Basic API search

Hoping there is a workable scenario for this problem. Since ZOHO is still not finished with integrating phone systems with their CRM, I thought about using an API to do it. I can use the API getsearchrecords and return values successfully by the phone number, but the results come in unformatted XML which really isn't going to be adding speed to the sales calls. I would like to be able to return the values into the system and open the contact or account or lead's information page.

The phone system manager we are using to manage calls allows for a PopUp URL that can pass the Caller ID in a URL to be search-able, this would work fine but ZOHO seems to be blocking the URL pass, the caller ID number shows up in the URL but will not populate the search field or trigger the actual search. I may be missing a parameter here on the pass but not sure.

I thought about using an XML search and to try and parse the caller ID from the phone system into the XML string but the phone system manager limits the URL length on the PopUp and the max length is way shorter than the XML String. Using the API key and ticket alone are probably over the limit, let alone the search criteria.

The other side of this is that the phone system manager will also opt for opening an application and passing parameters into it, so even if it were in 2 stages, I might be able to get it working if I can get the appropriate variables passed and figure out how to get it to open to the information page instead of returning XML results.

Any ideas on this? Am I barking up the wrong tree?

Thanks,
Dave