Kaizen #130 - Zoho CRM Scala SDK (V6) - Configuration and Initialization

Kaizen #130 - Zoho CRM Scala SDK (V6) - Configuration and Initialization

Hello and welcome to another Kaizen week!

In this week's post, we'll show you how to get started with Zoho CRM's Scala SDK, and walk you through the configuration and initialization process. Specifically, we will  discuss how to use the Scala SDK to make API calls authenticated via self-client. Please note that this article holds true for Scala SDK supporting version 6 of Zoho CRM APIs.

Software Development Kits (SDKs) are sets of tools and libraries designed to simplify the development process, and the integration between applications and specific platforms or services. They provide pre-built functionalities and abstract complex tasks, facilitating easier and faster development process. Zoho CRM's Scala SDKs act as a wrapper  for the REST APIs, thus making it easier to use the services of Zoho CRM.

Simplified Authentication using Scala SDK

Authentication with Zoho CRM APIs is facilitated by the OAuth 2.0 protocol, ensuring secure access to its resources. The process begins with the generation of a grant token for your organization in the Zoho Developer Console, where you specify the required scopes. Subsequently, using this grant token, you can generate both the access token, used for API call authentication, and the refresh token, employed for refreshing the access tokens after their one-hour expiry period. You must persist these tokens, along with their expiry times, in your server's data store for seamless API access. 

However, with the Scala SDK, this authentication process is significantly simplified. After generating the grant token and initialization, the SDK takes care of the rest. The SDK handles token generation, persistence, and refreshing the access token automatically, ensuring access to the resources without manual intervention.

Using the Zoho CRM Scala SDK

Before diving into the usage of Scala SDKs, ensure that the following prerequisites are met:
  • Ensure that the client app has Java version 11 or above.
  • Ensure that the client app has Scala version 2.13.5 or above.
  • Have an IDE such as IntelliJ installed.
  • An active Zoho CRM account.

1. Register your application with Zoho CRM

When you register a client with Zoho CRM, you establish a connection between your application and Zoho CRM, enabling your application to securely access and interact with Zoho CRM APIs and resources after authentication. The registration process involves providing essential details such as the client type, homepage URL, and authorized redirect URIs, depending on the type of client you choose.

To register your client:
  1. Go to the Zoho Developer Console
  2. Click on Get Started or +ADD CLIENT
  3. Choose the Client Type as Self-Client or Server based Applications depending on your application. Read our Kaizen post on the different client types to understand better. For this article, we will proceed with Self-client as we aim to develop a Scala application for our own use.
  4. Fill in the necessary details and click CREATE to register your client successfully. This will provide you with a Client ID and Client Secret.

2. Create a Scala project in your preferred IDE

If you already have your project set up, you may skip this step. However, if you are starting out, the next crucial step is to create a Scala Project in your preferred IDE. For the purpose of this guide, we will be using IntelliJ IDEA as the IDE of choice. 

3. Include the Zoho CRM Scala SDK in your project

To include the Zoho CRM Scala SDK in your project, you can follow different methods as outlined here.  However, for the purpose of this guide, we will demonstrate how to include the SDK using the build.sbt file.

Follow these steps to include the Zoho CRM Scala SDK in your project using the build.sbt file:
  1. Open your project in IntelliJ IDEA or your preferred IDE.
  2. Locate the build.sbt file in your project directory.
  3. Add the Zoho CRM Scala SDK dependency to your build.sbt file. To add the latest version (supporting version 6 of Zoho CRM APIs), include this line in the file  and Save: libraryDependencies ++= Seq( "com.zoho.crm" % "zohocrmsdk-6-0" % "2.0.0")
  4. Sync the changes and reload the files to ensure that the SDK has been added to the project.
Please note that when you install the Zoho CRM SDK, there are many dependencies which will also be installed. These dependencies are necessary for the proper functioning of the SDK and will be automatically managed by your build tool (such as sbt) during the installation process.


4. Obtain the grant token to authenticate your client

To make API calls, you need to authenticate your client by generating a grant token with the required scopes. For this guide, we will be using the self-client created in the first step. 
Log in to the Zoho Developer Console, and generate the grant token with the required scopes. Please note that this grant token has a short life span, and that it is used to generate the access and refresh tokens. Refer to our Kaizen on OAuth2.0 for more details.


5. Configuration and Initialization of the SDK

The configuration step in initializing the SDK involves setting up various objects to define how the SDK operates. This includes specifying the domain for API calls, token persistence, error logging, resource information storage, and more.

