Kaizen 179: Choosing between ZDK CLI and Web UI : When to Use Each

Kaizen 179: Choosing between ZDK CLI and Web UI : When to Use Each


Hello everyone, 
Welcome back! ZDK CLI uses commands to manipulate with Zoho CRM metadata from a terminal.  While Zoho CRM Web UI remains the primary tool for manipulating Zoho CRM metadata like creating modules, configuring fields/layouts etc., using ZDK CLI has its own advantages.  In this post, we will explore scenarios where each option excels, empowering developers and administrators to make informed decisions as per their requirements. Let's dive in!

Smith, a consultant at TechSolutions Inc. (a Zoho CRM Partner), is enhancing the Deals module for Springfield University, to align it with their admissions workflow. Springfield University is using customized Zoho CRM  for  learning management system (LMS). The Deals module now tracks student enrollment stages ( "Application Received," "Scholarship Review," and "Admission Offer Sent") instead of the sales pipeline. To support this, Smith needs to add a custom field like “Financial Aid Status” to the Deals module. 

Should he use Zoho CRM UI or ZDK CLI?

 For simple changes like adding this field, Smith would use the Zoho CRM UI—it’s faster. But this raises the question-

When does a customization demand use of ZDK CLI?

The answer becomes clear with Smith’s next project: customizing Zoho CRM for Brookside University. He has to create customizations for Student Management, Course Management, Admissions, Finances, etc., which takes days or even weeks. If Smith were to use the Zoho CRM UI , he has to navigate through multiple tabs in the setup and creates them one by one. When his customization is done in the sandbox, he completes testing it and deploys it to the sandbox environment.  Smith designs a Student Dashboard Widget that displays a student’s academic progress, attendance, extracurricular activities, and advisor notes in one place. For creating the widget, he uses the ZET CLI tool in terminal and after development he packages it separately and upload it to Zoho CRM. 

If Smith opts for ZDK CLI to build the customizations, he can create modules, fields, layouts, roles, and profiles directly from the terminal. He can use ZET commands in ZDK CLI project directory for developing the widget and can add the widget to the Zoho CRM through ZDK CLI.

By leveraging ZDK CLI alongside Version Control Systems like Git or Mercurial, Smith along with his team mates ensures every customization is traceable. Git logs resolve disputes like “Who modified the Admissions pipeline?”. Using ZDK CLI with VCS facilitates team collaboration. One team member can build up on another team member's work.

Riding on the success wave of Brookside University’s LMS integration, Smith’s firm, TechSolutions Inc., now needs to replicate the same Zoho CRM customization for their next project. Without ZDK CLI, Smith would have to do it all over again: manually rebuilding every module, field, and widget through the UI.

With ZDK CLI, the effort required is minimal.
  • Using zdk org:export command, Smith can export the metadata of Brookside University. 
  • He can use the exported files and "tweak" them to suit the needs of his new project.
  • Using zdk org:push  command, he can deploy the refined configuration to the new environment.
ZDK CLI transforms CRM customization from a manual process into a repeatable strategy—ensuring TechSolutions Inc.’s  growth.

When to Use ZDK CLI 

  • Bulk Metadata Management: You can use ZDK CLI to pull the metadata from one organization which has metadata customizations for LMS, make minor changes, and deploy it for a different CRM organization which needs customizations for the same.
  • Version Control of metadata changes: With ZDK CLI you can use Version Control Systems like  Git/Mercurial to track and manage metadata changes made by different team members, clearly showing who made updates and when, enabling transparency. This also makes it easy to revert changes if issues arise.
  • Collaboration - Reuse Components: Using ZDK CLI you can easily export your local metadata changes with zdk org:export, which creates a zip file of the the crm directory in your local ZDK CLI project. You can share this zip file with your fellow developers to collaborate seamlessly by building on each other’s work. You can also achieve the same using VCS. Checkout our previous Kaizen post on using ZDK CLI with git: Leveraging ZDK CLI with VCS to reuse components across different Zoho CRM org. 
  • Widget Development: You can create and update widgets via CLI commands.You can use ZET commands in ZDK CLI project directory and widgets can be added to your organization from the terminal itself without the need of packaging the widget.
  • Automate commands: You can automate ZDK CLI commands using scripts, reducing manual intervention. Take a look at this Kaizen post where we discuss a shell script designed to automate the process of pushing locally modified metadata along with conflict management.
  • Conflict Resolution:  Conflict resolution in ZDK CLI guarantees that changes done does not get accidentally overwritten.  Resolve merge conflicts with zdk org:pull:resolve, which opens a browser-based diff editor to reconcile code differences.

Best Practices

  • Use ZDK CLI for development in sandbox environments and the Web UI for minor fixes and to deploy it to Production environment.
  • Pull configurations via CLI (zdk org:pull) before major edits to maintain a backup.
  • For developing widgets zet commands along with ZDK CLI commands in the terminal.
  • Refrain from making simultaneous changes via Web UI and ZDK CLI to prevent conflicts.
  • If you are unfamiliar with a command, use zdk help command for to check the description of the command.
  • Though ZDK CLI lacks the visual simplicity of the Web UI, pairing it with IDEs like VSCode improves its usability.

