Kaizen #90 - CRM Variables and APIs

Kaizen #90 - CRM Variables and APIs

Hello everyone!
Welcome back to another post in the Kaizen series!

This week, we will discuss what are CRM Variables and variable groups, how to create, update, and delete them through an API and the UI, and a simple example in Deluge of using a CRM variable in a function. 

Let's get started!

What are CRM Variables?

Often, we have the need to reuse certain data in CRM at various places. Instead of creating separate fields to hold such values in every module, we can create an org-level field and use the same value across the CRM system. This field is called a CRM Variable. 
These variables can be of any of the following data types:
  • Decimal
  • Single line
  • Multi line
  • Integer
  • Long integer
  • Percent
  • Currency
  • Date
  • DateTime
  • Email
  • Phone 
  • URL
  • Checkbox

Where can you use CRM Variables?

You can use CRM variables in mail merge templates, email templates, functions, workflows, buttons etc,.

What are Variable Groups?

When you have multiple variables, you can group them together for easy accessibility. For example, it makes sense to group all the authentication variables such as access token, refresh token etc., under a group called "Auth parameters".

How can you create a CRM Variable?

You can create CRM Variables from the UI or through the CRM API.

1. From the UI

  1. Go to Setup > Developer Space > Zoho CRM Variables > Create New Variable.
  2. In the Create Zoho CRM Variable pop up, enter the following details:
    a. The name of the variable in the Variable Name field.
    b. The API name of the variable in the API name field.
    c. A brief description of the variable in the Description field.
    d. The data type of the variable from the Variable Type drop-down.
    e. The group that the variable must belong to in the Grouped Under drop-down.
  3. Click Save.


2. Creating a variable through an API

Request URL: {api-domain}/crm/{version}/settings/variables
Request method: POST
Scope: ZohoCRM.settings.variables.ALL or ZohoCRM.settings.variables.CREATE

Input JSON keys

{
    "variables": [
       {
            "name": "Company Address",
            "api_name": "Company_Address",
            "variable_group": {
                "api_name": "General",
                "id": "3652397000004992001"
            },
            "type": "textarea",
            "value": "#24, Austin, TX",
            "description": "The address of the company when the state is Texas"
        }
    ]
}
where,
Key name and data type
Description
name
string, mandatory
The name of the variable.
api_name
string, mandatory
The API name you want to set for the variable.
variable_group
JSON object, mandatory
The API name and the ID of the variable group you want to group your variable under. If you do not have a variable group, you can only group it under "General". Use the Get Variable Groups API to get the ID and name of the variable group.
type
string, mandatory
The data type of the variable. The possible values are integer, text(for single line), percent, decimal, currency, date, datetime, email, phone, url, checkbox(for Boolean), textarea(for multi-line), and long.
value
string, mandatory
The value of the variable.
description
string, optional
A short description of the variable.

Sample Response


How can you update a CRM variable?

1. From the UI

  1. Go to Setup > Developer Space > Zoho CRM Variables.
  2. Hover over the variable you want to edit. 
  3. Click the "Edit" icon on the left-corner of the variable.
  4. In the Edit Zoho CRM Variable pop up, update the relevant details.

  5. Click Save.
Note
You cannot edit the Variable Type and Grouped Under fields.

2. Through an API

Request URL: {api-domain}/crm/{version}/settings/variables (or)
{api-domain}/crm/{version}/settings/variables/{variable_API_name or Variable_ID}
Request method: PUT
Scope: ZohoCRM.settings.variables.ALL or ZohoCRM.settings.variables.UPDATE

Input JSON keys
Note that besides "id", all the keys are optional based on what details you want to update.
{
    "variables": [
       { 
"id":"3652397000012482002";
            "name": "Company_Address",
            "api_name": "Company_Address",
            "value": "#24, Austin, TX",
            "description": "The address of the company when the state is Texas"
        }
    ]
}

where,
Key name and data type
Description
id
string, mandatory
The ID of the variable you want to update. You can get this ID from the Get Variables API.
name
string
The name of the variable.
api_name
string
The API name you want to set for the variable.
value
string
The value of the variable.
description
string
A short description of the variable.

Sample Response

How can you delete a CRM variable?

1. From the UI

  1. Go to Setup > Developer Space > Zoho CRM Variables.
  2. Hover over the variable you want to delete. 
  3. Click the "Delete" icon on the left-corner of the variable.

