Kaizen #20 - Node JS SDK
Hello everyone!
Welcome to another week of Kaizen!
In today's post, we will discuss the Node JS SDK.
What is the Node JS SDK for Zoho CRM?
Node JS SDK allows you to create client Node JS 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.
What can you do with the Node JS SDK?
- Exchange data between Zoho CRM and the client application where the CRM entities are modelled as functions.
- 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.
How to start using the Node JS SDK?
Follow the below steps:
- Step-1: Register your application (Self Client or Web-based client)
- Step-2: Install the SDK
- Step-3: Import the SDK in your project
- Step-4: Initialize the SDK
4.a. Choose the token persistence method4.b. Setup the configuration files or dictionary4.c. Generate the tokens - Step-5: Connect to Zoho CRM through the available functions
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
You can install the Node JS SDK through npm package manager. Run the below command.
npm install zcrmsdk |
Run the below command to update your SDK to the latest version.
npm install --upgrade zcrmsdk |
After the installation, a package named 'zcrmsdk' will be created in the node modules folder in your machine.
Step-3: Import the SDK in your project
Use the below statement in your code to import the downloaded SDK.
var ZCRMRestClient = require('zcrmsdk') |
Step-4: Initialize the SDK
Initializing the SDK involves the following steps.
- Step 4.a - Choosing the token persistence method
- Step 4.b - Setting up the oauth and configuration properties files
- Step 4.c - Generating the tokens
4.a. Token Persistence
Your application should retain tokens (grant, access, and refresh tokens) to automate the process of data sync between your Node JS application and Zoho CRM.
You can choose to persist (store) the tokens in two ways.
a. MySQL Persistence (default)
b. Custom DB Persistence
a. MySQL Persistence
When you want to store the tokens in the MySQL DB, include the following keys in the configuration.properties file (discussed in the next section) or the configuration JSON array, along with other mandatory keys.
username=mysql_username
password=mysql_password
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. Custom DB Persistence
To use custom DB persistence, you must write a custom implementation of the following functions:
- getOAuthTokens() - This method returns the user identifier, access and refresh tokens, and their respective expiry time.
- saveOAuthTokens(token_obj) - This method saves the access and refresh tokens, their respective expiry time. This method is called when you generate the access token through the grant token or the refresh token.
- updateOAuthTokens(token_obj) - This method updates the access token and the expiry time every time an access token is refreshed. This method is called when the access token expires.
Include the absolute path of the file that contains the above methods in the following key of the configuration.properties file.
api.tokenmanagement=absolute_path_to _the_custom_implementation
The below images contain a sample of the custom implementation of the above three methods. You can find the code for the same as an attachment to this post.
This implementation of custom persistence creates a token file named zcrm_oauthtokens.txt and this file will contain the below keys with their values.
{"tokens": [{"access_token":"1000.xxxxx","expires_in":1582804396157,"user_identifier":"Patricia.boyle@abc.com","refresh_token":"xxx"}]} |
getOAuthTokens()
updateOAuthTokens()
saveOAuthTokens()
Note
- While updating the tokens, the next execution happens irrespective of the response. So, you must exercise care to handle this in your module.
- All methods must return a Promise.
4.b. Configuration
You can set the configuration details in property files (oauth_configuration.properties and configuration.properties) or pass the details during run time as JSON key-value pairs.
oauth_configuration.properties
This file must contain the below client details.
[zoho] crm.iamurl=accounts.zoho.com crm.clientid=1000.xxxxxxx.6WJ crm.clientsecret=99xxxxx0e16 crm.redirecturl=https://www.zoho.com |
Where,
- crm.iamurl - The domain-specific accounts URL from which you generate the grant token (authorization code). Possible domains are accounts.zoho.com (US), accounts.zoho.eu (EU), accounts.zoho.in (India), accounts.zoho.com.cn(China), accounts.zoho.com.au (Australia). The default value is accounts.zoho.com.
- crm.clientid, crm.clientsecret - The client ID and client secret, respectively, you received while registering your application.
- crm.redirecturl - The redirect URI you specified while registering your client. For self client apps, you can specify a dummy value for this key.
configuration.properties
This file must contain the below details.