Before going into the specifics of various configurations, let us first discuss Token Persistence. Token Persistence refers to the mechanism through which access tokens and refresh tokens obtained during authentication are stored and managed by the SDK.  By storing tokens securely, the SDK can automatically manage token expiration and renewal, eliminating the need for manual token handling by the developer.For details on the different persistence methods supported by our SDKs, please refer to the last section of this post. In this guide, we will be using File Persistence as the method for Token Persistence. However, please note that users must choose the method that best suits their requirements and preferences.

Here is a sample code to initialize the SDK. Make sure to replace the client ID, client secret, grantToken, file paths, and other configurations with your specific values. 
  1. import com.zoho.api.authenticator.OAuthToken
  2. import com.zoho.crm.api.dc.USDataCenter
  3. import com.zoho.crm.api.exception.SDKException
  4. import com.zoho.crm.api.{HeaderMap, Initializer, SDKConfig}
  5. import com.zoho.api.logger.Logger
  6. import com.zoho.api.authenticator.store.FileStore

  8. object BulkWrite {
  9.   @throws[SDKException]
  10.   def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
  11.     val environment = USDataCenter.PRODUCTION
  12.     val token = new OAuthToken.Builder().clientID("1000.xxx").clientSecret("xxx").grantToken( "1000.xxx").findUser(false).build()
  13.     //Object containing the absolute file path to store tokens
  14.     var tokenstore = new FileStore("/Documents/SDK-Projects/Scala-SDK/ScalaSample/sdk_tokens_new.txt")
  15.     var logger = new Logger.Builder()
  16.       .level(Logger.Levels.ALL)
  17.       .filePath("/Documents/SDK-Projects/Scala-SDK/ScalaSample/scala_sdk_log.log")
  18.       .build
  19.     var sdkConfig = new SDKConfig.Builder().pickListValidation(false).autoRefreshFields(false).connectionTimeout(1000).requestTimeout(1000).socketTimeout(1000).build
  20.     new Initializer.Builder().environment(environment).token(token).store(tokenstore).logger(logger).SDKConfig(sdkConfig).initialize()
  21.   }
  22. }
  23. class BulkWrite {}

During the initialization step, the following configuration details have to be defined to configure the  behavior and functionality of the SDK. While two of them are mandatory, the others are optional.
  1. environment (mandatory): It determines the API environment, which dictates the domain and URL for making API calls. The format follows the Domain.Environment pattern.
    eg : val env = USDataCenter.PRODUCTION
  2. token (mandatory) : Contains the user token details. Create an instance of OAuthToken with the details that you get after registering your Zoho client. Depending on the available tokens, you can select one of the following flows:
    1. Grant Token Flow: Involves storing and persisting the grant token. This flow is used when you have a grant token available. The SDK will generate and persist the access and refresh tokens, and also refresh the access token upon expiry.
    2. Refresh Token Flow: Involves storing and persisting the refresh token. This flow is used when you have a refresh token available. The SDK will generate and persist the access and refresh tokens, and also refresh the access token upon expiry.
    3. Access Token Flow: In this flow, the access token is directly utilized for API calls without token persistence. The SDK will persist the access token, but upon expiry it won't be refreshed, and an INVALID_TOKEN error will be thrown once the access token has expired.
    4. Id FLow : You can use the id from the persisted token file/DB to make API calls. The id is a unique system generated value for each token details entry in the file/DB. Please note that you can use this method only after the SDK has already been initialized.
  3. logger (optional) : You can customize the logging behavior by setting the desired log level, which can be one of the following: FATAL, ERROR, WARNING, INFO, DEBUG, TRACE, ALL, or OFF. Additionally, you can configure the file path and file name for the log file.
  4. store (optional) : Allows you to configure token persistence for your application. If this is skipped, the SDK will create the "sdk_tokens.txt" file in the current working directory by default to persist the tokens. 

