Kaizen #8 - Handling Recurrence and Participants in the Events Module via API
Hello everyone!
We are back this week with an exciting post—Handling recurrence and participants in the Events module through API.
First things first—What is the Events module?
"Events" is a part of the Activities module in Zoho CRM.
An event is an activity that happens at a given place and time. You can find Events on the user's Zoho CRM's home page, Activities home page, Calendar, and in other related records.
What are the types of Events?
Events are of two types—Recurring and non-recurring events.
Recurring events: These events repeat/recur at a set frequency. You can set them to repeat by day, week, month, or by year. You can also set them to repeat a fixed number of times.
Non-recurring events: These are one-time events.
Both these events can also be all-day events.
Now, let us see how to handle a recurring event and add/update participants via API.
1. Creating a Recurring Event through API
You must use the Insert Records API to insert a record in the Events module.
Request URL: {{api-domain}}/crm/v2/Events
Request method: POST
Sample input to create a recurring event that repeats every two weeks
{ "data": [ { "All_Day": false, "Event_Title": "Kaizen_9_Weekly", "Start_DateTime": "2020-02-02T10:00:00+05:30", "End_DateTime": "2020-02-02T11:00:00+05:30", "Participants": [ { "type": "contact", "participant": "3652397000001281003" }, { "type": "lead", "participant": "3652397000000415063" }, { "type": "user", "participant": "3652397000000186017" } ], "Recurring_Activity": { "RRULE": "FREQ=WEEKLY;BYDAY=SU;INTERVAL=2;UNTIL=2020-03-15" }, "Remind_At": "2020-02-01T09:45:00+05:30", "Who_Id": { "id": "3652397000000649013", "name": "Patricia Boyle" }, "Venue": "Chennai", "$se_module": "Accounts", "What_Id": "3652397000000624046", "$send_notification": true } ] } |
Mandatory keys
The following table lists the mandatory fields you must specify while creating a recurring event. Not including any one of these fields results in the MANDATORY_NOT_FOUND error.
Key | Data Type | Description |
Event_Title | String | Title of the event. Accepts a maximum of 255 characters, alphanumeric, and special characters. |
Start_DateTime | DateTime | The date and time (in ISO8601 format) at which the event begins. |
End_DateTime | DateTime | The date and time (in ISO8601 format) at which the event ends. |
Recurring_Activity | JSON Object | JSON Object that contains information about the recurrence pattern of the event in the key "RRULE". |
Other Keys
Key | Data Type | Description |
All_day | Boolean | Represents if the event takes place all day. |
Participants | JSON Array | Contains the ID and type of each participant in individual JSON objects. Possible participant types are "lead", "contact", "user", and "email". |
Remind_At | DateTime | The date and time in the current user's time zone (in ISO8601 format) at which a reminder is sent to the participants. |
Who_Id | JSON Object | The name and ID of the contact that the event is related to; that contact may or may not be a participant of the event. |
What_Id | JSON Object | The name and ID of the Account, Deal, Product, Quote, Invoice, Campaign, Vendor, Case, Purchase Order, or Sales Order that the event is created for. |
$se_module | String | The API name of the parent module given in the key "What_Id". This key is mandatory when you include the "What_Id". |
Venue | String | The place where the event takes place. Accepts a maximum of 255 characters, alphanumeric, and special characters. |
$send_notification | Boolean | Represents if you want to send invitations to the participants of the event. The value true sends out invitations, and false does not. |
We will now discuss the Participants and RRULE keys in detail.
1.1 Participants
The Participants key is a JSON array of participant JSON objects. You can add four types of participants to an event—lead, contact, user, and email.
You must include each of these participant types as individual JSON objects inside this array as shown below.
"Participants": [ { "type": "contact", "participant": "3652397000001281003" }, { "type": "lead", "participant": "3652397000000415063" }, { "type": "user", "participant": "3652397000000186017" |
Where,
type - The type of participant. The possible values are lead, contact, user, email
participant - The record ID of the lead, contact, or user.
