Kaizen #18 - Ruby SDK
Hello everyone!
Welcome back to another week of Kaizen!
This week, we will discuss the Ruby SDK.
What is the Ruby SDK for Zoho CRM?
Ruby SDK allows you to create client Ruby applications that you can integrate with Zoho CRM, effortlessly. It serves as a wrapper for the REST APIs, thus making it easier to use the services of Zoho CRM.
Here is a sample of how the SDK acts as a middle ware between Zoho CRM and a client Ruby Application.
What can you do with the Ruby SDK?
- Exchange data between Zoho CRM and the client application where the CRM entities are modeled as classes.
- Authenticate your application easily every time you sync data between Zoho CRM and your application, as the SDK takes care of generating the access/refresh tokens automatically.
Environment Setup
The client app must have the Ruby version 2.3.7 or above installed. Refer to Ruby Installation for the steps to install Ruby.
How to Start using the Ruby SDK?
Follow the below steps:
- Step-1: Register your application (Self Client or Web-based client)
- Step-2: Install the SDK
- Step-3: Initialize the SDK
3.a. Choose the token persistence method
3.b. Set up the configuration dictionary
3.c. Generate the tokens - Step-4: Connect to Zoho CRM through the available methods
Let us now discuss these steps in detail.
Step-1: Register your application
All the Zoho CRM APIs are authenticated by the OAuth2.0 standards. It is mandatory to authenticate your application with Zoho.
You can register your application either as a Self Client (single user app) or a web-based app (multiple users app).
1.a. Self Client
- Go to https://api-console.zoho.com.
- Click ADD CLIENT.
- Choose the Client Type as Self Client, and click CREATE.
- You will receive a client ID and a client secret upon successful registration.
1.b. Web-based Client
- Go to https://api-console.zoho.com.
- Click ADD CLIENT.
- Choose the client as Web based and click CREATE NOW.
- Specify the client name, homepage URL of your application's UI, and a redirect URI to which you want to redirect the users after they grant consent to your application.
- Click CREATE.
- Your Client ID and Client Secret will be displayed.
Step-2: Install the SDK
The Ruby SDK is available as a gem.
Run the below command to install the Ruby SDK for Zoho CRM.
gem install ZCRMSDK |
Step-3: Initialize the SDK
Initializing the SDK involves the following steps.
- Step 3.a - Choosing the token persistence method
- Step 3.b - Setting up the configuration dictionary
- Step 3.c - Generating the tokens
3.a. Token Persistence
Your application should retain tokens (grant, access, and refresh tokens) to automate the process of data transfer between your Ruby application and Zoho CRM.
You can persist (store) the tokens in three ways.
a. MySQL Persistence (default)
b. File Persistence
c. Custom DB Persistence
a. MySQL Persistence
When you want to store the tokens in the MySQL DB, ensure that MySQL2 is installed.
Run the below command to install MySQL2.
gem install mysql2 -v 0.5.2 |
For this type of persistence, you must include the following keys in the configuration dictionary (discussed in the next section), along with other mandatory keys.
"mysql_username":"root",
"mysql_password":"*****",
"mysql_port":"port_number"
Note
When you use MySQL persistence, ensure that
- MySQL runs in the same machine serving at the mentioned port. (by default 3306).
- There is a database named zohooauth.
- There is a table name oauthtokens with the columns useridentifier (varchar(100)), accesstoken (varchar(100)), refreshtoken (varchar(100)) and expirytime (bigint).
b. File Persistence
If you want to store the tokens in a file, you can create a file named zcrm_oauthtokens.txt and provide the absolute path of the folder containing this file in the below key of the configuration array.
"token_persistence_path":"path_to_the_folder_containing_the_txt_file"
If you do not create this file, the SDK itself creates this file in the path you have specified, and persists the token there.
Note: This method is recommended only for self client apps.
c. Custom DB Persistence
To use this method, you need to provide the following keys in the configuration dictionary.
"persistence_handler_class_path":"absolute path to the custom DB implementation"
"persistence_handler_class":"class name of the custom implementation".
You can use the inbuilt ZohoPersistenceHandler interface and include the following custom functions.
