Kaizen #97 - Email APIs
Howdy, tech wizards! Welcome back to another exciting post in our Kaizen series.
This week, we will explore how to leverage the power of APIs to manage and interact with emails within the Zoho CRM platform.
Consider you are the Manager of a technological company called Zylker Technologies, which uses Zoho CRM. You want to email a client using your organization's email ID and manage the reply emails within your CRM account. The first step in bringing your organization's email to your CRM account is IMAP/POP3 configuration.
Email Configuration
Zoho CRM supports email integration via Internet Messaging Access Protocol (IMAP) and Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3). These are email protocols that standardise the exchange of mails between the servers and clients.
|
IMAP
|
POP3
|
|
IMAP keeps emails on the server and allows you to access them from multiple devices.
|
POP3 downloads emails to a local device. You can either keep a copy of them on the server or remove them to manage the storage of your web server.
|
|
It synchronises email actions (read, delete, move) across all devices, providing a consistent email experience.
|
It does not synchronise actions across devices, making it challenging to manage emails on multiple devices.
|
|
IMAP is ideal for users who need to access their emails from different devices or prefer centralised email management.
|
POP3 is suitable for users who prefer offline email access and want to save storage space on the server.
|
Following steps will help you to integrate your email with Zoho CRM.
- Navigate to Setup > Channels > Email > Email Configuration to choose your email service.
- Under choose the protocol to configure select IMAP or POP integration based on your email service provider and business needs.
Once you configure the IMAP/POP3 mail, the
SalesInbox
tab will sync and display all your mails.
Now that we have everything ready, we will take a look at how to email your clients using APIs.
Emailing a Client using API
Request URL
: {api-domain}/crm/{version}/{module_api_name}/{record_id}/actions/send_mail
Request Method
: POST
Scope
: ZohoCRM.send_mail.{module_name}.CREATE (or) ZohoCRM.send_mail.all.CREATE
Supported Modules
: Leads, Contacts, Deals, Accounts, Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, Invoices, Quotes, Cases, and Custom.
Request Body
:
{ "data": [ { "from": { "user_name": "Patricia Boyle", }, "to": [ { "user_name": "Christopher Maclead", } ], "cc": [ { "user_name": "Jack Williams", } ], "org_email": true, "consent_email": true, "mail_format": "html", "subject": "Test Email", "content": "<h3><span style=\"background-color: rgb(254, 255, 102)\">New Product Launch is on Aug 15,2023!</span></h3><h3><span style=\"background-color: rgb(254, 255, 102)\">REGARDS,</span></h3><div><span style=\"background-color: rgb(254, 255, 102)\">AZ</span></div><div><span style=\"background-color: rgb(254, 255, 102)\">ADMIN</span></div>" } ] } |
You can also use other request JSON keys mentioned in
this
document to send an email. When you email a client, the email automatically gets added to the related lists of the record specified in the request url.
There are a few other conditions that you need to check while emailing a client using the Send Mail API.
(i) from Addresses
As you are sending the email from your CRM account, you should use only the IMAP/POP3 configured email IDs. To know the configured email IDs of your CRM account, make a GET API call for the
list of allowed "from" addresses
.
Request URL
: {api-domain}/crm/{version}/settings/emails/actions/from_addresses
Request Method
: GET
Scope
: ZohoCRM.settings.emails.READ
Response
:
{ "from_addresses": [ { "default": true, "user_name": "Patricia Boyle", "type": "primary", }, { "user_name": "Jack Williams", "id": "5545974000000434026", "type": "pop", }, { "user_name": "Patricia Boyle", "id": "5545974000001222005", "type": "org_email", } ] } |
- The API lists the email addresses configured in the IMAP/POP3 accounts (
imap
and
pop
), the email ID used to sign in the CRM account (
primary
) and the configured organization email addresses (
org_email
). You can use any of these email addresses to email the clients.
-
The
default:true
denotes the default
from
email address configured for UI usage. This will auto populate the
from
email address while emailing a client via UI. Anyhow, you have to specify the
from address
in the send mail API.
- If the email with type:org_email in this API response is used as a from address of the send mail API, the org_email key in the same send mail request body has to be marked as true .
(ii) Modules that are Applicable for using Templates/Inventory Templates
Consider you want to send welcome emails to all of your new leads. You cannot manually draft a welcome email every time Zylker gets a new lead. Instead you can create a welcome email template and insert it to the draft.
To insert template/inventory templates while emailing a record, make a
Metadata API
call of the particular module and check for the key
inventory_template_supported
.
