Building extensions #2: Publishing an extension

Building extensions #2: Publishing an extension

Hello developers,

Welcome to our next post about building extensions for Zoho Finance Suite applications.

In our previous post, we looked at extensions, their purpose, and how to create and test them. To recap, extensions are installable plugins or add-ons that include customizations to improve the existing functionality of a Zoho product. They can be shared with other users, allowing them to install the plugin and have the customizations reflected in their account as well.

If you wish to customize any Zoho product on your account alone, you can use in-product customizations. Extensions, on the other hand, are created as custom, installable bundles that can be shared and used by multiple users.

In this post, we'll be discussing how to publish extensions both privately and publicly.

Why publish an extension?

The ultimate goal of creating extensions for Zoho products is to share them with users so they can install them and use their features in their own Zoho products.

In order to make the extension available as an installable component, it must first be published.

Private and public extensions

Extensions can be developed for internal organizational purposes or for a larger audience, and they can be published either privately or publicly.
  1. Private: Published to be shared privately with other users or within an organization.
Example: An organization uses Zoho Books to manage its financial activities, and its employees need customizations to meet their specific demands. In this scenario, extensions would be useful so the customizations could be shared with other users in the organization.
  1. Public: Published in Zoho Marketplace and made accessible to Zoho users.
Example: A developer creates an extension with some common or general use cases that would help most business categories, e.g., a payment gateway integration, a message integration app, or an extended feature for a Zoho Finance application. In this scenario, the developer could list the extension publicly for a larger audience.

How to publish an extension
  1. Enter the developer portal of the Zoho Finance extension you want to publish. For our demo, we're using a Zoho Books extension.
  1. Navigate to the Publish section and click Publish.

  1. A pop-up displays the list of components you've added to your extension. Check and validate these components.

  1. Choose either major or minor versioning. Major rounds off and increments your version number to the next integer (version 1, version 2, etc.), while minor increments the version by 0.1 (version 1.1, version 1.2, etc.).
  1. Enter the release notes in the Release Notes section. Click Publish.

  1. The extension is successfully published, and a private installation URL is created.

  1. As a developer, you can use the private installation URL to test the extension in your Zoho Books organization.
Note: In order to install and test the extension privately in Zoho Books, your Zoho Books account should be the same as the one you used to develop the extension.

  1. In order to share the extension with other users, it will have to be reviewed internally by the Zoho Finance team. To do this, click the Submit for Private Review button that appears after publishing the extension. Read the Zoho Finance extension review guidelines for more information.

  1. A pop-up displays the auto-populated details on a mail that will be sent to the Zoho Finance review team. Verify the details and click the Send Mail button.
  2. The extension is successfully submitted for private review and is under the status "Submitted For Review."
Note: If you want to make changes to the submitted version, you have to deprecate the version submitted for review. Once deprecated, the Finance team can't approve the version you originally submitted.

  1. As the developer, you'll also receive a copy of your submission email.
  1. The Zoho Finance team will review the extension and, once successfully validated, approve it, changing the private review status from "Submitted For Review" to "Approved."

  1. Now that the extension has been privately approved, you can share it with other users. Go to the Shared List option in the left panel, and click the Share Privately button.

  1. Enter the organization ID and email ID of the user you want to share the private extension with. Click Share.

  1. The extension is successfully shared.

  1. The user will get an email about the shared extension, along with the installation URL. They can simply click the link to install the extension.
  2. To publish and list the extension publicly in Zoho Marketplace, it'll have to be reviewed and approved by the Zoho Marketplace team as well.
  3. To publish publicly, follow the above steps, then submit your extension for Zoho Marketplace review using the Submit for Marketplace Review button.

  1. You'll be redirected to the extension details page, where you can view a Submit to Marketplace button beside the extension version. Click Submit to Marketplace.

  1. A pop-up appears with extension details that will be listed in Zoho Marketplace. Fill in the details to complete the submission process.


Extension compatibility across Zoho Finance Suite applications

Once you've developed the extension and submitted it for private review, check to see if it has any common use cases that would work with another Zoho Finance application. If it does, you can reach out to extension-submission@zohofinance.com and say you would like to have your extension reviewed for whichever other Finance applications you think it would suit. The Finance review team will evaluate your suggestion and guide you accordingly.

Once these reviews are validated, you can publicly list the extension for the other apps with ease. Using the available Marketplace installation URL, you can directly submit another application through the Zoho Marketplace Partner console.



