Kaizen #116 - Client Types in Zoho API Console
Hello everyone!
Welcome back to another post in the Kaizen series!
This week, we will discuss different client types available in Zoho API Console, and when to use each.
When you register an app in Zoho API Console, you typically choose a client type based on how your application interacts with Zoho services.
Let us discuss the available client types and how authorization is handled for each.
Available client types
- Server-based
- Client-based
- Self client
- Non-browser-based
- Mobile-based
1. Server-based
If you have a web-based application that runs on a dedicated HTTP server and interacts with Zoho services by calling Zoho APIs via that server, you must register your app with this client type.
This client type is for applications that redirect the users to another URL on a web browser to authorize themselves, where they give consent to your application to use their data.
In other words, you must use this client type when you have a front-end web UI and require user intervention before your app can access user data via the dedicated server.
Consider that you are developing a web-based custom application. Users authorize that app via browser to allow their Zoho CRM data to be accessed and used by that application.
During the registration process in Zoho API Console, you would choose the "Web-based" client type.
OAuth 2.0 would be used for user authentication, allowing your app to securely access and interact with Zoho CRM data on behalf of the users.
Here is a gist of what happens:
- Users visit your website where you have the Login with Zoho button.
- When a user clicks it, that user will be redirected to accounts.zoho.com with the details of your app such as client ID, scope, redirect uri, access type as the URL parameters.
- Your app must make an API call to Zoho Accounts with the client ID, scope, redirect uri, and access type. Users are shown the data that your application wants to use.
- When users give their consent, Zoho redirects them back to your app.This will be the "Redirect URL" you give while registering your app.
- The redirect URL will have the authorization code(grant token) as one of the parameters, along with the location(user's domain).
- Your app must then make API calls from your web server to Zoho Accounts to generate access and refresh tokens with the generated grant token.
- You must store these tokens in your DB to access that user's data in Zoho CRM. While making API calls, you must send this access token in the header.
- Your app must also have the logic to regenerate access tokens from refresh tokens when the access token expires.
Note that your app must take care of storing user's details like email, organization ID, and tokens.
The following image shows the protocol flow.
You can use any of our server-side SDKs to simplify this process.
When you use our SDK, all you have to do is, generate the grant token and initialize the SDK with the client details and this token. The SDK takes care of access token generation, refreshing it, and token storage.
Refer to these older Kaizen posts on Integrating a third-party app using Java SDK and Java SDK for Self Client.
For more details, you can refer to the Accounts guide and CRM help doc.
2. Client-based applications
This client type is for applications that do not have a server and run exclusively on a web browser.
This is also called the Implicit flow as your app makes API calls to Zoho only when users are using your app.
This type of application loads data dynamically on the webpage, and accesses Zoho CRM data by making API calls via Javascript.
Consider the same example where there is a Login with Zoho button on your webpage.
Here is a gist of what happens when a user clicks it.
- Your app redirects the user to Zoho Accounts.
- Your app makes the authorization request with the client ID, redirect uri, scope, and response type as token.
- The user is shown the data that your webpage would use.
- When the user gives consent, Zoho Accounts sends the access token to the redirect uri as a parameter, along with the expiry time and the location of user's data in Zoho's accounts server.
- You can include the "email" in your scope parameter in the access token request to get user's information. The response will have a parameter called id_token that will be in the header.payload.signature format. You need to decrypt the payload section of the parameter using the base-64 decryption algorithm to get user information.
- Your app must then make API calls to Zoho with this access token to fetch data.
- When the access token expires, your app must take care of regeneration and storage.
As the API calls are made from your domain to a different domain(zohoapis.com), for security reasons, the browser will throw the CORS error. So, your domain will be registered while registering your app, and Zoho will know to allow the API calls made from that domain.
As the tokens are available on the browser itself, we recommend handling them with care.
When you use our client-side JS SDK, it automatically generates a new access token upon expiry.
3. Self Client Applications
When your application does not have a redirect URL or a UI, but performs only a backend job, and does not need user intervention, then you must choose this client type.
A self client is often used when the application and Zoho services are operated by the same entity, and you want to enable secure communication between them. For example, you have an internal reporting tool and integrate it with Zoho Analytics. In this case, both the tool and Zoho Analytics are operated by the same entity.
Similarly, consider that you have a legacy product management system and want to perform data sync between Zoho CRM and the system, then you must use the self client.
Here is a gist of what happens.
- You register your app as self client in Zoho API Console.
- You will get the client details such as ID and secret.
