Learn how to use Bigin's Developer Console to build toppings

Learn how to use Bigin's Developer Console to build toppings

Hey Biginners,

In our last post, we discussed what toppings are, why they're essential to extending Bigin's capabilities, and how the Bigin Developer Center serves as the starting point for building them. As a cloud platform, the Developer Center empowers developers with a dedicated space exclusively for creating and managing toppings, as well as publishing them to the Bigin Marketplace. Once they create their topping drafts in the Bigin Developer Center, developers can enter the Bigin Developer Console, which is where the actual development takes place.

The Developer Console provides all the resources needed for the entire development journey, from creating and automating to testing toppings before they go live. By using these features, you can create a unique topping that perfectly bridges the gap between Bigin and user-specific needs.


Now let's dive into each of the Bigin Developer Console's features for creating toppings.

Customization

When building a topping, you can include custom components from the Bigin Developer Console. These components range from simple fields to related lists that enable easier navigation through Bigin's user interface.

You can add custom fields in addition to the standard fields available in Bigin to handle your topping requirements. Using custom buttons and links can streamline actions in Bigin or integrate Bigin data with external URLs, applications, or systems. To establish a direct relationship between the records inside Bigin, you can use related lists.
For a step-by-step implementation guide to creating these custom components, please refer to the following links:
  1. Fields
  2. Buttons
  3. Links
  4. Related lists
  5. Widgets
Next, let's explore the Bigin Developer Console's automation features and incorporate them to adding more functionalities to your topping.

Automation features

The Bigin Developer Console offers features that automate repetitive tasks, simplify processes, reduce manual effort, and enhance user efficiency. You can incorporate automation features like workflows, schedules, functions, signals, and more.

A developer creating a topping to improve pipeline management in Bigin might seek to automate repetitive tasks, such as managing stages and assigning responsibilities. For instance, when a new deal enters the "Inquiry" stage in the Sales pipeline, the system promptly assigns it to an appropriate sales rep through an automatic owner assignment rule, which eliminates the need for manual intervention. Likewise, you can set a schedule to send automated email reminders to prospects who haven't responded within a week and define a signal that notifies users in real time when a recipient opens an email.

To learn more about how to implement these automation features in your toppings, check out our detailed implementation guide here. Alongside our automation features, we also enable developers to create custom functions using Deluge scripts.

Custom functions

The Bigin Developer Console enables developers to create custom functions using Zoho's Deluge scripting language. These functions serve to implement business-specific logic in toppings, and are invoked by other functions or components. They eliminate the need for manual repetitive tasks by enabling developers to define specific functions once and invoke them as needed.

Custom functions are categorized into two types: standalone functions and REST API functions.

Standalone functions are self-contained blocks of code that can be invoked from any part of the topping. They can also be invoked from other functions, which enables modular and reusable scripting. On the other hand, Bigin's REST API functions allow developers to expose Deluge code as an API endpoint, enabling external applications to invoke the custom logic hosted in the topping.

For a comprehensive understanding of custom functions, their types, and how to implement them, please refer to our Functions Guide.

While these features enhance the utilities of toppings and improve Bigin's native functionalities, there's another kind of feature that helps expand Bigin's capabilities by integrating it with other applications.

Connections

One sort of topping you may want to build is a connection that transfers data between Bigin and a third-party service. Connections simplify this integration process, ensuring seamless data exchange between applications. Once a connection is established, you can access authenticated data.

Preconfigured default services are available when you're creating a connection. For these services, developers only need to provide the connection details, select the necessary scopes from the available list, and establish the connection. If their preferred services aren't preconfigured, developers can create custom connections by providing service details and authentication credentials. In this case, understanding the authentication and authorization protocols these third-party applications follow is essential for successful integrations.

Consider a scenario in which a sales team wants to notify customers about the sales process by sending instant message notifications via Twilio. For example, when a deal advances to the Proposal Sent stage, Bigin can trigger an SMS notification via Twilio to provide the customer with proposal details. Similarly, when the deal status changes to Closed-Won, the system automatically sends a confirmation message from Bigin to update the customer about the deal's successful closure.