- saveOAuthData(ZohoOAuthTokens tokens)
- deleteOAuthTokens($userEmailId)
- getOAuthTokens($userEmailId)
Note
The order of precedence for token persistence is custom, file, and DB persistence. That is, if you provide the details for custom persistence (in persistence_handler_class_path) and file persistence details (in token_persistence_path), then custom persistence is given priority over file.
3.b. Configuration dictionary
The below tables contains the list of keys you must include in the configuration dictionary based on the type of persistence.
Mandatory Keys
File Persistence | MySQL Persistence | Custom DB Persistence |
client_id | client_id | client_id |
client_secret | client_secret | client_secret |
redirect_uri | redirect_uri | redirect_uri |
token_persistence_path | db_username | persistence_handler_class |
- | db_password | persistence_handler_class_path |
- | db_port | - |
current_user_email | current_user_email | current_user_email |
Optional Keys
File Persistence | MySQL Persistence | Custom DB Persistence |
application_log_file_path | application_log_file_path | application_log_file_path |
log_in_console | log_in_console | log_in_console |
sandbox | sandbox | sandbox |
access_type | access_type | access_type |
accounts_url | accounts_url | accounts_url |
api_base_url | api_base_url | api_base_url |
api_version | api_version | api_version |
Where,
- client_id, client_secret, and redirect_uri - Client details you received after registering your application. For self client apps, you can pass a dummy value for the redirect uri.
- token_persistence_path - The relative path to store the OAuth tokens in the zcrm_oauthtokens.txt file. This key is mandatory if you want to use file persistence.
- db_username, db_password, db_port - The MySQL username, password, and the port, respectively.
- persistence_handler_class - Name of the class of the custom implementation for persistence. This key is mandatory if you want to use custom persistence.
- persistence_handler_class_path - The absolute path to the custom DB implementation (.rb file).
- application_log_file_path - The absolute path to log the exceptions during the usage of the SDK.
- log_in_console - To print the exceptions on the console screen, when set as "true".
- sandbox - Boolean key to make API calls to the sandbox environment. The value true makes API calls to the sandbox. Default value is false.
- access_type - Must be set as offline as the SDK does not support online OAuth client, now.
- accounts_url - The domain-specific accounts URL from which you generate the tokens.
This key is mandatory when the user is not in the "com" domain.
For US: https://accounts.zoho.com
For EU: https://accounts.zoho.eu
For CN: https://accounts.zoho.com.cn
For IN: https://accounts.zoho.in - api_base_url - The domain-specific API URL from which you make API calls. For users from domains other than the US, this key is mandatory.
For US: https://www.zohoapis.com
For EU: https://www.zohoapis.eu
For CN: https://www.zohoapis.com.cn
For IN: https://www.zohoapis.in - api_version - Represents the version of the CRM APIs. The value is v2.
- current_user_email - The email ID of the current user. You must set this either in the configuration array or ZCRMSDK::RestClient::ZCRMRestClient.current_user_email = "current user email id".
Below is a configuration dictionary with all the keys.
config_details = { 'client_id' => 'xxxxx', #mandatory 'client_secret' => 'xxxxxx', #mandatory 'redirect_uri' => 'https://www.zoho.com', #mandatory 'current_user_email' => 'abc@xyz.com', #mandatory (should be either set in config array or ZCRMSDK::RestClient::ZCRMRestClient.current_user_email = "current user email id" ) 'api_version' => 'v2', #optional,default is v2 'sandbox' => 'false', #optional default is sandbox 'application_log_file_path' => "/Users/xxxx/Desktop/log.log", #optional, absolute path of log file 'log_in_console' => 'true', #optional default is false, to log on the console 'persistence_handler_class_path' => 'absolute/path/to/customClass.ruby', #absolute path to the custom db implementation 'persistence_handler_class' =>'classname', #name of the class 'token_persistence_path'=>'relativepath/to/zcrm_oauthtokens.txt', #for file persistence 'db_username' => 'username', #optional, default root 'db_password' => 'password', #optional, default '' 'db_port' => 'port_number', #optional, default 3306 } |
Now that you have created and registered your app with Zoho, you must authenticate it.
Pass the configuration dictionary in the method ZCRMRestClient.init(config) and authenticate your app.