- You provide the scopes required for your app to access CRM data.
- You will receive the grant token.
- Your app must then make API calls to Zoho Accounts to generate access and refresh tokens.
- Your app can then use this access token to make API calls to Zoho CRM and use data.
You can refer to our older Kaizen post on this topic for more details.
Note that self client apps can also use any of our server-side SDKs. As already said, the SDK takes care of access and refresh token generation, refreshing the access token, and token storage.
4. Non-browser applications
This client type is for devices that do not have a user agent such a web browser. A TV, for instance.
Let us consider an example involving a smart TV application that integrates with Zoho ShowTime. In this scenario, the smart TV application acts as a non-browser client.
Here is how authentication is handled:
- You must register your smart TV app in Zoho API Console with the type "Non-browser application".
- Users install a dedicated Zoho ShowTime application on their smart TVs.
- When users launch the Zoho ShowTime application on their smart TV, they are prompted to authenticate with their Zoho ShowTime account.
- When they successfully authenticate, Zoho Accounts sends the grant token to your app, along with the user-code, device-code and verification URL,The user must go to this verification URL on a browser and enter the user-code to grant permission to the app.
- Meanwhile, your app must poll the accounts server using the grant token to check if the token has been received.
- When the user enters the user code, Zoho Accounts sends the access token to your app.
- Your app can then use the access token to make API calls to Zoho. Your app must take care of token storage and renewals.
Here is the protocol flow. For more details, refer to this doc.
5. Mobile-based applications
You must use this client type when you have developed an app exclusively for mobile devices. The protocol flow is similar to server-based application where a browser session is required for the users to authenticate.
Similar to server-side apps, mobile apps also need to handle redirection, token generation and storage.
If you use any of our Mobile SDKs, the SDK itself handles token generation and storage.
We hope you found this post useful. Let us know your thoughts in the Comment section or write to us at support@zohocrm.com.
Cheers!
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
Shylaja S
Piyush Dwivedi
Ishwarya SG
Onur Gulay - Smile Center Turkey®
Sunderjan Siddharth
Sticky Posts
Kaizen #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 areKaizen #152 - Client Script Support for the new Canvas Record Forms
Hello everyone! Have you ever wanted to trigger actions on click of a canvas button, icon, or text mandatory forms in Create/Edit and Clone Pages? Have you ever wanted to control how elements behave on the new Canvas Record Forms? This can be achievedKaizen #142: How to Navigate to Another Page in Zoho CRM using Client Script
Hello everyone! Welcome back to another exciting Kaizen post. In this post, let us see how you can you navigate to different Pages using Client Script. In this Kaizen post, Need to Navigate to different Pages Client Script ZDKs related to navigation A.Kaizen #210 - Answering your Questions | Event Management System using ZDK CLI
Hello Everyone, Welcome back to yet another post in the Kaizen Series! As you already may know, for the Kaizen #200 milestone, we asked for your feedback and many of you suggested topics for us to discuss. We have been writing on these topics over the
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
Creating Email template that attaches file uploaded in specific field.
If there's a way to do this using Zoho CRM's built-in features, then this has eluded me! I'm looking to create a workflow that automatically sends an email upon execution, and that email includes an attachment uploaded in a specific field. Email templatesMarketer’s Space - Automate a Personalized Holiday Workflow with Zoho Campaigns
Hello marketers, Welcome back to another post in Marketer’s Space! From Thanksgiving through Christmas, you have a flurry of opportunities to connect with your audience. In this post, we’ll see how you can plan an entire month-long automated workflowService Account Admin for API Calls and System Actions
Hello, I would like to request the addition of a Service Account Admin option in Zoho product. This feature would allow API calls and system actions to be performed on behalf of the system, rather than an active user. Current Issue: At present, API callsZoho Inventory Custom Field Update
Hello All, In this post I am describing how can we Update the Custom Field Value in Zoho Inventory. // Get Org ID orgid = organization.get("organization_id"); // Field Value resvp = ifnull(item.get("purchase_rate"),null); // Record ID iid = item.get("item_id");Sorting columns in Zoho Projects
Hi, In project management best practice, sorting columns (ascending, descending) is an important tool. Sorting dates to see the order of tasks starting, sorting on priority or even on planned hours is a must for an efficient project control. Currently,Zoho CRM - Calendar Cards View - Let Users Decide What Is Displayed On Calendar Entries
Imagine planning your week of face-to-face meetings across three counties. You’re trying to group appointments by location to make the best use of your time, but Zoho CRM’s calendar doesn’t show where each meeting is happening. You’re left trying to rememberZoho Inventory - How to pay a supplier up front then receive multiple deliveries
How do we manage situations where we pay a supplier up front, then the receive the products in increments? Example Workflow: Create Purchase Order > Receive Bill for full amount > Receive Items 2 or more deliveries. Currently, once a Bill is created againstHow can I add or change the active customer in Zoho Projects?
