Extension Pointers for Integrating Zoho CRM with Zoho services #2: Handle and manage your Zoho CRM cases efficiently by integrating Zoho Projects and associating cases with tasks

Extension Pointers for Integrating Zoho CRM with Zoho services #2: Handle and manage your Zoho CRM cases efficiently by integrating Zoho Projects and associating cases with tasks

Integrating customer relationship management and project management contributes to the development of an overall effective business management strategy. 

You can integrate Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects through extensions to achieve your desired functionalities and manage your business from a single location. The previous post in the 'Integrating Zoho CRM with Zoho services' series described how to register your Zoho application and retrieve the client credential in order to connect Zoho CRM to the Zoho service of your choice through an extension. In this post, we'll look at how to integrate Zoho CRM with Zoho Projects, along with an example.

Let's consider a scenario in which support representatives handling cases in Zoho CRM need to forward cases that are registered as feature requests to the development team for further consideration and analysis. The representatives can create a task in Zoho projects with the necessary details from the Zoho CRM Cases module by clicking a button from within Zoho CRM. This will make the transition process easier and help to handle cases more efficiently. Now, let's see how this can be achieved using extension.

Creating a connector for Zoho Projects and adding connector APIs
  • 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 OAuth2.0 protocol for authentication mechanism. You can refer to this post to understand the steps to register Zoho Projects and retrieve your client credentials.


The connector details for our example are:

Request Token URL
https://accounts.zoho.com/oauth/v2/auth?scope=ZohoProjects.portals.READ,ZohoProjects.users.READ,ZohoProjects.tasks.CREATE,ZohoProjects.projects.READ,ZohoProjects.tasks.READ&access_type=offline
Access Token URL
https://accounts.zoho.com/oauth/v2/token?
Refresh Token URL
https://accounts.zoho.com/oauth/v2/token?
Scopes
ZohoProjects.portals.READ,ZohoProjects.users.READ,ZohoProjects.tasks.CREATE,ZohoProjects.projects.READ,ZohoProjects.tasks.READ


The Zoho Projects REST APIs added for our example are mentioned below.

Connector API Name
Method type
URL
Get Portals
GET
https://projectsapi.zoho.com/restapi/portals/
Get Project Users
GET
https://projectsapi.zoho.com/restapi/portal/${portalid}/projects/${projectid}/users/
Create task
POST
https://projectsapi.zoho.com/restapi/portal/${portalid}/projects/${projectid}/tasks/?name=${name}&description=${description}&priority=${priority}&person_responsible=${person_responsible}
Add comment for task
POST
https://projectsapi.zoho.com/restapi/portal/${portalid}/projects/${projectid}/tasks/${taskid}/comments/?content=${content}

Note: You can refer to this post to understand the detailed steps involved in creating a connector, adding the connector APIs, and associating it with the extension.

Creating a button in Cases module and associating the custom function to it
  • Create a button called "Create Task for Case" using the Links & Buttons feature available in the Componentssection of the Zoho Developer console, then associate a custom function to perform the desired action. 
Create Task for Case - Button function code

