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
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 #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 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.
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
Can the Product Image on the Quote Template be enlarged
Hello, I am editing the Quote Template and added ${Products.Product Image} to the line item and the image comes up but it is very tiny. Is there anyway that you can resize this to be larger? Any help would be great! ThanksAudio/video quality issues with Zoho Meeting – Any roadmap for improvement?
Hi Zoho Team, We’ve been using Zoho Meeting for both internal and external meetings, and unfortunately, the experience has been consistently poor. The video and audio quality are so unreliable that it often renders meetings ineffective—especially withCash based businesses cannot use the new fixed asset module
Hello all, If your bookkeeping is reporting in cash, you cannot use the new fixed acid module, as it does all the depreciation bookings accrual and not cash. This is definitive and you can't turn them into a cash booking. They will never appear in yourZoho Learn & Zoho Connect
Hi, Is there a way to sync the knowledge base we have in Zoho Learn with the manuals section is Zoho Connect? Thanks,Apply Payment Received Amount Zoho Books Invoice
Hello team here is the sample code How can apply the payment received record over a unpaid zoho books invoice. //......................... paymentID = customer_payment.get("payment_id"); organizationID = organization.get("organization_id"); paymentmaplist[Live Webinar] New in Zoho WorkDrive: AI enhancements, Data Loss Prevention, Version Controls, and more
Hello everyone, We're excited to bring you another round of powerful updates in Zoho WorkDrive! Join us on May 15 for an exclusive live webinar where we’ll unveil the latest features designed to enhance your team’s productivity, collaboration, and dataLive webinar: Streamlining legal operations: Leveraging Zoho WorkDrive for law firm success
Hello everyone, Managing legal documents across departments and jurisdictions can be complex, but it doesn’t have to be. Join us on March 6 for an exclusive webinar where we’ll show you how Zoho WorkDrive empowers legal teams to stay compliant, organized,Live Webinar: Optimizing back-office operations in the manufacturing industry to maximize profitability
Hello everyone, We’re excited to invite you to our upcoming live webinar on February 6! Discover how Zoho WorkDrive can help manufacturing businesses optimize back-office operations, improve efficiency, and boost profitability. Our product experts willLive webinar: 2024 recap of Zoho WorkDrive
Hello everyone, We’re excited to invite you to our year-end live webinar! This session will take you through the transformative features and updates we’ve introduced in Zoho WorkDrive this year, helping you streamline document management like never before.Live webinar: Explore WorkDrive's seamless integrations with key Zoho apps
Hello everyone, We’re excited to invite you to our upcoming live webinar, where we'll delve into the seamless integration of WorkDrive with other key Zoho applications! This is a fantastic opportunity to enhance your productivity and streamline your workflowsLive webinar: Getting the most out of WorkDrive in Zoho Workplace
Hello everyone, We’re excited to invite you to our upcoming live webinar, where we’ll explore how to maximize your use of WorkDrive as part of the Zoho Workplace bundle. This is a fantastic opportunity to elevate your productivity and streamline yourLive webinar: Mastering data migration, organization, and team collaboration
Hello everyone, We’re excited to invite you to our upcoming live webinar! Discover how to seamlessly migrate your data, optimize file organization, and boost team collaboration using Zoho WorkDrive’s powerful features. This is a fantastic opportunityJoin our live webinar: Explore the WorkDrive TrueSync application!
Hello everyone, We are thrilled to invite you to a live webinar focused on mastering the WorkDrive TrueSync application. Discover how to seamlessly sync your content between the cloud and your computer, ensuring smooth and efficient file management. OurZoho Creator customer portal limitation | Zoho One
I'm asking you all for any feedback as to the logic or reasoning behind drastically limiting portal users when Zoho already meters based on number of records. I'm a single-seat, Zoho One Enterprise license holder. If my portal users are going to add records, wouldn't that increase revenue for Zoho as that is how Creator is monetized? Why limit my customer portal to only THREE external users when more users would equate to more records being entered into the database?!? (See help ticket reply below.)Envio de mails
Hola! No puedo enviar mails pero si recibirlos. No se como solucionarlo! Mi dominio es chidobebes.com.arERROR CODE :554 - Your access to this mail system has been rejected due to poor reputation of a domain used in message transfer
In my email configuration: The domain's MX Records are pointed to Zoho The domain's SPF Records have been pointed out successfully DKIM is enabled. DMARC Record is pointed for the domain. The domain name is digioorja.in. Still facing the issue of Error:This Operation has been restricted. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details
l tried to verify my domain (casalimpaeperfumada.com.br) and its shows this error: This Operation has been restricted. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details.SLOW EMAILS
Is there an issue with the Zoho server? For two days now I've been having issues with very long buffering. Please advise. Thank you.POP3 authentication error - SOLVED
Just in case others are as forgetful as me ... As Zoho has changed the POP server for personal and free organisational users, I needed to change the POP server on my email client. This failed persistently but eventually I remembered that I had chosenAdd Zoho One Groups/Departments to Shared Mailbox Access
Hi, I hope you're doing well. Currently, in Zoho Mail, I can manually add specific users or the entire organization to a shared mailbox. However, there is no option to add Zoho One groups or departments. Feature Request: We would like the ability to assignAllow Filters with Only Special Characters in Zoho Mail
Hi Zoho Mail Team, I hope you're doing well. We have noticed that currently, Zoho Mail does not allow creating filter criteria using only special characters, such as = or #. However, there are scenarios where such a filter is necessary. For example: FilteringHow to save email as PDF?
