Kaizen #31 - Subforms #API

Kaizen #31 - Subforms #API

Hello everyone!
Welcome back to another post in the Kaizen series.
In this post, we will discuss the Subform APIs.

What is a Subform?
A subform is a secondary form or a table that enables you to include multiple line items into a primary form. Every line item is a subform record.
Your CRM data are often inter-dependent. Often, you may have the necessity to associate multiple items to a single record. In the technical lingo, we call these "line items".
Consider we have a Students module to store student records. Apart from the data like name, age, date of birth, email ID, courses opted for etc, we may want to have information such as the languages a student knows and the proficiency level in that language. So, Languages can be a subform in the Students module, and Language and Proficiency can be the two fields in that subform.
Therefore, every row in this subform that holds the language and the proficiency is a subform record or a line item.

Here is how the subform looks in a record in the Students module.


To know more about Subforms, refer to
Building Subforms.

Note
The Subform API is available only in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Zoho CRM.

Let us see how to insert, update, and delete these subform records through the APIs.

Subform APIs
  1. Insert Subform Records
  2. Update Subform Records
  3. Get a Subform
  4. Delete Subform Records

1. Insert Subform Records

You must use the Insert Subform Records API to insert records to a subform while inserting a record to a module.

Details Required: 
      a. API Name of the subform.
      b. API name of the subform fields.

a. API name of the subform
  1. Make a Get Modules API call. The response displays the details of all the available modules.
  2. Search for the module in which you have created the subform. In our case, it is Students.
  3. Look for the value of the key "generated_type" as "subform". 
  4. The value of the key "api_name" gives the API name of the subform. In our case, it is Languages.

b. API name of the subform fields
  1. Make a Get Fields Metadata API call to the subform module (crm/v2/settings/fields?module=Languages).
  2. Search for the field label. The value of the "api_name" key for the fields in the subform are the API names. Here, they are Proficiency and Language.
  3. Note down the "json_type" that represents the type of value the subform fields accept. Here, they are pick lists that accept string values.

To insert subform records:
Request URL: {{api-domain}}/crm/v2/Students
Request method: POST

Sample Input

{
    "data": [
        {
            "Name":"Allan John",
            "Languages1": [
                {
                    "Proficiency": "Native",
                    "Language": "English"
                },
                {
                    "Proficiency": "Professional",
                    "Language": "French"
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Response:


Note
  • A module can have a maximum of two subforms for all editions except Ultimate. The Ultimate edition can have a maximum of five subforms.
  • Every module can have a maximum of 200 subform records with each subform having a maximum of 100 records.
  • A maximum of five aggregate custom fields are available for a subform.
Possible Errors
The "details" key in the response gives you an idea of where the error occurred. This key contains the API name of the field that has incorrect input and other necessary information in other keys.


HTTP Status and Error Code
"details" key
Reason for error
Handling
400 - INVALID_DATA
"details" : {
"api_name":"sub_form_api_name",
"expected_data_type":"jsonarray"
}
Invalid input for subform.

Construct proper subform data and send it in the request body.
400 - INVALID_DATA
"details" : {
"expected_data_type":"data_type",
 "api_name" : "name_of_field",
 "index" : "subform_array_index",
"parent_api_name":"subform_api_name"
}
You have input Invalid data type for the field.
Use parent_api_name, index, and api_name to identify the invalid field and use expected_data_type to construct a proper value.
400 - INVALID_DATA
"details" : {
 "api_name" : "subform_api_name",
 "info" : "Maximum of 100 records allowed"
}
A subform can only have a maximum of 100 records.
Do not associate further records to the mentioned subform.

2. Update Subform Records

Now that we have created a subform, every subform row is a record with a unique ID. 
Use the Update Subform Records API to update the subform record(s).

Let us now update the subform entries we just added to the Languages subform in the Students module.
The changes we are making are:
      a. Adding a subform entry for the Language "Spanish" with Proficiency as "Professional".
      b. Updating the Proficiency of the Language "French" to "Native".