To implement this functionality, developers can create a connector to integrate Bigin with Twilio, as well as to include the logic necessary for sending the message. Also, by incorporating Bigin automation features like workflows, developers can set up triggers that execute functions when certain conditions are met. This streamlines communication, enhances customer satisfaction, and keeps customers informed throughout the sales process. For more information on creating and managing connections, please refer to our detailed guide.

While connections handle backend integrations to enable data exchange between Bigin and other applications, connected apps comes into play when you need an interactive way to engage with both internal data and data from external applications directly within the Bigin interface.

Let's see how Bigin's connected app functionality facilitates this interaction!

Connected apps

A connected app enables an external application to integrate with Bigin through an interface, which is a widget that enhances Bigin's functionality and provides users with a seamless experience in Bigin. You can design your own UI interface and have complete control over the widget.

For example, sales teams often need customers to sign contracts or agreements before closing deals. With a connected app, you can embed an e-signature widget like Zoho Sign directly into Bigin. This enables users to send documents for signatures, track their statuses, and receive signed copies—all without leaving Bigin.

Read here to learn how to build a connected app, create a widget, and embed it into Bigin's UI.

Once you've built all the custom components you need for your topping, you can test it out inside the Bigin Developer Center itself. Let's explore how!

Testing and publishing your topping

Testing ensures that the topping is working as expected, and is important to do before publishing. The Bigin Developer Console provides a sandbox environment wherein you can thoroughly test all your customization components, connections, widgets, and workflows.
Once testing is complete, you can publish the topping through either of the following methods:
  1. Private: Make the topping available to specific users.
  2. Marketplace: The topping becomes accessible to all Bigin users after being validated by the Marketplace approval team.
In the next post, we'll explore testing and publishing in detail and implement real-time use cases.

Stay tuned!

<< Previous                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Next>>

    • Recent Topics

    • Holidays - Cannot Enter Two Holidays on Same Day

      I have a fairly common setup, where part-time employees receive 1/2 day's pay on a holiday and full-time employees receive a full day's pay. Historically, I've been able to accommodate this by entering two separate holidays, one that covers full-time

    • Where is the settings option in zoho writer?

      hi, my zoho writer on windows has menu fonts too large. where do i find the settings to change this option? my screen resolution is correct and other apps/softwares in windows have no issues. regards

    • Zoom Phone SMS Integration

      Requesting Zoom SMS capabilities to be integrated by Zoho CRM to capture a related SMS conversation logged to the lead, contact etc..

    • Passing the CRM

      Hi, I am hoping someone can help. I have a zoho form that has a CRM lookup field. I was hoping to send this to my publicly to clients via a text message and the form then attaches the signed form back to the custom module. This work absolutely fine when

    • File emails in Shared email folder

      Hi, I am unable to allow users to collaborate in Shared email folders: User 1 shares a folder let's say "SharedTopic" with full permissions Users 2 and 3 can see this folder but are unable to add emails to this folder or search in this folder. For example,

    • No funcionan correctamente el calculo de las horas laborales para informe de tickets

      Hola, estoy intentando sacar estadísticas de tiempo de primera respuesta y resolución en horario laboral de mis tickets, pero el calculo de horas en horario laboral no funciona correctamente cree los horarios con los feriados : Ajusté los acuerdos de

    • How create a draft via workflow?

      I wish to create a workflow rule for specific emails that creates a draft response - not an automatic email reply, but just a draft with a set response ready to be verified by an agent who can then manually select recipients. Alternatively, the workflow

    • Ticket layout based on field or contact

      Hi! I want to support the following use-case: we are delivering custom IT solutions to different accounts we have, thus our ticket layouts, fields and languages (priority, status field values should be Hungarian) will be different. How should I setup

    • This user is not allowed to add in Zoho. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details

      Hi Team, when I,m trying to create a email account (imagixmidia.com.br) it's showing this error >>  This user is not allowed to add in Zoho. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details plz help me  thanks

    • How to manage task lists in Zoho Desk?

