Event Management System using ZDK CLI

Event Management System using ZDK CLI



Hello Everyone,

Welcome back to yet another post in the Kaizen Series!

As you already may know, for the Kaizen #200 milestone, we asked for your feedback and many of you suggested topics for us to discuss. We have been writing on these topics over the past few weeks. One of the feedbacks asked us to cover "more on ZDK CLI". In this post, we will discuss building an Event Management System in Zoho CRM Using ZDK CLI.

Consider the case of Zenith, a Zoho CRM partner who is also partner for Zoho's competing products. Zenith is hosting a conference in which their representatives are inviting speakers from Zoho and also other competing products. The attendees of the conference will be either external attendees or leads or contacts of Zenith. For this purpose existing meetings module of Zoho CRM (previously called Events) can not be used as it is not a good fit for this case. Custom modules and fields are required for this. In this post, we’ll discuss how to create a Event Management System that is complimentary to Zoho CRM using ZDK CLI. 

Why Use ZDK CLI?
ZDK CLI allows developers to:
  1. Create and edit CRM metadata (modules, fields, roles, profiles, and widgets)
  2. Define relationships between modules (lookups, multi-select lookups)
  3. Push and sync metadata changes to sandbox.
  4. Resolve conflicts when multiple users work on the same metadata.

This makes it ideal for building reusable CRM systems such as event management.

Initial Setup

As the initial setup, initialize the ZDK CLI project directory using zdk init command and create a new ZDK Project folder "Zenith". 

     zdk init




Then, login to the sandbox environment for Zenith using zdk auth:login command. 

     zdk auth:login


When you execute zdk auth:login, you can either select any org that is already signed in or select NEW LOGIN to visit the login page and select the sandbox org you will be working on.




After logging in to Zoho select the sandbox environment and give required permissions.
Notes
For the current beta release, ZDK CLI is exclusively available for Sandbox environment and is not operational in Production environments. 



You will be redirected to the terminal after successful login and you can start working on ZDK CLI.



Notes
Change the api_version to 8 in zdk-project.json file.

Step 1: Define the Modules

For an event management use case, we will need the following custom modules:
  1. Conference – Stores details of each event.
  2. Attendees – Tracks participants, whether leads, contacts, or external.
  3. ConferenceAttendees (Linking Module, not created) – Connects conferences and attendees with registration status.
  4. Venues – Captures details of event locations.
  5. Speakers – Stores details of invited speakers.

This has been visualized in the data model below.


To create a module, use the command

     zdk meta:create modules




This creates the json file for module metadata : Conference.modules-meta.json  in the path Zenith/crm/meta/modules/Conference 

Conference.modules-meta.json content

{
    "singular_label": "Conference",
    "plural_label": "Conferences",
    "api_name": "Conference",
    "profiles": [
        {
            "api_name": "Administrator"
        }
    ],
    "display_field": {
        "api_name": "Conferences"
    },
    "show_as_tab": true
}

Similarly create modules Attendees , Venues, and Speakers modules

Step 2: Customize Fields

To create a field, use the command

     zdk meta:create fields

Conference module:

Conference modules's fields are:

  1. Attendees (multiselectlookup to Attendee module) 
  2. Speakers (multiselectlookup to Speakers module) 
  3. Venue (lookup to Venue module) 
  4. Date (datetime) 
  5. Duration(double) 
  6. Description (textarea) 
  7. Status (picklist: Planned, Ongoing, Completed)


Attendees field
Let us check how to create the field attendees of type multi-select lookup (to Attendee module)




The json file Attendees.fields-meta.json created in the path Zenith/crm/meta/modules/Conference/fields will look like this


To provide dependent details for the multi select lookup, add the multiselectlookup json object to the Attendees.fields-meta.json file as below:

{
    "field_label": "Attendees",
    "display_name": "Attendees",
    "api_name": "Attendees",
    "type": "used",
    "data_type": "multiselectlookup",
    "multiselectlookup": {
        "connected_details": {
            "module": {
                "api_name": "Attendee"
            },
            "field": {
                "field_label": "AttendingConference"
            }
        },
        "linking_details": {
            "module": {
                "plural_label": "Conferences_X_attendees"
            }
        }
 }
}

Speakers (multi-select lookup to Speakers module)
Similar to Attendees field, create Speakers field and modify the json file Speaker.fields-meta.json created in the path Zenith/crm/meta/modules/Conference/fields:

{
    "field_label": "Speaker",
    "display_name": "Speakers",
    "api_name": "Speakers",
    "type": "used",
    "data_type": "multiselectlookup",
    "multiselectlookup": {
        "connected_details": {
            "module": {
                "api_name": "Speaker"
            },
            "field": {
                "field_label": "AttendingConference"
            }
        },
        "linking_details": {
            "module": {
                "plural_label": "Speakers_X_attendees"
            }
        }
 }
}

Venue (lookup field to Venue module)
Similarly, create the Venue field with type as "lookup" The json file Venue.fields-meta.json created in the path Zenith/crm/meta/modules/Conference/fields will look like this


To provide dependent details for the lookup, add the lookup json object to the json as below.
{
    "field_label": "Venue",
    "display_name": "Venue",
    "api_name": "Venue",
    "type": "used",
    "data_type": "lookup"
    "lookup": {
        "display_label": "Venue",
        "api_name": "Venue",
        "module": {
          "api_name": "Venue"
        }
      }
}

Description (textarea)
After create a textarea field Description using zdk meta:create fields command, add textarea json object to the field meta json file as below :

{
        "field_label": "Description",
                "display_name": "Description",
                "api_name": "Description",
                "type": "used",
                "data_type": "textarea",
                "textarea": {
                        "type": "rich_text"
                }
}

The possible values for text area are small, large and rich_text.

Status (picklist)
After create a picklist field Status using zdk meta:create fields command, add pick_list_values json array to the field meta json file as below:

{
    "field_label": "Status",
    "display_name": "Status",
    "api_name": "Status",
    "type": "used",
    "data_type": "picklist",
  "pick_list_values": [
    {
      "display_value": "Planned",
      "actual_value": "Planned"
    },
    {
      "display_value": "Ongoing",
      "actual_value": "Ongoing"
    },
    {
      "display_value": "Completed",
      "actual_value": "Completed"
    }
  ]
}

Date and duration fields of type datetime and double does not require any edits to the created meta.json file.




Attendees Module

Similarly, add fields for attendees modules
  1. Phone (phone)
  2. Company (text)
  3. EventsAttended (multi-select lookup to Conference module)
  4. Attendee Type (picklist with options Lead, Contact, External)
  5. Leads (lookup to Lead module)
  6. Contacts (lookup to Contact module

Venue Module

  1. Location (text)
  2. Capacity (integer)
  3. Contact erson (text)
  4. ContactNumber(phone)
  5. Description(textarea)

Speakers Module
  1. Phone (phone)
  2. Company (text)
  3. SpeakerStatus (picklist with options Confirmed, Pending, Canceled)

Step 3: Create a Custom Role


To create a field, use the command

     zdk meta:create roles


This ensures event managers have the right access without interfering with other CRM operations.

Pushing changes to the sandbox environment

Once all changes are done execute zdk org:push and zdk org:push result --{jobId} command to deploy the changes to the sandbox environment. Once the changes are verified in your sandbox environment you can deploy it to the production environment.




You can extract this metadata zip file, that is created using zdk org:export command to your own ZDK project directory and try pushing the changes to your sandbox environment.

Building the Event Management System for "Zenith" illustrates the core strength of ZDK CLI. It brings software engineering best practices to Zoho CRM customization. By defining modules/fields/roles as json files directly or creating them using the command, the source truth of the metadata is available in local system. The same can be tracked via version control systems like GIT for better collaboration among the team.

    • Sticky Posts

    • Kaizen #226: Using ZRC in Client Script

      Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. In today's post, lets see what is ZRC (Zoho Request Client) and how we can use ZRC methods in Client Script to get inputs from a Salesperson and update the Lead status with a single button click. In this

    • Kaizen #222 - Client Script Support for Notes Related List

      Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. The final Kaizen post of the year 2025 is here! With the new Client Script support for the Notes Related List, you can validate, enrich, and manage notes across modules. In this post, we’ll explore how

    • Kaizen #217 - Actions APIs : Tasks

      Welcome to another week of Kaizen! In last week's post we discussed Email Notifications APIs which act as the link between your Workflow automations and you. We have discussed how Zylker Cloud Services uses Email Notifications API in their custom dashboard.

    • Kaizen #216 - Actions APIs : Email Notifications

      Welcome to another week of Kaizen! For the last three weeks, we have been discussing Zylker's workflows. We successfully updated a dormant workflow, built a new one from the ground up and more. But our work is not finished—these automated processes are

    • Kaizen #152 - Client Script Support for the new Canvas Record Forms

      Hello everyone! Have you ever wanted to trigger actions on click of a canvas button, icon, or text mandatory forms in Create/Edit and Clone Pages? Have you ever wanted to control how elements behave on the new Canvas Record Forms? This can be achieved

    • Recent Topics

    • Books & Desk. Client mapping

      Hi, I’ve been using Zoho Books for several years and am now looking to improve my customer service. I'm experimenting with Zoho Desk and want to sync and map my client data from Zoho Books. However, it seems that mapping requires both contacts to have

    • Bulk update Profile Permissions

      Dears, What should we do if we add new forms or reports and need to update more than 20 permissions? Updating them one by one feels pretty harsh, doesn’t it?