[crm] api.url=www.zohoapis.com api.user_identifier=p.boyle@abc.com [customDB]//If you want to use custom DB persistence api.tokenmanagement= [mysql]//If you want to use MySQL DB persistence username=***** password=***** |
Where,
- api.url - The domain-specific URL from which your app must make API calls to Zoho CRM. Possible URLs are www.zohoapis.com (US), www.zohoapis.eu (EU), www.zohoapis.in (India), www.zohoapis.com.cn(China), www.zohoapis.com.au (Australia). The default value is www.zohoapis.com.
- api.user_identifier - The email ID of the current user.
- api.tokenmanagement - The absolute or relative path to the file that contains the token storage mechanism. This key is mandatory for custom DB persistence.
- username, password - The MySQL username and password, respectively. These keys are mandatory for MySQL DB persistence.
Note
Both these files must be placed under the resources folder of your project.
Config JSON Array
Instead of specifying the configuration details in properties files, you can choose to pass the details to the SDK during run time as JSON key-value pairs, as shown below.
var ZCRMRestClient = require('zcrmsdk'); var configJson={ "client_id":"{client_id}",//mandatory "client_secret":"{client_secret}",//mandatory "redirect_uri":"{redirect_url}",//mandatory "user_identifier":"{user_identifier}", "mysql_username":"{mysql_username}",//optional ,"root" is default value "mysql_password":"{mysql_password}",//optional ,"" is default value "base_url":"{api_base_url}",//optional ,"www.zohoapis.com" is default value "iamurl":"{accounts_url}",//optional ,"accounts.zoho.com" is default value "version":"{api_version}",//optional ,"v2" is default value "tokenmanagement":"{token_management_module}"//optional ,mysql module is default } ZCRMRestClient.initialize(configJson).then(function() { //do whatever required after initialize }) |
Now that you have created and registered your app with Zoho, you must authenticate it.
4.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 with an access token.
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
- Log in to Zoho and 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.
ZCRMRestClient.generateAuthTokens(user_identifier,grant_token).then(function(auth_response){ console.log("access token :"+auth_response.access_token); console.log("refresh token :"+auth_response.refresh_token); console.log("expires in :"+auth_response.expires_in); }); |
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 or the properties file, and refreshes the access token as and when required.
Step-5: Connect to Zoho CRM through the available methods
Here is a sample to insert a lead. You can find the code for this sample in the attachment.
The isTokenGenerated Method
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 REST API samples.
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
Jeremy Nagel - www.smooth.tel
Praveen Sankar
Matt
Đạt
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
Issue creating a YTD report with last years numbers
I am looking to create a widget to compare the YTD leads we have in 2023 to the YTD leads we had in 2022. I'm having issues with the aggregate formula creation to gain access to the 2022 Leads YTD data point. Feeling like this is a common view of dataBrand Studio Projects in Analytics
Hi All, Currently pulling my hair out over trying to link together some social media posts for a reporting dashboard in Analytics, so I thought I'd see if anyone on here had a solution. Our Marketing Team created a LinkedIn campaign in Zoho Brand Studio,Manage Testing Process in Zoho Sprints
Agile framework supports a robust quality assurance system that incorporates continuous testing throughout the development lifecycle of the product. The agile testing team focuses on planning the testing around the development, identifying defects earlyAnnouncing the Zohotshots of the ZDC Hackathon 2025
Hey everyone, The wait is finally over! After weeks of building, experimenting, and pushing creative boundaries, we’re excited to announce the winners of the second edition of the ZDC Hackathon. This edition brought together an incredible community ofZOHO CRM Button Integration
Hi Team, I’m currently working with Zoho CRM along with a custom application where I fetch deal details from the CRM and use them based on my requirements for each deal. Now, I want to enhance this setup. I plan to create a button on the Deal Detail pageMajor journey crash and not loading. Zoho Marketing Automation
Hi all. Last night (19MAR, 2026) Marketing Automation for a specific journey completely crashed, and since the crash the specific journey has failed to load at all (blank journey canvas, no journey appears, no menu accessible) but other separate journey'sSubtotals per Header
Hey, we would like to display subtotals per header in our invoices:Candidate Assessments, no workflows.