3.c. Generating the tokens
As the V2 Zoho CRM APIs follow the OAuth2.0 protocol, it is mandatory to authorize the OAuth2.0 app before using the SDK functions.
You can generate an access token from a grant token.
You can generate the grant token in two ways based on the type of client.
For Self Client Applications
- Go to Zoho Developer Console.
- Select your Self Client.
- Provide the necessary scopes separated by commas, along with the scope aaaserver.profile.READ.
- Select the Time Duration from the drop-down. This is the time the grant token is valid for.
- Provide a description for the scopes. Click GENERATE.
- Copy the grant token.
For Web-based Applications
It is the responsibility of your client app to generate the grant token for the users trying to login.
Your Application's UI must have the Login with Zoho option to open the grant token URL of Zoho, which would prompt for the user's OAuth2.0 authorization.
Upon the successful login of the user, the grant token will be sent as a parameter to your registered redirect URL.
Generating an access token from the grant token
Use the below code snippet in your main class.
client = ZCRMSDK::OAuthClient::ZohoOAuth.get_client_instance grant_token = 'grant_token' client.generate_access_token(grant_token) |
Note
- The code snippet to generate the access token from the grant token is valid only once per grant token. If the grant token expires before you generate the access token, you must generate a new grant token only.
- Generating access and refresh tokens is a one-time process. After the tokens are generated the first time, the SDK persists them based on the keys defined in the configuration dictionary, and refreshes the access token as and when required.
Step-4: Connect to Zoho CRM through the available methods
Here is a sample to get a specific user's details. You can find the code for this sample in the attachment.
The isTokenGenerated Method
def self.is_token_generate(user) tokens = ZCRMSDK::OAuthClient::ZohoOauth.get_persistence_instance.get_oauth_tokens(user) unless tokens.nil? return true end rescue Exception => e return false end |
You need to add this method to check if the access token has already been generated or not. It returns a Boolean value.
- true - The access token has already been generated.
- false - The access token has not been generated previously, thus, it shifts the control to the code snippet that leads to access token generation.
For more sample codes, refer to our SDK guide.
We hope you found this post useful. Stay tuned for more!
Cheers!
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
Shylaja S
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
Employee type and source translation
In Zoho People, when I fill in the employee’s information, there is the option to determine the type of employment (employee type) and the hiring source. Both options ALWAYS appear in English. It is extremely inconvenient to deal with poorly translatedSync Issue Between Zoho Notebook Web App on Firefox (PC) and Android App
Hi Zoho Notebook Community, I'm facing a sync problem with Zoho Notebook. When I use the web version on Mozilla Firefox browser on my PC, I create and save new notes, and I've synced them successfully. However, these new notes aren't showing up in myRequest for Clarity on Timeline for True GPT/Zia Auto-Response Capabilities
I appreciate Zoho’s steady innovation, but I’m concerned that Desk and Zia remain well behind modern AI capabilities. For years, GPT-based tools have been able to generate and send contextual responses, yet Zoho Desk only supports summarization or suggestedNotebook audio recordings disappearing
I have recently been experiencing issues where some of my attached audio recordings are disappearing. I am referring specifically to ones made within a Note card in Notebook on mobile, made by pressing the "+" button and choosing "Record audio" (or similar),Has anyone built a ticket export that allows Help Center users to export the tickets shown in the My Area list they are looking at?
Hi, We are moving to Zoho Desk soon. Our current support system displays an option in our help center allowing customers to export their Open, Closed, or all tickets based on which list they are looking at. We need to offer the same in Zoho Desk helpZoho Desk: Q2 2025 | What's New
Hello everyone, We are excited to announce Zoho Desk's 2025 Autumn updates. This release brings new features and enhancements that improve work management and enable businesses to provide a better overall support experience. Spanning from Zia Agents toCheckboxes not adhering to any policy in mail merge - data from CRM
I want checkboxes to appear depending on whether the checkbox in the CRM module is ticked or not. However, the tickboxes that appear are either ticked or not, but don't correlate to the actual selections in the CRM module. This is is despite updatingItems Landed Cost and Profit?