    • adding several team members to an Opportunity

      How can we add several team members to one opportunity for collaboration? I have researched and only found something called Deal Team which I cannot find in my CRM to configure.

    • String handling

      If I cut a currency string from a quote and try and paste it into the Deal "Amount", it will fail unless I manually delete any commas. Dollar signs are no problem, but comma's seem to fail. Please correct this Input Validation error.

    • text length in list report mobile/tablet

      Is there a way to make the full text of a text field appear in the list report on mobile and tablet? With custom layouts, the text is always truncated after a certain number of characters.

    • email address somehow still not verified (?!)

      L.S. After creating a new email template in CRM I was about to send a group email to my clients, then Zoho CRM announced that they would change the sender address to some kind of Zoho-e-ddress because my email address "has not been verified". Not only

    • 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

    • Consolidated report for multi-organisation

      I'm hoping to see this feature to be available but couldn't locate in anywhere in the trial version. Is this supported? The main aim to go to ERP is to have visibility of the multi-organisation in once place. I'm hopeful for this.

    • Finding text within a ticket: Expand All or Search this Ticket

      The auto-collapse feature within a ticket is nice for screen scrolling, however it makes it difficult to find text within the ticket if the email is collapsed. In fact you cannot find text if it is collapsed. I would like to propose a feature that allows

    • Using MPN across multiple SKUs and inventory tracking

      I have several different SKU's that share a common MPN and would like to track inventory by MPN. SKU1 has MPN1 assigned SKU2 has MPN1 assigned Here is an example If I start with 5 of MPN 1 in stock I want each SKU1 and SKU2 to show as 5 in stock, If I

    • Unable to Access Application:

      Whenever I try to access my application from the desktop, say I am editing it and want to test something in the desktop environment I get: An error has occurred. An internal error has occurred. Please check the URL , or try refreshing the page I can edit

    • Feature Request - Allow Customers To Pick Meeting Duration

      Hi Bookings Team, It would be great if there was an option to allow customers to pick a duration based on a max and minimum amount of time defined by me and in increments defined by me. For example, I have some slots which are available for customers

    • Error Logs / Failure logs for Client Scripts Functions

      Hi Team, While we are implementing client scripts for the automation, it is working fine in few accounts but not working for others. So, it would be great if we can have error Logs for client scripts also just like custom functions. Is there any way that

    • Welcome to the Zoho ERP Community Forum

      Hello everyone, We are thrilled to launch Zoho ERP (India edition), a software to manage your business operations from end to end. We’ve created this community forum as a space for you to ask questions, comment answers, provide feedback, and share your

    • Google Fonts Integration in Pagesense Popup Editor

      Hello Zoho Pagesense Team, We hope you're doing well. We’d like to submit a feature request to enhance Zoho Pagesense’s popup editor with Google Fonts support. Current Limitation: Currently, Pagesense offers a limited set of default fonts. Google Fonts

    • Add Popup Rejection Metrics to Reports

      Hello Zoho PageSense Team, We would like to request improved reporting for popup interactions. Current Limitation: PageSense currently provides conversion data, but there is no clear visibility into: Popup rejections Popup closes (✕ button clicks) Dismissals

    • Ability to Reset / Reinitialize Popup Cookies

      Hello Zoho PageSense Team, We would like to request the ability to manually reset popup cookies. Current Limitation: At the moment, it is not possible to initiate a new popup cookie from the our side. Visitors who rejected or closed a popup will not see

    • Control Popup Cookie Expiration Duration

      Hello Zoho PageSense Team, We would like to request an enhancement related to popup cookie management. Current Limitation: Currently, PageSense popup cookies remain active for 365 days, and this duration cannot be modified by us. If a visitor closes or

    • Support for Custom Fonts in Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal

      Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you're doing well. We would like to request the ability to use custom fonts in the Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal. Currently only the default fonts (Roboto, Lato, and Montserrat) are available. While these

    • YouTube Live streaming? how to? Zoom has this feature, built-in. Can't find it on zoho meetings.

      YouTube Live streaming? how to? Zoom has this feature, built-in. Can't find it on zoho meetings.

