Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest - April 2024

Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest - April 2024



Hello everyone,

April was an action-packed month for the Zoho Developer Community! From insightful sessions on strategic software development to the conclusion of the exciting bootcamps in India, there's plenty to catch up on. Explore upcoming events, valuable resources, and engaging community discussions in this month's digest. Dive in for a dose of inspiration and stay connected with the latest updates!

April Highlights

Zoho Developer Hangout 15

This session was all about exploring how to strategically develop software that drives business growth. @David Afolabi–Group Program Manager, Systems, Analytics & Solutions Architecture/Engineering, Boost Media Group—gave practical insights into value chain architecture and learn how to align your solutions with evolving business processes. Watch the recording of this session here.

Extensions - India Bootcamps

We wrapped up the Zoho Developer Community Bootcamps in India! The bootcamps were all about building connections, getting expert tips from Zoho pros, and feeling the power of the community. Big thanks to the Zoho experts who shared their knowledge and to everyone who participated. This is just the beginning – stay tuned for even more opportunities to learn, connect, and collaborate in the next round of bootcamps! Here's a small recap from the Chennai bootcamp.

Upcoming Events

Note: To stay on top of the upcoming developer community events, keep an eye on this page.
  1. Zoho Extensions 101 – Extensions for Zoho Finance Suite: This series offers a comprehensive exploration of developing extensions and widgets for the Zoho Finance suite. Did you know that we have a dedicated portal in Sigma with which you can create extensions for a range of applications in the Zoho Finance Suite, including Zoho Books, Zoho Billing, Zoho Expense, Zoho Inventory, and Zoho Invoice? Starting with an introduction to Sigma and the Zoho Books platform, subsequent sessions cover creating extensions, testing, publishing, and listing apps in the Zoho Marketplace. Registration and more details here.

  2. Zoho QEngine 101: This series aims to enable attendees to create test cases from scratch, manage them under modules, and execute them for three different platforms—web, mobile, and API—using Zoho QEngine. With three sessions already completed, our focus will now shift to Mobile testing in the upcoming session slated for June 6. Register here.

  3. eSignatures with Zoho Sign: Discover how to create legally binding documents and seamlessly integrate Zoho Sign into your website or mobile application using Zoho Sign APIs and SDKs. Join us on May 16 to learn the importance of integrating a digital signature solution into your website, get a product walkthrough of Zoho Sign, and gain insights into utilizing Zoho Sign's APIs effectively. Register here.

  4. Zoho CRM APIs: In this series, you will learn about OAuth2.0 authorization used by Zoho CRM APIs, CRUD operations for retrieving, creating, updating, and deleting records, efficient search/query methods, data synchronization techniques for consistency across platforms, and working with SDKs for seamless integration of Zoho CRM functionality into applications. Check out part 2 of this series where we discussed Python SDK and the API credit system. In the upcoming session on May 29, we'll be covering Search API & COQL API. Register here.

  5. Zoho Apptics 101: In this series starting June 11, we’ll dive deep into every aspect of application analytics to help you understand how Zoho Apptics aids in measuring important KPIs that reflect your app's performance, growth, and engagement. Click here to register.

  6. Learning Table Series: We designed this series to provide users with valuable insights and knowledge about Creator's capabilities in various business use cases and applications. This year, we have adopted the 12 Months 12 Industries concept. Every month, we will focus on a specific industry, illustrating its unique processes with real-time business scenarios and how to make best use of Creator for that industry. Our recent webinar on Creator for the Education Industry was a success, and during the upcoming session, we'll be exploring Creator for the Manufacturing Industry.

    Title: Creator For the Manufacturing Industry
    Date: June 6, 2024
    APAC & ANZ: 11 AM to 12 PM IST - Registration Link
    EMEA: 4 PM to 5 PM IST - Registration Link
    Americas: 9 PM to 10 PM IST - Registration Link

  7. Creator Tech Connect: Creator's tech connect series would comprise of technical sessions that provide immersive training on the key essentials and technical nuances of building a solution in Zoho Creator. This is a great opportunity for our developer community to stay informed about Creator's new feature releases, product roadmap, best practices to follow while scripting in deluge, new deluge concepts, and cloud functions. We are conducting a three-month series on mobile applications in Zoho Creator. The recent session of the series focused on rebranding mobile applications in Zoho Creator, while the upcoming session in the series will be about Mobile SDK in Zoho Creator.