Hello, we recently went live with Zoho Inventory, and I have a question about the Landed Cost feature. The FAQ reads: "Tracking the landed cost helps determine the overall cost incurred in procuring the product. This, in turn, helps you to decide theCC and/or BCC users in email templates
I would like the ability to automatically assign a CC and BCC "User (company employee)" into email templates. Specifically, I would like to be able to add the "User who owns the client" as a CC automatically on any interview scheduled or candidate submittedCreate Contract API Endpoint Unclear "inputfields" Requirements
Hello, I'm trying to create a Deluge function that accepts inputs from a form in Zoho Creator and creates a barebones contract of a given type. See below for the current code, cleaned of authentication information. // Fetch form data // Hidden field client_nameKaizen #46 - Handling Notes through Zoho CRM API (Part 1/2)
Hello everyone! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! This week, we will discuss Handling Notes through Zoho CRM API. What will you learn from this post? Notes in Zoho CRM Working with Notes through Notes APIs 1. Notes in Zoho CRM 1a. Why add Notes to records? Notes are a great way to summarize your observations on customer and prospect interactions and outcomes. By saving notes as CRM data, a sales rep will always be able to keep track of how a sale is progressing. To know more about notes inMarketer's Space - Why email marketing matters in ecommerce (and how to get started with Zoho Campaigns)
Hello Marketers, Welcome to this week's Marketer's space post. Today, we'll discus why email marketing matters in ecommerce businesses. Running an online store is exciting but challenging. If you're running an online store, you've probably experiencedZoho Campaigns Event timestamps do not propagate to Zoho CRM
We have integrated Zoho CRM and Zoho Campaigns. But when looking at Contact records, the Campaign event data is missing the actual timestamps: especially when a particular email was sent. They're not in the Campaigns related list, and the cannot be foundKaizen #121 : Customize List Views using Client Script
Hello everyone! Welcome back to another interesting Kaizen post. In this post, we can discuss how to customize List Views using Client Script. This post will answer the questions Ability to remove public views by the super admin in the Zoho CRM and IsSetting default From address when replying to request
At the moment, if I want to reply to a request, the From field has three options, company@zohosupport.com, support@company.zohosupport.com, and support@company.com. The first two are really internal address that should never be seen by the customer andTip #45 - Explore Your Support Reach with Zoho Assist’s Geo Insights - 'Insider Insights'
Understanding where your remote support sessions are happening can help you make smarter decisions, allocate resources effectively, and improve overall customer satisfaction. In this week's Zoho Assist's community post we will be exploring Geo InsightsFormatting of text pasted into Zoho documents
Howdy, I'm a newbie and finding Zoho an improvement to MS Word. Consider yourself hugged. High on my wish list would be plain text cut-and-paste. When pasting text from the web to Zoho, presently Zoho imports the formatting along with the text. This means that every cut-and-paste operation brings in text in a different font, size, or style. Can we have at least the option of importing plain text without formatting (or better yet, is this option already out there?) ... Thanks HelenAdd additional features to Zoho Tables
Zoho Tables is a really great tool, why not add features like diagramming capability into the tool from applications like Draw.io which I believe is open source, you should be able to do wireframes, process flow diagrams, network design, etc. Please noteThe Social Wall: August 2025
Hello everyone, As summer ends, Zoho Social is gearing up for some exciting, bigger updates lined up for the months ahead. While those are in the works, we rolled out a few handy feature updates in August to keep your social media management running smoothly.The Social Wall: July 2025
Hello everyone! July has brought some exciting new updates to Zoho Social. From powerful enhancements in the Social Toolkit to new capabilities in the mobile app, we’ve packed this month with features designed to help you level up your social media presence.Tagged problem !!!
Damn it, we're one of dozens of construction companies in Africa, but we can't link purchasing invoices to projects. Why isn't this feature available?Syntax for URLs in HTML Snippets
What are some best practices for inserting a URL in an HTML snippet? I've looked at Zoho Help articles on navigation-based and functional-based URLs, but I'm still unclear on how to incorporate them in an HTML snippet. For example, 1. How do I link toThe Social Wall: June 2025
Hello everyone, We’re back with June Zoho Social highlights. This month brought some exciting feature updates—especially within the Social Toolkit—to enhance your social media presence. We engaged with several MSME companies through community meet-upsTip 7: How to fetch data from another application?