1.2 RRULE
RRULE is the key in the Recurring_Activity JSON object that determines the recurrence pattern of the event.
RRULE holds multiple key-value pairs for different types of recurring events (i.e Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly). You must separate each key-value pair by a semicolon.
Mandatory key-value pairs for RRULE
Key | Possible Values | Description |
FREQ | DAILY, WEEKLY, MONTHLY, YEARLY | Frequency; represents how often the event repeats. |
INTERVAL | 1–99 | The gap between each event. For example, for a weekly recurring event, if the INTERVAL value is 2, the gap between the first and the next event will be two weeks. |
COUNT | 1–99 | The number of events you want to create. For example, if the COUNT value is 3, three events will be created. |
Note
You must specify FREQ and (INTERVAL or COUNT) in RRULE.
Other key-value pairs in RRULE
Key | Possible Values | Description |
BYMONTHDAY | 1–31 | The day of the month the event repeats on. Applicable only for monthly and yearly events. |
BYDAY | SU, MO, TU, WE, TH, FR, SA | The day of the week the event repeats on. Applicable for daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly events. |
BYSETPOS | 1, 2, 3, 4, -1 | The week of the month the event repeats in. Applicable only for monthly and yearly events. 1 - Event repeats every first week of the month 2 - Event repeats every second week of the month 3 - Event repeats every third week of the month 4 - Event repeats every fourth week of the month -1 - Event repeats every last week of the month. |
UNTIL | Date in yyyy-MM-dd format | The date until which the event must repeat. |
Therefore, according to the sample input given at the beginning of the post, the event starts on Feb 2, 2020 at 10:00 AM and ends the same day at 11:00 AM.
According to "RRULE":"FREQ=WEEKLY;BYDAY=SU;INTERVAL=2;UNTIL=2020-03-15", the event occurs every Sunday, with an interval of 14 days (2 weeks), and recurs until Mar 15, 2020.
Therefore, the sequence is as shown below.
- The event begins on Feb 2, 2020.
- The first recurring event happens on Feb 16, 2020.
- The second recurring event happens on Mar 1, 2020.
- The last recurring event happens on Mar 15, 2020.
Therefore, the response will have four JSON objects—one for the first event as specified in the Start_DateTime key, and one for each recurring event.
Note
You can only create one set of recurring events using the RRULE in a single API call.
A few other examples of RRULE:
- "RRULE": "FREQ=MONTHLY;COUNT=3;BYDAY=WE;BYSETPOS=2".
This RRULE creates three events that recur every Wednesday in the second week of the month. - "RRULE": "FREQ=MONTHLY;INTERVAL=2;COUNT=3;BYMONTHDAY=14".
This RRULE creates three events that recur on the 14th day of the month, and repeat once in two months.
2. Updating an Event
In this section, we will discuss
- Adding a participant to an event
- Updating all future events
2.1 . Adding a participant to an event
Details you need to add a participant to an event
- The event's record ID. You can obtain this from the response you received while creating the event.
- The ID of the participants that are added already. The GET Specific Event response will have a unique ID for each participant in the "Participants" JSON array.
The sample input is as follows.
{ "data": [ { "All_Day": false, "Event_Title": "Kaizen_10_Weekly", "Start_DateTime": "2020-02-02T11:00:00+05:30", "End_DateTime": "2020-02-02T12:00:00+05:30", "Participants": [ { "type": "contact", "participant": "3652397000001281003", "id": "3652397000001326102" }, { "type": "lead", "participant": "3652397000000415063", "id": "3652397000001326100" }, { "type": "user", "participant": "3652397000000186017", "id": "3652397000001326098" }, { "type": "email", "participant": "john-butt@gmail.com" } ], "Remind_At": "2020-02-01T10:45:00+05:30", "$send_notification": true } ] } |
As you can see, a new participant of type email and email ID john-butt@gmail.com is added. Since the ID of the existing participant with the email ID carissa-batman@yahoo.com is not specified, it gets deleted.
