Kaizen #77 - Multi-select Lookup Fields in API V4
Hello everyone!
Welcome back to another post in the Kaizen series!
This week, we will discuss how to add data to multi-select lookup fields using the insert records API.
Note that this support is available only from CRM API version 2.1 and up. We have used the V4 API in examples, here.
What is a multi-select lookup field?
Consider an insurance company using CRM to track its policies, customers and their purchased policies. In CRM, we will use the custom modules Policies and Holders to store policy details and customers' personal details, respectively.
Here, each holder can have multiple policies and the same type of policy can be held by multiple holders.
So, there is a need to establish many-to-many relationships which you cannot achieve through a lookup field.
Multi-select lookup fields solve exactly this!
They allow you to associate multiple records with each other from two modules. The related modules' records are also available as related lists.
Linking Module
When you have a multi-select lookup that connects two modules, a linking module is created that contains data of the two connected modules.
Here, there will be two lookup fields—one pointing to Policies and the other pointing to Holders.
This is how the linking module looks in the UI:
Earlier, using V2 APIs, you had to make a POST call to this linking module and add data related to the two modules. Refer to this post for details.
From V2.1, you can directly add data to a multi-select lookup field while inserting a record itself.
Example Scenario
Let us consider the same example of Policies and Holders.
Policies and Holders contain Holders and Policies_Held multi-select lookup fields, respectively.
There are four policies viz., Life, Health, Auto, and Home.
Similarly, Allison, Smith, Jack, and Derek are policy holders and hold single or multiple policies.
Here is how a policy record looks like in the UI.
Holders is the multi-select lookup field and contains the details of the holders of this policy. You can also see Holders as a related list.
Here is how a record from the Holders module looks like in the UI with the Policies_Held related list.
Let us discuss how to associate a policy holder directly while creating a policy through the Insert Records API.
API names you need before using the API:
- API names of the multi-select lookup fields in the modules they appear.
- API names of the lookup fields in the connected module. Example, the API name of the multi-select lookup field in Holders is Policies_Held, while that of the lookup in the connected module is Policies.
You can use the Fields Metadata API for Policies and Holders to get these details.
Request URL: {{api-domain}}/crm/v4/Policies
Request Method: POST
Scope: ZohoCRM.modules.ALL or ZohoCRM.Policies.ALL/CREATE
Input Body:
{ "data": [ { "Name": "105_Travel", "Policy_Type": "Travel", "Policy_Period": "5 years", "Premium_Amount": 5000.00, "Payment_Model": "Annual", "Holders": [ //API name of the multi-select lookup field in Policies module { "Holders": { //API name in Policies "name": "Allison", "id": "3652397000011357033" //Record ID in the Holders module } }, { "Holders": { "name": "Jack", "id": "3652397000011357001" //Record ID in the Holders module } } ] } ] } |
UI after successful insertion:
Deluge Code:
Policyinfo = { "data":[{ "Name": "105_Travel", "Policy_Type": "Travel", "Policy_Period": "5 years", "Premium_Amount": 5000.00, "Payment_Model": "Annual", "Holders": [ { "Holders": { "name": "Allison", "id": "3652397000011357033" } } ] }]}; response = invokeurl [ type: POST content-type: "application/json" parameters: Policyinfo.toString() connection: "ZohoCRM" ]; info response; return ""; |
Here is the input body to insert a holder in the Holders module with the multi-select lookup field Policies_Held.
{ "data": [ { "Name": "Sandra", "Policies_Held": [ //API name of the multi-select lookup field in Holders { "Policies": { //API name in the connected module "name": "105_Travel", "id": "3652397000011358003" //Record ID in Policies } }, { "Policies": { "name": "101_Home", "id": "3652397000011353001" } } ] } ] } |
Deluge Code:
Holderinfo = { "data": [ { "Name": "Sinatra", "Policies_Held": [ { "Policies": { "name": "105_Travel", "id": "3652397000011358003" } }, { "Policies": { "name": "101_Home", "id": "3652397000011353001" } } ] } ] }; response = invokeurl [ type: POST content-type: "application/json" parameters: Holderinfo.toString() connection: "ZohoCRM" ]; info response; return ""; |
We hope you found this post useful. We will meet you next week with another interesting post.
Write to us at support@zohocrm.com if you have any questions, or let us know in the comment section.
Cheers!