      Hello, I use Zoho Desk for IT customer support. I have a list of standard operating procedures (SOPs), including SOPs for onboarding new users, offboarding users, losing a device, etc. These are lists of tasks to be performed depending on the situation.

    • Zoho → ShipStation Integration – Sales Order–Driven Fulfilment Workflow

      Hello All, I’m reaching out to explore the best way to integrate a shipping tool into our inventory which will speed our process up. We are looking to integrate ShipStation into our existing order-to-fulfilment workflow, as we’re keen to standardise on

    • Business Day Logic Update: More Accurate Scheduling for Your Workflows

      Hello everyone, We’re improving how business-day calculations work in workflows, especially when triggers happen on weekends. This update ensures that offsets like +0, +1, and +2 business days behave exactly as intended, giving you clearer and more predictable

    • Convert Lead Automation Trigger

      Currently, there is only a convert lead action available in workflow rules and blueprints. Also, there is a Convert Lead button available but it doesn't trigger any automations. Once the lead is converted to a Contact/Account the dataset that can be fetched

    • Default Tagging on API-generated Transactions

      If one assigns tags to an Item or Customer, those tags get auto-populated in each line item of an Invoice or Sales Order when one creates those documents. However, if one creates the Sales Order or Invoice via the API (either directly coding or using

    • User

      If user is already part of manage engine endpoint central , what hapens when i try to add them to another Zoho org / directory? Are these users added as external users?

    • Adding a new section to the related details sidebar when creating a new ticket.

      Hello, I was wondering if you can add a new section to the related details sidebar when creating a new ticket. I was wanting to have it to where it also shows the account information related to the contact chosen as well. This is the section I am referring

    • Posibility to add Emoticons on the Email Subject of Templates

      Hi I´ve tried to add Emoticons on the Subject line of Email templates, the emoticon image does show up before saving the template or if I add the Emoticon while sending an Individual email and placing it manually on the subject line. Emoticons also show

    • Displaying only unread tickets in ticket view

      Hello, I was wondering if someone might be able to help me with this one. We use filters to display our ticket list, typically using a saved filter which displays the tickets which are overdue or due today. What I'd really like is another filter that

    • CRM project association via deluge

      I have created a workflow in my Zoho CRM for closing a deal. Part of this workflow leverages a deluge script to create a project for our delivery team. Creating the project works great however, after or during the project creation, I would like to associate

    • How to compare a subform lookup field that allows multiple entries when edited

      I have a form with a subform with multiple fields. One of the fields is a lookup field that allows a multi select. On edit validation, I want a workflow to execute only when the entries in that subform field has changed. The old. function is not working

    • Is Zoho Shifts included in the Zoho One plan?

      In case the answer is no: there's any plan to make it available via One? Thank you

    • Creating a Chart from a Report

      In Zoho Analytics, is it possible to create a chart from a Pivot View report? We are looking to use Zoho Analytics to replace Excel for Sales reports and would like to be able to show both the table and the chart together.

    • Zoho Tracking Image location

      So we've been having an issue with tracking email opens. Specifically in Gmail. Our emails are not that long either, maybe 4 sections of image/250 characters of text/button per section.  But all my test accounts I used via Gmail we're showing opens. But then come to find out the tracking image is at the very bottom of the email. So If the message is clipped (It always just clips our social icons on the bottom) and the user doesn't click the show more button it never tracks the open.  Looking at other

    • Is there a plan to integrate zoho voice with zoho books?

      Hello, Is there a plan to integrate zoho voice with zoho books? Right now we are using the Twilio SMS integration into zoho books, but have recently decided to switch to zoho voice for calls and sms. Is there a plan to integrate zoho voice natively into

    • Zoho Tables is now live in Australia & New Zealand!

