Extension Pointers #1: A step-by-step guide to integrate Google Contacts using Sigma

Extension Pointers #1: A step-by-step guide to integrate Google Contacts using Sigma

Integrating and syncing data is a significant factor for effective customer relationship management.

Let's consider a scenario where an entrepreneur is planning on starting a new venture. An important factor in propelling any business towards success is a solid customer base. Maintaining important information about potential customers is also a critical element in managing a business effectively. In this post, we want to show you how to establish an integration that will manage data synchronization between different services efficiently.

Why integrate?

Integrating two services allows data to sync seamlessly between them. The Zoho Developer platform, Sigma, lets you build plug-in software extensions. Connector is a feature in Sigma that allows you to integrate with a third-party application through these extensions.

So let's say that an entrepreneur needs to sync Zoho CRM (client application) with Google Contacts (third-party application) and develops an extension using Sigma. Using the Connectors component, we can accomplish this integration between the applications. This integration will effectively sync contacts between the apps, providing consolidated customer information. This saves the entrepreneur's time and manual work. Below, we'll see the exact steps on how to establish a connection between these two services and export a contact from Zoho CRM to Google Contacts.

Topics covered:
➤ Creating a connection between Zoho CRM and a third-party application
➤ Registering with Google to obtain client credentials
➤ Adding a custom button and associating it with a custom function to perform an action

How to establish connections between services

To enable secure synchronization with a third-party application, certain authorization protocols must be followed. Zoho Developer provides two approaches for integrating services based on the type of user authentication supported by the third-party application:

1. If the third-party application that you want to integrate with Zoho CRM supports OAuth 2.0 protocol for user authentication, you can use connectors.
2. If the application you want to integrate with Zoho CRM only supports API key forms for user authentication, you can use custom variables.
In our scenario, lets see how to use connectors to create a secure connection with Google Contacts.

How to use connectors to establish a connection via OAuth 2.0

 You will need URLs for a request token, access token and refresh token along with a client ID and secret to complete the connection process.


1. Choose Connectors from the left panel of the Zoho CRM console under Utilities, and then click Create Connection.



2. Provide the required information in the respective fields.
  • Connector Name: A name for the connection to be established.
  • Name of the Service: The name of the third-party application.
  • Signup URL: The signup URL of the third-party application.
  • Request Token: The URL for sending an authorization request to the third-party application server from the client application.
  • Access Token: Once the request is authorized by the server, the access token is sent to the client. This token is exchanged every time the client needs to access the third-party application data.
  • Refresh Token: There are few access tokens that expire after a limited time. In that case, this URL should be used to request a different access token.
Note: The URLs for a request token, access token, and refresh token can be obtained from the API documentation of Google.

For your reference, the values used in our example are as follows: 

3. Click Save after providing the necessary details.



4. In order to obtain the Client ID and Client Secret, you must register with a web service (in our example, Google). If you need further instruction on how to obtain the Client ID and Client Secret, please take a look at the following section.
Note: The Redirect URL appearing in the Client Credentials dialog box is necessary to create the Client ID and Client Secret in the upcoming section.

5. Click Save after entering the Client ID and Client Secret to set the Client Credentials successfully.

6. Click Authorize Connector to Authorize the connection between the services. A connection is now successfully established between Zoho CRM and Google Contacts.

How to register with Google and obtain the Client ID and Client Secret?

1. Log into the Google API Console with your Gmail account credentials. Create a New Project.



2. Click ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES to manage the necessary APIs.



3. Search for the Contacts API, and click the ENABLE button to activate it.



4. Select the Credentials section present in the left panel, and click the CONFIGURE CONSENT SCREEN to fill in the application information.



5. Click Create after choosing either Internal or External depending on your target users.



6. Enter the Application name and the Authorized domain, and click Save.



7. Go back to the Credentials section, click CREATE CREDENTIALS, and choose OAuth client ID.



8. Provide the Application Name along with the Redirect URL that was listed on the CRM developer page during connector creation, and click Create.