Details required:
Record IDs of the subform records that you want to update. Make a Get Subform Data API call to the Student record you want to update the subform in.



The request to update the subform is
Request URL: {{api-domain}}/crm/v2/Students/3652397000002125005
Request method: PUT

Sample Input

{
    "data": [
        {
            "Languages": [
                {
                    "Proficiency": "Professional", //new subfrom record
                    "Language": "Spanish"
                },
                {
                    "id":"3652397000002125020",  //ID of the subform record that you want to update
                    "Proficiency": "Native",
                    "Language": "French"
                },
                {
                   "id":"3652397000002125019" //ID of the subform record that does not need any change
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Response:



Note
  • You must specify the record IDs of the subform records you want to update and also the ones you do not want to update.
  • If you do not specify their IDs, the system deletes those records from the subform.

Possible Errors

HTTP Status and Error Code
"details" key
Reason for error
Handling
400 - INVALID_DATA
"details" : {
"api_name":"sub_form_api_name",
"expected_data_type":"jsonarray"
}
Invalid input for subform.
Construct proper subform data and send it in the request body.
400 - INVALID_DATA
"details" : {
"expected_data_type":"data_type",
 "api_name" : "name_of_field",
 "index" : "subform_array_index",
"parent_api_name":"subform_api_name"
}

You have input invalid data type for the field.
Use parent_api_name, index, and api_name to identify the invalid field and use expected_data_type to construct a proper value.
202- INVALID_DATA
Message: the id given seems to be invalid
1. Either the record ID or the subform record ID is invalid, (or)
2. User does not have the permission to the mentioned record.
1. Check the record ID sent in the API request URL or in the request body (or)
2. Check the subform record ID sent in the request body.

3. Get a Subform

You can use the Get Subform Data API to fetch the details of the subform of a record.
In the response, the key Parent_Id gives the name and ID of the record that the subform record is associated to.

Request URL: {{api-domain}}/crm/v2/Languages
Request method: GET

Response:



You can also get the subform details when you fetch a record from the module the subform is created in.

Request URL: {{api-domain}}/crm/v2/Students/3652397000002125005
Request method: GET

The response is as below.



4. Delete Subform Records

Simply make an Update Subform Records API call to the record whose subform record you want to delete.
Specify only the IDs of the subform records that you want to retain. The system deletes the other subform records whose IDs you have not specified.


We hope you found this post useful. Stay tuned for more!

Write to us at support@zohocrm.com if you have any questions, or let us know in the comment section.

Cheers!













    Access your files securely from anywhere







                            Zoho Developer Community





                                                  Use cases

                                                  Make the most of Zoho Desk with the use cases.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  eBooks

                                                  Download free eBooks and access a range of topics to get deeper insight on successfully using Zoho Desk.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  Videos

                                                  Watch comprehensive videos on features and other important topics that will help you master Zoho Desk.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  Webinar

                                                  Sign up for our webinars and learn the Zoho Desk basics, from customization to automation and more

                                                   
                                                    
                                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                  • Meetups


                                                  • Ask the Experts


                                                  • Kbase


                                                  • Resources


                                                  • Glossary


                                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                                  • MVP Corner




                                                            • Sticky Posts

                                                            • Kaizen #197: Frequently Asked Questions on GraphQL APIs

                                                              🎊 Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – We want to hear from you! 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 #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.
                                                            • Celebrating 200 posts of Kaizen! Share your ideas for the milestone post

                                                              Hello Developers, We launched the Kaizen series in 2019 to share helpful content to support your Zoho CRM development journey. Staying true to its spirit—Kaizen Series: Continuous Improvement for Developer Experience—we've shared everything from FAQs
                                                            • Kaizen #193: Creating different fields in Zoho CRM through API

                                                              🎊 Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – We want to hear from you! 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.
                                                            • Client Script | Update - Introducing Commands in Client Script!