When providing details in the Zoho Marketplace Partner console for the compatible application, make sure to change the product name in the Marketplace installation URL. Once submitted, the Zoho Marketplace approval team will internally validate it with the Zoho Finance team, review it themselves, and list the extension if it's verified.

Example

Zoho Books includes modules that are present in other Zoho Finance apps. Assume you've created a Zoho Books extension and shared it with the Finance team for private review. You can also contact the Finance team and request a review for Zoho Inventory because the extension's use case is compatible.

If the Finance team approves the review for both applications, and you want to publicly list the extension on both counts, instead of creating and publishing an extension for Zoho Inventory from scratch, simply change the product name from Books to Inventory in the Marketplace installation URL when submitting the application in the Zoho Marketplace Partner console.



In this post, we've given you a detailed outline of the steps involved in publishing an extension for a Zoho Finance application, both privately and publicly.

Going forward, we'll look at Zoho Books extension creation since Zoho Books includes features and functions that are found in the other Zoho Finance Suite products. We hope you found this information useful. Keep following this space for more useful guides!

SEE ALSO

    Access your files securely from anywhere

          Zoho FSM Video Tutorials


                All-in-one knowledge management and training platform for your employees and customers.






                                      Zoho Developer Community




                                                            • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                            • Digest


                                                            • Functions


                                                            • Meetups


                                                            • Kbase


                                                            • Resources


                                                            • Glossary


                                                            • Desk Marketplace


                                                            • MVP Corner


                                                            • Word of the Day


                                                            • Ask the Experts





                                                                      Manage your brands on social media



                                                                            Zoho TeamInbox Resources



                                                                                Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                                                  Zoho Books Resources


                                                                                    Zoho Billing Resources

                                                                                      Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                                        Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                                          Qntrl Resources


                                                                                            Zoho Creator 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

                                                                                                        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

                                                                                                                          • Contact Lookup Mapping to Custom Module CRM via DataPrep

                                                                                                                            Hi DataPrep Team, I'm facing an issue with Contact module lookup mapping to a custom module during the DataPrep-to-CRM migration. As per the documentation, the mapping format for lookup fields should be: <Lookup_Field_API_Name>.<Lookup_Module_API_Name>
                                                                                                                          • Zoho ERP | Product updates | August 2026

                                                                                                                            Hello users, What’s new in Zoho ERP this month? From Account Registers to new reports, we’ve packed this release with updates worth checking out. Take a look at what’s new and see what’s in store for your business. Introducing Account Registers Account
                                                                                                                          • Kaizen #99 - Render Widgets Using Client Script

                                                                                                                            Hello everyone! Welcome back to another interesting post. In this post, let us see how you can render Widgets using Client Script. Widgets are embeddable UI components that you can create and add to your Zoho CRM. You can use widgets to perform functions
                                                                                                                          • Customer portal: recommended way to scope lookup fields to the logged-in client?

                                                                                                                            Hi all, I'm building a customer portal on Creator for our clients (we're a esting lab, so each client has their own sites, contacts and jobs). Planning stage, so I'd rather get the approach right before I build it. The portal forms need several lookup
                                                                                                                          • Introducing the Zoho Contracts API Collection on Postman

                                                                                                                            We are happy to announce that the Zoho Contracts API collection is now available on Postman. You can explore, test, and debug Zoho Contracts APIs without writing application code. What's in the collection Ready-to-use requests for Contracts, Counterparties,
                                                                                                                          • Zeptomail in the blacklists

                                                                                                                            Hello, I noticed some hard bounces while sending emails, and upon checking the details, I see that we have been added to the blacklists of certain spam lists: Bounce category: Policy failure Reason: ip-issues Message: 5.7.1 Service unavailable; client
                                                                                                                          • How does Recur setting affect execution time of time based workflow rules.

                                                                                                                            When setting a workflow rule based on Date/Time field, the Recur setting does not seem to make sense. If I want the rule to execute at a specific amount of days relative to a date field, what exactly would the recurrence be? That point in time would only
                                                                                                                          • Canvas Ungroup is No Longer an Option - Can we Bring it Back?