Hi everyone, Following our Zoho Creator - Tips and Tricks series every fortnight, we are back today with a tip based on one of the most popular questions asked in our forum. This tip would help you fetch data from another application(App B) and use itThe Social Wall: May 2025
Hey everyone, We're excited to share some powerful updates for the month of May! Let's take a look! Reply to your Instagram and Facebook comments privately through direct messages Are you tired of cluttered comment threads or exposing customer queriesSub-Form Fields as Filters for Reports
Hi, I would like to use the Sub-Form Fields as Filters in Reports just like we do for Main Page Fields. Thanks DanZoho CRM Formula - Current Time minus Date/Time field
Hello, I am trying to prevent duplicate emails going to clients when more than 1 deal is being updated. To do this, I would like to create a formula to identify if a date/time field is >= 2 hours ago. Can someone please help me write this formula? Example:Billing Management: #7 Usage Billing in Telecom & Internet Service Provider
Telecom and Internet Service Providers operate in markets where usage varies drastically from one customer to another. While flexible, usage-based models align revenue directly with consumption, they also introduce operational challenges like real-timeZoho Sprints - Q3 updates for 2025
The updates for the third quarter of 2025 are out. A few significant features and enhancements have been rolled out to improve user experience and product capabilities. The following are the updates: Manage tags and cluster tags Record and maintain projectKaizen #208 - Answering your Questions | Functions, AI and Extensions
Hello Developers! Welcome back to a fresh week of Kaizen! We are grateful for your active participation in sharing feedback and queries for our 200th milestone. This week, we will answer the queries related to Functions and Extensions in Zoho CRM. 1.Zoho CRM still doesn't let you manage timezones (yearly reminder)
This is something I have asked repeatedly. I'll ask once again. Suppose that you work in France. Next month you have a trip to Guatemala. You call a contact there, close a meeting, record that meeting in CRM. On the phone, your contact said: "meet meTo Zoho customers and partners: how do you use Linked Workspaces?
Hello, I'm exploring how we can set up and use Linked Workspaces and would like to hear from customers and partners about your use cases and experience with them. I have a Zoho ticket open, because my workspace creation fails. In the meantime, how isZoho Forms to Zoho CRM : First/Last Name to just Name ?
When integrating a Zoho Form into the Accounts menu of the CRM I'm having trouble with how names are formatted ; In Forms the data is available as First Name or Last Name In the CRM there is only one field called Name How can I ensure that "John" "Smith"This festive season, offer discounts with coupon code support in Stripe Checkout
Hello form builders! It’s the festive season, the perfect time to spread joy and great deals! Now, with Zoho Forms’ latest enhancement for Stripe Checkout, you can do exactly that with coupon codes! Your payment forms integrated with Stripe Checkout canCómo creo una factura negativa o de abono?
NEcesito anular una factura y crear una nueva igual pero en negativo. El sistema no me lo permitePower of Automation::Streamline log hours to work hours upon task completion.
Hello Everyone, A Custom Function is a user-written set of code to achieve a specific requirement. Set the required conditions needed as to when to trigger using the Workflow rules (be it Tasks / Project) and associate the custom function to it. Requirement:-CRM : Function to add user name to text field
I have a lookup field in a module that is linked to the CRM users so we can assign a Project Lead to the customer. Sadly Zoho Marketing Automation doesn't sync Lookup fields so I need to extract information from the lookup to text fields: Lookup fieldZoho CRM - Restrict Login based on work hours
Hi there, I'm wondering if we can restrict users to login during works - For example the users would be able to login from 8am to 5pm. I have seen the IP address restriction - the only downfall is what if the customer has dynamic IP. thanks JiriTips and Tricks #46: Customize themes and templates using Show's Master View
Hi All! Let's say you want to revamp your presentation and make changes to its visual design. You can do this easily using the Master Slide and its associated layouts. The Master Slide stores information about all the layouts used in the presentation.Sheet View in CRM portal
Hi, When will it be possible for my CRM portal users to edit/add records with Sheet View? GeorgeNext Page