Setting up and using connections in Bigin toppings

Setting up and using connections in Bigin toppings

When building a topping to extend Bigin's functionality and connect it with third-party applications, creating and handling connections is an important step. Connections provide a secure way for your topping to authenticate and communicate with other applications' APIs without exposing sensitive credentials to end users. This abstraction is both secure and makes the integration easier because it eliminates the need for developers to implement complex authorization flows manually or handle authorization tokens directly.

Bigin's Developer Console offers a feature called a connection, which acts as a bridge between your topping and the third-party application you wish to integrate with. Once a connection is configured, you can reference it in your topping's functionalities using its unique link name. This enables the topping to execute REST operations such as fetching, updating, or syncing data with the connected application securely.

Now that we've achieved a basic understanding of what a connection is and how it helps toppings interact with other applications, the next step is to understand the types of connections available in Bigin's Developer Console.

Establishing connections with services

The connections feature in Bigin's Developer Console offers two types of services to help developers configure integrations according to their requirements: default services and custom services. Default services are preconfigured services available in Bigin's Developer Console that simplify integrations with some Zoho and third-party applications. If the application you want to integrate with isn't listed in the default services, you can create a custom service and configure it according to the API specifications of the third-party application.

Default services

The connections feature offers certain default services as preconfigured options that can be easily integrated with Bigin. These services come with predefined settings such as authentication type, token endpoints, scopes, and headers, which reduces the need for manual configuration. Currently, there are around 50 default services available in the Developer Console, covering a wide range of applications and platforms. This enables developers to connect to services with minimal effort.


If the application you want to integrate with your topping isn't listed in the default services, you can create a new custom service.

Custom services

Custom services enable developers to configure all aspects of a connection manually, including the authentication type, endpoints, headers, and scopes, which enables integration with third-party applications.

When setting up a custom service, developers can specify the exact authentication flow required by the external application, whether it's basic authentication, OAuth, an API key, or another method.
Notes
Note:

Refer to the official API documentation of third-party applications when configuring these settings, as this will provide the necessary details for authentication and data access.
To create a custom service, navigate to the Connections section and choose Custom Services in the Developer Console. Based on the authentication type supported, configure the custom service for the required product.


For more details on creating and configuring custom services, please refer to this guide.
Notes
Note:

Always handle sensitive information such as client IDs, client secrets, and API keys securely, and never share them publicly. After configuring and authorizing a custom service, reference it in Deluge scripts and workflow functions by using its unique connection link name, just as you do with default services.
Next, let's look at how to implement the default service connection with an example.

Create a default service connection

Let's say you're developing a Bigin topping to synchronize contact information between Bigin and Zoho Books. This integration enables contacts created or updated in Bigin to be automatically reflected in Zoho Books. The topping uses Zoho Books APIs to create, update, and retrieve customer data using a default service connection.

To create a default service connection for the topping, choose Connections from the left panel of the Developer Console and click Get Started.


Next, navigate to My Connections or Default Services. To fetch data from the Contacts module in Bigin, create a connection first. From Default Services, select Bigin and then click Create Connection to set it up.


The system will prompt you to enter the connection details. Provide a name for the connection (for example: Bigin Connection). A connection link name is generated automatically.

Next, select the scopes required for the topping's functionality. In this use case, select ZohoBigin.modules.ALL to access data from Bigin's Contacts module.

After selecting the scope, click Create and Connect to initiate the authorization process. The system redirects you to the authorization page. Click Connect, and you'll be taken to the service's login page. Choose the Bigin organization for which the topping was created, click submit, and the connection will be created.


After establishing the connection with Bigin, you must also create a connection for Zoho Books to enable record creation. To do this, create a default service connection for Zoho Books, similar to the one created for Bigin. Select the scope ZohoBooks.fullaccess.ALL to grant complete access to modules and operations in Zoho Books.

Once you've created the connections for both Bigin and Zoho Books, the system will generate connection link names for each. These link names must be used in the business logic.



Notes
Notes
Note:

During development, authorize the connection in the Sandbox environment to test integration workflows safely.
To understand the authorization process and how to implement them, please refer to this guide on authorizing connections.