    Title: Mobile SDK in Zoho Creator
    Date: June 13, 2024
    APAC & ANZ: 11 AM to 12 PM IST - Registration Link
    EMEA: 4 PM to 5 PM IST - Registration Link
    Americas: 9 PM to 10 PM IST - Registration Link

Resource Spotlight

We've consolidated all the resources from the developer community learning series into a centralized hub for your convenient access. Consider bookmarking the Zoho Developer Community website to stay informed about the latest updates in the developer community.

Community Discussions

Zoho Developer Forum

  • This post is a goldmine for anyone working with Deluge scripting! @Rodger shares a struggle many face (confusing variable names) and nailed down a simple yet effective naming convention for variables and objects, making scripts way easier to read and manage. It's clear he's put a lot of thought into this, and kudos to him for generously passing on the knowledge.
  • Stuck with duplicate leads due to address variations in Zoho CRM? This community forum thread can help!
  • Look no further than this forum discussion if you're grappling with generating invoices from quotes in Zoho CRM, particularly with custom fields and API restrictions. Check out the code snippet shared by our MVP @Bhoomi to assist @Lili.
  • @Jean wants to nudge employees to fill a non-mandatory field in Zoho CRM. Our MVP @Hugh steps in with a clever client script that triggers a pop-up reminder upon saving. As @Jean digs deeper with follow-up questions, the conversation evolves with @Javier and @Subhash joining the mix to explore advanced options. Check it out here.

Developers ZUG Cliq Channel

Note: These conversations are confined to the Developers ZUG Cliq channel members. If you're keen on becoming a part of this space, please fill in this onboarding form to receive your invitation to join the channel.
  • A little delay is needed at times, only when it's a part of the code! @Labiol needed help with hard-coding a delay in his Deluge code, and thankfully, there was no delay in @Richard and @Mike coming to his aid with an effective, documented solution. Check it out here.
  • Sometimes the answer is right under the nose! @Eric Chrobak faced an issue spanning various Zoho Products, which required work with SQL, and @Ed jumped in with the simplest solution one can imagine. Check it out for yourself here!
  • They say there's more than one way to skin a cat. Apparently, there were also mutiple ways to solve @Reid's need to filter contacts and deals based on different stages in communication. Check out the different solutions offered by Mike and Sayali here!
  • Syncing data between applications lets users manipulate data in specific ways for specific needs. That's what Ram needed help with; syncing contacts between Zoho CRM and Zoho Books. Janani jumped in with sample code that saved Ram's day!
  • Calculating geographical distances is an integral part of a multitude of businesses, such as Real Estate, eCommerce, and so on, for varied use cases. When @Ron needed help, @Puneet took him a lot closer to solving his query on calculating geographical distances using Zoho Creator. 
  • Not all code that is written in Zoho's suite of products has to be in Deluge, Zoho's own coding language! Check out this interaction that happened when Vigneshwaran needed help with Javascript to retrieve records from Zoho Creator. 

Community Spotlight

ZDH Speakers

The contributions of our ZDH presenters have been instrumental in the success of the this segment. We extend our heartfelt appreciation for their efforts.

As a continuation of featuring a ZDH presenter each month, this time, we would like to introduce our 10th presenter @Eric Chrobak. Explore this post to discover the knowledge and insights he shared with the community.

Cliq Contributors

The Developers ZUG Cliq channel has consistently served as the primary hub for community members seeking technical assistance and engaging in savvy discussions. Here are our top contributors who have gone the extra mile to support and assist the Zoho Developer Community:



We want to express our sincere appreciation to all our community contributors. Your commitment, expertise, and the time you invest are invaluable to the community. 

For those who are new to the Zoho Developer Community, check out this post to get started. 

We appreciate you dedicating your time to peruse this month's digest. Make sure to follow the digest each month for the most recent updates and conversations. Stay connected and participate in the forums to be featured in the upcoming month's digest. Wishing you an amazing month ahead!

SEE ALSO




    • Recent Topics

    • Mass edit / Mass update products

      Hi, Is there any way to mass update or bulk edit product fields in Zoho Inventory?

    • Automatic Verification of IMAP Integration Status

      Our sales staff have their O365 email integrated with CRM, over time this integration requires re-authentication via the UI. I can manually check the integration status by accessing Settings -> Channels -> Email -> Email Sharing -> "Configuration Type"

    • Tip of the Week #68– Share and access files faster with Zoho WorkDrive extension.