    Database Persistence
    File Persistence
    Custom Persistence
    var tokenstore = new DBStore.Builder()
      .host("hostName")
      .databaseName("databaseName")
      .tableName("tableName")
      .userName("userName")
      .password("password")
      .portNumber("portNumber")
      .build
    var tokenstore = new FileStore("/Users/user_name/Documents/scala_sdk_token.txt")
    var tokenStore = new CustomStore()

  5. SDKConfig (optional) : This method takes care of additional SDK configurations.

    Configuration Key
    Description
    autoRefreshFields
    Default Value : False
    A boolean configuration field to enable or disable automatic refreshing of module fields in the background. If set to true, fields are refreshed every hour, and if set to false, fields must be manually refreshed or deleted.
    pickListValidation
    Default Value : True
    This field enables or disables pick list validation. If enabled, user input for pick list fields is validated, and if the value does not exist in the pick list, the SDK throws an error. If disabled, the input is not validated and the API call is made.
    enableSSLVerification
    Default Value : True
    A boolean field to enable or disable curl certificate verification. If set to true, the SDK verifies the authenticity of certificate. If set to false, the SDK skips the verification.
    connectionTimeout
    Default Value : 0
    The maximum time (in seconds) to wait while trying to connect. Use 0 to wait indefinitely.
    timeout
    Default Value : 0
    The maximum time (in seconds) to allow cURL functions to execute. Use 0 to wait indefinitely.

  6. requestProxy (optional) : Configure this only if you're using a proxy server to make the API calls. To configure, create an instance of RequestProxy containing the proxy properties of the user.

    var requestProxy = new RequestProxy.Builder()
      .host("proxyHost")
      .port(80)
      .user("proxyUser")
      .password("password")
      .userDomain("userDomain")
      .build()

  7. resourcePath (optional) : To configure the absolute directory path to store user-specific files containing module fields information. If this object is skipped, the files will be stored in the project directory itself.
Once the initialization is successful, you can verify that the access and refresh tokens are generated and persisted. You can do this by checking the tokens file or the database, depending on the token persistence method you configured during initialization.


Token Persistence

There are three token persistence methods supported by our SDKs. 
  1. Token Persistence using a Database : In Database persistence, tokens are stored and retrieved from a database (e.g., MySQL). In this case, you should create a table in your database with the required columns. The custom database name and table name can be set in DBStore instance, when you initialise the SDK.
    For instance, to persist your tokens in a table named token in database named zoho in your mySQL DB, use this:

    CREATE DATABASE zoho; // use this to create database named zoho
    // use this to create a table named token, with the following necessary columns
    CREATE TABLE token ( 
      id varchar(10) NOT NULL,
      user_name varchar(255) NOT NULL,
      client_id varchar(255),
      client_secret varchar(255),
      refresh_token varchar(255),
      access_token varchar(255),
      grant_token varchar(255),
      expiry_time varchar(20),
      redirect_url varchar(255),
      api_domain varchar(255),
      primary key (id)
    );

  2. File Persistence : This method allows storing and retrieving the authentication tokens from the file in the file path that you configure. The file will contain the id, user_name, client_id, client_secret, refresh_token, access_token, grant_token, expiry_time, redirect_url, and api_domain.
  3. Custom Persistence : This is a method where users can create their own method of storing and retrieving authentication tokens. To use this method, users need to implement the TokenStore interface and override its methods according to their own logic. For more details, please refer here.
We hope that you found this useful. In next week's Kaizen post, we will discuss about Bulk Write operations using the Scala SDK for Zoho CRM, and on how to import both parent and child records in a single operation.

If you have any queries, let us know the comments below, or send an email to support@zohocrm.com. We would love to hear from you. 


Cheers!
Anu Abraham



Recommended Reads:





    • 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

    • Tables improvement ideas / features

      Heya, I've been using Zoho Tables for a few months now and wanted to post some features that I think will be greatly beneficial for the tool: 1. Ability to delete a record in automation or move a record in automation. - Usecase: I move a record from one

    • Deluge - Can't get phone number SalesIQ

      Hey folks, I’m building a custom plug for SalesIQ that’s supposed to register leads into Zoho CRM. The SalesIQ chat is being implemented on WhatsApp, and in my plug I’m using this line: mobile_clean = session.get("phone").get("value"); From what I understand,

    • Zoho Desk - Community

      As a regular user of Zoho Cares Community I would really love to see the publish date of articles. For example, when I look at Announcements, it would be very beneficial to see which ones were posted recently, over those which have just and a recent comment.

    • access to quartz for my customers

      Hi how can I have access to the application quartz you use for us to send you screen rocording, this feature would be immensely useful for our customers support https://quartz.zoho.com/

    • Issue with Inline Images in Email Reply via Zoho Desk API

      Hi, I am attempting to send inline images in an email reply using the Zoho Desk API, but the images are not being displayed inline for the recipient. I have followed this documentation: https://desk.zoho.com/DeskAPIDocument#Uploads https://desk.zoho.com/DeskAPIDocument#Threads#Threads_SendEmailReply

    • How to search a value stored in a subform?