//Fetching the current record details and retrieving the necessary field information
response = zoho.crm.getRecordById("Cases",case.get("Cases.ID").toLong());
Name = response.get("Subject");
Name = zoho.encryption.urlEncode(Name);
Description = response.get("Description");
Description = zoho.encryption.urlEncode(Description);
Priority = response.get("Priority");
Comments = response.get("Internal_Comments");
Comments = zoho.encryption.urlEncode(Comments);
dynamic_map = Map();
/*Fetching the values for Portal ID and Project ID CRM variables which are obtained as part of the settings widget*/
portalid = zoho.crm.getOrgVariable("xxx__Portal_Id");//The api name of the CRM variable for Portal_Id
projectid = zoho.crm.getOrgVariable("xxx__Project_Id");//The api name of the CRM variable for Project_Id
dynamic_map.put("portalid",portalid);
dynamic_map.put("projectid",projectid);
//Invoking the connector API to retrieve the users present in the project 
resp1 = zoho.crm.invokeConnector("xxx.zohoprojects.getprojectusers",dynamic_map);
response1 = resp1.get("response");
users = response1.get("users");
rolelist = List();
/*retrieving the ID of the user with admin role in the project to be assigned as the person responsible for the task*/
for each value in users
{
if(value.get("role") == "admin")
{
id = value.get("zpuid");
}
}
dynamic_map = Map();
portalid = zoho.crm.getOrgVariable("xxx__Portal_Id");
projectid = zoho.crm.getOrgVariable("xxx__Project_Id");
dynamic_map.put("portalid",portalid);
dynamic_map.put("projectid",projectid);
dynamic_map.put("name",Name);
dynamic_map.put("description",Description);
dynamic_map.put("priority",Priority);
dynamic_map.put("person_responsible",id);
/*Invoking the connector API with the necessary parameters passed to create a project task */
resp = zoho.crm.invokeConnector("xxx.zohoprojects.createtask",dynamic_map);
response2 = resp.get("response");
tasks = response2.get("tasks");
//Retrieving the task id from the response of create task API
for each ids in tasks
{
id1 = ids.get("id");
}
dynamic_map = Map();
portalid = zoho.crm.getOrgVariable("xxx__Portal_Id");
projectid = zoho.crm.getOrgVariable("xxx__Project_Id");
dynamic_map.put("portalid",portalid);
dynamic_map.put("projectid",projectid);
dynamic_map.put("taskid",id1);
dynamic_map.put("content",Comments);
//Invoking the connector API to add a comment to the task 
response3= zoho.crm.invokeConnector("xxx.zohoprojects.addcommentfortask",dynamic_map);
caseinfo = {"Solution":url};
response4 = zoho.crm.updateRecord("Cases",case.get("Cases.ID").toLong(),caseinfo);
return resp;

Note: In our example, the project's administrator is assigned as the person responsible for the task that is to be created in Zoho Projects. We have considered that there is only one admin for a project, who can then assign the task to the appropriate developer.

Obtaining Portal ID and Project ID

According to our example, cases from Zoho CRM need to be associated as a task to a particular project in Zoho Projects. You can find in the above code that the variables Portal ID and Project ID (dynamic variables used in connector APIs) are used while invoking APIs. The values of these variables are specific to a user and thus these values can be obtained from the user during extension installation and stored in CRM variables to be easily retrieved when required.

The variables Portal ID and Project ID are created as CRM variables with the Variable Status as Hidden in the extension.Their values are obtained as follows:



Creating a Settings Widget: We have created a settings widget in our extension in order to retrieve the user-specific portal ID and project ID, and to set the values to the CRM variables.

Settings Widget js code snippet

Util={};
var portalidvalue;
var projectidvalue;
//Subscribe to the EmbeddedApp onPageLoad event before initializing the widget 
ZOHO.embeddedApp.on("PageLoad",function(data)
{
var data = {
}
//Invoking the connector API to get portals of the user and populate them in a select list
ZOHO.CRM.CONNECTOR.invokeAPI("testextensioncrm.zohoprojects.getportals",data)
.then(function(dataa){
response = dataa.response;
responsejson=JSON.parse(response);
portal=responsejson.portals;

for (i = 0; i < portal.length; i++) 
{
portalid=portal[i].id_string;
portalname=portal[i].name;
var portallist = document.getElementById("portallist");
var option = document.createElement("OPTION");
option.innerHTML = portalname;
option.value = portalid;
portallist.appendChild(option);
}
})

/*Fetching the projects associated to the portal selected on click of the "Get Projects" button*/
Util.getproject=function()
{
portalidvalue=document.getElementById("portallist").value;

var data = {

"portalid" : portalidvalue
}
/*Invoking the connector API to get projects of the user with respect to the portal chosen and populate them in a select list*/
ZOHO.CRM.CONNECTOR.invokeAPI("testextensioncrm.zohoprojects.getprojects",data)
.then(function(dataa){
response = dataa.response;
responsejson=JSON.parse(response);
project=responsejson.projects;
$('#projectlist').empty();
for (j = 0; j < project.length; j++) 
{
projectid=project[j].id_string;
projectname=project[j].name;
var projectlist = document.getElementById("projectlist");
var option = document.createElement("OPTION");
option.innerHTML = projectname;
option.value = projectid;
projectlist.appendChild(option);
}
})
}
/*Updating the values of the portal ID and project ID selected in the select list to the CRM variables*/
Util.getvalues=function()
{
portalidvalue=document.getElementById("portallist").value;
projectidvalue=document.getElementById("projectlist").value;
var variableMap = { "apiname": "testextensioncrm__Portal_Id", "value": portalidvalue};
ZOHO.CRM.CONNECTOR.invokeAPI("crm.set", variableMap);
var variableMap = { "apiname": "testextensioncrm__Project_Id", "value": projectidvalue};
ZOHO.CRM.CONNECTOR.invokeAPI("crm.set", variableMap);
});
});
}
})

Now that the functionality is defined, the extension is published and installed in Zoho CRM account using the private installation URL.