9. The OAuth client credentials are now created and appear in a dialog box



10. Enter the unique Client ID and Client Secret obtained here in the Zoho CRM Client Credentials dialog box.

Add API calls and associate them with the connector

Upon authorizing the connection, the next step is to create a connector API that specifies how the components should interact. The steps to create connector APIs in the client application are:

1. Click Create Connector API. Enter the necessary details in the Create Connector API dialog box. In our example for adding a contact from Zoho CRM to Google:

Name of Connector API
PushContacts
Method Type
POST
URL

Request Body: 
  1. <atom:entry xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"

    xmlns:gContact="http://schemas.google.com/contact/2008"

    xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005">

    <atom:category scheme="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#kind"

    term="http://schemas.google.com/contact/2008#contact"></atom:category>

    <gd:name>

    <gd:givenName>${FirstName}</gd:givenName>

    <gd:familyName>${LastName}</gd:familyName>

    </gd:name>

    <atom:content type="text">Notes</atom:content>

    <gd:email rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#work"

    primary="true"

    address="${Email}" displayName="${FirstName}"></gd:email>

    <gd:phoneNumber rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#work"

    primary="true">

    ${Mobile} 

    </gd:phoneNumber>

    <gd:organization rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#work" primary="true">

    <gd:orgTitle>${Title}</gd:orgTitle>

    </gd:organization>

    </atom:entry>
2. Click Create to create the Connector API successfully.



3. Click Execute to set the token variables. 



4. Click Set & Execute, and observe the response code to check if the API works. 



5. Click Publish after successfully executing the API. 



Once published, the API needs to be associated with the extension. It appears under the Associated Connectors tab. Click Add to associate the connector GoogleSync with our extension CRMsyncGoogle.


Click View All APIs to check the Unique API Identifier.


Here, crmsyncgoogle.googlesync.pushcontacts is the Unique API Identifier. 


Exporting contacts to Google from Zoho CRM

After the successful execution of the API connector, the next step is to implement the desired function. There are multiple options to do this. In our example, let's create a button and associate it with a custom function to push a contact from Zoho CRM to Google Contacts upon clicking. 

Creating a "Push Contact to Google" custom button to perform the POST operation
Choose the Components section in the left panel of the extension console page. Select the Links & Buttons tab and click Create New Button.



Choose the Contacts tab, name the button, and choose the place where the button needs to be located. Select Writing Function as the action that will be performed by the button.



Write your custom function "pushcontact" to implement the "Push Contact to Google" button operation. This will allow you to push a contact from the Zoho CRM Contacts module to your Google Contacts.

pushcontact function Code Snippet:


cont_resp  zoho.crm.getRecordById("Contacts",contact.get("Contacts.ID").toLong());

Firstname = cont_resp.get("First_Name");

Lastname = cont_resp.get("Last_Name");

mail = cont_resp.get("Email");

mobile = cont_resp.get("Mobile");

title = cont_resp.get("Title");

map = {"FirstName":Firstname ,"LastName":Lastname ,"Email":mail ,"Mobile":mobile ,"Title":title }; 

response = zoho.crm.invokeConnector("crmsyncgoogle.googlesync.pushcontacts",map);

return "Contact Pushed";

How to check and test the functionality?

Click the Test your Extension button to check how your extension functions in the sandbox testing environment.


Under the Contacts module, in the testing environment, let's try and export "Customer2" to our Google Contacts. Click the Push Contact to Google button, and go to the Google Contacts to view your contact being added.


There are many different scenarios where connectors can be of use. In our example, we have seen how to add a contact from Zoho CRM to Google.
We recommend that you try using the connectors feature available in our developer platform to integrate with other third-party applications and reap the best benefits it has to offer.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

    Access your files securely from anywhere

          Zoho Developer Community




                                    Zoho Desk Resources

                                    • Desk Community Learning Series


                                    • Digest


                                    • Functions


                                    • Meetups


                                    • Kbase


                                    • Resources


                                    • Glossary


                                    • Desk Marketplace


                                    • MVP Corner


                                    • Word of the Day



                                        Zoho Marketing Automation


                                                Manage your brands on social media



                                                      Zoho TeamInbox Resources

                                                        Zoho DataPrep Resources



                                                          Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                            Zoho Books Resources