After you authorize the connection, set up a workflow rule in the Bigin Developer Console that gets triggered whenever you create or update a contact in your Bigin account. Here, we need to specify the conditions that apply to the workflow and check that the email field isn't empty.

Notes
Note:

In our use case, we'll use the email address to check whether the newly created contact in Bigin already exists as a customer in Zoho Books.



When the workflow meets the specified conditions, an instant action - in this case, a function - which will execute a custom functionality that performs the following operations:
  1. Retrieves the contact details from Bigin by referencing the established connection link name biginandbooksconnection0__booksconnection.
  2. Searches Zoho Books for an existing contact that matches the email.
  3. If a matching contact exists, update the contact's phone and contact person details in Zoho Books.
  4. If the script doesn't find a matching contact, it creates a new contact in Zoho Books with the relevant information.
Below is the code that automates contact synchronization between Bigin and Zoho Books:
  1. //Retrieve contact details from Bigin using the established connection
  2. biginContact = zoho.bigin.getRecordById("Contacts",contact.get("Contacts.ID"),Map(),"");
  3. //Extract relevant contact data
  4. biginData = biginContact.get("data");
  5. contactDetails = biginData.get(0);
  6. email = contactDetails.get("Email");
  7. phone = contactDetails.get("Phone");
  8. mobile = contactDetails.get("Mobile");
  9. fullName = contactDetails.get("Full_Name");
  10. //Search Zoho Books for existing contacts by email
  11. searchParams = Map();
  12. searchParams.put("search_text", email);
  13. booksContactsResponse = invokeurl
  14. [
  15. url :"https://books.zoho.com/api/v3/contacts"
  16. type :GET
  17. parameters:searchParams
  18. connection:""
  19. ];
  20. info "Searched by name in Books: " + booksContactsResponse;
  21. booksData = booksContactsResponse.get("contacts");
  22. if(booksData != null && booksData.size() > 0)
  23. {
  24. // Extract the existingContactId
  25. existingContactId = booksData.get(0).get("contact_id");
  26. // Update existing contact
  27. updateParams = Map();
  28. updateParams.put("contact_name",fullName);
  29. updateParams.put("phone",phone);
  30. updateParams.put("mobile",mobile);
  31. updateParams.put("email",email);
  32. // Define contact person details
  33. contactPerson = Map();
  34. contactPerson.put("last_name",fullName);
  35. contactPerson.put("mobile",mobile);
  36. contactPerson.put("phone",phone);
  37. contactPerson.put("email",email);
  38. contactPerson.put("is_primary_contact",true);
  39. contactPersonsList = List();
  40. contactPersonsList.add(contactPerson);
  41. updateParams.put("contact_persons",contactPersonsList);
  42. //Prepare and execute update request
  43. parameters_data = Map();
  44. parameters_data.put("JSONString",updateParams.toString());
  45. info "parameters_data value:" + parameters_data;
  46. updateResponse = invokeurl
  47. [
  48. url :"https://books.zoho.com/api/v3/contacts/" + existingContactId + "?organization_id=XXXXXXX"
  49. type :PUT
  50. parameters:parameters_data
  51. connection:""
  52. ];
  53. info "Updated Contact: " + updateResponse;
  54. }
  55. else
  56. {
  57. // Create new contact
  58. contactDetails = Map();
  59. contactDetails.put("contact_name",fullName);
  60. contactDetails.put("email",email);
  61. contactDetails.put("phone",phone);
  62. contactDetails.put("mobile",mobile);
  63. // Define contact person details
  64. contactPerson = Map();
  65. contactPerson.put("last_name",fullName);
  66. contactPerson.put("mobile",mobile);
  67. contactPerson.put("phone",phone);
  68. contactPerson.put("email",email);
  69. contactPerson.put("is_primary_contact",true);
  70. // Add to contact persons list
  71. contactPersonsList = List();
  72. contactPersonsList.add(contactPerson);
  73. contactDetails.put("contact_persons",contactPersonsList);
  74. // Prepare and execute the create request
  75. parameters_data = Map();
  76. parameters_data.put("JSONString",contactDetails.toString());
  77. createResponse = invokeurl
  78. [
  79. url :"https://books.zoho.com/api/v3/contacts?organization_id=XXXXXXX"
  80. type :POST
  81. parameters:parameters_data
  82. connection:""
  83. ];
  84. info "Created Contact: " + createResponse;
  85. }
For details about the API endpoints and request formats used in this code, refer to the Bigin Deluge reference library and Zoho Books contacts API documentation.
After you configure the workflow and associate the function with the instant action, test the topping in the sandbox environment.
  1. To do this, click Test Your Topping in the upper-right corner of the Developer Console. This action will redirect you to the Bigin sandbox account, where you can create a new contact to test whether the functionalities work properly.
  2. After creating a new contact in Bigin, navigate to the Customers module in the Sales section of Zoho Books. When you set up the integration correctly, you'll see the newly created contact here, which confirms that Bigin and Zoho Books are synchronizing as expected. This process provides a safe and effective way to validate the workflow before deploying the topping to a production environment.