      Have you ever wasted time searching for the right file to attach to your emails—or worried whether the right people could access it? Without proper sharing settings, files might end up inaccessible to teammates or, worse, visible to people who shouldn’t

    • CV-Library: The Newest Source Booster in Zoho Recruit!

      We’ve expanded your sourcing toolkit — CV-Library, one of the UK’s largest and most trusted online job boards, is now available as a Source Booster in Zoho Recruit. This gives recruiters instant access to millions of UK-based candidate profiles, all without

    • Is there the possibility to book less than 250 customer portal users?

      If you use the Creator, which is included in Zoho ONe, you can create a customer portal and give access to a maximum of 3 external people / customers, right? On the Creator website I saw that you can add 250 users for 100€/month. However, we don't need

    • Display Parts custom fields in the Work Order

      Hello, I see that is it possible to add custom fields in the Parts module. Would it be possible to also add those custom fields in the Work Order Module under Parts? This would be very useful for customer who want to showcase more information about parts.

    • Unable to edit Saved Estimates

      We are facing issue with editing the price or discount for a saved estimate for nearly 1 week.

    • Translation Blueprint & Picklists with Custom Values

      Hello everyone, I downloaded the translation file and I'm not finding the blueprint transitions. Does this means that the transitions cannot be translated? Also, the picklist values to be translated in the document are not the same that are actually used the in module. For exemple, for my lead module, the picklist values for Lead Status are : Not-contacted, contacted, junk and lost lead. In the translation document (English to French), this is what I see: PicklistValues.Leads.Lead_Status.Contact

    • How to create a custom sales signal?

      I want to create a custom sales signal for a custom module. is it possible to create one? If anyone know please let me know

    • Only show products in offers based on lead source

      We work with several lead sources, each with their own products and different pricing. For example, one product might have two or three different prices. Sometimes, when creating a quote, the wrong product is accidentally selected. Is there a way to only

    • Narrative 7 - The importance of data sharing

      Behind the scenes of a successful ticketing system - BTS Series Narrative 7 - The importance of data sharing Definition Data sharing requires a commitment to preserving the integrity and dependability of shared data throughout its entire lifecycle. This

    • Check out in Meetings

      Why there is no check out in Meetings of Zoho CRM, very difficult to track

    • Issue with Zoho Projet

      Zoho Project on all the cellphones of my customer is crashing. He has mixed brands (Samsung and Pixel). Everything is fine on website and mobile website. Could not reproduce the issue in workshop using Samsung/Pixel/iPhone Uninstallation of Zoho Project

    • SecurePass email English language issue -- please hire someone to correct the English language issues sprinkled throughout your interface

      I wrote previously about some incorrect English in your SecurePass offering. After about six months it was corrected. I have never revoked permission before today and just discovered another language mistake that was not corrected. When you revoke a SecurePass

    • Published Components

      @zoho team, Checking if we can add a password for the public links as we have non-licensed users

    • Please Enable Snippets for Agents Adding Comments

      Snippets and templates are currently enabled for agents when they use the reply functionality. There is currently no way to add a template or snippets when an agent comments. This is really weird. Our agents don't use the reply functionality, only the

    • Tip of the Week - Extracting Data from JSON Columns

      Let's say you are importing a CSV or Excel file into Zoho Analytics. What if the file contains a few columns in JSON format? This is where Zoho DataPrep, embedded right within Zoho Analytics, comes in handy. This week's tip explains how to extract data

    • Deluge UI Updates

      Are there any updates planned for the Deluge UI in Zoho Desk? It feels quite dated and lack-lustre after you've spent some time in the CRM Deluge UI.

    • Zia Agents - Follow Ups

      It would be nice to have Zia Agents do follow ups. A lot of times agents are trying to schedule things with users and they say "can we set your printer up tomorrow?" and the user never says anything. A way to have a personalized reminder to the user automatically

    • Hide Agents name in Ticket Responses in "My Area"

      We were able to hide the agents name in the emails, however, the customer is able to see which agent has responded to a ticket in the thread of emails by going into their Help Center thread. Is there any way we can hide that information?