Sample output:

Upon installation of the extension, click the Settings button to go the Settings Widget page, then choose your portal and project where you want the task to be created.



Choose the portal of your choice, then click the Get Projects button to fetch the projects associated with that portal.



Next, click Update Values to set the chosen portal and project ID values to the CRM variables Portal_ID and Project_ID,respectively.



Go to the Cases module. A case of type feature request is present in Cases module.



Click the Create Task for Case button available in the view page of the case detail page.



The necessary details as per the code logic are fetched and created as a task in projects.



The detailed task details page with all the information fetched from the case in Zoho CRM Cases module.



Using this method, you can integrate Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects via an extension and perform functionalities as per your business requirements. We hope you find this information useful. Keep following this space for more inputs!


SEE ALSO



    Access your files securely from anywhere







                            Zoho Developer Community





                                                  Use cases

                                                  Make the most of Zoho Desk with the use cases.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  eBooks

                                                  Download free eBooks and access a range of topics to get deeper insight on successfully using Zoho Desk.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  Videos

                                                  Watch comprehensive videos on features and other important topics that will help you master Zoho Desk.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  Webinar

                                                  Sign up for our webinars and learn the Zoho Desk basics, from customization to automation and more

                                                   
                                                    
                                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                  • Meetups


                                                  • Ask the Experts


                                                  • Kbase


                                                  • Resources


                                                  • Glossary


                                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                                  • MVP Corner




                                                            • 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 FAQs
                                                            • Kaizen #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


                                                            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 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

                                                                                                            • ZOHO BOOKS - RECEIVING MORE ITEMS THAN ORDERED

                                                                                                              Hello, When trying to enter a vendor's bill that contains items with bigger quantity than ordered in the PO (it happens quite often) - The system would not let us save the bill and show this error: "Quantity recorded cannot be more than quantity ordered." 
                                                                                                            • Has anyone successfully added Microsoft Graph API Oauth2 as a connection?

                                                                                                              I'm having trouble getting Microsoft Graph API created as a connection in zoho crm. Has anyone successfully added Microsoft Graph API Oauth2 as a connection? My issue is not necessarily on the Zoho side, but understanding how to set up the Microsoft side
                                                                                                            • Syncing Timesheets between Projects and Desk

                                                                                                              All users able to see their own timelog entries from all apps in one place, synced immediately. All managers able to view total/all time entries from one place. This is something that has come up for us and multiple clients. Example: we have a client
                                                                                                            • Spell Check default language

                                                                                                              Hello All, Is it possible to set the Spell Check default language? I can't find it in the settings. Thanks a lot! Levente
                                                                                                            • Zoho Backstage 3.0 - Boostez vos événements avec des outils malins

                                                                                                              Zoho Backstage vous accompagne dans l’organisation d’événements réussis, avec des outils qui simplifient la planification, optimisent l’exécution et renforcent la connexion avec votre public. La version 2.0 a apporté une nouvelle interface, plus de flexibilité
                                                                                                            • Portal user activity reporting

                                                                                                              Aside from the metrics section in the admin dashboard, is there a way to view/create reports for portal user activity? Im looking for a more granular option to see exactly what users are utilizing the portal. Thanks!
                                                                                                            • Automation #11 - Auto Update Custom Fields with Values from Emails

                                                                                                              This is a monthly series designed to help you get the best out of Desk. We take our cue from what's being discussed or asked about the most in our community. Then we find the right use cases that specifically highlight solutions, ideas and tips to optimize
                                                                                                            • Admins to set Agents Picture

                                                                                                              Admins should not have to rely on agents to set a nice profile picture for them. Admins get the headshot pictures from HR and should be able to upload and set their picture, not rely on them to: 1) upload a picture at all 2) upload a good picture 3) upload
                                                                                                            • Time Tracking Reporting and Billing

                                                                                                              I wish for the time tracking module to be enhanced further. Currently it is independent of Support Plans and Contracts. Support Plans and Contracts are also mostly separate. We need a better dashboard of this with the ability to natively mark billed or
                                                                                                            • Enhanced Email Signature Folding

                                                                                                              We have departmental signatures setup which are great, however, when viewing ticket details, it gets very overwhelming when scrolling though threads and conversations where you scroll past ten different signatures of your own team, then ten signatures
                                                                                                            • How to add formatting in zoho.cliq.postToUser(...) message?