                                                                                                                            You used to be able to ungroup a Group in ZOHO Canvas, but now you have to delete the group and completely start over (re-add the fields, re-place them, regroup them, readjust the group as you want it/reformat) instead of ungroup, move or delete only
                                                                                                                          • Reserve Your Spot for the Zoho Recruit India Virtual Meetup

                                                                                                                            The Zoho Recruit Meetup India is happening virtually on October 15, 2026, and registrations are now open! This meetup is a chance for Zoho Recruit users across India to come together, catch up on what’s new, learn better ways to use Recruit, and have
                                                                                                                          • Account recovery using trusted Zoho applications

                                                                                                                            We know forgetting your password can be frustrating. So to make account recovery even simpler and more seamless, we're introducing recovery through Zoho mobile apps; in addition to the existing OTP options using email address or mobile number. Please
                                                                                                                          • Introducing Omnichannel Subscription

                                                                                                                            Your customers may choose to subscribe through different marketplaces such as Google Play or App Store. As your business expands, managing these subscriptions can become increasingly complex. To make it easier, we are introducing the Omnichannel Subscription
                                                                                                                          • [Webinar] Automated label merging

                                                                                                                            Live webinar on October 8, 2026 | Time: 2 PM IST | 2 PM EDT Hi, Businesses that rely on labels for shipping, inventory, or events often struggle with rigid layouts, disconnected data sources, printing the right quantity, and adapting labels for different
                                                                                                                          • zFlow_DateTime

                                                                                                                            This kind weird since our Flow is RUNNING FOR ALMOST A YEAR and suddenly, our auto plotting of events on Creator Calendar isn't working. Our team can't afford doing manual thing since we handle lot of service tickets. We suspect that there is something
                                                                                                                          • Roles and Privileges in Zoho Mail: Define and control administrative access in your organization

                                                                                                                            Imagine a growing organization where the IT team needs to manage users, the support team needs to handle spam settings, and the group admins need to oversee email groups, all without giving everyone full access to the Admin Console. This can be achieved
                                                                                                                          • Keep sensitive PDFs protected with Zoho PDF Editor

                                                                                                                            PDFs often contain confidential information in the form of financial reports, business proposals, contracts, or forms. Zoho PDF Editor helps you keep that information under control with password protection. With two layers of protection, you can decide
                                                                                                                          • Enrich your contact and company details automatically using the Data Enrichment topping

                                                                                                                            Greetings, I hope you're all doing well. We're happy to announce the latest topping we've added to Bigin: The Data Enrichment topping, powered by WebAmigo. This topping helps you automatically enhance your contact and company records in Bigin. By leveraging
                                                                                                                          • CV Parsing

                                                                                                                            Hi guys, I parsed my cvs through Rchilli. What can I use now that they have ended their association with you?
                                                                                                                          • Change default "Sort by"

                                                                                                                            Is there a way to change the default "sort by" when searching across modules?" in Zoho CRM? Currently the default sort method is "Modified time" but i would like to utilize the second option of "relevance" as the sort by default and not have to change
                                                                                                                          • Document Approval Workflow for Non-Users

                                                                                                                            Our organisation has not added client users yet to Zoho but we are currently exploring how we can use the document Review and Approval Workflow to send out project updates to clients. While testing, we found that we can only pick users as approvers. Is
                                                                                                                          • Zoho Learn - Enable Keep Aspect Ratio by Default

                                                                                                                            Hi Learn team, Is there a way to enable "Keep aspect ratio" in Image Options by default? It's really frustrating to have to change this for every image. Realistically, who wouldn't appraciate this?
                                                                                                                          • Tip #91 – Let customers join sessions directly from your website with the Customer Widget – 'Insider Insights'

                                                                                                                            Hello Zoho Assist Community! When a customer needs remote support, the last thing you want is for them to fumble through an email invitation or navigate to an unfamiliar webpage just to join a session. Every extra step is a moment of friction, and for
                                                                                                                          • Profile picture unable to be seen by other colleague.

                                                                                                                            Hi, As per title, I'm having problem where my profile pic doesn't show from other colleague account. However, when I uploaded the pic from zoho web, it is showed in my phone apps. Still, other colleagues cant see my profile pic. Please help. Thanks,
                                                                                                                          • Mute notifications to followers knowledge base/help center

                                                                                                                            Good morning Zoho, We are in the midst of a rebranding. This requires updating all of our knowledge base articles with new screenshots etc. In other words: They are all updated. This means all our customers that follow these articles are spammed with
                                                                                                                          • Global Constants / Variables

                                                                                                                            It would be great if there were a Global Constant feature. The idea here is for managing constants that are used in multiple Flows and Subflows, but might change over time. The idea is that the change could be made in one place and cascade to all future
                                                                                                                          • Item/service subtotal

