Hi All,

Last week we announced Cliq with a lot of cool features that helps you collaborate effectively and boost your workplace productivity. Cliq also comes with a powerful platform that lets you customise the software to suit your requirements, build and sell applications to  Cliq user base. Cliq is also available across all Zoho apps as the mini chat bar and hence you can build apps for the whole Zoho customer base.

The key insight behind Cliq platform is to provide a source to enable automation of your trivial workplace activities as well as complex workflows. You can build a workspace specific component just for yourself or for your team or even make it accessible for the entire organization. 

Cliq components can be programmed to work with your organization's internal tools. Commands, Bots, Message Actions and Functions are the components of Cliq. All these components can be programmed to invoke a deluge function so when a user interacts with the components the corresponding deluge task will be triggered. 

An overview of Cliq components is given below:

1.Commands:

Slash commands can be used to perform an action in an external application right at the comfort of the chat window. This can also pull data and display it inside the chat window. 

For example, a /task command that displays the tasks assigned to you in your project management software inside a chat window. 

Read about command execution and suggestions here. 

2. Bots:

A bot is just like a contact and Cliq users can subscribe and chat with them. Bots can be programmed to respond to the messages sent to them. Bots can also notify about an event happening at an external application right inside your chat window. It's interesting to learn what bots are actually capable of doing! Check the bot handlers document here.

A case in point is the Helpdesk bot that can notify you when a ticket is assigned to you. The bot can also give you the list of tickets that are due EOD, when you send a message like "'Show me the pending tickets".

3. Message Actions:

Message actions can be used to perform an action on a message. These actions  can be  configured for different message types, i.e text, attachment or links. 

Take a look at our platform guide to understand how message actions work.

For example, the message action "Add File", can add a file shared in a chat to your Google Drive account.

4. Functions:

Functions work with buttons available in a message. A deluge function can be invoked when the button is clicked, and the response can be rendered as a message in the chat window. 

Here's where you can learn more about functions! 

5. Connections:

Connections are essential to integrate Cliq with external services (third party applications). You can either choose from a number of existing default connections or create a custom connection in case your favourite application is not listed in the default connections. Connection supports Basic Authentication, OAuth 1 & OAuth 2 authentication modes. Users can manage all their connections used by the platform in a single management console. 

Cliq Applications:

Build apps for a wider audience by creating components and publishing it in Marketplace. You can make revenue out of your app by publishing it under the paid app category. Cliq does not get any commission for the revenue generated by your application. Cliq platform takes care of the maintenance and the billing, thus allowing you to concentrate only on the business logic of the apps. Take a look at our app development guide to know more.

So start building components with Zoho Cliq platform now! 

Regards,

Manasa Manogaran