In this post, we've explained that default service connections in Bigin simplify authentication and connection with third-party applications by using predefined settings such as authentication type, token endpoints, and scopes. These connections are convenient because the Developer Console pre-configures the authentication flow and endpoints of the application you're integrating with.

To sum up: Bigin's connections feature provides a flexible foundation for integrating with a wide range of external services, and using these connections, developers can extend Bigin's integration capabilities.

Stay tuned for more about developing toppings and exploring other related features available in the Bigin Developer Console.

<< Previous                                                                                                                                                      Next>>                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

    Access your files securely from anywhere

        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 Subscriptions 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

                                                                                                                • Add RTL and Hebrew Support for Candidate Portal (and Other Zoho Recruit Portals)

                                                                                                                  Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you're doing well. We would like to request the ability to set the Candidate Portal to be Right-to-Left (RTL) and in Hebrew, similar to the existing functionality for the Career Site. Currently, when we set the Career Site
                                                                                                                • Delay in rendering Zoho Recruit - Careers in the ZappyWorks

                                                                                                                  I click on the Careers link (https://zappyworks.zohorecruit.com/jobs/Careers) on the ZappyWorks website expecting to see the job openings. The site redirects me to Zoho Recruit, but after the redirect, the page just stays blank for several seconds. I'm
                                                                                                                • How to add interviews through API

                                                                                                                  I'm trying to add an interview without much luck. The documentation gives examples of adding just about everything except an interview. However, the issue might be the way I'm formatting it, because the documentation is unclear to me. It seems as if the xml should be passed in the url, which seems unusual. I've tried the data as both plain and character escaped, but nothing seems to work, nor do I even get an error response. https://recruit.zoho.com/recruit/private/xml/Interviews/addRecords?authtoken=***&scope=recruitapi&version=2&xmlData=<Interviews> <row
                                                                                                                • Connection to other user

                                                                                                                  Zoho Cliq handles sharing of Custom OAuth Connections that require individual user logins.
                                                                                                                • How to invite friends on other social media platforms to one of my group chats in arattai?

                                                                                                                  Hello, I have formed chat groups in arattai. I want to invite my friends on other social media platforms like WhatsApp/ FB to one of my groups. Different friends would be invited to different groups. How to share an invite link of one of my groups to
                                                                                                                • Cliq does not sync messages after Sleep on Mac

                                                                                                                  I'm using the mac app of Cliq. When I open my mac after it was in sleep mode, Cliq does not sync the messages that I received. I always have to reload using cmd + R, which is not what I want when using a chat application.
                                                                                                                • Facing Issues with Sites Mobile font sizes

                                                                                                                  my page renediaz.com is facing issues mobile view, when i try to lower font sizes in home page, instead of changing the size, it changes the line space
                                                                                                                • Search not working!

                                                                                                                  I have items in my notebook tagged but when I search for a tag nothing comes up! Any fix for this?
                                                                                                                • Set expiration date on document and send reminder

                                                                                                                  We have many company documents( for example business registration), work VISA documents. It will be nice if we can set a expiry date and set reminders ( for example 90 days, 60 days, 30 days etc.,) Does Zoho workdrive provide that option?
                                                                                                                • Analytics : How to share to an external client ?