                                                                                                                            Just discovered & really pleased that we can drag to re-order the line items in Sales orders & Invoices, a very nice feature which doesn't seem to be documented? It would be nice to be able to insert a subtotal as a line item to complete this great feature
                                                                                                                          • Unable to change alias in the from field on the ZOHO mac app

                                                                                                                            I have 1 main mail address, and 3 alias's. on the web mailbox when I create a new email, I can select the alias's from the dropdown in the from field. On the app no dropdown is available.
                                                                                                                          • Ask the Experts 33: Ticketing in Zoho Desk

                                                                                                                            Every customer interaction begins through one of these channels: email or a phone call, a web form, an instant message, a social media, or a visit to your self-service portal. Bringing these interactions together and managing them in the right context
                                                                                                                          • Migrating from Zoho Checkout to Zoho Billing

                                                                                                                            I have an active Zoho Checkout account where I'm charging customers for subscriptions. Now I'm looking to upgrade and only use Zoho BIlling, in which my account in on read only mode at the moment. I can see is also tracking the customers and its payments.
                                                                                                                          • Let's Talk Recruit: Exploring AI in the Zoho Recruit mobile app

                                                                                                                            Welcome back to Let's Talk Recruit! Ever had to look up a candidate's details right before a meeting? Or wanted to check your hiring pipeline while you're away from your desk? Recruiters are constantly on the move, and keeping up with everything can be
                                                                                                                          • Can I add a description field from my form to my document in Writer?

                                                                                                                            I have a form which has lots of text in a "description" field. Can I pull these into my document in Zoho Writer? I know I can write these directly onto my document but if I change the wording in the "description" field on the form, I don't want to have
                                                                                                                          • Bulk deleting Zoho CRM records using Deluge, COQL and CRM API

                                                                                                                            Hello everyone, During CRM implementations, data cleanup is a common task, especially after testing, migrations, imports, or integration development. I created a reusable Deluge function that performs bulk deletion using the Zoho CRM API. The approach:
                                                                                                                          • Images Not showing in some emails

                                                                                                                            Why do some emails I receive in Zoho not show graphics, while others do? I use Firefox for all my browsing, both on a Windows desktop and an Iphone, and this has been happening for a long time for certain senders, buit not others.
                                                                                                                          • Suggestions for Improving the Deluge Development Experience

                                                                                                                            Hello, I would like to share some ideas that could significantly improve the Deluge development experience, especially for partners and developers building larger solutions across the Zoho ecosystem. Some key areas that would add a lot of value: Deluge
                                                                                                                          • Zoho Forms API

                                                                                                                            Is there any way to get all form entry list using API? Looking forward to hear from you
                                                                                                                          • Zoho Projects - Mobile App - Creating Related Issue On Task View

                                                                                                                            Hi Projects Team, I'm working with a client who wants to use Zoho Projects for their field service work. So far it is working find (and I am aware of FSM, but the client is happy with Projects). One thing they have raise with me as a frustration is that
                                                                                                                          • Orchestrating project workflow with e-signatures

                                                                                                                            Dear users, Your business can have robust task, issue, and resource management systems but it still silently bleeds time and money as documents stay stuck at stakeholder approval. Document signatures introduce indefinite wait times, and nobody inside
                                                                                                                          • Link to download Zoho people apk file for android:

                                                                                                                            Hi all, Could someone can help me as topic? Thanks a lot!
                                                                                                                          • Introducing Nursys for Zoho Recruit [BETA]

                                                                                                                            Healthcare recruitment goes beyond finding the right nurse. Recruiters must also verify that a nurse's professional licenses are valid and in good standing before they can begin work. This process is often manual, requiring recruiters to switch between
                                                                                                                          • Specific ListView Canvas on Canvas Home Page Always Loads Most Recent ListView, Not the One Specified

                                                                                                                            I had mentioned this to ZOHO, but I mainly wanted to see if others in the Community are also facing this problem. I created a Canvas ListView for a Custom Module, and then created a Canvas Home page (technically on a tab item, but I'm not sure if that
                                                                                                                          • An important update for Zoho Cliq desktop users

                                                                                                                            The latest version of the Zoho Cliq desktop app (v1.8.0) will no longer be supported on macOS 10.15 Catalina and earlier versions. This is because the framework we use (Electron) no longer supports some older macOS versions. If you’re using macOS 10.15
                                                                                                                          • Next Page