Extension Pointers #16: A way to sort through the stack and find a solution that works for you
Throughout the 'Extension Pointers' series, we've seen the features available in Zoho Developer platform that are helpful in building extensions for business needs. In this post, we've listed all of them for your quick reference. This will serve as a guide featuring a map between the need for a desired outcome and an approachable solution to achieve it.
Let's say you're planning to customize your Zoho CRM account by adding new features and functionalities that are unique to your business process. How can you build and deliver the enhancements as an installable component when needed? |
Extensions are applications designed to enhance the features of the existing Zoho products, or to integrate a third-party application with Zoho software for different enterprise needs. If you want to develop additional features to enhance the existing Zoho CRM functionality set, you can do so by building extensions. The scope of each extension lies within the different use cases that are handled during its development.
Sigma is the unified Zoho Developer platform available for developers to build and host extensions for different Zoho applications. Depending on your business needs as a developer, you can choose to create an extension using Sigma that acts as one of the following:
- An extension which adds to the core functionality of a Zoho product
- An integration between a third-party application and a Zoho product
Are you looking to establish connections with third-party applications for seamless data integration with Zoho CRM? Learn the possibilities provided in the platform |
You can integrate with third-party applications using either connectors or the custom variables option depending on the user authentication method supported by the third-party app.
- If the third-party application supports OAuth mode for user authentication, connection can be established via connectors. Learn more about connectors with an example.
- If the third-party application supports the API key for user authentication, connection can be established via custom variables. Learn in detail about custom variables with an example.
A Custom UI helps portraying information in a personalized manner. How can you create a customized UI for your extension? |
The creation of a customized UI can be achieved in the Zoho Developer platform using the Connected App feature. You can build a widget and associate it with your extension as a connected app. The connected app can be embedded either as a custom button, a related list, or a web tab in Zoho CRM, depending on your needs.
Take a look at the Widget posts (Part-1 and Part-2) to understand the steps involved in creating a widget.
Zoho CRM APIs supported in JS SDK helps to interact with third-party applications. Using these APIs, we can invoke connectors and GET APIs accordingly by constructing the required parameters. Refer to the example on how to invoke connector through API while building a widget. Similarly, take a look at building third-party integrations by incorporating Custom variables into widgets.
Say you want to get real-time data updates from a third-party application integrated with your Zoho CRM account and take action based on the updated data collected from the application. What might be useful in this scenario? |
Webhook plays an integral role in connecting two applications. Whenever an event occurs in a source application, a web callback occurs, and the webhook posts the real-time data to the required application. Learn the detailed steps involved in handling real-time updates between Zoho CRM and third-party applications using webhooks.
In addition to fetching and processing real-time data from an application, you may also want to receive real-time notifications that alert you on the occurrence of an event and help you act accordingly in your Zoho CRM account. How can you receive these customized real-time notifications in your Zoho CRM? |
The Signals feature enables an efficient and smooth customer interaction experience through the provision of real-time notifications. This helps you keep track of all your customer interactions from different channels in a single platform. It also supports actionable alerts and allows you to customize notifications for different events.
Check out the post on defining and raising a signal to receive timely notifications for a working example to help your understanding.
Say you want to test the functionality of your extension that you built before you publish it. How can you test your extension locally? |
The platform offers an isolated sandbox environment that allows you to test your extension functionality locally. Once you have finished building the extension, click the Test Your Extension button to test the extension in the sandbox environment. You can make changes and test the extension as many times as you want until you get your functionality right.
Have you finished building the extension to meet your needs? What could be done next to make this available to others? |
You can choose to publish your extension as either a private extension or a public extension.
Private Extension: Extensions built for personal or specific organizational purposes. When you publish a private extension, a hashed URL link is made available, which can be privately shared to the users to install the extension.
Public Extension: Extensions listed in Zoho Marketplace. They are available to all Zoho users for installation and use.
We hope this post has helped you gain a better understanding of the features available in Developer Platform that you can use in various scenarios.Please refer to the links provided for an in-depth study of the concepts with the help of a working example.
Trying to understand more about the Developer Platform's ability to develop extensions, stay tuned and follow this space.
See Also:
Access your files securely from anywhere
New to Zoho Recruit?
Zoho Developer Community
New to Zoho LandingPage?
Zoho LandingPage Resources
New to Zoho Survey?
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Bigin?
Topic Participants
Nanditha Somasundaram Somasundaram
Developer
Sticky Posts
Kaizen #197: Frequently Asked Questions on GraphQL APIs
🎊 Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – We want to hear from you! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.Kaizen #198: Using Client Script for Custom Validation in Blueprint
Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – 1 More to the Big Two-Oh-Oh! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.Celebrating 200 posts of Kaizen! Share your ideas for the milestone post
Hello Developers, We launched the Kaizen series in 2019 to share helpful content to support your Zoho CRM development journey. Staying true to its spirit—Kaizen Series: Continuous Improvement for Developer Experience—we've shared everything from FAQsKaizen #193: Creating different fields in Zoho CRM through API
🎊 Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – We want to hear from you! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.Client Script | Update - Introducing Commands in Client Script!
