Hi all,
Greetings from the Zoho Creator team!
There are a few technical enhancements being introduced in Creator this month—improvements that will take the overall performance of your applications to the next level.
This update will elaborate on:
- the backend enhancement and the resulting changes that the users will experience
- the introduction of v2 bulk APIs
- the new Zia insights feature in pivot reports
- the enhanced UI of PDF attachment
Backend enhancement to improve usability
Currently, there's a cap on the maximum number of fields that you can add to a form. For example, you can add a maximum of 80 email fields to a form. Similarly, each field type comes with a maximum limit. Now, we're upgrading our system with a few technical backend enhancements that'll provide you with the opportunity to redefine the character limits of certain fields, to make room for more fields in your form. After the upgrade, you'll have the capability to reset field character limits to efficiently accommodate more fields in a form.
To achieve this, the maximum length validation will be implemented strictly across the platform. If a record is added via Deluge, API, or email input, the max-length property for all the fields will be validated.
To facilitate increased fields per form, the default character length of fields like Email, Dropdown, and Radio is to be set at predefined values as mentioned in the table below. However, the limits specified here are only
default limits. The user can choose to increase it up to 255 characters for Single line, Email, and Single select fields.
The following table provides you with an illustration of how the new default limit increases your form's capacity to include more fields:
Field Type | No. of fields with current character limit | No. of fields with new default limit | No. of fields with minimum character limit |
Email | 255 Characters - 80 fields | 80 Characters - 200 fields | 1 Character - 10,000 fields |
Single line | 255 Characters - 80 fields | 255 Characters - 60 fields | 1 Character - 10,000 fields |
Choice fields | 255 Characters - 80 fields | 100 Characters - 160 fields | 1 Character - 10,000 fields |
To summarize, maintaining 255 characters following the update will allow only 60 fields per form, whereas resetting the character length to 100 will allow 160 fields per form, and resetting to 80 will allow 200 fields.
Changes to existing data: A few fields in your forms might have their maximum length property updated due to these backend changes. These changes are applicable only for users with applications that have forms with approximately 60 fields. To enable you to view and track the changes, we'll send an email with details of the fields and the changed values. We also assure you that we've taken all necessary measures to ensure that the transition is seamless, with minimal impact on your end.
V2 Bulk APIs
Earlier this year, we had upgraded to the v2 APIs for a robust authentication process. Following that, we commenced work on Bulk APIs. This work is now complete and v2 bulk APIs are released. Now, you will be able to process records beyond the limit of 200. Click
here to learn more.
Zia insights feature in pivot reports
The Zia Insights feature applies to pivot chart and pivot table. It helps analyze tables and charts, and automatically provide actionable insights into the visual data. Instead of analyzing the data manually, you can use this option to derive insightful information instantaneously.
Pivot chart live mode:
Pivot table live mode:
The Zia Insights button will be made available on the top right corner of your pivot report. Clicking on the button will open a pop-up that has the types of analysis of your data. For this feature to appear in the live mode, the admin has to enable the property in the edit mode of the report.
Pivot chart edit mode:
Pivot table edit mode:
This feature is available only for users in Ultimate plan and it is currently available in English language only.
Enhanced UI of PDF attachment
The new theme of the PDF attachment contains the following UI level changes:
Old UI:
New UI:
- The header row, column configuration, and theme will be the same as in the live mode of the report.
- The font size in the new UI is sharper than the old UI.
- The Date in the new UI is in application time format without the label.
- The new UI supports conditional formatting, grouping, and image rendering.
So that's everything we have for you for today. See you all next month!
Thanks,
Zoho Creator Team