                                                                                                                  We have a use case where a client wants a portal so that several of his users can view dashboards that we have created for them in Zoho Analytics. They are not part of our company or Zoho One account. The clients want the ability to have user specific,
                                                                                                                • Automatically Update Form Attachment Service with Newly added Fields

                                                                                                                  Hi, When I have a Form Setup and connected to a 3rd Party Service such as OneDrive for Form Attachments, when I later add a new Upload Field I have to remove and redo the entire 3rd Party Setup from scratch. This needs to be improved, such as when new
                                                                                                                • Payroll and BAS ( Australian tax report format )

                                                                                                                  Hello , I am evaluating Zoho Books and I find the interface very intuitive and straight forward. My company is currently using Quickbooks Premier the Australian version. Before we can consider moving the service we would need to have the following addressed : 1.Payroll 2.BAS ( business activity statement ) for tax purposes 3.Some form of local backup and possible export of data to a widely accepted format. Regards Codrin Mitin
                                                                                                                • Zoho Desk API - Send Reply to CUSTOMERPORTAL

                                                                                                                  Hello! I'll try to send a reply to Customer Portal, But the response is 500 (INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR in service response). {"Error":"{\"errorCode\":\"INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR\",\"message\":\"An internal server error occurred while performing this operation.\"}"}
                                                                                                                • Python - code studio

                                                                                                                  Hi, I see the code studio is "coming soon". We have some files that will require some more complex transformation, is this feature far off? It appears to have been released in Zoho Analytics already
                                                                                                                • Best practices for managing Project Charters, Business Case and RAID logs within Zoho?

                                                                                                                  Hello everyone, I’m currently refining our PMO setup within Zoho Projects and I’m curious how others are handling high-level governance documentation. We’ve been using the standardized Project Charter, Business Case and RAID frameworks from projectmanagertemplate.com
                                                                                                                • Zoho Books Payroll

                                                                                                                  How am I supposed to do payroll and pay my employees with Zoho Books? I think it's pretty strange that an accounting software doesn't have the ability to perform one of the most common functions in business; paying your employees. Am I missing something,
                                                                                                                • Sort Legend & stacked bar chart by value

                                                                                                                  I'd love to see an option added to sort the legend of graphs by the value that is being represented. This way the items with the largest value in the graph are displayed top down in the legend. For example, let's say I have a large sales team and I create
                                                                                                                • Is It Possible to Convert a Custom Module to a Quote?

                                                                                                                  I recently created a custom module in our CRM environment for RFQs so that our sales team can submit quote requests directly in Zoho rather than by email/phone. This allows for a cleaner overall process, minimizing potential errors and potentially encouraging
                                                                                                                • Proposal: Actionable API Error Messages to Reduce Support Ticket Volume

                                                                                                                  I've encountered a long-standing frustration with how Zoho Creator's API communicates errors to developers, and I'm hoping the Zoho team can address this in a future update. This issue has persisted for over 9 years based on community discussions, and
                                                                                                                • Dynamic Field Folders in OneDrive

                                                                                                                  Hi, With the 2 options today we have either a Dynamic Parent Folder and lots of attachments all in that one folder with only the ability to set the file name (Which is also not incremented so if I upload 5 photos to one field they are all named the same
                                                                                                                • File Conversion from PDF to JPG/PNG

                                                                                                                  Hi, I have a question did  anyone every tried using custom function to convert a PDF file to JPG/PNG format? Any possibility by using the custom function to achieve this within zoho apps.  I do know there are many third parties API provide this with
                                                                                                                • Allocating inventory to specific SO's

                                                                                                                  Is there a way that allocate inventory to a specific sales order? For example, let's say we have 90 items in stock. Customer 1 orders 100 items. This allocates all 90 items to their order, and they have a back order for the remaining 10 items which could
                                                                                                                • Cliq iOS can't see shared screen

                                                                                                                  Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? Regards
                                                                                                                • Closing the Loop: Why Lookup Asymmetry is Harming Data Integrity in Creator

                                                                                                                  TL;DR: Lookup fields allow users to add new related records inline via the "+" icon, but there's no equivalent ability to edit an existing related record without navigating away and losing form context. Adding a native "Edit" icon—with automatic User
                                                                                                                • Add the ability to Hide Pages in Page Rules

                                                                                                                  Hi, We have Field Rules to show and hide fields and we have page Rules, but we can't hide a page in Page Rules so it isn't completed before the previous page (And then have the Deny Rules to prevent submitting without both pages completed), we can only
                                                                                                                • Enable Free External Collaboration on Notecards in Zoho Notebook