                                                              Have you ever wished you could trigger Client Script from contexts other than just the supported pages and events? Have you ever wanted to leverage the advantage of Client Script at your finger tip? Discover the power of Client Script - Commands! Commands


                                                            Manage your brands on social media



                                                                  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

                                                                                      • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                                        CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                                      • Kaizen

                                                                                        Kaizen

                                                                                      • Functions

                                                                                        Functions

                                                                                      • Meetups

                                                                                        Meetups

                                                                                      • Kbase

                                                                                        Kbase

                                                                                      • Resources

                                                                                        Resources

                                                                                      • Digest

                                                                                        Digest

                                                                                      • CRM Marketplace

                                                                                        CRM Marketplace

                                                                                      • MVP Corner

                                                                                        MVP Corner







                                                                                          Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                          Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                          Get Started Now


                                                                                            Zoho Show Resources


                                                                                              Zoho Writer Writer

                                                                                              Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                              Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                                Zoho CRM コンテンツ








                                                                                                  Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                                      ご検討中の方




                                                                                                            • Recent Topics

                                                                                                            • Introducing Assemblies and Kits in Zoho Inventory

                                                                                                              Hello customers, We’re excited to share a major revamp to Zoho Inventory that brings both clarity and flexibility to your inventory management experience! Presenting Assemblies and Kits We’re thrilled to introduce Assemblies and Kits, which replaces the
                                                                                                            • Auto Capitalize First Letter of Words

                                                                                                              Hi I am completely new to ZOHO and am trying to build a database. How can i make it when a address is entered into a form field like this: main st it automatically changes is to show: Main St Thank You
                                                                                                            • Follow-up emails via Workflow Automation not staying in the same thread

                                                                                                              Dear Zoho Support Team, I am currently using Workflow Automation in Zoho Campaigns to send follow-up emails. In my test case, I noticed the following behavior: All emails in the automation have the same subject line. If the follow-up email is sent within
                                                                                                            • Client Script refuses to set an initial value in Subform field

                                                                                                              I tried a very simple, 1 line client script to set a default value in a custom subform field when the "Add Row" button is clicked and the user is entering data. It does not work - can someone tell me why? ZDK documentation suggests this should be doable.
                                                                                                            • Formatting of Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Reports

                                                                                                              The default format of the Balance Sheet and P&L Reports are based on the Account Types and then the individual accounts within the Chart of Accounts. These are then ordered alphabetically under these sub-headings and one is unable to re-order these or
                                                                                                            • Emails Are Not Being Delivered to My Inbox

                                                                                                              Hello Zoho Support Team, I am experiencing an issue with my Zoho Mail account. The most important problem is that emails are not being delivered to my inbox. Details: My Zoho Mail address: info@coreforcelife.com What happens: I am not receiving any incoming
                                                                                                            • Help Center IFrame Issue

                                                                                                              I have had a working Help Center on my website using an iframe for a while. But now for some reason the sign in page gets a refused to connect error. Can someone please help. If I go to the url manually it works correclty
                                                                                                            • Staff rules

                                                                                                              Hi! Do you people know what are the default staff rules when a new booking is created? We have two staff members in my team (me as the admin, and my employee). As we share the same services, I'm wondering how Zoho will pick the staff for new apointments.
                                                                                                            • Comment Templates

                                                                                                              Is it possible to add a template option for comments? We have some agents in the process who's responses require a pre-formatted layout. It would be incredibly handy to have a template for them where they can insert the template and then add their responses
                                                                                                            • [ZohoDesk] Improve Status View with a new editeble kanban view

                                                                                                              A kanban view with more information about the ticket and the contact who created the ticket would be valueble. I would like to edit the fields with the ones i like to see at one glance. Like in CRM where you can edit the canvas view, i would like to edit
                                                                                                            • Adding Markdown text using Zoho Desk API into the Knowledge Base

                                                                                                              Hi Zoho Community members, We currently maintain the documentation of out company in its website. This documentation is written in markdown text format and we would like to add it in Zoho Knowledge Base. Do you know if there is REST API functionality
                                                                                                            • An Exclusive Session for Zoho Desk Users: AI in Zoho Desk

