Kaizen #22 - Connections in Zoho CRM
Hello everyone!
Welcome back to another post in the Kaizen series!
This week, we will discuss Connections in Zoho CRM.
In this post, we will discuss the following:
- What are connections?
- Authentication types
- Creating a connection
- Using a connection
1. What are Connections?
A Connection (or a connector) is a simple authentication mechanism to connect your Zoho CRM account with a third-party app.
Zoho provides default integration support to a wide range of apps like core Google services (Contacts, Calendar, and Google Ads) and Microsoft software (MS Office, MS Outlook, etc).
However, there is no default integration with third party services like PandaDoc, SignEasy etc,. In these cases, you can use a connector to expand Zoho's third-party support. Connectors use the OAuth 2.0 or other authentication types to facilitate this integration.
You can use connections to invoke any third-party apps' REST APIs and get access to the authenticated data through your functions or widgets.
Zoho provides more than 20 connections to the most popular third-party apps, out of the box. You can also create your own connection and integrate your app with Zoho CRM.
2. Authentication types
Since different services have different methods of authentication for their service, Connections are equipped with four different modes of authentication.
a. Basic Authentication
b. API Key
c. OAuth 1.0
d. OAuth 2.0
a. Basic Authentication
This is the authentication method where the user's username and password are sent in the header, form data, or the query string in the format username:password. This method uses the Base64 encoding standard to encode the username and password.
b. API Key
This is a token that the client provides that you can send in the query string or in the header. The API key is unique to every user and stays the same for that user as long as the user uses the service.
c. OAuth 1.0
This method uses a Request Token and an Access Token to get access to the resources on the resource server. The access token does not expire until the user revokes it.
d. OAuth 2.0
This method provides an app limited access by providing an access token only to specific resources. The access token is valid only for an hour.
3. Creating a Connection
To create a new connection,
- Go to Setup > Developer Space > Connections.
- Click Get Started. The Create Connection page opens.
- The Pick your Service tab lists all the connections that are already available. Choose the one that meets your needs.
- If any third-party app is not listed under this tab, you can add a new service under the Custom Service tab.
- For already existing services (under the Pick Your Service tab),
a. Select the service of your choice.
b. Enter the details of the connection such as the name and choose the scope you require from the list.
c. Click Create and Connect. The below image shows a sample connection created for the YouTube app, and you can use the code shown in the box to invoke the YouTube APIs.
- For a new service (services not listed under the Pick Your Service tab),
a. Click the Custom Service tab.
b. Enter the name of the service and choose the authentication type that the third-party service supports.
c. For services that use the OAuth1.0 or OAuth2.0 protocol, enter the following details:
Client ID and Secret you obtained from the third-party service.
The URLs to obtain the request token and the access token (OAuth1.0).
The URLs to obtain the access token and refresh token (OAuth 2.0).
You must obtain these details from the third-party service's documentation.
The below image shows a sample connection created for the third-party service "SignEasy".
- Enter the name of the connection and the required scope.
- Click Create and Connect.
- The connection will be created and the summary will be displayed.
The system also displays the code you must use in a function to invoke the connection.
The below image shows the sample connection created for the third-party service "SignEasy". You can use the code in the box to use the APIs of SignEasy.
- Where,
url: The URL that you can obtain from the third-party service.
type: The HTTP request method (GET, POST, PUT, or DELETE) that the request performs.
parameters: The parameters that the function uses to replace the dynamic values present in the API with user-specific values.
4. Using a Connection
After creating a connection, you can use them in functions to invoke them.
Let us consider a case where you want to send out newsletters through a MailChimp campaign to the contacts stored in Zoho CRM. Before you can send them the newsletters, you want to obtain their consent through a consent form stored in Google Drive.
Here, you must establish a connection between MailChimp and Google Drive and have the consent form as a button in the View page of the Contacts module in CRM.
You can choose to place this widget as a button in the View page of a contact. When the CRM user (an agent) clicks this button, the Consent form widget opens where the agent fills the details of the user.