  4. Click Delete in the pop up that asks for confirmation.

2. Through an API

Request URL: {api-domain}/crm/{version}/settings/variables/{variable_id} (or) 
                       {api-domain}/crm/{version}/settings/variables?ids=id1,id2..
Request method: DELETE
Scope: ZohoCRM.settings.variables.ALL or ZohoCRM.settings.variables.DELETE

Sample Response


Use cases

Here are a few use cases where you can use CRM Variables.

  • Consider that you have integrated with RazorPay and want to send payment links to deals that you have won. Here, you can store the payment link in a variable and use it in the function that sends the link to the deal through an email.
  • You can improvise the above function, and have a condition that checks whether the payment link is valid or has expired. If it is invalid or expired, you can send an alternate payment link that is stored in another CRM variable.
  • Consider you have scheduled a function to run everyday. Now, you want to run this function except on Saturday and Sunday of a particular month. In this case, you can hard-code the Saturday and Sunday in CRM variables of the DateTime type, and check this while running your function. You case would be "if datetime =={CRM variable}, stop execution".
  • Another classic example of using CRM Variables would be in the banking sector. Consider that you have multiple modules that deal with the rate of interest. This rate will differ based on the tenure, the type of loan, the age of a person etc, and used at multiple places across the org. Here, you can set up variables for the different rates of interests and use them in various places. The best part is, when the rate of interest changes, you have to just change it at one place - CRM Variable. 

Let us see this example in detail.

I have a module called Loans. For home loans, the rate of interest is 10% for all, irrespective of the tenure. 
So, I have created a CRM variable called Interest, whose data type is decimal, and has the value 10.

In the Loans module, I have the following fields:
  • Customer Name(single line) to represent the name of the customer who has opted for the loan.
  • Principal(decimal) to represent the principal they have borrowed.
  • Tenure(number) that depicts the number of years they will repay the loan in.
  • EMI(decimal) to represent the monthly installment.
  • Total(decimal) to represent the total amount they will repay including the interest.
I have a function that calculates the EMI and the Total. Here is the code.

// In this function, we are getting principal, tenure and record id from the record and Interest from CRM Variables. 
//Calculate Total 
Total = Principal + Principal * Interest / 100 * Tenure;
info Total;
//Calculate EMI 
EMI = Total / (Tenure * 12);
info EMI;
//Variable with MAP type to hold the fields and values
record_info = {"EMI":EMI,"Total":Total};
info record_info;
info zoho.crm.getRecordById("Loans",record_id);
//Updating the record
zoho.crm.updateRecord("Loans",record_id,record_info);

The following image shows the function argument mapping.


I have now set up a workflow that is triggered upon record creation. This workflow has the Calculate EMI function associated to it as shown in the following image.


As you can see, in Argument Mapping, I have chosen the CRM variable Interest.

Here is a demo of how the workflow is triggered and function execution.


As you can see, based on the value in the CRM variable, the Total and EMI is calculated through the function triggered by the workflow upon record creation.

We hope you liked this post. We will see you next week with another interesting topic.

Please let us know if you have any questions in the comment section or write to us at support@zohocrm.com.

Cheers!

    • Recent Topics

    • Can't find add role button, is iet st because I have the free subscription

      Trying to add my accountant in Zoho Books if I press the add accountant button, I get stuck as it says no such role exists, and won't let me continue, I can't find the add roles button, so I am stuck. Is it because I have the free subscription? Also can't

    • Calendar view all appointments in workspace

      In the Calendar page, add the ability to view all appointments in the Workspace. The Manage Calendars filter requires me to select at least one user or resource, and it only lets me select up to five of them. There's no filter option to view the entire

    • Tip #13: Identify where your bookings come from with Source Tracking

      Source tracking is the practice of identifying where your bookings originated. This is important, because online bookings come from a wide variety of sources like social media platforms, your website, email and ad campaigns, partner websites, organic

    • Unable to Add Notes

      I've had a user report that they are unable to add notes to account records. I attempted and found the same issue. There is no option to save the note.

    • Workflow Rule Alert Not Working

      I have a workflow rule set (that I've been using for years) that suddenly stopped working. Module - Leads Execute on - Create Alerts - Email Active - Yes When I create my lead I no longer receive my email notification. 

    • Unify Overlapping Functionalities Across Zoho Products

      Hi Zoho One Team, We would like to raise a concern about the current overlap of core functionalities across various Zoho applications. While Zoho offers a rich suite of tools, many applications include similar or identical features—such as shift management,

    • Can zoho sign collect data feeding Zoho Sign?

