Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest – March 2025

Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest – March 2025



Hello everyone,

This month is packed with exciting product updates, learning sessions, and powerful community conversations that remind us: sometimes, the best solutions come from a single shared question. From quick workarounds to upcoming training events and product releases, there's something here for everyone.

Let's dive in!

Upcoming Events

Creator Tech Connect

Title: Product release updates in Zoho Creator
Date: April 9–10, 2025
APAC & ANZ: 11 AM to 12 PM IST – Registration Link
EMEA: 4 PM to 5 PM IST – Registration Link
Americas: 9 PM to 10 PM IST – Registration Link

Creator's tech connect series comprises of technical sessions that provide immersive training on the key essentials and technical nuances of building a solution in Zoho Creator. This is a great opportunity for our developer community to stay informed about Creator's new feature releases, product roadmap, best practices to follow while scripting in deluge, new deluge concepts, and cloud functions. In our previous session, we discussed advanced UI/UX customizations in Zoho Creator. In the upcoming session, we will explore the recent product release updates in Zoho Creator.

ZDK CLI (Zoho Development Kit Command Line Interface)

Date: April 10
Time: 10:00 AM IST & 8:00 PM IST (GMT+5:30)

Managing metadata in Zoho CRM shouldn’t feel like navigating a maze. Yet, the endless clicks to modify profiles, roles, modules, or layouts—and the challenges of version control—can quickly become overwhelming. What if you could skip the hassle and manage your metadata effortlessly? Introducing ZDK CLI—your one-stop solution for streamlining metadata modifications, pushing changes directly from the command line, and tracking updates seamlessly with your preferred Version Control System (VCS). Register now to discover how to take control of your CRM workflow with ZDK CLI.

Extensions 101

TitleZoho Projects – Data Storage
Date: April 17
Time: 10:00 AM IST & 8:00 PM IST (GMT+5:30)

This series aims to guide developers through the process of building extensions for various Zoho products using the Zoho Developer platform, Sigma. Our previous sessions in this series covered extension development for multiple Zoho products and highlighted the platform's key capabilities for developing efficient extensionsRegister for the upcoming sessions, where we'll delve deep into developing extensions for Zoho products like Projects, CRM, Books, and Desk.

Zoho Developer Hangout – Episode 21

Title: Zoho System Integration: Collect, Manage, and Utilize Data
Date: April 23

Time: 8:00 PM IST (GMT+5:30)

In this session, we’re featuring a ZDC Hackathon 2024 winner from the Zoho Creator Category who tackled one of the biggest business bottlenecks—hiring—and turned it into a fully streamlined, automated system. Wonderboy, Sourcing Coordinator & Junior Developer at WeThinkCode_, built this project using Zoho Creator, CRM, and Forms, simplifying the entire recruitment process—from collecting applications to sending updates via WhatsApp and email. It’s smart, practical, and something you could absolutely build on. Register here.

Catalyst 101

Title: Data & File Management and Querying
Date: April 29
Time10:00 AM IST & 8:00 PM IST (GMT+5:30)

Catalyst is a full-stack cloud development platform that simplifies the complex. Build, test, host, deploy, and optimize solutions like never before. Its easy learning curve eliminates complexities, empowering you to craft bold innovations at the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO). This is a four-part learning initiative that focuses on offering a thorough understanding of Catalyst—Zoho's cloud computing platform. Click here for registration and more details.

Learning Table Series

Title: Creator for the Property Management
Date: May 8, 2025
APAC & ANZ: 11 AM to 12 PM IST – Registration Link
EMEA: 4 PM to 5 PM IST – Registration Link
Americas: 9 PM to 10 PM IST – Registration Link

We designed this series to provide users with valuable insights and knowledge of Creator's capabilities in various business use cases and applications. This year as well, we have adopted the 12 Months 12 Industries concept. Every month, we will focus on a specific industry, illustrating its unique processes with real-time business scenarios and how to make best use of Creator for that industry. Our previous webinar on Creator for the Asset Management was a success, and during the upcoming session, we'll be exploring Creator for the Property Management.