This triggers the function where an email is sent to the customer. When the customer grants consent, the details of that contact are added to the MailChimp campaign list.
Simply put, you must
a. Establish a connection between Google Drive and MailChimp.
b. Write a function to call the APIs of both these apps.
c. Make the function available as an API.
d. Create a widget and invoke the function.
Let us now see these steps in detail.
a. Establish a connection between Google Drive and MailChimp
Follow the steps in the "Create a Connection" section, and create connections for Google Drive and MailChimp.
b. Write the function code
- Go to Setup > Developer Space > Functions > +New Function.
- Enter details like the function name, display name, description, and choose the function category (Standalone, in our case).
- Write the code in the console as shown below. You can find the code as an attachment to this post.
What does this sample function do?
a. Invokes the MailChimp API.
b. Checks for the Campaign ID.
c. Checks for the email address. If the email already exists on the campaign list, throws the message "The member has already subscribed to the newsletter." Otherwise, adds the email to the campaign list.
d. Invokes the Google Drive API to get the link of the Consent form.
e. If the consent form exists on Google Drive, sends the form to the email address.
e. If the form does not exist, throws the error "No document found".
- This function takes the following parameters
listId (string) - The Campaign ID from MailChimp,
emailAddress (string) - The email ID of the contact you want to send the newsletter to,
extraDetails (string) - To capture any extra information about the contact after they grant consent such as the mobile number, address etc. - Click Save and Execute. Provide the listId, emailAddress, and extraDetails to check if the function works as expected.
- Click Close.
c. Make the function available as an API
- Go to Setup > Developer Space > Functions.
- Choose the required function and click the Settings icon. Select REST API.
- Enable the OAuth2.0 and API key sliders and click Save.
- The function is now available as an API. You can use the URL as a webhook to trigger the function or use the API name of the function in your code to trigger it.
For more details about functions, refer to this post.
d. Create a widget and invoke the function
Since the function is now available as an API, you can use it in any widget and trigger the function based on your needs.
The HTML and the script for the below consent form is attached to this post.
You can also write your own implementation of the widget. Refer to this page to know how.
What does the sample widget code do?
a. The HTML renders the widget.
b. When the user hits the "Subscribe" button, the script invokes the connection and calls the above function (4.b.3) via JavaScript.
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
Matt Beck
Praveen Sankar
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
Create New Tasks Layout in CRM
I am able to do this in Leads, Contacts, Meetings, Calls - every other module, but cannot create a new layout in tasks. I have the appropriate access but it's simply not appearing as an option. Only "Standard" option shows. Please help!Whatsapp Connection Status still "Pending" after migration
Hello, I migrated my WhatsApp API to Zoho from another provider a day ago. So far the connection status is still “Pending”. There is a problem? How long does it usually take?Using IMAP configuration for shared email inboxes
Our customer service team utilizes shared email boxes to allow multiple people to view and handle incoming customer requests. For example, the customer sends an email to info@xxxx.com and multiple people can view it and handle the request. How can I configureAuto-sync field of lookup value
This feature has been requested many times in the discussion Field of Lookup Announcement and this post aims to track it separately. At the moment the value of a 'field of lookup' is a snapshot but once the parent lookup field is updated the values diverge.Zoho Recruit Subscription
Hello Zoho Recruit Team, Good day! I would like to inquire about your recruitment subscription plans and would also like to verify the current subscription our company is enrolled in under Zoho Recruit. Thank you, and I look forward to your response.Keyboard shortcut M key
I'm trying to customize my keyboard shortcuts and assign the "m" key. But it says the key is already assigned. I've looked through all my shortcuts and can't see any assigned "m". When I select an email and press the M key, nothing happens. What is theIs it possible to create a meeting in Zoho Crm which automatically creates a Google Meet link?