                                                                                                              A Zoho Community Learning Initiative Hello everyone! This is an announcement for Zoho Desk users and anyone exploring Zoho Desk. With every nook and corner buzzing, "AI's here, AI's there," it's the right time for us to take a closer look at how the AI
                                                                                                            • Shared values: From classroom lessons to teaching moments in customer service

                                                                                                              While the world observes Teachers’ Day on October 5, in India, we celebrate a month earlier, on September 5, to mark the birth anniversary of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a great teacher, renowned scholar, educationist, and advocate for empowerment.
                                                                                                            • Export to excel stored amounts as text instead of numbers or accounting

                                                                                                              Good Afternoon, We have a quarterly billing report that we generate from our Requests. It exports to excel. However if we need to add a formula (something as simple as a sum of the column), it doesn't read the dollar amounts because the export stores
                                                                                                            • Create a list of customers who participated in specific Zoho Backstage events and send them an email via Zoho CRM

                                                                                                              How to create a list of customers who participated in specific Zoho Backstage events and send them an email via Zoho CRM? I was able to do a view in CRM based on customer that registered to an event, but I don't seems to be able to include the filter
                                                                                                            • Zoho Desk blank page

                                                                                                              1. Click Access zoho desk on https://www.zoho.com/desk/ 2. It redirects to https://desk.zoho.com/agent?action=CreatePortal and the page is blank. Edge browser Version 131.0.2903.112 (Official build) (arm64) on MacOS
                                                                                                            • I hate the new user UI with the bar on the left

                                                                                                              How can I reverse this?
                                                                                                            • Constant color of a legend value

                                                                                                              It would be nice if we can set a constant color/pattern to a value when creating a chart. We would often use the same value in different graph options and I always have to copy the color that we've set to a certain value from a previous graph to make
                                                                                                            • Question regarding import of previous deals...

                                                                                                              Good afternoon, I'm working on importing some older deal records from an external sheet into the CRM; however, when I manually click "Add New Deal" and enter the pertinent information, the deal isn't appearing when I look at the "Deals" bar on the account's
                                                                                                            • Client Script also planned for Zoho Desk?

                                                                                                              Hello there, I modified something in Zoho CRM the other day and was amazed at the possibilities offered by the "Client Script" feature in conjunction with the ZDK. You can lock any fields on the screen, edit them, you can react to various events (field
                                                                                                            • One person/cell phone to manage multiple accounts

                                                                                                              Hi. I have a personal Free account to keep my own domain/emails. Now I need to create a Business account to my company's own domain, but I have only one mobile phone number I use to everything. How do I do to manage this? Can I manage a Free domain and
                                                                                                            • Tracking KPIs, Goals etc in People

                                                                                                              How are Zoho People users tracking employee targets in People? For example, my marketing assistant has a target of "Collect 10 new customer testimonials every month". I want to record attainment for this target on a monthly basis, then add it to their
                                                                                                            • Zoho Desk: Ticket Owner Agents vs Teams

                                                                                                              Hi Zoho, We would like to explore the possibility of hiding the ‘Agents’ section within the Ticket Owner dropdown, so that we can fully utilise the ‘Teams’ dropdown when assigning tickets. This request comes from the fact that only certain agents and
                                                                                                            • Can not Use Attachment Button on Android Widget

                                                                                                              this always pops up when I touch the attach button on android widget. going to settings, there is no storage permission to be enabled. if I open the app, and access the attach feature there, I can access my storage and upload normally.
                                                                                                            • Announcing new features in Trident for Mac (1.24.0)

                                                                                                              Hello everyone! Trident for macOS (v.1.24.0) is here with interesting features and thoughtful enhancements to redefine the way you plan and manage your calendar events. Here's a quick look at what's new. Create calendar events from emails. In addition
                                                                                                            • Need Easy Way to Update Item Prices in Bulk

                                                                                                              Hello Everyone, In Zoho Books, updating selling prices is taking too much time. Right now we have to either edit items one by one or do Excel export/import. It will be very useful if Zoho gives a simple option to: Select multiple items and update prices
                                                                                                            • Vendor Master Enhancements for Faster Purchase Entry

                                                                                                              I’d like to suggest a few features that will improve accuracy and speed during purchase voucher entry: Automated Item Tax Preference in Vendor Master Add an option to define item tax preference in the vendor master. Once set, this preference should automatically
                                                                                                            • Mass Mail Statistics - Number of unsent emails

                                                                                                              How do I find out which emails were not sent?
                                                                                                            • Est-il possible d'annuler l'envoi d'un mail automatique ?

