Extension pointers #14: Extend end-user benefits and allow personalization by implementing extensions with custom actions
From our earlier post on custom actions, we know that we can create templated actions, share them with end users, and allow them to reuse those actions to achieve personalized outcomes. In this post, we'll look at how custom actions make it easy for users to carry out these templated tasks to get customized results.
Consider the following scenario: a hardware company that already uses Zoho CRM then utilizes Zoho Projects to implement and work on the deals they've won. Assume that the Zoho Projects portal has two projects: one for handling smaller revenue deals that require minimum development and less time, and the other for managing larger revenue dealsthat will eventually demand more time and resources for execution.
As an end user processing deals in Zoho CRM, it would be extremely convenient for the company to have the deals automatically fall into the appropriate projects, such as a task based on the expected revenue. Furthermore, it would be ideal to send emails to the customer with whom they have made the deal to request anything needed from their end in order to move forward with the implementation of the deal. Let's see how we can achieve this with the help of custom actions.
We have detailed posts on the steps to create a custom action along with a live example. Now, let's reiterate and go over the steps to achieving the above use case.
Developer activities
1. Create a connector for Zoho Projects.
2. Create a custom user interface (widget-connected app) that allows the user to select the project where the deal should be created as a task, as well as add the personalized email subject and body that will be sent to the user.
3. Create a custom action in the Zoho Developer console.
- Associate the custom user interface to the custom action.
- Define an action that creates a task in the selected project and also sends an email to the customer based on the values entered by the end user in the custom UI.
Extension/end-user activities
4. Create workflows as an end-user (i.e., set criteria on expected revenue; provide personalized values for email subject and body, and choose the project in which the deal fulfilling the set criteria should be created as a task) and assign a custom action to them.
Developer activities
1. Creating a connector
- Create a new connector in your extension for Zoho Projects using the Connectors feature under Utilities in the left panel of the Zoho Developer console.
Note: Zoho Projects follows the OAuth 2.0 protocol for its authentication mechanism. You can refer to this post to learn more about the steps to register Zoho Projects and retrieve your client credentials.
- Add the necessary connector APIs for your functionality.
- The Zoho Projects REST APIs added for our example are mentioned below.
Connector API Name | Method type | URL |
Get Projects | GET | https://projectsapi.zoho.com/restapi/portal/${portalid}/projects/ |
Create project task | POST | https://projectsapi.zoho.com/restapi/portal/${portalid}/projects/${projectid}/tasks/?name=${name}&description=${description} |
2. Create a custom user interface:
1. Create a custom user interface that allows the end user to select the project in which they want to create the deal as a task, as well as enter the email subject and body that should be sent to the contact associated with the deal.
2. You can find the HTML code for the custom UI as an attachment to the post.
- In the HTML code, we have two text fields to get the user inputs for the email subject and body.
- We have also invoked the connector API to get projects from a portal. The response is then populated and displayed as a dropdown list to allow the user to select the project in which they want the deal to be created as a task.
- In the HTML code snippet, we have hard coded a static value for the Zoho Projects portal.
Note: Depending on your business use case requirements, you can create custom variables to prompt the user to input their Zoho Project portal ID, or you can create a setting widget that displays the user's portals, allowing the user to choose the portal in which they want to have the deals created as tasks as well.
- ZOHO.CRM.ACTION.setConfig - In this example, we have utilized the setConfig method. This method can be used to set values to variables which can be retrieved later through the widget's page load response.
➤ For our example, we have used the setConfig method to set various Zoho CRM deal and email (subject and body) user input values to variables. We have later obtained these saved values through the widget's page load response, which contains a configdata key with these set data as its values.➤ Sample page load response when ZOHO.CRM.ACTION.setConfig is used in our example:
"module": "Deals", "configdata": { DealTest: "Sample Digital Marketing Project" Dealdescription: "${!Deals.Description}" Dealname: "${!Deals.Deal_Name}" Message: "Sample Message" Subject: "Deal Won!" To: "${!Deals.Contact_Name.Email}" |
➤ We have then used the preset saved values available in the configdata key to prepopulate the widget UI every time it loads.
3. Create a custom action
- Go to the Zoho Developer console and select the extension in which you want to create the custom action.
- Create a custom action by navigating through Automate - > Custom Actions, under the Build section in the left panel. Click Create Action.
- Enter the Custom Action Name and Description. Click Next.
