Kaizen #169 - Serialization and Schema Management in Queries

Kaizen #169 - Serialization and Schema Management in Queries


Hello everyone!

Welcome back to another post in the Kaizen series!

In Kaizen #166, we discussed handling Variables in Queries and associating the query in Kiosk.
This week, we will discuss Serialization and Schema management in Queries.

Business Scenario

Let's consider the same use case of Delivery Hub discussed in Kaizen #166.

Here, a tele-commerce platform uses Zoho CRM to manage sales and deliveries. When a customer provides their PIN code, the salesperson must confirm with the customer for a nearby post office for package pick-ups and drop-offs in Kiosk.

For this case, we wrote a query with the Source as REST API. When a PIN code was entered, the query dynamically retrieved the list of post offices in that area and displayed it on the Contact's detail page.

Let's take it a step further and see how we can serialize the response.
When you query by entering a PIN code, the response contains all post offices in that area including the ones that are non-operational.

To display only relevant data and leverage the capabilities of the Queries feature, you can serialize the response to display only those post offices that are operational(with the value "DeliveryStatus":"Delivery") along with the names of those post offices.

We will also see how Schema varies based on serialization.

Serialization

Serialization refers to the process of transforming complex data structures into a format that is more meaningful and relevant to your business needs. In Zoho CRM Queries, serialization affects how responses are formatted and what data is included.

Serialization offers the following:
  • Response Customization: By serialization, you can manipulate the output of a query to focus on relevant fields. For example, if a query retrieves multiple post offices, serialization can filter these results to display only those marked as 'deliverable'.
  • Schema Adjustment: When you serialize the response, the schema changes. This allows you to have only relevant data in the serialized output like the required fields, especially while querying a module with multiple relationships.
  • User Experience: Serialization avoids unnecessary information clutter, giving the users only what they need, thereby improving their overall experience.

Example

Consider the example of Delivery Hub. For PIN 110042, the response contains a list of six post offices in that area.

{ Name: 'Badli (North West Delhi)' , Description: null , BranchType: 'Sub Post Office' , DeliveryStatus: 'Non-Delivery' , Circle: 'Delhi' , District: 'North West Delhi' , Division: 'Delhi North' , Region: 'Delhi' , Block: 'Delhi' , State: 'Delhi' , Country: 'India' , Pincode: '110042' }
1
:
{ Name: 'Delhi Engg. College' , Description: null , BranchType: 'Sub Post Office' , DeliveryStatus: 'Non-Delivery' , Circle: 'Delhi' , District: 'North West Delhi' , Division: 'Delhi North' , Region: 'Delhi' , Block: 'Delhi' , State: 'Delhi' , Country: 'India' , Pincode: '110042' }

{ Name: 'Pehlad Pur' , Description: null , BranchType: 'Branch Post Office' , DeliveryStatus: 'Delivery' , Circle: 'Delhi' , District: 'North West Delhi' , Division: 'Delhi North' , Region: 'Delhi' , Block: 'Delhi' , State: 'Delhi' , Country: 'India' , Pincode: '110042' }
3
:
{ Name: 'Samai Pur' , Description: null , BranchType: 'Sub Post Office' , DeliveryStatus: 'Delivery' , Circle: 'Delhi' , District: 'North West Delhi' , Division: 'Delhi North' , Region: 'Delhi' , Block: 'Delhi' , State: 'Delhi' , Country: 'India' , Pincode: '110042' }
4
:
{ Name: 'Shahbad Daulatpur' , Description: null , BranchType: 'Branch Post Office' , DeliveryStatus: 'Delivery' , Circle: 'Delhi' , District: 'North West Delhi' , Division: 'Delhi North' , Region: 'Delhi' , Block: 'Delhi' , State: 'Delhi' , Country: 'India' , Pincode: '110042' }
5
:
{ Name: 'Siraspur' , Description: null , BranchType: 'Branch Post Office' , DeliveryStatus: 'Delivery' , Circle: 'Delhi' , District: 'North West Delhi' , Division: 'Delhi North' , Region: 'Delhi' , Block: 'Delhi' , State: 'Delhi' , Country: 'India' , Pincode: '110042' }