                                                                                                              In a CRM Deluge function, I'm trying to use the message formatting guidelines given here: https://www.zoho.com/deluge/help/cliq/posting-to-zoho-cliq.html#message-formats My message is: message: #Title text. The result in Cliq is: #Title text. (no large
                                                                                                            • How to add line breaks in zoho.cliq.postToUser(...) message?

                                                                                                              In a CRM function using Deluge I'm sending this message and attempting to add some line breaks but they are ignored. Is there another way to add these breaks? My message: message: New urgent task\nDescription \nThis is a fake description.\n A new line?
                                                                                                            • Zia Agents/End of Day Reports

                                                                                                              As a manager or owner it would be nice if Zia analyzed today's (or this week's tickets) and gave an end of the day report to management team. - what important tickets were worked on or submitted today? - what agents were unproductive today and answered
                                                                                                            • Project Cost Tracking

                                                                                                              I see there are questions/concerns that Zoho doesn't track costs to a tasks in a project. We are a manufacturer and are in the early stages of tracking costs to project. I would like to expand out the COGS Chart of accounts in Books and record costs via
                                                                                                            • How to record if the payment made is return due to transaction failed.

                                                                                                              So there is Bill of $2000, and a payments made transaction to clear the bill. The amount is actually deducted from bank account. However, a few days later, I found the bank returned only $1750 cause there are $250 bank service charge for this failed transaction.
                                                                                                            • Help Center Customization UI

                                                                                                              The customization screens for the help center needs the UI improved. It looks straight out of 2004. The Zoho Desk normal UI is great. All it takes is uniform fonts and colors across all parts of the tool... I compare this to Zendesk Guide.
                                                                                                            • Este domínio já está associado a esta conta

                                                                                                              Fui fazer meu cadastro na zoho e quando digitei meu domínio recebi essa mensagem que meu domínio estava associado a uma conta que eu nem faço idéia de quem seja. Como que faço pra resolver isso? Atenciosamente, Anderson Souza.
                                                                                                            • I need some help in Expenses Per Diem Policy

                                                                                                              this is my script written for restricting the PerDiem Components. Say if Lodging and Per Day Allowance both is selected from Per Diem Page then the report should gets auto rejected. When Im trying to executing it says the following error {"code":11,"message":"The
                                                                                                            • Adding Photos to Dashboards on Zoho Analytics

                                                                                                              I am creating a dashboard to showcase data from survey results from focus groups. I am creating a focus group participant profile tab where it is filtered by the name of the participant and showcases information about them using KPI widgets. I am running
                                                                                                            • What is the difference between Retainer invoice and Advance Payments?

                                                                                                              Retainer invoice seem like they are just advance payments with extra details. Instead of creating a Sales Order with order details, a retainer is created. It feels like they are a workaround to link advance payments with sales orders. Is there any advantage
                                                                                                            • Exporting record notes in bulk

                                                                                                              Hi team, Is it possible to bulk export the notes attached to a record? i.e to a CSV file or otherwise. Our use case is exporting all notes for our lead/account/Deal records. We have another system we'd like to import these notes to but I can't seem to
                                                                                                            • Field customization

                                                                                                              Hi Team Good day! I am a commission agent who sell and purchase goods from vendors, while in purchasing invoices I am not able to deduct the expenses such as commission and other expenses on actual amount. Kindly help me to customize the invoice based
                                                                                                            • vendors / customers with 2 different address and gst no

                                                                                                              Why can't we have option for more than one address and depending on the state option for more than 1 GST no. ? We have customers / vendors PAN india with different addresses and GST no. for different states.
                                                                                                            • Error: Invalid Element gst_no, Invalid Element gst_treatment, Invalid Element place_of_contact

                                                                                                              so i am creating a new contact post request and i want add gst infomation when amount is above 50000 and if pass gst info in request body then i get this errors > Error: Invalid Element gst_no, Invalid Element gst_treatment, Invalid Element place_of_contact
                                                                                                            • Add multiple Billing Addresses under one GST number

                                                                                                              My client owns multiple businesses in various locations but they all come under one GST. Is there a way to add multiple billing addresses for the same GST? Managing this by adding multiple Shipping addresses is not an option. The client wants the GST
                                                                                                            • Zoho Mail API - Upload Attachment