I have an issue where I would like to trigger a workflow based on a candidate assessment being completed. Sometimes a returning candidate will complete a second assessment, on completion the status of the candidate will be updated to "Unqualified" ifMail Merge in Zoho Desk
Hello Team, Do we have an option of mail merge within Zoho Desk like we have in Zoho CRM? We have a requirement to generate some pdf file in the form of mail merge doc from the ticket.Workdrive backup and default storage selection
Hi community, I have been informed by Zoho that workdrive will be the default storage mechanism for crm and projects. These 2 Apps seem to have different design on how they interact with workdrive for storage. 1. Crm: seems to have files saves at theZoho vault filling in a form it's not supposed to fill in
Hey there, I have a problem with ZOHO Vault autofill. In a software package, we have these options: For some reason zoho vault always replaces what's in the top option and fills a 2fa password in there, and then saves that value.. Meaning whatever wasZoho Booking Integration with Desk
Just wanting to share something in case it helps someone else who may run into a similar use case as we did. Issue: Currently, the Zoho Booking integration with desk will drop a comment into the ticket when a customer books a time, however it won't changeLet us view and export the full price books data from CRM
I quote out of CRM, some of my clients have specialised pricing for specific products - therefore we use Price Books to manage these special prices. I can only see the breakdown of the products listed in the price book and the specialised pricing forSyncing calendar with Google Calendar doesn't work when events are sent to auto repeat
Hi... The ZOHO CRM -- GOOGLE CALENDAR sync is broken. If I create a single event on either side, sync works, but if I create an event with auto repeat on either side it doesn't work. Furthermore, events created before the sync don't show up in the calendar.Organization wide Account and Contacts Visibility/Sharing Capabilities?
Has anyone figured out a way to make visibility or sharing of Accounts and Contacts to be available across the entire organization without having to have every individual user edit their Sharing permissions? For our sales folks they need to be able toNotification of Interaction Assignment
If a user is assigned an interaction, they should be notified via email. These are almost useless because if I assign an interaction for someone to respond to, they dont know that I assigned it to them without me telling them or them logging in and discoveringCountries List Global Set- Complete with Phone Country Code and Continent.
Dear Zoho Team I saw your recent addition to the Global Sets regarding the Countries list and states. While working on it, why didn't you also add things like Continent and Phone Country Code? Also, some ISO codes from some Countries/regions are misCustom Display Field for Lookup Dropdowns in Zoho CRM
Could Zoho CRM support changing the display field in lookup dropdowns, like Zoho Creator does? This would make it much easier to select the right record by showing a more useful field instead of only the default one. It would improve speed, clarity, andMessage as bot
I would like to be able to send a Cliq message truly as a bot. the current implementation of this function, while it sends the message as a bot it sends that message inside a chat from the user how authenticated the flow cliq connection instead of directlyA2P 10DLC Opt-in Rejection Issue with Zoho Creator Public Form
Hi everyone, I’m working on an A2P 10DLC SMS campaign and running into repeated rejections due to opt-in issues. I’m using Zoho Creator for the registration flow. The form is public (no login required). Users enter their phone number and there is an uncheckedTrouble with using Apostrophe in Name of Customers and Vendors
We have had an ongoing issue with how the system recognizes an apostrophe in the name of customers and vendors. The search will not return any results for a name that includes the mark; ie one of our vendors names is "L'Heritage" and when entering theBooks <-> CRM synchronisation with custom Fields
Hello, We are synchronising Books Customers with CRM Accounts. In CRM Accounts I set up last year a "segments" multiselect field shown below In Books, I set up a custom multi-select field with the same value as in the CRM And set up the synchronisation inside Books. Want to synchronise the Books Segments with the CRM Segments, but the later doesn't exist, and another non-existing is there ?! First, I don't understand where the field Segmentation is coming from. Second, I set CRM Segmentation to syncRecording overpayment?