Now, we will use serialization to display only those post offices that deliver with the value DeliveryStatus = 'Delivery' .
You can serialize the response using JavaScript. Here is the code.

const postOffices = result[0]?.PostOffice;

// Ensure `postOffices` is iterable
const postOfficesArray = Array.isArray(postOffices)
? postOffices
: (postOffices ? Object.values(postOffices) : []);

const filteredResults = [];

// Filter and manually extract `Name` and `DeliveryStatus`
for (const office of postOfficesArray) {
if (office.DeliveryStatus === "Delivery") {
filteredResults.push({ Name: office.Name, DeliveryStatus: office.DeliveryStatus });
}
}

return filteredResults;

Let's see how serialization brings a difference in the output.

Output when fetching all post offices


Serialized output displaying only the name and status of the post offices that deliver

As you can see, serialization makes the output less bloated and a lot more meaningful and relevant.

Schema Management

For every query, the schema is auto-generated. It outlines the structure of the retrieved data and helps identify the path of each field, its CRM field type, and the label.
You can modify the auto-generated schema to suit your requirements better. You can update field labels and types, which helps in presenting data in a more user-friendly way.
For example, if a query returns a field labeled "Deal Stage," you can rename it to "Current Status" for clarity when displaying results on dashboards or reports.
Let's look at the schema when fetching all post offices for a PIN code vs the schema of the serialized response.

Schema before serialization


Schema after serialization


You can see that serializing helps you achieve crisper results.
It shows the CRM field type of every field in the response and its label. You can further customize the schema by changing the field labels to suit your needs.
In the following image, the field label for DeliveryStatus is changed to Status in the serializer which is reflected in the schema.


We hope you found this post useful. Watch this space for more posts on interesting topics.

We love to hear from you! Write to us at support@zohocrm.com.
See you all next week!

Cheers!




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



    • 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

    • Reverse payment on accidentally closed invoice.

      An invoice was closed accidentally with the full payment added. However, only partial payment was paid. How can I reopen the invoice and reverse this to update it to show partial payment?

    • New integration: Track booking page appointments in Google Analytics 4

      Hello all, Greetings from the Zoho Bookings team! We’re excited to introduce our new Google Analytics 4 (GA4) integration designed to help you track booking activity, understand customer behavior, and measure marketing performance, all in one place. What

    • How to list emails in a folder, e.g. Inbox, on multiple pages when using Zoho mail webpage?

      Something as shown in the figure. There are totally 50 emails in Sent folder. If "Mail per page" equals 20, then the Sent folder is split into 3 pages. When I wander through Sent folder, I can just select a specific page to jump to. BTW, it seems that

    • Zoho Calendar soft bounce on @hotmail.com and @yahoo.com email addresses

      Hello, our Zoho calendar recently does not send the calendar invites to emails with hotmail and yahoo domains and comes back with a "soft bounce". other domains like Gmail works fine. Also sending "email" to the same emails to the above domains work well

    • ERROR CODE :512 - 5.4.4 DNS error:NXDOMAIN.

      Suddenly we cant send mail, we are getting this error for all outbound mail to multiple domains.

    • Can Zoho Flows repeat Actions more than once?

      I'm attempting to make an intentional Zoho Flow loop using the below layout. However, when "WithinLimit" condition is met, the program fails to execute the action "Get & Add Request Co..." again. Is this by design? Is Zoho Flows unable to repeat actions

    • Unveiling Cadences: Redefining CRM interactions with automated sequential follow-ups

      Last modified on 01/04/2024: Cadences is now available for all Zoho CRM users in all data centres (DCs). Note that it was previously an early access feature, available only upon request, and was also known as Cadences Studio. As of April 1, 2024, it's

    • customer data security

      We are exploring ways to enhance our within Zoho CRM. Our Goal: We want to fully integrate RingCentral with Zoho CRM to enable click-to-call functionality for our sales team. However, to comply with data privacy regulations and protect customer contact

    • Zoho Cliq not working on airplanes

      Hi, My team and I have been having this constant issue of cliq not working when connected to an airplane's wifi. Is there a reason for this? We have tried on different Airlines and it doesn't work on any of them. We need assistance here since we are constantly