                                                              Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                                                                Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                  Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                    Qntrl Resources


                                                                      Zoho Creator Resources



                                                                          Zoho Campaigns Resources


                                                                            Zoho CRM Resources

                                                                            • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                              CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                            • Kaizen

                                                                              Kaizen

                                                                            • Functions

                                                                              Functions

                                                                            • Meetups

                                                                              Meetups

                                                                            • Kbase

                                                                              Kbase

                                                                            • Resources

                                                                              Resources

                                                                            • Digest

                                                                              Digest

                                                                            • CRM Marketplace

                                                                              CRM Marketplace

                                                                            • MVP Corner

                                                                              MVP Corner





                                                                                Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                Get Started Now


                                                                                  Zoho Show Resources


                                                                                    Zoho Writer Writer

                                                                                    Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                    Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                      Zoho CRM コンテンツ






                                                                                        Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                            ご検討中の方





                                                                                                  • Recent Topics

                                                                                                  • Data export

                                                                                                    I need to export our customer's data and projects' data for our purpose but am unable to export full data i only get around 3160 projects and around 2k customer can you please help me to get full data, please
                                                                                                  • Adjusting Physical Inventory

                                                                                                    Not getting very far with support on this one, they say they are going to fix it but nothings happened since November. Please give this a thumbs up if you would like to see this feature or comment if you have some insight. Use Case: Inventory set to be
                                                                                                  • Zoho Marketing Plus : Un outil tout-en-un pour la création de pages, la collaboration et la gestion du calendrier marketing

                                                                                                    Nous sommes ravis de vous présenter trois nouvelles fonctionnalités puissantes de Zoho Marketing Plus s’enrichit désormais d’un page web (l'éditeur de pages), qui vous permet de créer des pages attrayantes et à fort taux de conversion pour vos campagnes
                                                                                                  • Grouping payments to match deposits

                                                                                                    Is there a way to group multiple invoice payments together so they match credit card batches and grouped deposits in the bank account? Basically, we are creating invoices for each of our transactions, and applying a payment to each of the invoices. Our payments are either credit cards or checks. We want to be able to group payments together so when our bank account reflects a credit card batch made up of many transactions, or the deposit we took to the bank that has multiple checks from different
                                                                                                  • Employees can not add some expenses suddenly

                                                                                                    Zoho expense was working fine and whenever there was a new merchant, it would automatically add and also the same auto added in Zoho Books (due to merchant-vendor sync) untill now. From today, it is having problems in searching the existing vendors and
                                                                                                  • Zoho email setup in office365

                                                                                                    When i am trying to setup zoho mail setup using my domain in office365 and it is not working and it says that we couldn't log on to the incoming (IMAP) server and please check your email address and password and try again. I was able to login using my
                                                                                                  • iOS 10: Caller ID new feature?

                                                                                                    Hi, in the update history of the iOS App (for iOS10) - v.3.2 - i found the point "caller identification" has this feature been deactivated again? i cannot find anything on my iphone on how to activate this feature. or does it just work from the beginning?
                                                                                                  • Recommendations to store meeting notes for easy access from Contacts, Accounts & Deals module records?

                                                                                                    I would like your advice on how to achieve this use case for my organization. It’s related to where/how best to store meeting notes from a conversation with Contact(s) working at an Account (Company) in the context of a Deal. The ideal solution (from
                                                                                                  • Bank reconciliation. Match Transaction -filter

                                                                                                    When matching an imported bank statement file we only get a match if it is an excact match on both amount and date. Then a suggestions comes up with a very broad selection regarding amount, and no default "between" dates. I can then go an manually adjust the filter, and have to put in from-to amounts and dates. How do I set a default from-to date?  As an example, I would like the date to be +- 3 days, Thanks.
                                                                                                  • Added new staff but does not appear in other organization list

                                                                                                    Hi, I added the new staff under Sales Manager in the contacts, but it does not appear in the other organization list where I need to create a contact, and I can't select the newly added Sales Manager
                                                                                                  • Integrating Calendly with Zoho Calendar in Zoho Mail