    • Option to Automatically Update Extensions

      Hello Zoho Desk Team, We recently received an email notifying us about an extension update that must be done manually. We’d like to request a feature that allows extensions to be updated automatically without requiring manual intervention. This would

    • Embed Report with Auto Height

      Hello Developers, When we embed report within Page, we are getting one awesome feature to adjust the report height. "Auto" and "Custom' height. This "Auto" option works well when we have no records. But I want to embed report based on some conditions

    • Zoho Payroll: Product Updates - August 2025

      This month’s updates to Zoho Payroll bring enhanced efficiency and smarter features, simplifying payroll management for users in India, UAE, KSA, and US. Read on to explore how these updates can streamline your workflow. Filter Pay Runs by Type (India,

    • Numerical Rating for Interviewer Assessments

      Introducing Numerical Rating, a powerful new addition to interviewer assessments that brings precision and flexibility to candidate evaluations. ✅ What is Numerical Rating? Numerical Rating lets interviewers assign a score for each question in the assessment,

    • User Tips: Adding Multiple Products (Package) to a Quote v2.0 (with Client Script)

      This solution is an improvement on the original idea which used deluge. My solution was posted in the comments are: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/adding-multiple-products-package-to-a-quote The updated version uses client script instead

    • Are downloadable product available in Zoho Commerce

      Hi all. We're considering switching to Zoho Commerce for our shop, but we sell software and remote services. Is there a features for downloadable products? I can't find any information about this. Thank you very much Alice

    • Custom image for each contact using merge tag

      Hi, I'm wondering if it's possible to set up an email campaign to display a different image for each contact using a custom field for the image url. I tried inserting custom html: <img src='$[UD:APP_IMAGE_URL||]$'/> but the editor seemed to reject this and did not actually add anything to the email template. Has anyone got any ideas? cheers, Jeremy

    • Comment Reactions like a Thumbs Up

      Can we please have the ability to emoji react on comments or at the very least, thumbs a comment up? Literally every other project management system out there can support this and it is very much needed to just acknowledge a comment instead of completely

    • Zoho Mail Search Engine Sucks

      Hello There! I really like all the features of Zoho Mail and I believe is way better than Gmail except for the Search Function. I believe Zoho Mail has a very poor search function, if you misspelled a word in the search box, Zoho Mail won't display any

    • Allow Subtasks and Task Lists to have their own Layout

      I'd like to have the ability for subtasks and task lists to have their own layout.  A subtask for us doesn't require all the fields that a parent task has.  The subtask seems cluttered with all the extra fields. Within a project Task List had different purposes.  I'd like the task layout to be different for some task lists.

    • How to update Customers in Zoho Books through Zoho Flow?

      Updating customers in Zoho Flow using a "update customer" action is deleting contact persons in Zoho Books.

    • How to transfer credit between customers?

      Hi All, We have a slightly odd situation. It happens that we have two separate customers that are related to each other personally. One customer has an amount of credit, and would like to use that credit to pay the *other* customers invoice. How would

    • Zoho Books Reports: Basic report with total items sold and Cost of goods sold

      How can books show a report with Item Name || Qty Sold || Total Revenue || Total Cost of Goods Sold || Margin I need to factor in also invoices that have been credited where customers returned good. This seems like such a basic report, I'm sure I'm missing

    • The amount entered is more than the balance due for the selected bills."

      Hi Team i am trying to record payments for vendors using API and getting this error in response as { "code": 28011, "message": "The amount entered is more than the balance due for the selected bills." } JSON is prepared according to Documentation and

    • VBA handling named ranges

      In VBA I'm able to work with a single cell named range. E.g. Set Jr = Range ("Year").Value. Also other options are working fine, like Range("Year").Address shows $L$3. However a named range refering to multiple cells is not working for me. Eg. tbl_Test

    • Kaizen #176 - Optimizing the Use of Record ID Variables in Zoho CRM Queries

      Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen! Since the release of Queries, we have covered Handling Query Variables in Zoho CRM, Serialization and Schema Management, and Leveraging the 'crmAPIResponse' object in Queries in previous posts. Today,

    • Unbilled Items Report?

      Hello! Is there any way to display a list of items that remain unbilled, without creating an invoice for each customer to see if the unbilled items box is displayed? ;-) Ben

    • Consolidation of Multi currency

      Would like to discuss on the possibility of consolidating the ZOHO companies

    • Landed Cost Allocation / Custom Duty manual data entry

      My client is an import business. They must manually enter the duty for each item with landed cost allocation in Bill. This is because customs duties cannot be allocated based on Quantity, Value, Weight, and Dimensions. Manual data entry is highly time-consuming

    • Territories Just Don't Work

      I have been on chat and screenshare support for the past 3 days and am getting no resolution so hopefully, someone here can help me. I am the Super Admin of my organization. We publish books globally. I want to break down the books into territories so

    • Next Page