I'm trying to change the customer in an active Zoho project. Is it possible to add or change the customer?What happens when someone clicks 'unsubscribe' in a zoho CRM email
Hello, As per, i am going round in circles trying to find an answer to these 2 question. I have an email template that has an unsubscribe link in the footer in zoho CRM. First, what happens when someone clicks it - where does the contact get unsubscribedZoho CRM - Scheduled Reports Which Contain Chart
Hi Zoho CRM Team, I'm requesting that the Report Export and Scheduling feature be enhanced to include a chart, if one has been created on a report. At the moment I have a report which shows Sales This Week by Deal Owner and a pie chart at the top of theCan I add Conditional merge tags on my Templates?
Hi I was wondering if I can use Conditional Mail Merge tags inside my Email templates/Quotes etc within the CRM? In spanish and in our business we use gender and academic degree salutations , ie: Dr., Dra., Sr., Srta., so the beginning of an email / letterCadences
I have just started using Cadences for follow-up up email pipeline. Is it just me or do you find the functionality very basic? For example, it will tell me (if I go looking for it) if someone has replied to a follow-up and been unenrolled; but it won'tCanvas View in Zoho Recruit
Is it possible or would it be possible to have the new 'Canvas View' in Zoho Recruit?Zoho Inventory - Move Orders
Quick question about Move Orders... Why is there no status to say something like "Draft", "In Progress" and "Completed", similar to Transfer Orders? I'm assuming that when something needs to be moved it should be planned in Inventory, executed and thenKaizen #215 - Workflow APIs - Part 3 - Create and Update Workflow Rules
Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve joined Zylker Cloud Services as they review and improve their workflows. In Part 1, we discovered and audited their sprawling workflow landscape. In Part 2, we learned how toDataPrep Bigquery Connection failed
Hello everybody, I want to create a connnection beetwen Bigquery and Dataprep but when I try to connect my project I got this error Loading tables has failed. Table list fetched from the data source expired.Utilisation de Zoho en conformité avec l’article 286 du Code général des impôts (CGI)
Cher(e) client(e), Conformément à l’article 286 du Code général des impôts (CGI) impose aux entreprises assujetties à la TVA d’utiliser des systèmes de caisse ou de gestion commerciale certifiés lorsqu’elles enregistrent des ventes à des particuliers.Issue in Zoho People Regularization – Incorrect Hour Calculation
I have noticed that when applying attendance regularization in Zoho People for previous dates, the total working hours are not calculated correctly. For example, even if the check-in is 10:00 AM and check-out is 6:00 PM, the system shows an incorrectFree Webinar : Unlock AI driven business insights with Zoho Inventory + Zoho Analytics
Are you tired of switching between apps and exporting data to build customized reports? Say hello to smarter & streamlined insights! Join us for this exclusive webinar where we explore the power of the Zoho Inventory–Zoho Analytics integration. LearnAllow Multiple usage units to items while adding them to sales/purchase transactions
The usage unit of items added in zoho books are static right now and can not be changed. But certain items are received or sold in multiple usage units. One example is fabric. It can be bought in Meters, inches, kgs or other units. Another example wouldPO receive quantities
At last, Zoho has finally got around to allowing us to receive a larger qty than recorded in the PO :-) Saves us all from editing the PO's before receiving larger quantities ( usual for us ) ! It's still in "beta" but available upon request, I've testedAnalytics : How to share to an external client ?