Have you ever wished you could trigger Client Script from contexts other than just the supported pages and events? Have you ever wanted to leverage the advantage of Client Script at your finger tip? Discover the power of Client Script - Commands! Commands
New to Zoho TeamInbox?
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
Design. Discuss. Deliver.
Zoho Show Resources
Get Started. Write Away!
Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.
Zoho CRM コンテンツ
-
オンラインヘルプ
-
Webセミナー
-
機能活用動画
-
よくある質問
-
Ebook
-
-
Zoho Campaigns
- Zoho サービスのWebセミナー
その他のサービス コンテンツ
Nederlandse Hulpbronnen
ご検討中の方
Recent Topics
Custom service report or Zoho forms integration
Hello, So far the experience with Zoho FSM and the integration with Books has been good, however there are limitations with service reports. As with my business, many organisations send technicians to different types of jobs that call for a differentPre-fill Email field on Zoho Forms
Hello there, How do we automatically pre-fill the email address field of a Zoho Form from the data that is in CRM? Thanks, JoelWebhook Trigger for New Messages in Cliq Channels
Hello, I would like to request a feature to enable webhook triggers when a new message is added to a Cliq channel. This functionality would allow us to seamlessly send important information from Cliq to other relevant systems. This webhook trigger canUnable to add subdomain email account under the main email account
Hi, Is it possible to add a subdomain email account, like sky@agent.rebrightrental.com from the Admin Console of admin@rebrightrental.com in Zoho Mail? Or is that not possible? I want to create at least 3, like oak@agent.rebrightrental.com, bliss@agent.rebrightrental.com,How to delete a large number of emails
Since no one else seems to be asking this, there must be something in the zoho mail interface that I am failing to see. Not looking for an automatic method. Instead, when I sort email by sender, I want to be able to select all emails from a sender andwant to renew my account
I am not getting email - it seems renewal of account is required. pls check and advise how to renew the account and what would be the chargesMail app and desktop on chrome not syncing properly.
Yesterday I spent a significant amount of time on the computer moving emails to different folders, and deleting several. This morning, I realized on my zoho mail app it still showed all the emails in the inbox. Nothing had synced. I couldn't find a syncCan't connect to Thunderbird
Setting up Thunderbird I get an error message: "Unable to log in at server. Probably wrong configuration, username or password". The password and email address are definitely correct as I used them to log in to webmail. My settings are definitely correctCan't receive emails, but can send
I setup a mail using the domain @shopik.io. I set this up using the correct CNAME record on Namecheap. When I tried to send a test mail from my Gmail account it was not able to send and I got the following error; The response from the remote server was:Unable to send message;Reason:550 5.4.6 Unusual sending activity detected. Please try after sometime
Hello i'm unable to send any email because i keep getting this error Unable to send message;Reason:550 5.4.6 Unusual sending activity detected. Please try after sometime i have literally sent less than 10 emails today i'm not sure why i'm getting thisPartial refunds
I am trying to process refund for a one item invoice, however the refund is partial: i am getting this error while creating credit note, can anyone share some wisdom about thisTickets are enabled but not showing in zoho desk widget
Hi, I have a Zoho Desk ASAP JWT widget inside my app. I enabled the KB, tickets, and salesIQ chat (screenshot 1), but only the KB and chat are showing on my app widget (screenshot 2). Can you help? Thank youdefault to display images in mail
How do I set my mail settings to default to display images, rather than asking me each time I open a message? Thanks, SupZoho CRM Theme Color?
I've read multiple articles stating it's possible to change Zoho CRM theme colour (top menu bar) from personal settings menu, however, my zoho has no options for this at all and I've looked everywhere........has this feature been removed? I'm currentlyUS Zipcode Mapping for Sales Tax areas
In its current form, Zoho Commerce maps tax percentage to different states. Due to the wide variety of tax areas within each state, it would be much better to map sales tax against each individual zip code. In addition, it would be highly desirable toNew Emails not being received in Zoho Email account
I have built a new website for my client, who has an email address like his_address@zohomail.eu (example). When his customers use the Contact Form on his website, the notification emails are sent to an address as his domain name, and the Webhost automaticallyCustom Function : Copy multilookup field to text field
Hi, I'm a newbie on function programming, I try to copy text from a multi lookup field named "societe" to a text field named "societe2". I've used this code. In deluge script it seems to work, but when I trigger this function it doesn't work (Societe2Relocating the server from Europe to the UAE
We are experiencing issues with the sales templates and attempted to collaborate with the companies you recommended to assist with the templates. Unfortunately, we were unable to add their email addresses to our panel due to an error (The ERROR is: USERget statement as file pdf to send in whatsapp template
hello i have the following url which sends an email with the statement attached sendStatement = invokeurl [ url: "https://www.zohoapis" + dc + "/books/v3/contacts/" + customerID + "/statements/email?start_date=" + start_date + "&end_date=" + end_dateI already configured DKIM Records, and other records as well
I already configured DKIM Records, and other records as well but it is still going like a spam mailNo recibo correos
Buena tarde. No estoy recibiendo correo en Zoho mail, pero si puedo enviar. Como puedo solucinarlo?Email not sending on Iphone on (1) account. Works with the others and set up thesame.