    • Sync CRM inventory data with Zoho Books

      I just switched everything over to ZoHo books, but I am trying to find out why the CRM Estimates, Invoices, and Sales Orders created in ZoHo CRM are not then duplicated in ZoHo Books? I had Quickbooks before, and had to do everything twice, I thought

    • mask Customer phone number and agents cant see customer phone number

      Is there any way we can integrate Zoom Phone with Zoho CRM while ensuring that customer phone numbers remain masked? We need a solution where agents can make outbound calls but cannot see customer phone numbers. Please let us know if there is any solution

    • Email Reminders on Shared Calendars

      How do we turn off the setting that emails reminders to everyone who has accepted or declined a calendar invite? If 8 of us have been invited to the same meeting, we receive 8 notifications for every step of the process, from invitation to decision.

    • WebDAV / FTP / SFTP protocols for syncing

      I believe the Zoho for Desktop app is built using a proprietary protocol. For the growing number of people using services such as odrive to sync multiple accounts from various providers (Google, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, etc.) it would be really helpful if you implemented standard protocols such as WebDAV / FTP / SFTP so that alternative inc clients can be used.

    • What's New in Zoho Inventory | Q2 2025

      Hello Customers, The second quarter have been exciting months for Zoho Inventory! We’ve introduced impactful new features and enhancements to help you manage inventory operations with even greater precision and control. While we have many more exciting

    • How to refresh a ticket view ?

      I am doing a widget where I send a rest api call to make a new draft to the ticket I am viewing. The issue is sometimes it refresh a ticket view and I can see inserted draft right away, but sometimes I do not see it even if it is inserted correctly and

    • Ugh! - Text Box (Single Line) Not Enough - Text Box (Multi-line) Unavailable in PDF!

      I provide services, I do not sell items. In each estimate I send I provide a customized job description. A two or three sentence summary of the job to be performed. I need to be able to include this job description on each estimate I send as it's a critical

    • Merge Items

      Is there a work around for merging items? We currently have three names for one item, all have had a transaction associated so there is no deleting (just deactivating, which doesn't really help. It still appears so people are continuing to use it). I also can't assign inventory tracking to items used in past transactions, which I don't understand, this is an important feature moving forward.. It would be nice to merge into one item and be able to track inventory. Let me know if this is possible.

    • Supervisor Rules - Zoho Desk

      Hi, I have set up a Supervisor Rule in Zoho Desk to send an email alert when a ticket has been on hold for 48 hours. Is there a way to change it so that the alert only sends once and not on an hourly basis? Thank you Laura

    • ResponseCode 421, 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 136.143.188.51 temporarily deferred due to user complaints

      Had email bounce. Let me know if you can fix this. Thanks. Michael

    • Zoho Canvas - Custom templates for related lists

      Hi, I see that the example pages load always one of our related lists in a custom template, but I dont know how to work with that:  1) How can i make my own custom templates for related lists?  2) Where and how can i check out existing custom templates?

    • Automation #15: Automatically Adding Static Secondary Contacts

      Rockel is a top-tier client of Zylker traders. Marcus handles communications with Rockel and would like to add Terence, the CTO of Zylker traders to the email conversations. In this case, the emails coming from user address rockel.com should have Terence

    • New Zoho triggers Google Dangerous flag due toabnormal charcters

      Just signed up and doing my first email test. I sent it to my google email account but it got flagged as Dangerous" due abnormal characters. My DNS setup looks ok. Page snips attached Help Please Thanks, Rick DC PowerWorld

    • Is there a API to fetch tasks in a Board/Section

      I am writing a scheduled function that retrieves all the tasks and send an reminder on cliq. I cannot seem to find a API to fetch tasks (by user / board / section) What are the way to fetch tasks?

    • Having trouble fetching contents of Zoho Connect Feeds using the API, requesting alternative API documentation.

      I'm trying to retrieve feed/post data from Zoho Connect using the API but facing challenges with the current documentation. What I've tried: OAuth authentication is working correctly (getting 200 OK responses) Tested multiple endpoints: /pulse/nativeapi/v2/feeds,

    • Adding an Account Name to Tasks/Reminders

      Does anyone know how to add the related account name to a task?  When we look at the list of activities and when the reminders pop up, there is no way of quickly seeing who the account is. 

