Publishing and sharing Zoho Sprints extensions using Sigma Cloud Editor

Welcome to a new post on Zoho Sprints extension development!

In our last post, we explored how to create, test, and edit an extension for Zoho Sprints. In this post, we'll take a look at how to publish and share an extension.

Publishing and sharing extensions

When and why?

The primary purpose of developing an extension is to build customizations, bundle them, and share them with users so that they can install the extension and use the customizations in their own Zoho Sprints accounts.

In order to get an installable component that can be shared with other users, once an extension is developed, it must be published.

What are the different types of publishing?

There are two ways to publish an extension depending on your business requirements:

Private
Public

Private extension: An extension developed for internal organizational purposes or to be shared with a specific set of users.

Private extensions have an installation URL, which you can share with users so they can install and use your extension's functionality.

Public extension: An extension developed with the goal of catering to a large scale audience and earning profit.

Public extensions will be listed in Zoho Marketplace, where Zoho users can access, install, and use the extension's functionalities. They can be listed as free or paid extensions, depending on the developer's preference. Free extensions can be directly accessed and installed by the users. Paid extensions can be purchased and installed by users, bringing monetary benefits to the developer.

Now, let's get into the steps to publish an extension.

Steps to publish an extension: Private and public

Go to Sigma and navigate to the Extensions section in the left panel of your Sigma workspace.
Hover over the extension that you want to publish. Click on the Extension Details icon.

Click on the Publish button.

Choose Private or Public based on whether you want to publish the extension privately or publicly.

Private: To publish privately, choose Private and click Publish.

➤ The extension will be successfully published.
➤ An installation URL will be generated in the General Details tab of your extension details page. You can share this with any users who want to install and use your extension's functionalities.

Public: To publish publicly, choose Public, provide a Company Name, and click Publish.

➤ A pop-up for Marketplace Details will appear. Provide the details and submit.

➤ The extension will be sent to the Marketplace approval team for their review.
➤ The team will validate the extension's functionalities and approve it if it passes the validation standards.
➤ Once approved, the extension will be listed in Zoho Marketplace where Zoho users can access, install, and use the extension. You can refer to this link for detailed steps on extension submission and listing in Zoho Marketplace.

We have now explored the steps to publish an extension both privately and publicly. Next, let's check how you can share the published extension.

Sharing a private extension

Public extensions will be listed in the Zoho Marketplace, making them visible and accessible to all Zoho users and eliminating the need to share them separately. Private extensions, on the other hand, must be shared with other users so that they can install and utilize them.

As mentioned in the earlier section, once an extension is published privately, an installation URL is generated that can be shared with users. However, before sharing the installation URL with a user, the extension must first be shared with the user's Sprint portal.

To share a private extension, follow these steps:

Go to Sigma and navigate to the Extensions section in the left panel of your Sigma workspace.
Hover over the extension that you want to publish. Click on the Extension Details icon.
Click on the Share Extension button. Choose the Share tab.

Enter the Zoho Sprints portal name and the email address of the portal's workspace owner you want to share the extension with. Click Share.

The extension is now approved successfully for the portal user.

Note: An email will be sent to the portal user to accept the invite once the extension is shared. Once they accept the invite, another email with the installation link will be sent to them. They can use it to install the extension.

Alternatively, you can also share the installation URL with the portal user and they'll be able to install and use the extension in their portal successfully.
As an end user of the extension, the user will only need to use the URL. The URL will redirect them to their Zoho Sprints account and prompt them to select the portal in which they want the extension installed.
They need to select the portal and then click the Continue button.

The extension's General settings page will be displayed, and they can choose settings and click Install Now.

The extension will then be successfully installed in the user's Sprints portal.

In this post, we've looked at the end-to-end process of publishing, sharing, and installing an extension. In upcoming posts, we'll look at features available in the Zoho Sprints developer platform and how they can be used effectively while building extensions. Stay tuned!

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