Bulk Write API in Zoho CRM with PHP SDK: A Comprehensive Guide

Hi everyone and welcome to another amazing Kaizen week!

This week, we will discuss and explore Bulk Write API in detail, and how to implement the same using Zoho CRM PHP SDK. Please note that the information in the article holds true for Zoho CRM PHP SDK supporting version 5 of Zoho CRM APIs.

What is Bulk Write API?

The Bulk Write API enables you to efficiently insert, update, or upsert a large dataset into your CRM account. As this is an asynchronous API, the records will not be added immediately, instead a job will be scheduled to do so. You will receive a notification at the specified callback URL or you can periodically check the job status.

The Bulk Write API allows you to insert, update, or upsert up to 25,000 records in a single API call. This is much more than the maximum of 100 records that you can insert, update, or upsert using the Insert, Update, and Upsert Records API.

When to use Bulk Write API?

When you want to schedule a job to import a huge volume of data in your CRM account.
When you want to insert, update, or upsert more than 100 records in a single API call.
When you want to perform background processes like migration and initial data sync between Zoho CRM and external services.

However, the Bulk Write API consumes 500 credits per job, while the Insert, Update, and Upsert records API consumes 1 credit per 10 records. So, if you only need to insert, update, or upsert a small number of records (5,000 or less), it is economical to use the Records API as it will consume fewer credits.

Here are the major differences between Record APIs and Bulk Write API.

Insert, Update, Upsert Records API	Bulk Write API
You can insert, update, or upsert only up to 100 records per API call.	You can insert, update, or upsert 25000 records per API call.
The response is available instantly.	The response to the Bulk Write API request will not be available immediately. You can check the status of the job by polling for it, or you can wait for the status to be available in the callback URL after the job has completed.
The API consumes 1 credit per 10 records.	Bulk Write API consumes 500 credits per API call.

Bulk Write API

To insert, update, or upsert records in bulk, follow the below steps:

Prepare your CSV file
Upload your file in zip format
Create a bulk write job
Check the job status
Download the result

1. Prepare the CSV file

To use the Bulk Write API, you must first create a CSV file containing the data you want to import to Zoho CRM. The first row of the CSV file must contain the field API names, and each subsequent row must contain the data. You can insert, update, or upsert records in a single module using one Bulk Write API call.

Input format for each data type:

Datatype	Description
Single Line	Accepts up to 255 characters. Accepts alphanumeric and special characters. Ex: Mike O'Leary
Multi-Line	Small - accepts up to 2000 characters. Large - accepts up to 32000 characters. Ex: This is a sample description.
Email	Accepts valid email IDs. Ex: merced@zylker.com
Phone	Accepts up to 30 characters. This limit may vary based on the value configured in 'Number of characters allowed' in the properties pop-up of the field, in UI. Accepts only numeric characters and '+' (to add extensions). Ex: 9800000099
Picklist	You can pass an existing pick list value. If you give a new one, it is automatically added to the pick list set. The pick list value accepts all alphanumeric and special characters. Ex: auto mobile
Multiselect Picklist	You can either pass the existing pick list values separated by a semicolon(;) or add a new one. The pick list value accepts all alphanumeric and special characters. Ex: Analytics;Bigdata
Date	Accepts date in different formats as mentioned here. Ex: 2023-05-03
DateTime	Accepts date in different formats as mentioned here. Ex: 2023-05-03T20:39:19+05:30
Number	Accepts numbers up to 9 digits. This limit may vary based on the value configured in 'Maximum digits allowed' in the properties pop-up of the field, in UI. The accepted formats are mentioned here. Accepts numeric values. Ex1: 350 Ex2: 123,344
Currency	Before decimal point - accepts numbers up to 16 digits. This limit may vary based on the value configured in 'Maximum digits allowed' in the properties pop-up of the field, in UI. After decimal point - accepts precision up to 9 digits. This limit may vary based on the value configured in 'Number of decimal paces' in the properties pop-up of the field, in UI. Please note that comma separated digits are accepted. Ex1: 250000.90 Ex2: 123,456.657483
Decimal	Before the decimal point - accepts numbers up to 16 digits. This limit may vary based on the value configured in 'Maximum digits allowed' in the properties pop-up of the field, in UI. After the decimal point - accepts precision up to 9 digits. This limit may vary based on the value configured in 'Number of decimal places' in the properties pop-up of the field, in UI. Accepts comma separated numeric values. Ex1: 250000.50 Ex2: 123,235.345
Percent	Accepts numbers up to 5 digits. Accepts only numeric values. Ex: 25
Long Integer	Accepts numbers up to 18 digits. This limit may vary based on the value configured in 'Maximum digits allowed' in the properties pop-up of the field, in UI. Accepts only numeric values. Ex: 0012345600012
Checkbox	Accepts only Boolean values(true,false). Ex: true
URL	Accepts valid URLs. Ex: https://www.zylker.com
Lookup	Accepts the unique ID of the record, which you can get through the get records API. Use the dot(.) operator to link the record. For instance, if there is an account lookup in the Contacts module, you can give the column name as - Account.id Ex: Account.id : 4150868000001136302
User	This is a default look-up field for users in Zoho CRM. Accepts the unique ID of the user, which you can get through the get users API. Ex: User.id

Note:

To give multiple values for a multi-select pick list field, enclose them in double quotes("") and separate each value with the semicolon(;).
If your multi-line field has more than one line, input them directly by enclosing them in double quotes("").
You can only zip one CSV file to upload for bulk write. Adding more than one CSV file into the zip file will result in an error.
You can specify a specific format for your number, currency, decimal, date and datetime fields using format key.