                                                                                                    I moved my office into a business incubator space that uses Calendly for meeting management and events. Calendly doesn't have a integration with Zoho Calendar and vice versa. I was directed to Zapier for integration but it doesn't have an integration
                                                                                                  • Map fields from module X to a lookup field in subform in module Y

                                                                                                    Hi there In the 1st screenshot attached, you can see a subform in myLeads module. You can see that there is a number already filled there - that is the 'Property ID' and it is a single line field. It is the 'Property ID' of an entry I have in another
                                                                                                  • 🎄 Jingle, Mingle, and Automate: Spread Christmas Cheer with Zoho Desk Auto-Replies! 🎄

                                                                                                    Hello Everyone! Welcome to this week's episode of the Community Learning Series. Christmas is in the air, and I’m sure we can all feel the jingle and the mingle of the season! The folks at Zylker Techfix are no exception—they’re busy with holiday plans
                                                                                                  • how to create a new line in string in Client Script?

                                                                                                    I want to show an alert using client script, I need to add a new line in String, I assume I can use \n\n inside a string, but unfortunately it doesnt work ZDK.Client.showAlert("First Line \n\nI expect this is in second line");
                                                                                                  • Surely it's time Inline editing from views

                                                                                                    I think the first request I found for in-line editing from grids was approximately 12 years ago - that post was locked because it was suggested Zoho sheetview solved the problem. However, it's now 2024, and in-line editing from grids is just a basic expectation.
                                                                                                  • Multi branding issue with sender addresses

                                                                                                    Hello, I'm currently working on a project involving two (seperate) brands. Named 'Windeck' and 'Prolance'. They've chosen CRM Plus and I'm currently working on CRM, SalesIQ, Social and Marketing Automation. So far, I'm able to make enough separations
                                                                                                  • How to Replace an Assessment in a Job Opening on Zoho Recruit

                                                                                                    Hi everyone, I’m currently using Zoho Recruit and would like to replace the assessment linked to a specific job opening. I want to remove the existing assessment and add a new one. What is the best way to do this without losing any important data or affecting
                                                                                                  • Is there API Doc for Zoho Survey?

                                                                                                    Hi everyone, Is there API doc for Zoho Survey? Currently evaluating a solution - use case to automate survey administration especially for internal use. But after a brief search, I couldn't find API doc for this. So I thought I should ask here. Than
                                                                                                  • Email Campaigns overview page is missing SENT DATE and # people sent to!

                                                                                                    I would like to see the date the email campaign was sent, so I can understand and track when each email campaign was sent. Right now, unless you go to a contact who received a campaign, you cannot see when the campaign was sent (!!!!!!). So, if my boss
                                                                                                  • SEO recommendation of H1 tag for website tittle

                                                                                                    The exact words are “ It is good practice to place the page title inside the H1tag.” Now I already have one H1 tag on my website but it is not website tittle. In the SEO recommendation that is clear too that I have h1 tag on my page. Now I don’t know
                                                                                                  • How to choose other payment methodes than creditcards

                                                                                                    We have connected stripe as a payment provider in zoho books, booking, commerce and checkout. In stripe we selected al major payment methodes for Belgium (mainly bancontact). However, at checkout customers seems to have only the possibility to pay with
                                                                                                  • Introducing Zia LLM: Zoho’s in-house Generative AI solution for CRM's AI capabilities

                                                                                                    Hello everyone, We're excited to announce the launch of our in-house Large Language Model (LLM) by Zia to power our AI offerings. What is LLM? LLM stands for Large Language Model, a powerful AI technology that processes and generates human-like text based
                                                                                                  • How to call a Creator function which is in a different Creator application?

                                                                                                    How to call a Creator function which is in a different Creator application?
                                                                                                  • Can the code in my "Successful form submission" WF be invoked from a function?