      Hello, We store serial numbers in subforms but now we would like to be able to search the values to be able to easily find the record with the serial number. I saw that it's not possible to search such values through global search but is it possible to do it an other way? Thank you,

    • Field Dependency Not Working on Detail Page in Zoho Desk

      Hi Support Team, I’ve created field dependencies between two fields in Zoho Desk, and they are working correctly on the Create and Edit layouts. However, on the Detail page, the fields are not displaying according to the dependencies I’ve set — they appear

    • How do the keyword critera work?

      Hi, I'm working on automated assignment of tickets based on keywords. How does this feature work? Where does this criteria look for keywords - email address, subject, email body? Can you please clarify this as I want to avoid overlapping with criteria

    • Error: Unsupported content type: text/html;charset=UTF-8 after tryeing to get the token for n8n automation

      I am working on ZOHO Desk automation and need to get the ZOHO auth token for n8n I have created the app in ZOHO Desk API, got client id and client secret. Added all data required to get a token in n8n. After I sign in with my ZOHO credentials in ZOHO

    • Improving Collaboration Features in Zoho Portal

      Hello Zoho Community, I’ve recently started exploring Zoho services and I’m really impressed with the wide range of features. However, I feel there is still room for improvement in the collaboration area. For example, it would be really helpful if we

    • Automated Shopify Emails Not Being Delivered

      I have an ecommerce store with Shopify. I recently set up my email to be served through Zoho. Since doing this, customers are not receiving some of our automated emails from Shopify itself. Our initial email that confirms their purchase goes through but our Shipping Notification that is automatically sent out upon fulfillment is not going through. Sometimes we get a notice that it's been classified as spam, sometimes nothing. I can send/receive email via Outlook on my desktop and I can send/receive

    • I can't log in to my account on Thunderbird

      I've just had to rebuild my PC (calamitous mess from Microsoft with Win10/Win 11 'upgrade' - they confirmed I had to start with a new build). I have used Zoho mail for years via Mozilla Thunderbird, but now I've had to download the latest version of TBird,

    • Send a campaign to one recipient.

      Very often I speak to a customer and they say they didn't see my email (maybe it went in Junk, maybe they deleted it). Anyway, I just want to go into the Campaign and send it to one person. You already have a feature very close to this - when sending a Test. While developing a campaign, I can send tests to anyone. Why can't we have this AFTER  the campaign has been sent? I know, there's a caveat, and that's in the use of merge tags. Most of the time I only use FNAME, but maybe you could check if

    • Try FSM again for our business

      We already have our customers individual equipment in CRM with serial numbers, install dates, warranty length and importantly next service which is generally 2 years. a month before the service date is due we get get a report and send out service reminders.

    • Use Zoho Books to bill for work done in Zoho Desk??

      I'm trying to see if something is possible (and if yes, how). We use Zoho One to manage our business. We have a lot of clients that will put in a ticket (via portal) to have work done. Out techs will pick up the ticket, do the work, and then log the time

    • Get Cliq Meetings in my O365 calendar

      Hi, we are currently evaluating to replace the Teams Messaging and Meetings with Cliq. We currently still have all our email and calendars in O365. What i want to achieve is, to create a (ZOHO) meeting from Cliq and have this meeting added to my Outlook/O365

    • Issue with Zoho Help Portal – Tickets Missing or Not Answered

      Hi, How are you? I think there may be an issue with the Zoho Help Portal. I opened a few tickets directly in the help portal a some time ago but never received any response I also opened ticket 148356451 by email. I did receive a reply to it, but the

    • DUNS & Bradstreet and Credit risk monitoring integration with Zoho books

      Small businesses not being paid by bigger clients and clients of all sizes is a huge problem. It will be nice if Zoho develops integration with DUNS & Bradstreet(D&B) and Credit risk monitoring integration with Zoho books. That have small businesses can

    • Zoho Forms - Form Rules based on attachment fields

      Many businesses use forms to collect documents and images from customers. In many cases, you may want to trigger a notification or other automation based on whether or not an attachment was added. I've noticed that attachment fields do not appear in Rules

    • Add multiple users to a task

      When I´m assigning a task it is almost always related to more than one person. Practical situation: When a client request some improvement the related department opens the task with the situation and people related to it as the client itself, the salesman

    • Can't open draft email for editing

      Last night I started composing an email and I let it save in drafts. This morning I want to continue working on the email. It is in my Drafts folder but it will not open. The only option there is to delete it. This is not the first time it has happened. On previous occasions I have just deleted the draft and started afresh, but I really want this one back. Windows 10 with Pale Moon 28.10.0 browser.