    • Triggering Zoho Flow on Workdrive File Label

      Right now Im trying to have a zoho flow trigger on the labeling/classification of a file in a folder. Looking at the trigger options they arent great for something like this. File event occurred is probably the most applicable, but the events it has arent

    • SendMail to multiple recipients

      Hi, I'm trying to send an email to a list of recipients.  Right now the "to" field is directed to a string variable. (List variables won't work here). In the string variable, how can I make it work? trying "user@app.com;user2@app.com" or "user@app.com; user2@app.com" just failed to send the emails. Ravid

    • Populate drop down field from another form's subform

      Hello, I found how to do that, but not in case of a subform. I have a Product form that has a subform for unit and prices. A product might have more than one unit. For example, the product "Brocoli" can be sold in unit at 3$ or in box of 10 at 25 $. Both

    • Usar o Inventory ou módulo customizado no CRM para Gestão de Estoque ?

      Minha maior dor hoje em usar o zoho é a gestão do meu estoque. Sou uma empresa de varejo e essa gestão é fundamental pra mim. Obviamente preciso que esse estoque seja visível no CRM, Inicialmente fiz através de módulos personalizados no próprio Zoho CRM,

    • Signup forms behaviour : Same email & multiple submissions

      My use case is that I have a signup form (FormA) that I use in several places on my website, with a hidden field so I can see where the contact has been made from. I also have a couple of other signup forms (FormB and FormC) that slight differences. All

    • getting error in project users api

      Hello, I'm getting a "Given URL is wrong" error when trying to use the Zoho Projects V3 API endpoint for adding users to a project. The URL I'm using is https://projectsapi.zoho.com/api/v3/portal/{portalid}/projects/{projectid}/projectusers/ and it's

    • Change total display format in weekly time logs

      Hi! Would it be possible to display the total of the value entered in the weekly time log in the same format that the user input? This could be an option in the general settings -> display daily timesheet total in XX.XX format or XX:XX.

    • Different Company Name for billing & shipping address

      We are using Zoho Books & Inventory for our Logistics and started to realize soon, that Zoho is not offering a dedicated field for a shipping address company name .. when we are creating carrier shipping labels, the Billing Address company name gets always

    • How to display historical ticket information of the total time spent in each status

      Hi All, Hoping someone can help me, as I am new to Zoho Analytics, and I am a little stuck. I am looking to create a bar chart that looks back over tickets raised in the previous month and displays how much time was spent in each status (With Customer,

    • Zoho Projects iOS app update: Global Web Tabs support

      Hello everyone! In the latest version(v3.10.10) of the Zoho Projects app update, we have brought in support for Global Web Tabs. You can now access the web tabs across all the projects from the Home module of the app. Please update the app to the latest

    • Zoho Community Weekend Maintenance: 13–15 Sep 2025

      Hi everyone, We wanted to give you a heads-up that Zoho Community will undergo scheduled maintenance this weekend. During this period, some community features will be temporarily unavailable, while others will be in read-only mode. Maintenance Window:

    • Agent Performance Report

      From data to decisions: A deep dive into ticketing system reports An agent performance report in a ticketing system provides a comprehensive view of how support agents manage customer tickets. It measures efficiency and quality by tracking key performance

    • Show both Vendor and Customers in contact statement

      Dear Sir, some companies like us working with companies as Vendor and Customers too !!! it mean we send invoice and also receive bill from them , so we need our all amount in one place , but in contact statement , is separate it as Vendor and Customer, 

    • URL validation

      We use an internal intranet site which has a short DNS name which Zoho CRM will not accept.   When attempting to update the field it says "Please enter a valid URL". The URL I am trying to set is http://intranet/pm/ Our intranet is not currently setup with a full DNS name and given the amount of links using the shortname probably isn't a feasible change for us.

    • Pourquoi dans zohobooks version gratuite on ne peut ajouter notre stock d'ouverture??

      Pourquoi dans zohobooks version gratuite on ne peut ajouter notre stock d'ouverture ??

    • Next Page