So a customer just overpaid me and how do I record this? I can't enter an amount that is higher than the invoice amount. Eg. Invoice is $195 and he sent $200. He's a reccuring customer so is there a way to record so that he has a $5 advance for future invoice?Introducing the New Zoho Assist Quick Support Plugin
We are thrilled to announce the new Zoho Assist Quick Support Plugin, the upgraded and enhanced version of the Zoho Assist Customer Plugin. This new plugin allows organizations and IT administrators to deploy it directly onto their customers’ devices,Automate your signing workflows with Zoho Sign + n8n
Hello! We're excited to announce that Zoho Sign is now available as a community node on n8n, a popular open-source workflow automation platform used by tens of thousands of teams worldwide. n8n lets you connect apps, APIs, and services through a visualAsk the Experts 27: Onboarding and managing support reps
Hello everyone, We are back with our Ask the Experts (ATE) series for 2026. This year, we bring experts to help you address customer support challenges using Zoho Desk. For our first ATE, we are getting into the human side of customer support. "EveryRetainer invoice in Zoho Finance modlue
Hello, Is there a way of creating retainer invoices in the Zoho Finance module? If not can I request this is considered for future updates please.Spotlight #27: Embed visual collaboration Spaces in your presentations using the Vani add-on
Hello everyone! This month’s spotlight feature is the Vani add-on for Zoho Show. Every time you pause your presentation to open another tab or pull up supporting material, you lose a bit of momentum. At Zoho Show, we design features that keep everythingCRM
Is anyone else experiencing this issue? Our company is not moving out of using Gmail's web app. It just has more features and is a better email program than Zoho Mail. Gmail has an extension (Zoho CRM for Gmail) that we're using but we've found some seriousGood news! Calendar in Zoho CRM gets a face lift
Dear Customers, We are delighted to unveil the revamped calendar UI in Zoho CRM. With a complete visual overhaul aligned with CRM for Everyone, the calendar now offers a more intuitive and flexible scheduling experience. What’s new? Distinguish activitiesGlobal Search / Command Palette in Live App
Zoho Creator applications can contain many forms, reports, pages, and dashboards. While navigation inside the app is smooth, users still need to move through multiple menus or screens to find specific records or open particular modules. Currently, inNew 2026 Application Themes
Love the new themes - shame you can't get a little more granular with the colours, ie 3 different colours so one for the dropdown menu background. Also, I did have our logo above the application name but it appears you can't change logo placement positionSmarter appointment allocation with round-robin distribution
Greetings from the Zoho Bookings team! We’re excited to introduce the Appointment Distribution feature, a new way to decide how appointments are assigned among users. By default, appointments are distributed evenly across all event types, but this enhancementAnalytics & Reporting Improvements + Export Bug
Hello, I would like to raise several important product suggestions and issues regarding Zoho Expense: 1. Filter in Admin View → Analytics → Expense Details → Receipt Is it possible to add a filter that allows us to prioritize or sort reports that haveMake Quick Edits to Images Before Attaching
Hello everyone, We have enhanced how attachments are handled in tickets to help agents preview and share files more efficiently in Zoho Desk. Agents can preview image attachments before adding them to tickets and edit them using attachment annotator.3/18 オンライン勉強会のお知らせ Zoho ワークアウト （無料）
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。 3月開催のZoho ワークアウトの開催が決定しましたのでご案内します。 今回はZoomにて、オンライン開催します。 ▶︎参加登録はこちら（無料） https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/BoNTN7zYR8OvOPGShqBY0A ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Zoho ワークアウトとは？ Zoho ユーザー同士で交流しながら、サービスに関する疑問や不明点の解消を目指すイベントです。Extend color coding to custom picklist fields
Objectively, Projects has the best UI of any Zoho app — clean, intuitive, and never feels bloated. Big props to whoever owns the design. Feature request: color coding for custom picklist field values in field customization. You've already done it in twoNew in Office Integrator: In-sheet text translation
Hi users, We're pleased to introduce translation capability in the spreadsheet editor in Zoho Office Integrator. This allows you to translate the text in your spreadsheet's cells into 70+ languages from within your web app. Office Integrator's spreadsheetStreamline email communication with Out of Office configuration
Managing user communication effectively is the key to ensuring timely responses and consistent messaging. However, when users are unavailable, the absence of an Out of Office response can lead to delays and missed expectations. Managing these settingsChanging settings for auto logoff
I've noticed that when I haven't used Cliq for a while, I have to re-enter my password. That is really clumsy, especially if you have a complicated password. Because it won't be filled in automatically. Is there a way to change that behaviour? We areNext Page