- inventory_template_supported: true states you can add inventory templates in the body of the mail.
-
inventory_template_supported: false
states you can add only the email templates and not the inventory templates in the body of the mail.
In our case, you want to send welcome emails to leads. So, let us check this key for the module,
Leads
.
Since
inventory_template_supported: false
for Leads, we can
add only email templates
to its records. Below is the request body of the send mail API with welcome template,
{ "data": [ { "from": { "user_name": "Patricia Boyle", }, "to": [ { "user_name": "Carissa Kidman", }, { "user_name": "Felix Hirpara", }, { "user_name": "Kayleigh Lace", } ], "cc": [ { "user_name": "Jack Williams", } ], "mail_format": "html", "subject": "Welcome to Zylker", "template": { "id": "5545974000000640001" } } ] } |
Associate an Email with a Record
Though Zoho CRM supports email Integration, sometimes you may want to import emails from a different email service provider and add them to certain records. You can use this API for adding only particular emails to a record without completely synchronising or integrating the email service provider with Zoho CRM.
Request URL
: {api-domain}/crm/{version}/{module}/{record_id}/actions/associate_email
Request Method
: POST
Scope
: ZohoCRM.modules.emails.ALL (or) ZohoCRM.modules.{module}.ALL
Supported Modules
: Leads, Contacts, Quotes, Invoices, Sales_Orders, Purchase_Orders, Deals, Accounts and Custom.
Request Body
:
{ "Emails": [ { "from": { "user_name": "Patricia Boyle", }, "to": [ { "user_name": "Christopher Maclead", } ], "cc": [ { "user_name": "Jack Williams", "email": "jack.williams@zylker.com" } ], "subject": "Test Email", "content": "<h3><span style=\"background-color: rgb(254, 255, 102)\">New Product Launch is on Aug 15,2023!</span></h3><h3><span style=\"background-color: rgb(254, 255, 102)\">REGARDS,</span></h3><div><span style=\"background-color: rgb(254, 255, 102)\">AZ</span></div><div><span style=\"background-color: rgb(254, 255, 102)\">ADMIN</span></div>", "mail_format": "html", "date_time": "2023-07-27T22:24:12+05:30", "sent": true, "linked_record": { "id": "5545974000002858070", "name": "Mega Deal", "module": { "api_name": "Potentials", "id": "5545974000000002181" } }, "original_message_id": "000146" } ] } |
This sample input JSON is for linking an email to a record in Deals.
The
original_message_id
key is the unique ID provided by any email service provider after sending an email. To avoid adding an already existing email to a record, this unique ID has to be specified while adding an email to a record.
Now as a manager, you may want to associate the sales reps' emails with the corresponding records they have handled. To achieve this, add the record owner's ID to the owner key in the request body. Only users with admin profile can perform this action.
The API extends its horizon to associating emails with the inline images to a record. For this, you have to upload the image to Zoho File System using the
Upload files to ZFS API
. Ensure you specify the parameter
"type":"inline"
while uploading the inline images to the ZFS.
The ID provided in the response of this API has to be specified in the content key of associate email to a record API as follows:
"content": "<h3><span style=\"background-color: rgb(254, 255, 102)\">New Product Launch is on Aug 15,2023!</span></h3><h3><span style=\"background-color: rgb(254, 255, 102)\"><img class=\"ZCrmImage\" src=\"crm\/img_id:c5afdcdbe17cd7bcee305c1a23067169caf522cbf76ed9d1c9c06408b22888ee\"></span></h3><h3><span style=\"background-color: rgb(254, 255, 102)\">REGARDS,</span></h3><div><span style=\"background-color: rgb(254, 255, 102)\">AZ</span></div><div><span style=\"background-color: rgb(254, 255, 102)\">ADMIN</span></div>" |
Zoho CRM also offers API support to fetch all the
emails of a record
, list the users with whom a
record's emails are shared
, and download
email attachments
and
inline images
. They help us to streamline email-related processes, enhance communication, and maximize the efficiency of email management.
We hope you found this post useful and engaging!
If you have any queries, feel free to drop them in the comments section below or reach out to us directly at
support@zohocrm.com
. We eagerly await your thoughts and feedback on this!
Keep an eye out for more valuable insights on our developer space!
Cheers!