Topic Participants
Shylaja S
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 FAQsKaizen #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
Weekly Tips : Customize your Compose for a smoother workflow
You are someone who sends a lot of emails, but half the sections in the composer just get in your way — like fields you never use or sections that clutter the space. You find yourself always hunting for the same few formatting tools, and the layout justZoho Slowness - Workarounds
Hi all, We've been having intermittent slowness and Zoho just asks for same stuff each time but never fix it. It usually just goes away on it's own after a couple weeks. Given that speed is a very important thing for companies to be able to keep up withCustom Bulk Select Button
Zoho CRM offers the ability to select multiple records and invoke a Custom Button This functionality is missing from Recruit Currently we can only add buttons in the detail page and list But we cannot select Multiple Records and invoke a function withZoho CRM still doesn't let you manage timezones (yearly reminder)
This is something I have asked repeatedly. I'll ask once again. Suppose that you work in France. Next month you have a trip to Guatemala. You call a contact there, close a meeting, record that meeting in CRM. On the phone, your contact said: "meet mePower of Automation :: Smart Ticket Management Between Zoho Desk and Projects
Hello Everyone, 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 automateFirst day of trying FSM in the field.
What we found. 1. with out a network connection we were unable to start a service call? 2. if you go to an appointment and then want to add an asset it does not seem possible. 3. disappointed not to be able to actually take a payment from within the appBUG - Google Business Buttons - Add a button to GBP Post
I am experiencing an issue with the "Add a button" feature when creating posts for my Google Business Profile (GBP) through Zoho Social. When I schedule or publish a GBP post and include a call-to-action button with a specific URL, the post itself publishesRich text Merge field - Not using font specified in HTML
I have a rich text merge field in a writer template which is creating a table. I have chosen to use this method instead of a repeat region because I need to specify specific cell background colours which change every time the document is created. TheSupport 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 theseCC and/or BCC users in email templates
I would like the ability to automatically assign a CC and BCC "User (company employee)" into email templates. Specifically, I would like to be able to add the "User who owns the client" as a CC automatically on any interview scheduled or candidate submittedTrying to export a report to Excel via a deluge script
I have this code from other posts but it gives me an error of improper statement, due to missing ; at end of line or incomplete expression. Tried lots of variations to no avail. openUrl(https://creatorapp.zoho.com/<username>/<app name>/XLSX/#Report:<reportname>,"sameNeed help to create a attach file api
https://www.zoho.com/crm/developer/docs/api/v8/upload-attachment.html Please help me to create it... It's not working for while. Do you have some example?Export view via deluge.
Hi, Is it possible to export a view (as a spreadsheet) via deluge? I would like to be able to export a view as a spreadsheet when a user clicks a button. ThanksOutdated state in mexico
Hello Zoho team, the drop down to add the state for customers, when they introduce their state in mexico has a city named “Distrito Federal” that name changed many years ago to “ciudad de mexico”. could you please update this so my clients can find thePossible to generate/download Quote PDF using REST API?
See title. Is there any way after a quote has been created to export to a PDF using a specified template and then download it? Seems like something that should be doable. Is this not supported in the API v2.0?Creating an invoice to be paid in two installments?
Hi there, I own a small Photographic Services business and have not been able to find a way to fit my billing system into Zoho, or any other Accounting software. The way my payments work is: 1. Customer pays 50% of total price of service to secure theirBug in allowing the user to buy out of stock items
Hi i want to allow the user to buy out of stock items, according to the commerce documentation if i disable Restrict "Out of stock" purchases it will, but it doesnt work, so i want to know if it had any relation with zoho inventory, and if theres anyReplace Lookup fields ID value with their actual name and adding inormation from subforms
Hi everyone, I wanted to see if someone smarter than me has managed to find any solutions to two problems we have. I will explain both below. To start we are syncing data from Zoho CRM to Zoho Analytics and I will use the Sales Order module when givingCan a Zoho Sites page be embedded into another website (outside Zoho)
Hi All, We have a request from a client - they'd like to take one of our information pages created in Zoho Sites and embed it into their own website? I was told through an email with Zoho that this was possible >>Thank you for your patience regardingBug in allowing the user to buy out of stock items
Hi i want to allow the user to buy out of stock items, according to the commerce documentation if i disable Restrict "Out of stock" purchases it will, but it doesnt work, so i want to know if it had any relation with zoho inventory, and if theres anyTransition Criteria Appearing on Blueprint Transitions
On Monday, Sept. 8th, the Transition criteria started appearing on our Blueprints when users hover over a Transition button. See image. We contacted Zoho support because it's confusing our users (there's really no reason for them to see it), but we haven'tZoho CRM Sales Targets for Individual Salespeople
Our organistion has salespeople that are allocated to different regions and have different annual sales targets as a result. I am building an CRM analytics dashboard for the sales team, which will display a target meter for the logged in salesperson.Transfer all Related Data to new Account Owner
Currently when I change the account Owner I only see the option to change only the open deals But I want the new account owner to take over all the related modules and all the deal stages Is it not possible right now? Am I missing something? Do I reallyCan i connect 2 instagram accounts to 1 brand?