                                                                                                              Bonjour, Lorsque je refuse un candidat, il reçois un mail dans les 24h pour l'informer que sa candidature n'est pas retenue. J'ai rejeté un candidat par erreur. Savez-vous s'il possible d'annuler l'envoi de ce mail ? Merci d'avance pour votre aide.
                                                                                                            • Can't change form's original name in URL

                                                                                                              Hi all, I have been duplicating + editing forms for jobs regarding the same department to maintain formatting + styling. The issue I've not run into is because I've duplicated it from an existing form, the URL doesn't seem to want to update with the new
                                                                                                            • embed a form in an email

                                                                                                              Hello, how to embed a form in an email that populates Zoho CRM cases? I would like to send emails to a selected audience offering something. In the same email the recipients - if interested - instead of replying to can fill in a Zoho CRM form that creates
                                                                                                            • Zoho Bookings - Reserve with Google

                                                                                                              Does Zoho Bookings plan to to integrate with Reserve with Google?
                                                                                                            • How to add Zoho demo site page designs to my Zoho Sites website

                                                                                                              Hi, I would like to add the design from the following demo URLs into my current Zoho website. I have already created two new pages on my site, named “Menu2” and “Menu3.” For the “Menu2” page, I want to use the design from this demo: https://naturestjuice-demo.zohosites.com/menu
                                                                                                            • Digest Août - Un résumé de ce qui s'est passé le mois dernier sur Community

                                                                                                              Bonjour chère communauté ! Voici le résumé tant attendu de tout ce qui a marqué Zoho le mois dernier : contenus utiles, échanges inspirants et moments forts. 🎉 Découvrez Zoho Backstage 3.0 : une version repensée pour offrir encore plus de flexibilité,
                                                                                                            • Global Sets for Multi-Select pick lists

                                                                                                              When is this feature coming to Zoho CRM? It would be very useful now we have got used to having it for the normal pick lists.
                                                                                                            • Text snippet

                                                                                                              There is a nice feature in Zoho Desk called Text Snippet. It allows you to insert a bit of text anywhere in a reply that you are typing. That would be nice to have that option in Zoho CRM as well when we compose an email. Moderation Update: We agree that
                                                                                                            • Kaizen #206 - Answering your Questions | Displaying Related Purchase Orders from Zoho Books in CRM Deals using Queries

                                                                                                              Hello everyone! We're back with another post in the Kaizen series. We're grateful for the feedback we received from all of you! One of the questions we received was "I would like to see the list of Purchase Orders in Zoho Books for a Deal in CRM." We
                                                                                                            • Add Analytics function for Title case (capitalising each word in a string)

                                                                                                              At present, you can only capitalise each word in a string in Analytics during data import. It would be really useful to be able to do this with a formula column, but there is no Title Case function.
                                                                                                            • How to conditionally embed an own internal widget with parameters in an html snippet?

                                                                                                              Hello everyone, I'm trying to create a dynamic view in a page using an HTML snippet. The goal is to display different content based on a URL parameter (input.step). I have successfully managed to conditionally display different forms using the following
                                                                                                            • Where can I find rejected inbound mails and their reason for rejection

                                                                                                              Hi, I was recently made aware by a mailing list which I am subscribed to (ffmpeg-devel@ffmpeg.org) that my Zoho mail Mail account is rejecting some emails. If I look under Admin Panel > Security & Compliance > Quarantine > Incoming, the list there is
                                                                                                            • Next Page