Additional Reading
- Email Configuration for IMAP/POP3
- GET Modules API
- Emails of a Record
- Shared Details of an Email
- Download Email Attachments
- Download Inline Images of an Email
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
Kiruthiga G
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 FAQsKaizen #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
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
Compensation | Salary Packages - Hourly Wage Needed
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics says 55.7% of all workers in the US are paid by the hour. I don't know how that compares to the rest of the world, but I would think that this alone would justify the need for having an hourly-based salary package option.webinar registration confirmation are landing in SPMA folders
I am trialing zoho webinar and do not have access to custom domains. When I test user registrations, they are working but the resulting confirmation email is landing in a spam folder. How can I avoid this?Making digital signatures accessible to all: Introducing accessibility controls in Zoho Sign
Hi there! At Zoho Sign, we are committed to building an inclusive digital experience for all our users. As part of our ongoing efforts to align with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), we’re updating the application with support that will goIs there a way to set Document Owner/Sender via the API
When sending requests for zoho sign, it would seem zoho uses the id of the person that created the zoho api cred to determine the owner_id, is there a way to set a default for this?Transition Criteria Appearing on Blueprint Transitions
On Monday, Sept. 8th, the Transition criteria started appearing on our Blueprints when users hover over a Transition button. See image. We contacted Zoho support because it's confusing our users (there's really no reason for them to see it), but we haven'tDelegates should be able to delete expenses
I understand the data integrity of this request. It would be nice if there was a toggle switch in the Policy setting that would allow a delegate to delete expenses from their managers account. Some managers here never touch their expense reports, andAdd Save button to Expense form
A save button would be very helpful on the expense form. Currently there is a Save and Close button. When we want to itemize an expense, this option would be very helpful. For example, if we have a hotel expense that also has room service, which is aMultiple organizations under Zoho One
Hello. I have a long and complicated question. I have a Zoho One account and want to set it up to serve the needs of 6 organizations under the same company. Some of the Zoho One users need to be able to work in more than 1 organization’s CRM and otherError AS101 when adding new email alias
Hi, I am trying to add apple@(mydomain).com The error AS101 is shown while I try to add the alias.Unbundle feature for composite items
We receive composite items from our vendors and sell them either individually or create other composite items out of them. So, there is a lot of bundling and unbundling involved with our composite items. Previously, this feature was supported in formRegarding the integration of Apollo.io with Zoho crm.
I have been seeing for the last 3 months that your Apollo.io beta version is available in Zoho Flow, and this application has not gone live yet. We requested this 2 months ago, but you guys said that 'we are working on it,' and when we search on GoogleHow do you print a refund check to customer?
Maybe this is a dumb question, but how does anyone print a refund check to a customer? We cant find anywhere to either just print a check and pick a customer, or where to do so from a credit note.MTD SA in the UK
Hello ID 20106048857 The Inland Revenue have confirmed that this tax account is registered as Cash Basis In Settings>Profile I have set ‘Report Basis’ as “Cash" However, I see on Zoho on Settings>Taxes>Income Tax that the ‘Tax Basis’ is marked ‘Accrual'workflow not working in subform
I have the following code in a subform which works perfectly when i use the form alone but when i use the form as a subform within another main form it does not work. I have read something about using row but i just cant seem to figure out what to changeFetch data from another table into a form field
I have spent the day trying to work this out so i thought i would use the forum for the first time. I have two forms in the same application and when a user selects a customer name from a drop down field and would like the customer number field in theRecord comment filter
Hi - I have a calendar app that we use to track tasks. I have the calendar view set up so that the logged in user only sees the record if they are assigned to the task. BUT there are instances when someone is @ mentioned in the record when they are notHow to View Part Inventory and Warehouse Location When Creating a Work Order in Zoho FSM
Hi everyone, We’re currently setting up Zoho FSM and would like to improve how our team selects parts when creating a Work Order. Right now, when we add a part or item to a Work Order, we can select it from our Zoho Inventory list but we don’t see anyFSM too slow today !!
Anybody else with problem today to loading FSM (WO, AP etc.)?CRM x WorkDrive: File storage for new CRM signups is now powered by WorkDrive
Availability Editions: All DCs: All Release plan: Released for new signups in all DCs. It will be enabled for existing users in a phased manner in the upcoming months. Help documentation: Documents in Zoho CRM Manage folders in Documents tab Manage filesNot able to Sign In in Zoho OneAuth in Windows 10
I recently reset my Windows 10 system, after the reset when I downloaded the OAuth app and tried to Sign In It threw an error at me. Error: Token Fetch Error. Message: Object Reference not set to an instance of an object I have attached the screenshotMapping a custom preferred date field in the estimate with the native field in the workorder
Hi Zoho, I created a field in the estimate : "Preferred Date 1", to give the ability to my support agent to add a preferred date while viewing the client's estimate. However, in the conversion mapping (Estimate to Workorder), I'm unable to map my customThe sending IP (136.143.188.15) is listed on spamrl.com as a source of spam.