I saw 2 previous threads about this. One is from 14 years ago. The other was closed as "answered" a year ago but the feature was never implemented: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/how-to-download-save-emails-as-pdf Is the "save as PDF"Flexible plans
Hi, I have a Workplace Standard subscription. On Zoho's website, it mentions that with the annual plan it's possible to have multiple plans under the same organization—for example, Workplace Standard and Mail Lite. However, I can’t find a way to do thisWeekly Tips : Teamwork made easy with Multiple Assignees
Let's say you are working on a big project where different parts of a single task need attention from several people at the same time—like reviewing a proposal that requires input from sales, legal, and finance teams. Instead of sending separate remindersCannot give public access to Html Snippet in Zoho Creator Page
Hi, I created a form in Zoho Creator and published it. The permalink works but I want to override the css of the form. (style based URL parameters is not good enough) So I created a page and added an Html snippet. I can now override the css, which isWeekly Tips : Customize your Compose for a smoother workflow
You are someone who sends a lot of emails, but half the sections in the composer just get in your way — like fields you never use or sections that clutter the space. You find yourself always hunting for the same few formatting tools, and the layout justAccounting on the Go Series-43:Enhancing Your Reporting Efficiency with Dashboard Filter State Retention
Hello everyone! Welcome back to our series on Zoho Books mobile app features. Today, we will talk about a feature that yet again helps you focus on work that really matters-Dashboard Filter State Retention. Imagine you're working on your Zoho Books dashboard,Zoho books/payroll tax payment
I accidentally made a second payment to my taxes for $300 which is reflected in my bank account and therefore on Zoho books but I can not match it to any transactions because its not reflected in payroll as a tax payment. Is there a way to add an extraI can't renew the Finance Plus subscription
I tried to renew the Finance Plus subscription but it keeps reloading the same page over and over when ever I click on "Renew Subscription" buttonEstimate vs Quote
they are different. Quote is for 1 piece price + other charges. Estimate is for total quantity to be ordered. The gross total amount of the Estimate is the amount payable. Replacing Estimate as Quote is not understandable because they are different. InAccounting on the Go Series-47: Effortless GSTIN Management- Auto Populate TaxPayer Details in Zoho Books Mobile App
Hello everyone, Welcome back! Today, we're focusing on a feature specifically designed for our Indian users in the Zoho Books-Indian edition, particularly those who deal with GST compliance regularly. We understand the importance of accurate and efficientAccounting on the Go Series-48: Enhance Accuracy with Custom Work Week Start Days in Zoho Books iOS app
Hello everyone, Welcome back! We’re here with another feature spotlight that might seem small but can have a big impact on your daily routine: setting the first day of the work week in the Zoho Books iOS app. Imagine this: You’re a business owner whoTime to Get Paid Report in ZBooks
Hello, One of our customers who has 25 different companies around the world gets 60 days to make payments. Unfortunately, the subject report does not report an average time to get paid (in days) or the ability to look at a custom period of time. CurrentlyHow to prepare a balance sheet for a company that has no operations yet?
.Project Billing Method from Zoho People
Normaly our customers use Zoho Projects to manage projects and timesheet that are being charge to the customer. Using the integration from Zoho Project we can have projects base on different billing method. For example most of our customer use HourlyZoho Books-Accounting on the Go Series!
Dear users, Continuing in the spirit of our 'Function Fridays' series, where we've been sharing custom function scripts to automate your back office operations, we're thrilled to introduce our latest initiative – the 'Zoho Books-Accounting on the Go Series'.Zoho Books | Product updates | July 2025
Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From plan-based trials to the option to mark PDF templates as inactive, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience. Introducing Plan Based Trials in ZohoZoho Books | Product updates | August 2025
Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From the right sidebar where you can manage all your widgets, to integrating Zoho Payments feeds in Zoho Books, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience.Update or Upsert Records Using Unique Custom Fields
Hello customers, We've enhanced the process of updating records via API. You can now: Update records using unique custom fields Upsert records using unique custom fields Note: Both the features are available in the Zoho Books and Zoho Inventory apps.[Webinar] Understanding the New Invoice Management Systems
Join industry expert CA Pritam Mahure as he discusses the importance of the new Invoice Management System (IMS) and its impact on taxpayers. Topics Covered: - Concept of IMS and pre-requisites - Applicability and Restrictions on Invoices/Records for IMSNext Page