Note
- participant is the record ID of the participant (lead, contact, or user).
- ID is the unique ID of the participant for that event.
- While adding a participant, you must specify the IDs of other participants for the event. Otherwise, only the new participant is added, while the rest are deleted.
2.1 . Updating all future events
While updating an event, you can choose to update all future events with the new change.
Use the boolean key update_all_future_events. The value true updates all future events, and the value false updates only that particular event.
Here is a sample input.
{ "data": [ { "All_Day": false, "Event_Title": "Kaizen_10_Weekly", "Start_DateTime": "2020-02-02T11:00:00+05:30", "End_DateTime": "2020-02-02T12:00:00+05:30", "Participants": [ { "type": "contact", "participant": "3652397000001281003", "id": "3652397000001326102" }, { "type": "lead", "participant": "3652397000000415063", "id": "3652397000001326100" }, { "type": "user", "participant": "3652397000000186017", "id": "3652397000001326098" }, { "type": "email", "participant": "carissa-kidman@yahoo.com" } ], "Remind_At": "2020-02-01T10:45:00+05:30", "update_all_future_events": true, "$send_notification": true } ] } |
Points to Note
While creating recurring events,
- You must specify either COUNT or INTERVAL in the RRULE. Otherwise, the system creates 365-day events.
- For WEEKLY recurring events, you must include BYDAY in RRULE. Otherwise, the system creates 365-day events that recurs weekly.
While updating a recurring event,
- You must specify the record ID of the event you want to update.
- You must set the value of the key update_all_future_events to true to update all future events. Otherwise, the system updates only that event and the other recurring events that you created previously will remain unaltered.
- While adding a participant, you must specify the IDs of other participants. Otherwise, only the new participant is added, while the rest are deleted.
- You cannot update RRULE through the API.
- You cannot update check-in related information through the API.
We hope you found this post useful. Please reach out to us if you have questions, or let us know in the comment section.
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
Juan
Praveen Sankar
Ramki | Nexivo | Zoho Premium Partner
Jaya Suriya J
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
ZOHO 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'sCandidate 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 directlyBooks <-> 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 syncTrouble 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 theRecording 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 enhancementA2P 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 uncheckedMake 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 areA few Issues when using "Pay Bill via Check"
We have quite a bit of issues with how paying for Bills via Check works. Would love some feedback from the Zoho team in case we are doing something incorrectly. 1. When we go from a vendor and select "Pay Bill via Check" option, we see ALL the outstandingPrevent tracking users from specific countries
Currently, I’m receiving many bot visits from the United States and Malaysia. I would like these visits not to be recorded in SalesIQ. I already enabled the option to exclude traffic from cloud service providers, but I’m still receiving bot visits. Ideally,My client requires me to have custom pdf file names to except payment for invoices, how can I customize this before emailing.
Hello! I love the program so far but there are a few things that are standing in the way. I hope you guys can code them in so I can keep the program for years to come. My client requires I customize the pdf file names I send in for billing. Can you pleaseEdit Project Number?
Hi all: We just signed up for a trial of zoho one, which includes ZoHo Projects. We've noticed there was a 'dummy project' preloaded in projects to help familiarize yourself with the software. We've created a couple of our own projects now but noticed since the dummy project was preloaded, our projects start with number 2 then 3, sequentially. Since it seems we will be keeping zoho past the trial, If we delete the dummy project, how do we get our own projects renumbered, beginning with 1? We'd likeDownload pricebook products & details - not just pricebook creation date & name
We're looking to download a copy of a pricebook and its associated products & book prices (as we have several offices in different countries selling the same products), however, when using the export feature under Data administration it only gives me554 5.1.1 – Mail sending blocked for the domain(s): [gmail.com]
Here's your corrected text: Hello, I hope you are doing well. I was unable to send a message and received the following error: "554 5.1.1 – Mail sending blocked for the domain(s): [gmail.com]" I tried to send and deliver an email but got this error. INext Page