When I attempt to send an email on one of our accounts on my iphone, It doesn't and. then comes back with an error message.. I've reviewed my other two accounts, and they both work fine on my iphone, it's just this one account.. I've also looked at theReceive the incoming emails of my users
Guys, I need some help. As an admin, can I receive all the incoming emails from my users?I couldn't create new email "connect@cafeconnet.lk"
Dear Manager, I want to create new email "connect@cafeconnect.lk" but I can't do that. Please help me for that.didnt add my soho account Mail
i cant add my soho account arturo@thrivechile.com in Mail (apple)How to apply customized Zoho Crm Home Page to all users?
I have tried to study manuals and play with Zoho CRM but haven't found a way how to apply customized Zoho CRM Home Page as a (default) home page for other CRM users.. How that can be done, if possible? - kipi Moderation Update: The option to mark a customizedZoho Projects > Workdrive Integration - Where can you find your files in Workdrive?
Following the instructions here: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/projects/integration/zoho-apps/articles/zoho-workdrive-integration#Benefits Put a file in the Documents section of a Project. Then Trying to navigate to the Team Folder in WorkDrive andHow to set custom Sales Order numbers
I am trying to create Sales Orders with data from Jotform submissions. Auto number generation is disabled within Books. Whereas the flow Input recognizes the number (40732 in this example), the Output does not. How can I fix this? I'd like the numberZoho desktop problem when using 2 displays
I have a Microsoft Surface Pro with a second display attached. When I open Zoho mail desktop and place the window on on the second display and I keep the display attached, everything works fine. HOWEVER: when I then detach the second display (the ZohoAssign Multilpe Owners to a Single Deal and Split Revenue Between the Two
Hello, In our business, it is common for 2 sales reps to co-manage a deal. As such, I would like to add 2 co-owners to a deal within CRM, and then split the revenue generated by a deal between both owners in our analytics. We are currently tracking thisMix and Match Email Plan
Dear Zoho Sales Team, I hope you’re doing well. I am currently subscribed to Zoho Mail Premium with one account. However, I would like to modify my plan by adding two Mail Lite (10GB) accounts alongside my existing subscription. Could you please confirmComprehensive guide to add users
We've received quite a few questions regarding adding users to the Zoho Sprints workspace. So we decided to address it through a comprehensive post covering the locations (modules or tabs) from which you can add your users. Adding users to your workspaceHow to monitor hybrid projects?
Hybrid project management sounds great, but, with projects being run on different project management methods, how can we monitor the overall progress and derive insights from them? If you've got this question as well, Zoho Projects Plus’ dashboards haveLearning how to customize templates via code and best practices
Hi! Our developers team want to learn how to edit our template files safely. The last time we messed with these files our site went down for a day and we had to reconfigure it from scratch. What are the best practices to do this? How can we get a templateULAA threat
My Sentinal One app just killed ULAA as a threat. I reinstalled, killed it again. I opened ZohoOne CRM in Chrome it worked however it was a least 1 if not 2 backsteps from the version I'm using. Is anyone else having this exerience?Seventh Insight - Organize your data using Modules
The Wheels of Ticketing - Desk Stories Organize your data using Modules What are Modules? Modules in Zoho Desk are powerful organizational tools that facilitate efficient help desk operations. There are eight standard modules, each designed to manageArgument Mapping went missing?
How can I access the IDs from the mass action button when argument mapping is unavailable or missing?Properly split form fields across report rows?
Hi all, I’m trying to split file uploads from a form into separate report rows with a shared Title. Example: Form input: Title + File A + File B Desired result: Row 1: Title + File A Row 2: Title + File B Current Logic: In On Created or Edited and OnEmail Alerts with Affected Flow Details When Deprecating Modules in Zoho Creator
Dear Zoho Creator Team, We would like to request an enhancement to the module deprecation process in Zoho Creator. 🧩 Current Limitation: Currently, when a module is deprecated by the Creator team: No email notifications are sent. There is no automatedProblem importing TSV file: File contains empty string as column header(s).
I tried importing a TSV file into Books, and got this message: "File contains empty string as column header(s). Please check the content and try again." I've looked at the file I'm trying to import, and the columns all have labels in the first row. Help?Next Page