                                                                                                    Can "Successful form submission" be invoked from a function? Data gets into a form manually and programatically. My code in "successful form submission" is good and I want to reuse it/call it, from another function which does Insert Into How to achieve
                                                                                                  • Kaizen #169 - Serialization and Schema Management in Queries

                                                                                                    Hello everyone! Welcome back to another post in the Kaizen series! In Kaizen #166, we discussed handling Variables in Queries and associating the query in Kiosk. This week, we will discuss Serialization and Schema management in Queries. Business Scenario
                                                                                                  • Introducing Keyboard Shortcuts for Zoho CRM

                                                                                                    Dear Customers, We're happy to introduce keyboard shortcuts for Zoho CRM features! Until now, you might have been navigating to modules manually using the mouse, and at times, it could be tedious, especially when you had to search for specific modules
                                                                                                  • Feature Request: Notebooks within notebooks (Tree-like structure)

                                                                                                    Dear Zoho! I already migrated all my stuff from Google Keep, Im really fond of Zoho Notebook so far. One thing that could make the service much more powerful is multi-level notebooks (or tree like structure). For example, entering into Notebook named
                                                                                                  • Can't get authorization for Sandbox environment using the self client

                                                                                                    Hello, After creating a self client, and following the client-credentials method (as it's not optimat to manually generate a code for every 10 minutes), after inputting the sandbox org id for SOID parameter, im getting the error: "error": "no_org". For
                                                                                                  • Create landing pages from Zoho Marketing Plus

                                                                                                    Hey everyone, Over the last few months, we've introduced various features and enhancements to bolster the marketing capabilities of Zoho Marketing Plus and make it simpler for everyone. To that end, we're excited to announce that Zoho LandingPage is now
                                                                                                  • Custom service report or Zoho forms integration

                                                                                                    Hello, So far the experience with Zoho FSM and the integration with Books has been good, however there are limitations with service reports. As with my business, many organisations send technicians to different types of jobs that call for a different
                                                                                                  • Email tracking subdomain

                                                                                                    The Email Tracking configuration screen of the ZeptoMail asks for a subdomain. I have gone through the documentation but could not find more information about how that subdomain is used by ZeptoMail to track the emails. Can someone throw some light about
                                                                                                  • Chart View group X-axis values above a value

                                                                                                    I have a data set with X values ranging from 0 up to 300-400, the Y values are an AVG of the values for the given X. I am interested in the values at the low end of the scale, say 0-10 and want the X values 10 and greater to be grouped into a single category
                                                                                                  • How do I get the Text Account name instead of the Reference number?

                                                                                                    Good Morning everyone! I am very new to zoho analytics. I'm trying to create some pivot tables and when I add the Account or Division name it comes up as a reference number. From my research, I need to use a lookup. I'm having a really hard time understanding
                                                                                                  • Custom API - Need to create a string return value, not only MAP

                                                                                                    @Support: When creating a Custom API it only allows a return from a function of MAP type. The service I'm using requires a string return, how can this be achieved?
                                                                                                  • missing video-urgent

                                                                                                    hi..I have a problem regarding zoho meeting. I already record almost 2hrs for my interview session. After end my session, i'm stop the recording. Its happened when i didn't received any meeting recording at my email.But i received recording 7minutes after
                                                                                                  • Duplicate New Ticket Emails

                                                                                                    I am getting two Ticket emails when a ticket is created. The first one goes to me as the Admin helpdesk@ And because I am an Agent as well it also send to helpdesk@, support1@ and support2@ Is there any way to stop this?
                                                                                                  • Ticket Response Email Template

                                                                                                    Is there a way to have an email template automatically selected when I click on Reply for a ticket?
                                                                                                  • Unpublishing Job Post for LinkedIn

                                                                                                    Hi, We have experienced issue with the above. We did unpublish a job in Recruit but it still appear under Job section in our LinkedIn page. It did not remove from LinkedIn as it should be.  Please check and advise. Regards, Snyder 
                                                                                                  • Power of Automation :: Automatically start / pause / stop timer on task status update.

                                                                                                    Hello Everyone, A Custom function is a user-written set of code to achieve a specific requirement. Set the required conditions needed as when to trigger using the Workflow rules (be it Tasks / Project) and associate the custom function to it. Requirement:-
                                                                                                  • Editor limitations to define screen types

                                                                                                    Guys I have noticed that even in version 2.0 of the editor (which is this new one we use) we still have a lot to improve... When I compare to some more global solutions like Wix, Zyro, Go Daddy, Squarespace and Weebly feel that we have some limitations
                                                                                                  • Next Page