Notes
For the current beta release, ZDK CLI will exclusively be available for Sandbox environment and will not be operational in Production environments. 

We hope you found this post useful. We will meet you next week with another interesting topic!
If you have any questions, let us know in the comment section.

Happy Customizing!





    • Recent Topics

    • Standalone LMS tool

      Will Zoho release a standalone LMS (Learning management System) than can be used by external parties (guest)?

    • Announcing Kiosk 1.1 - Customize screen titles, configure new fields & actions, use values from your Kiosk to update fields, and more.

      Hello all We are back again with more enhancements to Kiosk. So what's new? Enhancements made to the Components Add titles for your Kiosk screens and adjust its width to suit your viewing preferences. Three new fields can be added to your screen: Percentage,

    • An Overview of Dario Schiraldi Deutsche Bank Executive

      Hello Community, Dario Schiraldi is an executive at Deutsche Bank, focused on advancing the firm’s financial services and crafting its global strategic vision. With 20 years of expertise in leadership roles, he has spearheaded successful market acquisitions

    • Emailing a document to WorkDrive

      Does WorkDrive include the ability to upload a document by sending an attachment to an email address? (Books and Expenses include this functionality) If it doesn't is it under consideration? on the Road Map?

    • Allow Changing Appointment Status from "Completed" to "No Show" or Other Valid States

      Hi Zoho Bookings Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to submit a feature request regarding appointment status management in Zoho Bookings. 🎯 Use Case Sometimes, an appointment is mistakenly marked as Completed, but later we realize that the

    • Ability to modify what displays in calendar invite?

      I am a long time calendly user and want to make the switch to bookings.  I understand that there is not currently a meets/hangouts integration, is one on the roadmap? Is there anyway I can modify the calendar invite to include the meet link?  I can add it to the emails no problem, but I would also like it to display on their calendar.  Is there some work around I can do to get it on the calendar?  Also am I able to modify the calendar event title?

    • Zoho One and Tally Integration

      Has Anyone in this forum done any implementation with Zoho CRM and Tally accounting software. If so who have you used and how easy was it?

    • Microsoft PowerPoint files Extremely slow to save

      I and others on my team have noticed that Microsoft PowerPoint documents are extremely slow to save when using WorkDrive. It always takes over 30 seconds to save a file. Word and Excel files seem to save in a typical length of time, but PowerPoint is

    • How can users unblock their blocked Zoho Mail accounts?

      After the reason for the account block (storage exceeded, spam detection etc.) has been rectified, the user can unblock the account from the UnBlock Me page. Account support@edu2review.com  Edu2Review is an education review platform, we rate the quality

    • Adding additional fields for batch information

      Hello, I am looking at adding additional information into our inventory module. we would like to be able to see up to 8 attributes that will be individual & different for each batch (i.e. batch specific information) but currently I seem to only be able

    • Dynamic Pickup List Values using Deluge and Client Script

      I would like to dynamically show Pickup List Values For example we need to fetch some data from an on premise application and display it so they can choose and pick This can be done in Creator but I didn't find anything for CRM

    • Validation Rule for Controlled Stage Movement in Deals Module (Deluge Script)

      For keeping a control over module stage or status, you can use the below deluge script. The below deluge script defines validation control over deals module stages: // Function to validate allowed stage transitions in the Deals module map validation_rule.LeadStatustValidation1(String

    • Pick List Issues

      I have created a pick list that looks at a table in a sheet, it selects the column I want fine. Various issues have come along. The option to sort the pick list is simplistic, only allows an ascending alphabetical sort. Bad luck if you want it descending.

    • Four types of task dependencies

      "Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs."                                                                                                                  - Henry Ford Projects, small or large, are driven by simple work units called tasks. Monitoring standalone tasks might look simple but as the workflow becomes elaborate, tasks may start relying on one another. In project management, this relationship between tasks is termed as "Task Dependencies". Dependency between tasks arise

    • 1099 tracking

      Do zoho books offer feature of tracking for 1099's for contractors, etc? Quick books offers this feature and wondered when/if Zoho books will do same

    • VAT-type Taxes in US Edition?

      I'm located in the US, and I use the Zoho One US edition of Books. We are in the process of registering with Canadian authorities for their GST / HST, which is a VAT-type of scheme. It is not immediately obvious to me how one would deal with input tax

    • 2 users editing the same record - loose changes

      Hello, I'm very new to Zoho so apology if this has been addressed somewhere i can't find. I have noticed the following: If we have 2 users put an inventory item in edit mode at the same time: say user1 click on edit and user2 while user1 is still in edit,

    • Schedule sms to be sent later

      When will you make available an option to send sms's at a later time??? You finaly have this option available on emails, so it will be very useful to have it also with sms. Our sms provider, has already this available but we cannot use it because you

    • Ecommerce integration with prestashop

      Development of campaigns integration with prestahop. When???

    • How to create an article containing images and rich text via the api?