Can i connect 2 instagram accounts to 1 brand? Or Do i need to create 2 brands for that? also under what subscription package will this apply?How to Calculate MTTR (Mean Time to Resolve)
We want to calculate MTTR (Mean Time to Resolve) in our Zoho Analytics report under Tickets. Currently, we are using the following fields: Ticket ID Ticket Created Time Ticket Closed Time Ticket On Hold Time We are planning to calculate MTTR (in days)How to export project tasks, including the comments
Hi, how can I export the project tasks, whereby I can also see the comments associated to a specific task? The use-case is that often we use comments to discuss or update a task related ideas. I would like to export the tasks, where we can also see theDoes Zoho Sheet Supports https://n8n.io ?
Does Zoho Sheet Supports https://n8n.io ? If not, can we take this as an idea and deploy in future please? ThanksBigin Android app update: User management
Hello everyone! In the most recent Bigin Android app update, we have brought in support for the 'Users and Controls' section. You can now manage the users in your organization within the mobile app. There are three tabs in the 'Users and Controls' section:Share records with your customers and let them track their statuses in real time.
Greetings, I hope everyone is doing well! We're excited to introduce the external sharing feature for pipeline records. This new enhancement enables you to share pipeline records with your customers via a shareable link and thereby track the status ofLive webinar: Discover Zoho Show: A complete walkthrough
Hello everyone, We’re excited to invite you to our upcoming live webinar, Discover Zoho Show: A Complete Walkthrough. Whether you’re just getting started with Show or eager to explore advanced capabilities, this session will show you useful tips and featuresDeal Stage component/widget/whatever it is... event
Deal Stages I am trying to access the event and value of this component. I can do it by changing the Stage field but users can also change a Deal Stage via this component and I need to be able to capture both values. Clicking on 'Verbal' for instance,Create advanced slideshows with hybrid reports using Zoho Projects Plus
Are your quarterly meetings coming up? It’s time to pull up metrics, generate reports, and juggle between slides yet again. While this may be easier for smaller projects, large organizations that run multiple projects may experience the pressure whenAdd an option to disable ZIA suggestions
Currently, ZIA in Zoho Inventory automatically provides suggestions, such as sending order confirmation emails. However, there is no way to disable this feature. In our case, orders are automatically created by customers, and we’ve built a custom workflowEmail Integration - Zoho CRM - OAuth and IMAP
Hello, We are attempting to integrate our Microsoft 365 email with Zoho CRM. We are using the documentation at Email Configuration for IMAP and POP3 (zoho.com) We use Microsoft 365 and per their recommendations (and requirements) for secure email we haveFormula field with IF statement based on picklist field and string output to copy/paste in multi-line field via function
Hello there, I am working on a formula field based on a 3-item picklist field (i.e. *empty value*, 'Progress payment', 'Letter of credit'). Depending on the picked item, the formula field shall give a specific multi-line string (say 'XXX' in case of 'ProgressCRM x WorkDrive: File storage for new CRM signups is now powered by WorkDrive
Availability Editions: All DCs: All Release plan: Released for new signups in all DCs. It will be enabled for existing users in a phased manner in the upcoming months. Help documentation: Documents in Zoho CRM Manage folders in Documents tab Manage filesZoho CRMの流入元について
Zoho CRMとZoho formsを連携し、 formsで作成したフォームをサイトに埋め込み運用中です。 UTMパラメータの取得をformsを行い、Zoho CRMの見込み客タブにカスタム項目で反映される状況になっています。 広告に関してはUTMパラメータで取得できているため問題ないのですが、オーガニック流入でフォーム送信の場合も計測したいです。メールやGoogle、Yahoo、directなどの流入元のチャネルが反映されるようにしたいのですが、どのように設定したら良いでしょうか。 また、Error While Sign in on Zoho Work Drive
Dear Team, I hope this email finds you well. I have recently created a Zoho account and started using it. But while I am trying to log in to Zoho work drive it won't log me in its crashing every time I try it. I have tried it on android app, phone browserChoosing a portal option and the "Unified customer portal"?
I am trialling Zoho to replace various existing systems, one of which is a customer portal. Our portal allows clients to add and edit bookings, complete forms, manage their subscriptions and edit some CRM info. I am trying to understand how I might bestElevate your CX delivery using CommandCenter 2.0: Simplified builder; seamless orchestration
Most businesses want to create memorable customer experiences—but they often find it hard to keep them smooth, especially as they grow. To achieve a state of flow across their processes, teams often stitch together a series of automations using WorkflowNext Page