zoho flow. I typically receive dropbox links from my clients. Is there a way where I can provide the link to Zoho flow and it downloads the files from dropbox link to a work

    • Deals by Stages Funnel not showing in correct order

      Using the Stage-Probability Mapping for the Deals module we have created a steps our deals will pass through, RFQ, Closed/Lost, Declined/No-Go, Pricing, Submitted, Negotiations, Won. However when I view the Deal By Stages Funnel it does not show in the

    • Turning off the new UI

      Tried the new 'enhanced' UI and actively dislike it. Anyone know how to revert back?

    • Confirmation prompt before a custom button action is triggered

      Have you ever created a custom button and just hoped that you/your users are prompted first to confirm the action? Well, Zoho knows this concept. For example, in blueprint, whenever we want to advance to the next state by clicking the transition, it is

    • How to create auto populate field based on custom module in Zoho CRM?

      Hello, i'm still new to Zoho CRM and work as administrator in my company. Currently, I'm configuring layout for Quotes Module. So, the idea is, I've created a read-only field in Quotes called "Spec". I want this field automatically filled with Specification

    • Next Page