      I m sending contracts to client who are not in my zoho CRM database yet. Can the data they enter in Zoho sign contract I send them, (that includes...) official company name address first name second name etc, ...Create or update a contact / account

    • IMAP ACCOUNT ACCESS PROBLEM

      Hi! I moved from Gmail some time ago to ZOHO. It works fine and it worked till yesterday. I found out that on my MAC OSX mail client I can not receive emails from ZOHO using IMAP. Gmail is set to IMAP and works OK. My company email account uses POP and works good as well. Is there anybody else who has such problem or this might be something with my email client...? I didi check for the settings but everything is as it was from the beginning. Honestly, I didn't change anything recently. It just stopped.

    • Modified approved time log

      I can’t seem to find a way to make change to approve time log entry. The case is the following. We pay the employees every 2 weeks, so employe A enter is time for the 2 weeks and then submit his timesheet. Now is superior approve the time he worked via

    • I want to Show the product list based on the drop Down

      in quotation app , amc form form i have Department drop down field and in subform i have loop up field item description taken from the anothe app PRO I want to show the product list look up based on the deparment selected example if they selected deparment

    • Inventory Barcode Creation - Add Picture of Item

      Hi I am trying to set up bar code labels and include a picture of the item on the label - any idea on how to add that field to the barcode generator?

    • Shared Snippets Everyone

      Hi, Now that the Shared Snippets have been released and I think will be the most used feature implemented in 2023 :) Creating and Using Snippets in Ticket Responses - Online Help | Zoho Desk Maintain consistency in ticket responses with shared snippets

    • Topics assigned to Contacts in Campaigns

      I have yet to find an efficient way to assign topics to contacts in campaigns with the new system in place.  We have daily contacts added to our system through various forms and we have to manually go in and add topics to contacts before each email campaign

    • Zoho CRM email formatting issues

      I have been having a hard time with formatting email templates. It feels like Zoho email is "fighting my edits." It refuses to change size, font, etc. Sometimes, the template looks great, then when the email gets sent, it looks completely different- some

    • Weekly Tips : Seamlessly collaborate with Share Drafts in Zoho Mail

      Ever found yourself stuck wondering how to get input on an important email draft without actually sending it? Maybe you want a teammate’s feedback or approval from your manager—without exposing sensitive info. Or perhaps you are working across different

    • How to Share a workdrive folder outside organization ?

      Hi, Earlier we were using Google Suite and were able to share the google drive folders with external organization ( Auditors , marketing collaterals ) as most of them had a personal gmail account they were able to access it without any issue. How can

    • Zoho CRM Account Duplication via Credit Application Form

      Hi, We send a credit application link to our customers via email, which is managed through Zoho Campaigns. When a customer submits the form, it automatically creates a new account in Zoho CRM. We would like to know how to stop this from creating duplicate

    • Flexible Milestone Invoicing

      If your Zoho Projects portal is integrated with Zoho Invoice/Books, you can now create an invoice for your milestones. You can enable it under Integration Preference and invoice milestones regardless of the project's billing type. For instance, consider

    • The get records i am getting produts that show in the show in the sub form item list field

      The get records i am getting produts that show in the show in the sub form item list field if(input.Department != null) { // Get filtered records once creator_ptid = zoho.creator.getRecords("harshadgroup","item-master","All_Products","Department == \""

    • Add Zoho Form Submission as Attachment to Zoho CRM Deal using Zoho Deal ID

      Hi Zoho team, I have a Zoho Form in which one of the fields will be hidden but will be defaulted with the Zoho Deal ID. Once the form is submitted, I want to reattach the submitted form (and another uploaded file field) into Zoho CRM Deals record. The crazy part is that Deal Name and Stage are the only two fields available for mapping. I have the actual Deal ID. Why can't I just use that. Can you please fix it so that I can properly attach the submission using Zoho Deal ID instead of name/stage (which

    • Payment link showing as malicious

      We've had a few customers who have been unable to pay invoices as the payment link (the domain is zohosecurepay.eu) is showing as a malicious website in their browser. Could anyone help with this please?

    • Side bar menu

      It would be great if you could stop the auto collapse of expanded menus when selecting a different module. It would save a lot of mouse clicks for a lot of users that frequently switch between sales & purchases as we do, it's easier to collapse them manually when not required !

    • Add Microsoft Entra ID to Zoho One

      Hi! Have anyone tried the Zoho connection to Microsoft Entra ID (https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/one/admin-guide/directory-stores/articles/add-microsoft-azure-to-zoho-one?action=kbArticleFollow&actionId=4014605732522 ) This is a big operation and you

    • Multiple Respondents for One Survey Submission?