      Hi, I'm trying to migrate our kb articles from our previous helpdesk service, and import them to ZohoDesk. Is there any way to create an article that contains images?  Is it possible to add formatting to articles created via the API? Thanks, Adam.

    • Number of statement execution limit exceeded on deluge scheduled function

      I'm working on a send email functionality in creator that sends out crew work orders at the end of the day each day for the next day. I'm running into the issue that zoho is unable to handle the number of statements that I am doing to be able to successfully

    • Color of Text Box Changes

      Sometimes I find the color of text boxes changed to a different color. This seems to happen when I reopen the same slide deck later. In the image that I am attaching, you see that the colors of the whole "virus," the "irology" part of "virology," and

    • Zoho SignForm In Progress But Cannot Be Completed

      If a person starts signing a document (via SignForm), but closes the window before submitting, Zoho marks the document "in progress", but how do they finish signing it?

    • How to show Assemblies AND component items in a report

      Hi Is there any way in Analytics to create a report that shows the Composite Item AND the Component Items with mapped quantity? It seems that the component item is not exposed in any table that I can find. Also, the same question but for Stock on Hand.....this

    • Mandatory Messages for Specific Members in Zoho Cliq Channels

      Hello Zoho Cliq Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to request a feature enhancement to Zoho Cliq that would allow marking certain messages in a channel as mandatory for specific members — with built-in tracking and reminders. 🎯 Use Case:

    • Admin Access to Message Read Statistics in Zoho Cliq

      Hello Zoho Cliq Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to request a feature enhancement that would allow admins or channel owners to view read/unread statistics for messages, even if they were not the original sender. 🎯 Use Case: Currently, in

    • Online Member Visibility in Channels (Similar to WhatsApp Group Presence)

      Hello Zoho Cliq Team, We hope you're doing well. We’d like to request an enhancement to Zoho Cliq’s channel experience by introducing online presence indicators for channel members — similar to how WhatsApp shows how many people in a group are currently

    • Show ticket field in Zoho Desk only if that same field is not empty (API‑created records)

      Zoho Team , We have a ticket workflow where every ticket is created via API based on dynamic logic from an external form. That form has complex logic and already decides what’s relevant to ask, and the API only populates fields in Zoho Desk based on that

    • Multiple Products on Ticket

      Good morning. We will classify all tickets based on the product. Users sometimes send different requests on the same ticket, so we are facing some challenges. Is there a way to add more than one product to the ticket, or is there a way to tie the product

    • Não recebo Email de confirmação e validação de cadastro do PagSeguro

      Olá, utilizei uma das minhas contas de email Zoho para criar um cadastro no PagSeguro, contigo o email com o link de confirmação da conta não chega no meu email Zoho (nem.ma caixa de spam, nem na lixeira, e nem em outras pastas). Outros emails do PagSeguro

    • Does Thrive work with Zoho Billing (Subscriptions)?

      I would like to use Thrive with Zoho Billing Subscriptions but don't see a way to do so. Can someone point me in the right direction? Thank you

    • accounts payable and receivable subaccounts

      How to create accounts payable and receivable subaccounts? Being that I have several clients and in my balance sheet have to specify the accounts of each client and not only appear "accounts receivable or accounts payable" ??

    • DUPLICATING WORKFLOWS IN CREATOR

      Hi all, I want to duplicate and slightly amend 3 workflows in Creator so that I don't have to keep typing in all the rules and properties each time. I can see lots of videos on CRM with the 3 dots at the top of the workflow, but nothing like that in Creator.

    • Add SKU to query options in `items` API endpoint

      It would be very useful to be able to pull items by SKU in the API as this is a commonly used unique ID that tends to be consistent across systems.

    • Estimates and invoices being sent from company-wide address, rather than individual

      In our organization, team members send estimates and invoices through Zoho Books by using the "Send Email" function. However, for certain users, the system defaults to sending estimates and invoices from a shared organizational email address (e.g., company@example.com)

    • Need profit margins for books in estimates & invoice

      https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/show-my-cost-or-profit-while-creating-estimate

    • Decimal places settings for exchange rates

      Hello, We are facing issues while matching vendor payments with banking feeds. As we often import products/services exchange rate comes into play. Currently, ZOHO allows only six digits for decimal places. We feel that conversions like JPY to INR require

    • Item Level Notifications

      I need to create a custom workflow based on the creation of an estimate that has a SKU/Item name that matches certain criteria. I can have it generated based on a total amount, but not at the item level. Is this possible?

    • Cannot categorize a bank deposit to an income sub-account

      When I go to categorize a bank deposit, I am not able to see any income sub-accounts. If I set up an income account without a parent, then I am able to categorize a transaction into that account, but as soon as I make it a child account, it disappears

    • ZV Extension passkey changes in v5.7.0

      Has there any changes to the how passkeys are managed in ZV - Chrome extensions v5.7.0? Namely, if the passkeys were already implemented/enforced as 2FA on a certain webpage, but ZV does not track them yet. Would that be the issue for my use case?

    • Next Page