    • Open filtered deals from campaign

      Do you think a feature like this would be feasible? Say you are seeing campaign "XYZ" in CRM. The campaign has a related list of deals. If you want to see the related deals in a deal view, you should navigate to the Deals module, open the campaign filter,

    • Change scheduling emails time

      When sending an individual email there is a great feature to schedule them to send later. I could only use the one time that is suggested. Is there a way to select another time? Regards, Glenn

    • Zoho CRM: how can I control which contacts to sync with Outlook?

      I was just playing around syncing contacts from Zoho to MS Outlook (MS365 account.) The problem is our firm has hundreds of thousands of contacts and I don't want to bury my contacts list in outlook. Any help with this is greatly appreciated.

    • How to overcome limitations in meetings

      As a company, one of our deliverables is a meeting between two other companies, where we act as facilitators. So, if we recorded this meeting  in Zoho CRM, it should be connected to 2 accounts, 2 contacts, and 1 campaign (a campaign, in our use, is the

    • Different MRP / Pricing for same product but different batches

      We often face the following situations where MRP of a particular product changes on every purchase and hence we have to charge the customer accordingly. This can't be solved by Batch tracking as of now so far as I understand Zoho. How do you manage it as of now? 

    • Add a 'Log a Call' link to three dot icon in Canvas

      Hi, There's a three dot element when creating a canvas called 'More'. I would like to modify this to add a link that says 'Log a Call' in order to quickly record the details of a cellphone call. I'd also like this to be a simple 'contact' selection and

    • Syncing Zoho Forms with Bigin - Embedding issue?

      Hello everyone, I created a Zoho Form for a page on my GoDaddy website to collect leads, which then transfers the data to Bigin. However, I'm facing an issue where it doesn't seem to work properly. I've integrated Zoho Forms with Bigin and tried embedding

    • Can not add fields to a Section

      I feel like I'm missing something obvious: I can add new Sections to my form but I can not add fields to the Sections. I've tried fields already on the form as well as dragging and dropping new fields into the Section but nothing will go into it. What

    • Record Logged in User while using CRM lookup field

      Is it possible, while using the Zoho CRM lookup field, to automatically use the user account logged into Zoho CRM in a hidden field? I was hoping to add employee accounts to my current plan. But would like a record on the Form submission of who submitted

    • Form Rules for Suburb Categories to alternate landing pages or Making a Fields Contents ALL CAPS

      I need to send differentform submissions to two to three different thank-you URLs (for Meta/Google pixels) depending on which suburb a user selects in a form. I have ~400 suburbs split into two categories (A and B, based on business value). Current challenges:

    • Collaps Notes

      There are times when long/large notes are added to a record i.e. Accounts or Deals etc. Currently, the full note is displayed in the notes related list section. It would be great if by default only 5 to 10 rows of the note are displayed when the note

    • Zoho Down

      I have a drop in my Zoho One services.

    • Runing RPA Agents on Headless Windows 11 Machines

      Has anyone tried this? Anything to be aware of regarding screen resolution?

    • Problem for EU users connecting Zoho CRM through Google Ads for Enhanced conversions

      Has anyone else experienced this problem when trying to connect Zoho CRM through Google Ads interface to setup enhanced conversions? Did you guys get it fixed somehow? The Problem: The current Google Ads integration is hardcoded to use Zoho's US authentication

    • Why am I getting event Pop-up Notification for events that have been cancelled?

      Why is Calendar Notification still popping up for events that have been cancelled or changed? Each time events are cancelled or changed, I have observed that I am still getting notifications for them. Below is a sample pop-up notification for one of the

    • Whatsapp Limitation Questions

      Good day, I would like to find out about the functionality or possibility of all the below points within the Zoho/WhatsApp integration. Will WhatsApp buttons ever be possible in the future? Will WhatsApp Re-directs to different users be possible based

    • Create a draft in reply to an email via Emails API

      Hi, I’d like to use the outgoing webhook to automatically create a draft reply to incoming mail. How can I use the Emails API to create a draft reply that is linked to an existing email thread? I couldn’t find the relevant method in the documentation.

    • India Tech Support

      Is there no phone tech support number for India? And no chat facility either?

    • Billing Management: #1 Billing a Universal Business Routine

      Hello, As the saying goes, "Do the hardest job first." We started with the complex subject of finance and revenue management, which is considered the backbone of any business. Now, let's shift our focus and take a deep dive into this Billing Management,

    • Next Page