    • Feature Request - A Way To Search Item Groups

      Hi Inventory Team, I can't find any way to filter or search by fields of Item Groups. It would be great to see that functionality added. I have a use case where a single product might come from 5 or more suppliers and each supplier's item is an Item in

    • Feature Reqeust - Include MPN In Selectable FIelds

      I have noticed that the MPN is not available to show in the list view of Items. Please consider adding it as EAN, UPC and ISBN are all available, so it doesn't make much sense to exclude this similar option. Thanks for considering my feedback.

    • Advanced Payment for Inventory Items with serial numbers

      Hello, We sell equipment that we track the unique serial numbers on using Sales Orders. We can charge the customers an advanced payment, then the balance on delivery. We cannot figure out a way to do this in Books/Inventory: - Cannot part invoice a SO

    • Feature Request - Option To Hide Default System Fields on Items

      Hi Zoho Inventory Team, As far as I know it is not possible to hid some of the defult system fields on Items, such as UPC, MPN, EAN, ISBN. A good use case is that in many cases ISBN is not relevant and it would be an improved user experience if we could

    • Making an email campaign into a Template

      I used a Zoho Campaign Template to create an email. Now I want to use this email and make it a new template, but this seems to be not possible. Am I missing something?

    • Campaigns does not work!

      I am running into so many problems trying to use Zoho Campaigns, that I am seriously considering dropping the app from my (shrinking) list of Zoho applications I actually use. Apart from having to fight the software trying to create a design and email,

    • Feature Request - Make Available "Alias Name" Field In Item List View

      Hi Zoho Inventory Team, I have noticed that the "Alias Name" field does not appear on the list of selectable columns in the Customise Columns feature in the Items module. This would be very useful to see for businesses who are using the Alias Name field

    • Marketing Automation

      L.S. Marketing Automation is and has always been part of the Zoho One bundle - according to the information provided on the Zoho Website. Why when I open Marketing Automation do I get the following message?: "Your trial has expired. We hope you enjoyed

    • Cliq iOS can't see shared screen

      Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? Regards

    • Bigin, more powerful than ever on iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe, and watchOS 26.

      Hot on the heels of Apple’s latest OS updates, we’ve rolled out several enhancements and features designed to help you get the most from your Apple devices. Enjoy a refined user experience with smoother navigation and a more content-focused Liquid Glass

    • Notes badge as a quick action in the list view

      Hello all, We are introducing the Notes badge in the list view of all modules as a quick action you can perform for each record, in addition to the existing Activity badge. With this enhancement, users will have quick visibility into the notes associated

    • Claude + MCP Server + Zoho CRM Integration – AI-Powered Sales Automation

      Hello Zoho Community 👋 I’m excited to share a recent integration we’ve worked on at OfficehubTech: ✅ Claude + MCP Server + Zoho CRM This integration connects Zoho CRM with Claude AI through our custom MCP Server, enabling intelligent AI-driven responses

    • 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

    • How to filter Packages in zoho inventory api

      Hi Team, I want to perform some tasks in a schedular on the packages which are in "Shipped" state. I tried to use filter_by in my api call but in return I get response as {"code":-1,"message":"Given filter is not configured"} My Api request is as follows

    • CRM

      Is anyone else experiencing this issue? Our company is not moving out of using Gmail's web app. It just has more features and is a better email program than Zoho Mail. Gmail has an extension (Zoho CRM for Gmail) that we're using but we've found some serious

    • Automate pushing Zoho CRM backups into Zoho WorkDrive

      Through our Zoho One subscription we have both Zoho CRM and Zoho WorkDrive. We have regular backups setup in Zoho CRM. Once the backup is created, we are notified. Since we want to keep these backups for more than 7 days, we manually download them. They

    • Syncing with Google calendar, Tasks and Events

      Is it possible to sync Zoho CRM calendar, task and events with Google Calendar's tasks and events. With the increasing adoption by many major tool suppliers to sync seamlessly with Google's offerings (for instance I use the excellent Any.do task planning

    • IMAP mail after specify date

      Hi My customer's mail server is on premise and mail storage is very huge. So It never finish sync. and finally stop sync. Cloud CRM have a option like zoho mail sync mail after some date.

    • How can i view "Child" Accounts?

      It can be very useful in our field of business to know the parent-child account relationship. However, there seems to be a shortcoming in the parent account view: no child account list. How can we view the child accounts per each account?

    • Ability to assign Invoice Ownership through Deluge in FSM

      Hi, As part of our process, when a service appointment is completed, we automated the creation of the invoice based on a specific business logic using Deluge. When we do that, the "Owner" of the invoice in Zoho FSM is defaulted to the SuperAdmin. This

    • Next Page