We have a use case where a client wants a portal so that several of his users can view dashboards that we have created for them in Zoho Analytics. They are not part of our company or Zoho One account. The clients want the ability to have user specific,Reference Deal Categories in Deluge
Hello, Is there a way to reference Deal Category in deluge functions? So for our Deals, we have several different WON stages in a pipeline. Rather than type each stage into our functions, we'd like to be able to reference the Deal Category. SimilarUsers Name & Email in Reports
Hi, I would like to show the Users Name from their Zoho Acount in All Entries/Reports as well as the current Account Email. Thanks DanPresenting ABM for Zoho CRM: Expand and retain your customers with precision
Picture this scenario: You're a growing SaaS company ready to launch a powerful business suite, and are looking to gain traction and momentum. But as a business with a tight budget, you know acquiring new customers is slow, expensive, and often deliversEmpowered Custom Views: Cross-Module Criteria Now Supported in Zoho CRM
Hello everyone, We’re excited to introduce cross-module criteria support in custom views! Custom views provide personalized perspectives on your data and that you can save for future use. You can share these views with all users or specific individualsWorkflow Creation with Zia gets stuck
It gets stuck here:Unable to Add Asset to Work Order Due to Different Contact and Company
Hello Zoho Team, I’m facing an issue in our environment related to asset linking in Work Orders. Here’s the situation: When our engineers go for field activities, they initially create the Work Order using the salesperson’s contact details. After completingI NEED MORE CUSTOM FIELDS!!!
Why can I only have 60 custom fields! It's not enough. I want another 100 extra custom fields to do what's necessary for my business! I'm sure I can't be the only one with this problem!!! How hard would it be to fix this? Just fix it for me please atZoho Webinar et Zapier : de la prise de rendez-vous aux relances — une automatisation performante
Organiser un webinaire réussi et gérer efficacement les participants peut être un véritable défi. Avec Zoho Webinar et Zapier, vous pouvez rendre vos processus plus simples. Vous gagnez du temps en automatisant les tâches répétitives. Résultat : une expérienceTicket Stages Report
From data to decisions: A deep dive into ticketing system reports Ticket stages refer to the series of transitions from the moment a support ticket is created until it is closed. It moves through various stages based on the actions taken at each preceding【参加無料】今年最後のZoho ユーザー交流会｜東京・大阪・名古屋で開催！ 活用事例＆ユーザー同士の情報交換
ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの中野です。 11月に東京、大阪、名古屋の3都市でZoho ユーザー交流会を開催します！ 毎回ご好評いただいている本イベントでは、実際の Zohoユーザーによるリアルな活用事例の共有や 参加者同士でノウハウを交換し合うグループワークを予定しています。 「他社の活用を参考にしたい」「Zoho をもっと使いこなしたい」方にぴったりの場です。 初参加の方もぜひお気軽にご参加ください！ ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーSlow Performance on desk.zoho.com. 11/3/2025
I’m not seeing any active service alerts for desk.zoho.com, but everyone on our account is currently experiencing very slow load times when opening or navigating tickets. We’ve already tried the standard troubleshooting steps — clearing cache and cookies,Create View to See Tickets Closed within the last 3 days
I'm trying to create a view in Zoho Desk that shows me "recently closed ticket," which I will define as tickets closed in the last 3 days. I want this view to update so that whenever I click to view it is recalculates and shows me tickets closed withinMy notes from the past 2 months have disappeared
Hola, necesito ayuda urgente. Hoy, al iniciar sesión en mi Zoho Notebook como todos los días, me llevé una gran sorpresa al descubrir que todas mis notas de los últimos dos meses habían desaparecido. Estas notas son muy importantes para mí, ya que usoRecurring Events Not Appearing in "My Events" and therefore not syncing with Google Apps
We use the Google Sync functionality for our events, and it appears to have been working fine except: I've created a set of recurring events that I noticed were missing from my Google Apps calendar. Upon further research, it appears this is occurringExport your notes from Notebook!
Dear users, The long awaited feature is now live. Yes, you can now export your notes from Notebook app in bulk. But the feature has just started with web app alone for now. You can try the export feature as mentioned below: Go to our web app, https://notebook.zoho.com Go to 'Settings' > 'Export' Now, select the format: You can select either ZNote or HTML Once done, you can use the same to import or can have this a local backup of your notes. Note: Export for other platforms are in development andDissociate account from contact
Hello, When I make the call through the API to "Dissociate account from contact" using, /api/v1/contacts/**integer**/accounts/**integer**/dissociate I get this response back, 422Unprocessable Entity (WebDAV) (RFC 4918) { "errorCode": "INVALID_DATA", "message":Zoho Desk and Zoho People Integration - is it possible in order to alert whether an agent is available
Hi, We use Zoho People for our employees to log absence (Paid Time Off etc). I was wondering if it was possible that this information can be shared in to Zoho Desk, so that when allocating a ticket to an agent, if they are on leave there is an onscreenAdd Save button to Expense form
A save button would be very helpful on the expense form. Currently there is a Save and Close button. When we want to itemize an expense, this option would be very helpful. For example, if we have a hotel expense that also has room service, which is aNext Page