      Does anyone know of a way to allow multiple respondents to complete only one  survey and then also see (while completing the survey) the responses for their fellow colleagues who already answered that question? The situation is that our new customers have within their own organization, multiple employees that will need to assist in the one survey response. Since we don't always know which new respondent is the "who" that will have the answer, we need multiple respondents to be able to view the response

    • Can you remove the title from the forms?

      I am placing the iframes for my forms on my website.  Is it possible to remove or hide the title of the form so that it doesn't show up on the website? Is it possible to place text in the form like "clicking submit will take you to paypal." thanks

    • Lost the ability to sort by ticket owner

      Hi all, in the last week or so, we have lost the ability to sort tickets by Ticket Owner. Unlike the other columns which we can hover over and click on to sort, Ticket Owner is no longer clickable. Is it just us, or are other customers seeing this too?

    • Mask Name Field in Report

      Is it possible to have the Name field as "Last Name, First Name" in a scheduled report.

    • Custom Project View by Project Group

      Hi Zoho Team, I used to have a custom project view which showed all my active projects (not cancelled or completed) and the list was separated into projects groups. Some time ago, possibly a couple of months ago, I began to see all projects even cancelled

    • Unable to attach the file via the API.

      We are trying to attach files to a Candidate in Zoho Recruit using the API. We reviewed the following API documentation: 🔗 Upload Attachment While this API does allow file attachment via a URL, that’s not what we want — we do not want to attach public-facing

    • Zoho Books (UK) needs to be able to submit a CT600 CTSA return

      As well as a VAT Return, most (if not all) small businesses have to submit a CT600 Corporation Tax Self-Assessment. There are many providers who do this (like Xero) bujt not Zoho. Can you add this to the request list please? Many thanks Steve

    • Stock Update After Approver 1 Approval in Multi-Level Approval Flow

      Hi Team, We have configured a multi-level approval process for POs/Bills. Our requirement is to update the item stock quantity based on the billed quantity immediately after Approver 1 approves the bill. Please find the script attached below. However,

    • Zoho Form Auto Fill

      I am setting up a Zoho form for my independent sales reps to request quotes. Their names are in the first field under a dropdown menu. The next field is their email address. I want the email address field to automatically be filled in when they select

    • Image Resolution Restriction Option in Zoho Forms File Upload

      Hi Zoho Forms Team, Greetings, We would like to request a feature enhancement for Zoho Forms regarding the file upload field. Currently, Zoho Forms allows us to restrict the file size of uploaded images, but not the image resolution (in megapixels). This

    • Can't select Leave type while applying a leave

      Hello, while trying to apply a leave, I can't find any leave type among the options in the Leave type select: Here are my leave settings. Daily: Hourly: Tried to clear cache and to navigate from another browser, but the problem persists. Any hint? Thank

    • Mes débuts sur Zoho Forms | 13 champs à l'export ! seulement

      Bonjour, je débute sur Zoho Forms, je viens de créer un formulaire avec tests dans la foulée et je n'ai que 13 champs qui remontent sur mon export CSV alors que j'ai plus de questions et champs qui devraient remonter. J'ai actuellement une formule payante

    • Introducing real-time document commenting and collaboration in Zoho Sign

      Hi, there! We are delighted to introduce Document commenting, a feature that helps you communicate with your recipients more efficiently for a streamlined document signing process. Some key benefits include: Collaborate with your recipients easily without

    • Adding Photos Into Form (as a form creator)

      As the form creator, is it possible to add images to my form? (I don’t mean adding an image upload field, but rather inserting a JPG file into the form so that users can view the image.)

    • [Training] AI-Powered Application Development Bootcamp 2.0 - Zoho Creator

      Hello everyone, Ready to take your app-building skills to the next level with the power of AI? We’re excited to invite you to AI-Powered Application Development Bootcamp 2.0—a 90-minute, live training session designed to help developers, business users,

    • What is the easiest/fastest way to attach an email or PDF to a Zoho record?

      Hi everyone, We use Outlook with Office 365 and have the need to either ideally attach a .msg email directly to an account or custom module in Zoho, or if not attach just the PDF that would be sent in that email. The Zoho plugin is very basic for Outlook

    • Free webinar! Close deals faster with Zoho Sign from Zoho CRM

      Hello, Are you tired of chasing down signatures and getting stuck with paperwork delays in your sales process? With the seamless integration between Zoho Sign and Zoho CRM, you can create and send documents for signing online, close deals faster, and

    • Next Page