Subform Data in Bulk Write API:

The Bulk Write API allows you to import and update records with subforms. To insert or update records with subforms, you must import the parent records first with Bulk Write API, and then the subform records with another Bulk Write API.

For example, consider an instance where you have a subform named "Contact Details" in the Account module. The subform has the following fields - Contact_Name, Contact_Email and Contact_Phone. You must first create a csv file with the parent records, compress it as a zip file, upload it, and create a bulk write job.

This is an example csv file. Note the Field API names are in the first row, and the record data is in the subsequent rows.

Once you have imported the parent records, you can upload the subform data CSV. When you prepare the subform data CSV file, it is mandatory to have the parent record ID in the subform data file, along with the subform data.

This is a sample CSV file for the subform data. The subform data in each row will be added to the corresponding parent record.

Multiselect Lookup Fields in Bulk Write API

To upload records with multiselect lookup fields, you can follow the same steps as for subforms. First, import the parent records. Then, import the multiselect lookup field data. The CSV file should contain both the parent record ID and the multiselect lookup field data. Please note that this method does not work for line items.

User Lookup in Bulk Write API

To import records with user lookup fields, you can include them in the same CSV file as the parent records. Use the field API name of the user lookup field in the CSV header, and add the unique IDs of the lookup records in the data column for each record.

Once you have prepared the CSV file, compress it as a zip file to upload in the next step. We will add examples of how to add subform data, user lookup and multiselect lookup field data in subsequent sections.

2. Upload your zip file

Once you have your csv file ready and compressed into a zip file, you should upload the same using a POST request. Use the following code snippet to upload the file.

<?php

namespace bulkwrite;

use com\zoho\crm\api\bulkwrite\FileBodyWrapper;

use com\zoho\crm\api\bulkwrite\BulkWriteOperations;

use com\zoho\crm\api\util\StreamWrapper;

use com\zoho\crm\api\bulkwrite\UploadFileHeader;

use com\zoho\crm\api\HeaderMap;

require_once "vendor/autoload.php";

class UploadFile

{

public static function initialize()

{

// Add init code here.

// Refer to this post for more details

}

public static function uploadFile1(string $orgID, string $absoluteFilePath)

{

$bulkWriteOperations = new BulkWriteOperations();

$fileBodyWrapper = new FileBodyWrapper();

$streamWrapper = new StreamWrapper(null, null, $absoluteFilePath);

$fileBodyWrapper->setFile($streamWrapper);

$headerInstance = new HeaderMap();

//To indicate that this a bulk write operation

$headerInstance->add(UploadFileHeader::feature(), "bulk-write");

$headerInstance->add(UploadFileHeader::XCRMORG(), $orgID);

//Call uploadFile method that takes FileBodyWrapper instance and headerInstance as parameter

$response = $bulkWriteOperations->uploadFile($fileBodyWrapper, $headerInstance);

// Add your code to handle the response received in the $response.

}

UploadFile::initialize();

$orgID = "add_your_org_id_here"; // add your zgid which you can obtain using Get Organization API.

$absoluteFilePath = "/Users/test/bulk-write.zip"; //add the absolute file path of your zip file here.

UploadFile::uploadFile1($orgID, $absoluteFilePath);

The uploadFile() method takes two parameters: the organization ID ($orgID) and the absolute file path ($absoluteFilePath) of the file to be uploaded. Within the uploadFile() method, an instance of BulkWriteOperations is created to call the Bulk Write API. This API is used to upload files to the Zoho File System. The HeaderMap instance is created to hold the necessary headers for the API request. The UploadFileHeader::feature() and UploadFileHeader::XCRMORG() methods are used to set the feature and organization ID headers, respectively. These headers are required to identify the type of operation being performed and the organization that the file is being uploaded.

The uploadFile() method is called on the BulkWriteOperations instance, passing the FileBodyWrapper and HeaderMap as parameters. The response from the API call will be stored in the $response variable, which contains the file ID as well. We will use this file ID in the next step, creating a bulk write job.

We hope you found this post on the Bulk Write API useful. In next week's post, we will cover how to create a bulk write job, including lookup and user lookup fields and subform data. We will also show you how to check the job status and download the job result.

If you have any specific questions about the Bulk Write API, please leave a comment below, or reach out to us at support@zohocrm.com. We are happy to help!

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for more useful posts in the series. See you all next week!

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