      Hey everyone! We’ve got some great news to share — Zoho Tables is now officially available in the Australian Data Center serving users across Australia and New Zealand regions! Yes, it took us a bit longer to get here, but this version of Zoho Tables

    • Delivery and handling of documents e-stamped using Zoho Sign

      Hello everyone! Zoho Sign makes it easy to pay non judicial stamp duty online and automatically attach the digitally generated e-stamp challan to electronic documents. We also manage the delivery of physical e-stamped papers. We periodically receive these

    • Introducing Dedicated Modules for Plans, Addons, and Coupons in Zoho Billing

      We’ve enhanced the way you manage Plans, Addons, and Coupons in Zoho Billing. Previously, all three grouped together under Subscription Items. Now, each one has its own dedicated module, giving you a cleaner and more intuitive experience. This update

    • Sortie de Zoho TABLE ??

      Bonjour, Depuis bientôt 2 ans l'application zoho table est sortie en dehors de l'UE ? Depuis un an elle est annoncée en Europe Mais en vrai, c'est pour quand exactement ??

    • Zoho Forms API

      Is there any way to get all form entry list using API? Looking forward to hear from you

    • Issue with WhatsApp Template Approval and Marketing Message Limit in Zoho Bigin

      We are facing issues while creating and using WhatsApp message templates through Zoho Bigin, and we request your clarification and support regarding the same. 1. Utility Template Approval Issue Until December, we were able to create WhatsApp templates

    • How to install Widget in inventory module

      Hi， I am trying to install a app into Sales Order Module related list, however there is no button allow me to do that. May I ask how to install widget to inventory module related list?

    • Zoho Social - Feature Request - Reviewer Role

      Hi Social Team, I've come across this with a couple of clients, where they need a role which can review and comment on posts but who has no access to create content. This is a kind of reviewer role. They just need to be able to see what content is scheduled

    • Zoho Social - Feature Request - Non-US Date Format

      Hi Social Team, I have noticed that there is no option to change the date format from US mm/dd/yyyy to others like dd/mm/yyyy. It would be great to see this added as the platform matures. Thanks for considering this feedback.

    • Drop Down Value

      Hi, May I know why Zoho Flow treat this drop down as number and not as string. If so, how can I fetch the right value for filtering. This field is from Creator, in Creator upon checking by default it is a string since it's not a lookup field.

    • Zoho CRM's mobile apps: A 2025 Recap

      2025 marked a year of steady progress for Zoho CRM's mobile apps. We rolled out several updates and features to improve usability and make everyday CRM work a lot easier to manage. Here’s a look back at some of the key releases from 2025. Android releases

    • Dependent / Dynamic DropDown in ZohoSheets

      Has anyone figured out a way to create a Dropdown, the values of which is dependent on Values entered in the other cell ?

    • Facebook follower count doesn't match FB Analytics

      Hi all, I am wondering if anyone else has issues with follower counts for Facebook not matching FB's native analytics tool. On the Zoho dashboard, it's showing 1,007, but FB shows 1,060. All the other channels match up. Any insights are much appreciated!

    • Unable to mass update a picklist field

      Hello, I have the records within our Accounts module divided between two account types: Parent Accounts & Member Accounts. I am attempting to mass update accounts from one picklist value to the other (within other specific criteria in our custom fields)

    • Meta and Facebook data report discrepancy

      I have been currently gathering manually facebook follower data thru meta. In zoho marketing plus the social media reporting only allows for page likes, and so there is a discrepancy with the data. please the difference in files attached. Is there way

    • Develop and publish a Zoho Recruit extension on the marketplace

      Hi, I'd like to develop a new extension for Zoho Recruit. I've started to use Zoho Developers creating a Zoho CRM extension. But when I try to create a new extension here https://sigma.zoho.com/workspace/testtesttestest/apps/new I d'ont see the option of Zoho Recruit (only CRM, Desk, Projects...). I do see extensions for Zoho Recruit in the marketplace. How would I go about to create one if the option is not available in sigma ? Cheers, Rémi.

    • Next Page