                                                                                                                  Hi Zoho Notebook Team, I would like to suggest a feature enhancement regarding external collaboration in Zoho Notebook. Currently, we can share notes with external users, and they are able to view the content without any issue. However, when these external
                                                                                                                • using the Client script on the load of the form if service no is empty means then i want to make issue relate to is Service

                                                                                                                  using the Client script on the load of the form if service no is empty means then i want to make issue relate to field is Service if Purchae no is empty means then i want to make issue relate to is Purchase
                                                                                                                • Changes to the send mail Deluge task in Zoho CRM

                                                                                                                  Hello everyone, At Zoho, we continuously enhance our security measures to ensure a safer experience for all users. As part of our ongoing security enhancements, we're making an important update on using the send mail Deluge task in Zoho CRM. What's changing?
                                                                                                                • Work Order wont mark as Completed

                                                                                                                  I have a couple of work orders that won't mark as completed even when I've marked the Service Appointments as completed fully.
                                                                                                                • Item name special charaters <>

                                                                                                                  Im trying to input speical characters such as < and > into item name and item description but comes up with following error: Invalid value passed for Item Name and Invalid value passed for Item Description How do i allow speical characters?
                                                                                                                • Zoho Analytics Dashboard - How to hide the user filter

                                                                                                                  I am using the same dashboard template across different external clients and applying a user filter to the data by site URL. How can I hide the user filter in View Mode so the external client won't see the list of other clients in the drop-down menu?
                                                                                                                • Customer Parent Account or Sub-Customer Account

                                                                                                                  Some of clients as they have 50 to 300 branches, they required separate account statement with outlet name and number; which means we have to open new account for each branch individually. However, the main issue is that, when they make a payment, they
                                                                                                                • Kaizen #229: Email-Deal Associations in Zoho CRM

                                                                                                                  Hi All, Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! Emails are a core channel for customer communication in any CRM system. In Zoho CRM, emails can be associated with records across multiple modules. In this post, we will focus on email associations with
                                                                                                                • Action Required: Update Microsoft SQL Server Security Settings Before February 2026

                                                                                                                  Dear Users, We recently deployed security updates in Zoho Analytics that inadvertently caused connection failures for a few customers using Microsoft (MS) SQL Server hosted on older Windows versions (Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2, and 2014). To restore
                                                                                                                • Contacts limit in basic vs standard - what counts? Are customers contacts?

                                                                                                                  I’ve been using books for a number years for my small business. I only ever work with 20 clients at any given time. I do purchase services from a number of vendors to run my business, so there are some comtacts there too. I used to use the basic package,
                                                                                                                • Saving issue

                                                                                                                  First problem I opened a MS word file in writer. after the work is done, it does not save instantly, I waited for like 10min and it still did not save. second problem When I save a file, then file gets saved as another copy. I just did save, not save
                                                                                                                • Automating Employee Birthday Notifications in Zoho Cliq

                                                                                                                  Have you ever missed a birthday and felt like the office Grinch? Fear not, the Cliq Developer Platform has got your back! With Zoho Cliq's Schedulers, you can be the office party-cipant who never forgets a single cake, balloon, or awkward rendition of
                                                                                                                • Create Tasklist with Tasklist Template using API v3

                                                                                                                  In the old API, we could mention the parameter 'task_template_id' when creating a tasklist via API to apply a tasklist template: https://www.zoho.com/projects/help/rest-api/tasklists-api.html#create-tasklist In API v3 there does not seem to be a way to
                                                                                                                • Ability to Set a Unified Tab Order/View for All Users in Zoho Projects

                                                                                                                  Hello Zoho Projects Team, We hope you are doing well. We would like to submit a feature request regarding tab/menu organization in Zoho Projects. Current Behavior: The tab (module) order in Zoho Projects is user-specific. Each user (internal or external)
                                                                                                                • Task Order

                                                                                                                  Hello! I've recently switched to Zoho Projects and a long time user of MS Project, Asana and LiquidPlanner (which has recently been purchased) and I'm running into a frustration I'm hoping someone can assist with. It has to do with how tasks are ordered
                                                                                                                • Next Page