- Provide the location of the html file (widget UI) to complete the resource path. Click Next, then click Create Function.
- Enter the Deluge function to perform our use case functionality.
- Click Save & Close, then click Save.
Deluge function code snippet:
dynamic_map = Map(); dynamic_map.put("portalid","xxxxxx"); dynamic_map.put("projectid",input.config.get("Dealproject")); dynamic_map.put("name",input.config.get("Dealname")); dynamic_map.put("description",input.config.get("Dealdescription")); response = zoho.crm.invokeConnector("xxxxx.zohoprojects.createprojecttask",dynamic_map); sendmail [ from :zoho.adminuserid to :input.config.get("To") subject :input.config.get("Subject") message :input.config.get("Message") ] |
- In the above Deluge code, we have performed the functionality of creating the deal as a task in Projects and sending an email to the deal's contact with the input provided by the end user in their CRM account while associating the custom action to a workflow.
Custom action in effect (End-user):
Create workflows:
- As an end user who has the extension which features the custom action installed in the Zoho CRM account, go ahead and create workflows to define criteria and associate the custom action.
- In our case, we have two workflows:
➤ One for smaller deals where the expected revenue is less than 1000 USD
➤ One for larger deals where the expected revenue is greater than or equal to 1000USD
- Upon choosing the custom action, the custom UI appears where-in you can provide user specific input for email body and subject and also choose the project where you want deal to be created as a task in Zoho Projects.
Smaller revenue deals:
Larger revenue deals:
- When a deal with the necessary criteria is satisfied, an email is sent out to the deal's contact with the subject and body provided by the end user. A task is also created in Zoho Projects with some specific deal details.
This is one business case where you can use custom action. As a parallel use case to the above example itself, say you have multiple projects in Zoho Projects, each used to work on different case categories (bugs, issues, feature request, etc.). You could develop the same kind of template and allow end users to configure the criteria and outcomes accordingly.
You could also use custom actions feature to perform templated actions to obtain personalized outcomes depending on your business needs. We hope you found this information helpful. Keep following this space for more information!
SEE ALSO:
Access your files securely from anywhere
Centralize Knowledge. Transform Learning.
All-in-one knowledge management and training platform for your employees and customers.
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
Sticky Posts
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.Kaizen #226: Using ZRC in Client Script
Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. In today's post, lets see what is ZRC (Zoho Request Client) and how we can use ZRC methods in Client Script to get inputs from a Salesperson and update the Lead status with a single button click. In thisKaizen #222 - Client Script Support for Notes Related List
Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. The final Kaizen post of the year 2025 is here! With the new Client Script support for the Notes Related List, you can validate, enrich, and manage notes across modules. In this post, we’ll explore howKaizen #217 - Actions APIs : Tasks
Welcome to another week of Kaizen! In last week's post we discussed Email Notifications APIs which act as the link between your Workflow automations and you. We have discussed how Zylker Cloud Services uses Email Notifications API in their custom dashboard.Kaizen #216 - Actions APIs : Email Notifications
Welcome to another week of Kaizen! For the last three weeks, we have been discussing Zylker's workflows. We successfully updated a dormant workflow, built a new one from the ground up and more. But our work is not finished—these automated processes are
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
Zoho books - Project Module - Itemised expenses
Hi All, I heavily use the projects function in Zoho books and can work for one client for successive weeks, providing labour and incurring the occasional general expenses. As an example, during the one purchase, I purchase 10 widgets and of these 10,Urgent Security Feature Request – Add MFA to Zoho Projects Client Portal Hello Zoho Projects Team,
Hello Zoho Projects Team, We hope you are doing well. We would like to submit an urgent security enhancement request regarding the Zoho Projects Client Portal. At this time, as far as we are aware, there is no Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) availableFull Module-Level Access Control for Custom Profiles in Zoho Projects
Hello Zoho Projects Team, We hope you are doing well. We would like to submit a feature request regarding access control limitations in custom user profiles within Zoho Projects. Current Behavior: We created a custom profile intended for support agents,How to save custom report for future use ?