Hi, it just two day when i am using zoho mail for my business domain, today i was sending email and found that message "The sending IP (136.143.188.15) is listed on https://spamrl.com as a source of spam" I hope to know how this will affect the deliveryDelegates - Access to approved reports
We realized that delegates do not have access to reports after they are approved. Many users ask questions of their delegates about past expense reports and the delegates can't see this information. Please allow delegates see all expense report activity,Split functionality - Admins need ability to do this
Admins should be able to split an expense at any point of the process prior to approval. The split is very helpful for our account coding, but to have to go back to a user and ask them to split an invoice that they simply want paid is a bit of an inIs there a way to request a password?
We add customers info into the vaults and I wanted to see if we could do some sort of "file request" like how dropbox offers with files. It would be awesome if a customer could go to a link and input a "title, username, password, url" all securely and it then shows up in our team vault or something. Not sure if that is safe, but it's the best I can think of to be semi scalable and obviously better than sending emails. I am open to another idea, just thought this would be a great feature. Thanks,Single Task Report
I'd like a report or a way to print to PDF the task detail page. I'd like at least the Task Information section but I'd also like to see the Activity Stream, Status Timeline and Comments. I'd like to export the record and save it as a PDF. I'd like theAuto-response for closed tickets
Hi, We sometimes have users that (presumably) search their email inbox for the last correspondence with us and just hit reply - even if it's a 6 month old ticket... - this then re-opens the 6 month old ticket because of the ticket number in the email's subject. Yes, it's easy to 'Split as new Ticket', but I'd like something automated to respond to the user saying "this ticket has already been resolved and closed, please submit a new ticket". What's the best way to achieve this? Thanks, EdHow to Push Zoho Desk time logged to Zoho Projects?
I am on the last leg of my journey of finally automating time tracking, payments, and invoicing for my minutes based contact center company - I just have one final step to solve - I need time logged in zoho desk to add time a project which is associatedCannot access KB within Help Center
Im working with my boss to customize our knowledge base, but for some reason I can see the KB tab, and see the KB categories, but I cannot access the articles within the KB. We have been troubleshooting for weeks, and we have all permissions set up, customersExport 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 storeswhy my account is private?
when i post on zohodesk see only agent onlyGetting ZOHO Invoice certified in Portugal?
Hello, We are ZOHO partners in Portugal and here, all the invoice software has to be certified by the government and ZOHO Invoice still isn´t certified. Any plans? Btw, we can help on this process, since we have a client that knows how to get the software certified. Thank you.500 Internal Server Error
I have been trying to create my first app in Creator, but have been getting the 500: Internal Server Error. When I used the Create New Application link, it gave me the error after naming the application. After logging out, and back in, the application that I created was in the list, but when I try to open it to start creating my app, it gives me the 500: Internal Server Error. Please help! Also, I tried making my named app public, but I even get the error when trying to do that.Client Script | Update - Client Script Support For Portals
Dear All! We are excited to announce the highly anticipated feature: Client Script support for Portals. We understand that many of you have been eagerly awaiting this enhancement, and we are pleased to inform you that this support is now live for allProfessional Plan not activated after payment
I purchased the Professional Plan for 11 users (Subscription ID: RPEU2000980748325) on 12 September 2025, and the payment has been successfully processed. However, even after more than 24 hours, my CRM account still shows “Upgrade” and behaves like ahow to edit the converted lead records?
so I can fetch the converted leads records using API (COQL), using this endpoint https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v5/coql and using COQL filter Converted__s=true for some reasons I need to change the value from a field in a converted lead record. When I tryAuto Update Event Field Value on Create/Edit
Hi there, I know this question has been posted multiple times and I've been trying many of the proposed similar scripts for a while now but nothing seems to work... what might I do wrong? The error I receive is this: Value given for the variable 'meetingId'Pre-orders at Zoho Commerce
We plan to have regular producs that are avaliable for purchase now and we plan to have products that will be avaliable in 2-4 weeks. How we can take the pre-orders for these products? We need to take the money for the product now, but the delivery willConstant 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 makeZoho Pagesense really this slow??? 5s delay...
I put the pagesense on my website (hosted by webflow and fast) and it caused a 5s delay to load. do other people face similar delays?Next Page