We are using Google's own "Zoho CRM for Google" integration and also Zoho's "Google Apps Sync" tools, but none of them provide us with the ability to create a meeting in Zoho CRM that then adds a Google Meet link into the meeting. Is this something thatEnsure Consistent Service Delivery with Comprehensive Job Sheets
We are elated to announce that one of the most requested features is now live: Job Sheets. They are customizable, reusable forms that serve as a checklist for the services that technicians need to carry out and as a tool for data collection. While onBill automation in Zoho Books
Hi I am looking for 3rd-party options for bill automation in zoho which are economical and preferably have accurate scanning. What options do I have? Zoho's native scanning is a bit priceyAutomatic Portal invite
We have numerous customers we move through a blueprint in deals, when they get to a certain point we need to give them portal access, how can this be done through deluge or a workflow? Latest Update (December 2025): The option to automate portal invitationsMarketer's Space: Why mobile optimization deserves a place in your email strategy
Hello Marketers, Welcome back to Marketer's Space! Today, we'll talk about the importance of creating mobile-friendly email designs. While mobile phones were once used only to make phone calls, today they're used for almost everything, including texting,Enhancements in Canvas
Dear All, Greetings! Canvas lets you design the record details page to suit your brand or business preferences. We are glad to introduce the following enhancements to uplift your design experience. Reusable Components Style Presets Let's go! ReusableIntroducing Dark Mode / Light Mode : A New Look For Your CRM
Hello Users, We are excited to announce a highly anticipated feature - the launch of Day, Night and Auto Mode implementation in Zoho CRM's NextGen user interface! This feature is designed to provide a visually appealing and comfortable experience forABN with Legal Entity Name
Hi, How can I execute this? The ABN number is entered in Accounts Module and ideally, it should display or suggest the correct Legal Entity Name based on the ABN lookup. ex. Account Name: JPG Resources ABN Number: 65 067 761 871 Legal Entity Name: (autoZoho Cliq not working on airplanes
Hi, My team and I have been having this constant issue of cliq not working when connected to an airplane's wifi. Is there a reason for this? We have tried on different Airlines and it doesn't work on any of them. We need assistance here since we are constantlyPrepopulating Fields
Hello, I have a form (Assets) with 2 lookup fields: Client (from Clients) Site (from Client Sites) I modified the code (highlighted in red below), so the Site dropdown shows the list of sites related to the Client. must have Client_Site ( type = picklistUnify Overlapping Functionalities Across Zoho Products
Hi Zoho One Team, We would like to raise a concern about the current overlap of core functionalities across various Zoho applications. While Zoho offers a rich suite of tools, many applications include similar or identical features—such as shift management,Detailed Account Reports - Add Running Balance
When one clicks into an account from a report (say P/L or Balance Sheet), the default reports have the Debit, Credit, and then the Amount. The Amount column (last one) is duplicate information. It would be far better and fit more peoples' use cases ifStart Workflow from Deluge Script
I have developed a customized process from our CRM that leverages a deluge script to create a statement of work document. Once the document has been created via the merge and store function, I would like the ability to start a workdrive review & approveIssue: Ticket Export Does Not Include Ticket Threads
Dear Zoho Desk Support Team, I hope you’re doing well. I wanted to bring to your attention that the current ticket export feature in Zoho Desk does not seem to include the ticket threads or conversation history. When exporting tickets, only the summaryPushover Notification Module
Hello, it would be good if there would be a "Pushover" (https://pushover.net/) module besides the standard SMS module. Pushover is now very well known, especially in IT, and is becoming more and more popular. The biggest advantage are the customizableForward - no Ticket Number
Hello, when I send an email to Zoho Desk via Reply or Reply All, the ticket number is in the subject line. But if I use forward then not. Is there an option to change this? We often forward e-mails and a reply to this will of course create a new ticketCheckout: Adding Images
Hello everyone, I’m trying to add a small GoGreen logo in the shipping section of the checkout to promote our sustainable shipping. While I can insert text without any issues, it seems that adding images is not supported in this area. Is there currentlySortie de Zoho TABLE ??