                                                                                                              https://www.zoho.com/mail/help/api/post-upload-attachments.html I followed the steps from the API documentation and wrote a backend in JavaScript to send emails. Normal emails are sent without any problems. However, I can’t send emails with attachments.
                                                                                                            • Unable to create custom fields for shipment order

                                                                                                              I'm unable to create custom fields for shipment orders, even though the custom fields are set up correctly. A request to the following endpoint: https://www.zohoapis.com/inventory/v1/settings/preferences/customfields?organization_id=${ZOHO_ORGANIZATION_ID}&entity=shipment_order
                                                                                                            • Kaizen #202 - Answering Your Questions | Testing and Using REST APIs in Widgets

                                                                                                              Hello Developers! Welcome back to a fresh week of Kaizen! Thank you for your active participation in sharing feedback and queries for the 200th milestone. This week, we will look at the following queries related to widget: Widget Testing Using REST API
                                                                                                            • Introducing the 'Send as Email' option on the Zoho Desk iOS mobile app

                                                                                                              Hello everyone! In the latest version(v2.10.2) of the Zoho Desk iOS app, we have brought in support for the 'Send as Email' option while creating a ticket. This feature enables you to reach out to the customers by sending outbound emails. The emails are
                                                                                                            • Zoho Forms Not Loading on Website – DNS Resolution Error

                                                                                                              Dear Zoho Support Team, User ID : 20069458731 We are experiencing an issue with the Zoho Form embedded on our website (https://vitel.com.tr/satis-destek-formu/). The form is not loading, and the following error message appears in the browser: “forms.zohopublic.eu
                                                                                                            • Data backup retention question/

                                                                                                              My zohocrm subscription gives me 2 full data backups per month. I have a scheduled backup configured to run twice a month. I just went to download my backup and i can't find it, it ran about 9 days ago... From what i can tell with google zoho only keeps
                                                                                                            • Basic Apple Watch App

                                                                                                              Sometimes I leave my phone behind. I will get push notifications that tickets are updated etc.. It would be nice to at least view them and do a few basic functions. reassign. public reply. private comment.
                                                                                                            • Look and Feel Uniformity

                                                                                                              Someone needs to go through the mobile app and match the look and feel of the web version. For example, it is global standard to highlight private notes as yellow background hue. Desk does that on web, but not on mobile. Mobile also has an odd blue icon
                                                                                                            • Managing two books in Zoho Books

                                                                                                              is it possible to effectively manage two separate books within Zoho Books? My organization is considering handling accounting for two distinct subsidiaries, and we would like to understand the best way to achieve this within the Zoho Books.
                                                                                                            • Display All Custom Buttons Without Dropdown on Record Page

                                                                                                              In my org's workflow we usually want to do some kind of quick action off of an individual record - i.e. of an individual contact, or individual deal. What we have always found a hindrance is the location of all custom buttons being in the drop down on
                                                                                                            • Zoho Sales Team - Extremely Slow Response Times

                                                                                                              Hi everyone, Has anyone else experienced unusually slow response times from Zoho’s sales team? I sent an email last night, and it’s been nearly 24 hours with no reply. While I understand delays can happen, this seems longer than expected for a sales inquiry.
                                                                                                            • Yodlee Bank Feeds

                                                                                                              I'm well aware of the many bank feed issues out there that haven't been resolved, but I'm looking for information on Rules in relation to bank feeds. U.S based, Bank of America user and prior to Yodlee all of my banking feeds and Rules worked seamlessly.
                                                                                                            • Unable to create custom function

                                                                                                              Unable to create custom function - Please check the screenshot for the details HERE IS THE FUNCTION!! try { // 1. Fetch the details of the approved Bill using its ID billDetails = zoho.books.getRecordById("Bills", organization.get("organization_id"),
                                                                                                            • Need a feature which can validate PAN from Income Tax Portal

                                                                                                              Hello Zoho, We need a feature which can help us validate PAN which is being entered in AR/AP Profiles to check if it is valid and display the name as per Income Tax so as to get rid of incorrect PAN into the systems. Please do the needful Thanks
                                                                                                            • PAN - Aadhar Link Status

                                                                                                              Can Zohobooks also get latest PAN-Aadhar Linking Status from Income Tax Portal ?
                                                                                                            • Next Page