Dear, How to save custom report for future use ? Thanks & Regards Shamnad 94460055258Need to be able to save Customized Reports
There are several standard reports in zoho books. Each of these can be 'customized' with various parameters - BUT, these cannot be saved for re-use later. In several of the zoho modules you can customize a search list (eg for Estimates or Invoices etc)Zoho Mail Android app update: UI revamp
Hello everyone! We are excited to share that the first phase of the Zoho Mail Android UI revamp is now live. In this update, we have redesigned navigation bar at the bottom to quickly access the Email, Calendar, Contacts, and Settings modules. Also, theSplit Bills/Expsense between multiple projects and/or clients
I need to be able to split vendor invoices/ expenses between multiple clients. Entering the bill multiple times is not only time consuming, it defeats the purpose of having a unquie identifity bill number and will allow for possible duplicated entry. Below is an example from Quickbooks Desktop. Splitting costs over various projects is a common job costing function that I am very sad and surprised is not an option in Zoho Books. Unless I am missing it somewhere? Thanks for your help!Vendor bills cannot be assigned to a customer or a customer project?
I'm confused on how to handle outsourced contractor expenses on a customer project. Between my business and the contractor, the invoice they send me fits obviously into Zoho Books as a Bill. However, I need to be able record those expenses to the clientA few suggestions for Zoho Books
Hello. I've been evaluating Zoho Books for a small law firm practice. The interface is solid and I like the integration of accounting and time tracking, which is hard to find among cloud based services. I have a few suggestions that would be very helpful in determining whether we can adopt Zoho Books: 1. Be able to assign bills to clients/projects. Quickbooks desktop allows this and is very helpful in keeping track of bills that haven't been paid, but will be invoiced to clients as an expense. CreatingBook project costs to tasks
Hi all, New to zoho but far from new to this sort of platform. I've been scouring the web for a suitable platform for my growing business. I'm currently using Xero and WorkFlow Max but it lacks a key need. I signed up to zoho projects and books to testProject expenses in Zoho Books
Just the way timesheet is used to calculate labour cost for a particular project, how do i record other expenses against a project such as materials and consumables used for the project? So that under report, I can view the total amount expended on eachSupplier Purchase Orders applied to a Project
We are finding it difficult to decide the best way track project expenses in Zoho books and would like to know how other users are handling this task. We provide Professional Services and engage 3rd party Suppliers on most projects and provide them withAnyone using Books to track Project Profitability? If so, I could use some guidance
Hello Zoho Community. I am a recent subscriber to Zoho, and its part of an ongoing evaluation. My company (and my clients) have extensive project-tracking needs. The Projects module seems to be good from a project management standpoint, but I am perplexeddate & datetime client script getInput types
Please add date & datetime as available types for the getInput client script function. https://www.zohocrm.dev/explore/client-script/clientapi/Client#getInputOpt-out from mailing list means can't email at all??
It seems that if a contact unsubscribes from a mailing list the only way to email them is to uncheck the email opt-out box first, then re-check after the email has been sent. I've been through a chat with support and they confirmed this. This seems bizarre. Many of my clients don't want to receive a monthly newsletter but they definitely want to be in email communication with me, often on a daily basis. Any thoughts out there?Email Opt Out Question
Has the problem where if a customer is emailed opt out prevents you sending standard emails? For me this feature is simply to stop any email marketing and should not block people from receiving emails via Zoho mobile, which makes no sense.Multi-currency and Products
One of the main reasons I have gone down the Zoho route is because I need multi-currency support. However, I find that products can only be priced in the home currency, We sell to the US and UK. However, we maintain different price lists for each. ThereApproval Workflow Not Triggering When Status Updated via Custom Button
Hi Team, I’m facing an issue with an approval workflow in my application. I have a workflow that updates a record’s Status field from “Pending” to “Waiting for Approval.” I have configured an Approval Workflow with the condition: Status = "Waiting forZoho TeamInbox stuck / unusable – possible orphaned organization?
Hi all, I’m running into an issue with Zoho TeamInbox under Zoho One Trial and wondering if anyone has seen this before. We’re trying to set up a shared inbox for orders (orders@), but TeamInbox appears to be in a broken state: • The app does not loadAudio transcript not working in Zoho notebook
Greetings all! I'm enjoying the Zoho notebook as I tested out over other notebook applications. I would really love the audio transcripts to work as that would save us a lot of time so that we can utilize the notes from an audio recording. Currently whenRe: Application Architecture in Zoho Creator — A Platform-Specific Deep Dive
A recent community post on application architecture made some excellent points about planning architecture early in Zoho Creator projects. The core message is right — Creator applications have a habit of growing organically into maintenance nightmares,Schedule Timeout 5 minutes vs. stated 15 minutes
I am running into a function run timeout error after 5 minutes for my schedules. The Functions - Limits documents states it should be 15 minutes: Functions - Limits | Online Help - Zoho CRM. What should it actually be? Due to the 5 minute timeout, I'mCliq 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 ? RegardsPlaceholders in Ticket Templates
We should be able to use placeholders in ticket templates. When we create a new ticket, our description field is shown to the client in the email they receive. It would be very handy to be able to personalize that description field in our ticket templates to pull in the name of the client that the ticket is for. Using them in the subject field as well, so we can auto populate Account Names, etc.Favorite Views list sort order?