Bonjour, Depuis bientôt 2 ans l'application zoho table est sortie en dehors de l'UE ? Depuis un an elle est annoncée en Europe Mais en vrai, c'est pour quand exactement ??[solved] #original_sender trick not working for us
Hello community ! We really like DESK.. it's working like a charm for us but I have a request. Some users are sending emails personnaly to me (instead of using the support adress).. and I saw there was a possibilty to use : #original_sender {mail@mail.com}SalesIQ Chat Notifications
I am the admin of our salesIQ implementation. About two weeks ago, I started hearing/seeing notification for ALL chats messages from monitored agents/chat participants. I don't need to see these, we have a manager who deals with this. I can't stop theCorrelated subqueries not supported in Zoho Analytics. This creates huge limitations
Running into a major limitation in Zoho Analytics: correlated subqueries simply don’t work, even in completely standard SQL patterns inside a JOIN. Example: LEFT JOIN "Bills" b ON d."Id" = b."Deal ID" AND EXISTS ( SELECT 1 FROM "BillUnknown table or alias 'A1'
I would like to create a subquery but i am getting the following error: Unknown table or alias 'A1' used in select query. This is the sql statement: SELECT A1.active_paying_customers, A1.active_trial_customers, A1.new_paying_signup, date(A1.date_active_customers),Batch Emails in CRM Plus without using a template?
Hi guys. Is it possible to send the same email to multiple people at the same time within CRM Plus without using an email template? At the moment we create a custom view in Contacts to display the people that we need. We then click the boxes on the left, and click 'Send Mail', but always need to select a template. Sometimes its better to write a quick one off message, without needing to set up a template first. Thanks.bank charge
a charge to my account was made that I did not authorize, of $16.46, for something that looks like "computer maintenance or something to that matter". please refund.[Free Webinar] Product Updates: Quick Catch-Up Session - Part II - Creator Tech Connect
Hello Everyone! We welcome you all to the upcoming free webinar on the Creator Tech Connect Series. The Creator Tech Connect series is a free monthly webinar featuring deep-dive technical sessions designed for developers, administrators, and app builders.Introducing Liquid Glass UI on the Zoho Mail iOS app
Hello everyone! We're excited to announce that the Zoho Mail app is now fully optimised for iOS 26's Liquid Glass design on both iPhone and iPad! The updated interface features transparent layers, smooth animations, and refined visual elements that enhanceZoho Creator customer portal users
Hi, I'm in a Zoho One subscription with our company. I'm running a project now that involves creating a Zoho Creater application and using the Zoho Creator Customer Portal. At most we need 25 customer portal users. In our Zoho One plan we only get 3Plan change from Zoho One to Zoho Workplace
Hello Zoho, Following the recent pricing update for Zoho One, we are interested in transitioning to Zoho Workplace products. Please inform us about the necessary steps for this process so we can proceed promptly. Kind regards,Partner with HDFC And Sbi Bank.
Hdfc and sbi both are very popular bank if zoho books become partner with this banks then many of the zoho books users will benefit premium features of partnered banks.Links in Instagram
Hi there, I have been using Later for a while now but keen to come back to Zoho Social as Later doesn't offer tagging of pages on Facebook but they offer something Zoho doesn't. You can add a link to your bio which opens up your profile feed where imagesSpotlight #7 - Automatic Transitions in Blueprint
Previously, records could not be moved from one state to another without user intervention. With automatic transitions, move records from one state to another automatically, when it elapses its pre-defined time. This Spotlight discusses how automaticSub Folders
It would be great if there could be sub-folders in reports. We have a ton of individual reports and folders that would be easier to navigate this wayZoho CRM Community Digest - November 2025 | Part 2
Hello Everyone! Second half of November brought several exciting updates, especially around Zia, making AI assistance smarter, faster, and more context-aware. We also feature engaging community snippets highlighting members who went the extra mile toZoho CRM - Writing Assistant Tone
Hi Zoho CRM Team, Text in my emails often gets underlined in yellow because I tend to use a more informal tone with my client's, like using "I'm" instead of "I am". Is there some way for me to tell the system that this is my preferred writing tone, soNext Page