Is there a way to rearrange the Favorite Views list?Will I see emails sent via campaigns in CRM?
It would be useful for people to be able to see emails sent via campagins in Zoho CRM is that possible?Introducing Product Catalog in Bigin
Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well. For many small businesses, sharing products and collecting customer interest often involves multiple tools, manual follow-ups, or even building a full ecommerce website. To address this challenge, we're excitedProducts in Email Template
I’m a little confused as to how to add the listed products, from within a specific deal, to an email template. I want to generate said email template when a deal reaches a specific stage and include the products that have been selected for the deal inOption for - CSV Export from Pipeline Deals by Stage (Including Products, Companies, and Contacts)
I would like to know when we will be able to export a simple CSV file from pipeline deals, with the option to select a specific stage within the pipeline. This export should include data for products, companies, and contacts, all in a single view. ForZoho Billing Partial Proration...
Hi, In Zoho billing, we offer upgrades, downgrades, suspends, and resumes. We use online payment for most subscriptions, but have only a few that are offline, but we treat them the same either way.. We prorate only parts of these changes.. Right now zohoAnnouncing Zoho Sheet desktop app for macOS and Windows (Beta)
Hello Sheet users, We know you’ve been waiting for this one. It has always been the top priority on our roadmap to provide a single native desktop app for macOS and Windows that works both online and offline. Today, we are excited to announce that theWhat is the maximum length/size of a presentation on Apple TV?
Hello, I have a presentation here that I regularly show on Apple TV. It’s always the same presentation, which keeps getting longer and more extensive over time. Almost every slide contains a graphic or photo that takes up the entire slide. That means:CRM Notes
Hello, We want to add a Note to the Contact record when a Note is added to a Case or Deal. I wasn't able to do this using a workflow, so I tried using Zoho Flow, but that didn't work either. Does anyone have a suggestion on how we can accomplish thiZoho Books | Product updates | April 2026
Hello users, Welcome to our April 2026 product updates roundup! Highlights include profit margin for sales transactions, insights in reports, recording deposits from undeposited funds in banking, and faster production workflows with improved assemblySorter View No Longer Works Properly
Today I realized that sorter view no longer works properly. I believe just yesterday, I was able to drag a slide or a group of slides and move it/them to the place I want to move it/them to. While I was dragging, I got a visual feedback of where I couldIgnroe_filtrers and drill through
I have two charts, where one is connected to the other using drill-through. The issue is with the second chart (the drill-through target). It contains an aggregation formula that uses the ignore_filters function. Under normal conditions, the formula workszoho creator panel add formula
Hello. I'm using zoho panels which works good for me but i need to add an extra calculation the predefined sum function provided by zoho. not sure if this is possible? The code zoho is generating for the sum is as follows; <text margin='0px' padding='0px'Kaizen #238: Fetching Employee Data from Microsoft SQL Server into Zoho CRM Using Queries
Hello everyone! Welcome back to the Kaizen series! Many organizations manage workforce data such as employee designations, contact details, salary bands, and joining dates in an HRMS backed by Microsoft SQL Server, while their sales teams work in ZohoDu prompt à la production : comprendre le fonctionnement du MCP
Le Model Context Protocol (MCP) est un protocole ouvert qui standardise la manière dont les applications se connectent aux modèles de langage (LLM). En termes simples, le MCP est le « USB-C des agents IA » : une interface universelle qui relie l’intelligenceAdd Flexible Recurrence Options for Meeting Scheduling in Zoho Cliq (e.g., Every 2 Weeks)
Hello Zoho Cliq Team, We hope you are doing well. Currently, when scheduling a meeting inside Zoho Cliq, the recurrence options are limited to Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly. There is no ability to set a meeting to occur every X weeks — for example,Next Page