Zoholics USA 2025

Date: May 13–15
Location
GRB Convention Center in Houston

Join us for three days of inspiration, innovation, and invaluable connections. Whether you’re attending breakout tracks, scheduling 1-on-1 expert sessions, or mingling in networking lounges, we promise you’ll leave with actionable insights and a refreshed perspective on your business. More details here.

Resource Spotlight

Info
We've consolidated all the resources from the developer community learning series into a centralized hub for your convenient access. Consider bookmarking our Zoho Developer Community website to stay informed about the latest updates in the developer community.
Alert
Postman’s 2025 Developers’ Choice Awards at POSTCON ’25

If you’ve found our Zoho CRM Developers API collection on Postman helpful, we’d be honored to have your support! This collection is regularly updated with a focus on simplifying your development experience and helping you work with our APIs effortlessly. We’re excited to be a part of this contest and your vote could help us win. Your support not only motivates us but also drives us to improve and deliver more value to our developer community.

Please cast your vote here and share our profile. Voting lines are open until April 18, 2025. 
  • Zoho Creator
    Get access to the previous Zoho Creator Session recordings from Youtube & Zoho Creator Studio below:
  • Zoho Analytics
    Let's explore how the integration between Zoho Analytics and Zoho Desk can transform customer support, helping teams move from basic reporting to data-driven decision making in this blog.

  • Zoho Flow
    One of the biggest advantages of using Zoho Flow is that all your workflows are in one place, making it easy to make changes, switch them on or off, and monitor how every step is performing. 
    Now we're making it even easier for you to keep track of your flows and perform quick operations. Say hello to the Zoho Flow mobile app for iPhone!

  • Zoho Notebook
    AI is advancing rapidly and becoming a staple in our daily lives. From boosting our writing skills to enhancing productivity, AI tech is all around us. Because AI is so impactful and becoming the future of advanced technology, we thought, why not implement it in Zoho Notebook to make your writing experience a piece of cake? I
    ntroducing Notebook AI, our powerful AI writing assistant in Zoho Notebook.

  • Zoho Directory – Always Verify #09
    As we march ahead into April 2025, you have on your screens yet another edition of Always VerifyWe have searched the internet far and wide to bring you impactful Identity and Access Management stories- MFA mandates, ransomware attacks, crazy authentication workflows and of course, the Oracle Cloud breach.

Community Discussions

It’s a great reminder that in the right community, every challenge is just one conversation away from a breakthrough.

Zoho Developer Forum

  • @Nik ran into a snag trying to remove backslashes from a string in Deluge, so he came up with a quick workaround—bit of a hack, but hey, it did the trick. Then @Andres stepped in with a much cleaner fix that made things way easier. Want to know what the fix was? You’ll have to check out the post! Just goes to show, even a messy workaround can lead to a solid solution when you share it with the right crowd.
  • @Federico ran into a workflow hiccup while creating a related record in Zoho CRM—every time he hit “Save,” it would bounce him right back to the parent record. He wanted to stay on the newly created record instead. What followed was a thoughtful exchange around client scripts, potential workarounds, and platform limitations. While there's no one-click fix (yet), the conversation shed light on the why behind this behavior—and sparked ideas that might just lead to a future product tweak. Curious how others are handling it? The post’s worth a read.
  • When @Richard ran into a frustrating error in his Zoho Books Deluge script, the error message wasn’t giving him much to work with. He reached out to the community, and @Bhoomi, our MVP, stepped in to help, spotting a small but crucial syntax issue—something as simple as a missing semicolon. It’s a reminder of how sometimes the smallest detail can cause the biggest roadblock. Check out the post for the full solution!
  • @Taryn noticed something strange—values entered into a custom field on the Lead form in Zoho CRM weren’t saving, and the field just lit up yellow with no error message in sight. It was one of those head-scratcher moments until @Hugh Marshall stepped in with a simple but spot-on suggestion: check the field’s permissions. Sure enough, that was the culprit. Just another example of how a fresh pair of eyes in the community can help uncover what you might’ve missed.
  • When @ebizness set out to automatically create a new Contact every time a custom CRM module received a new record, things seemed straightforward—until the workflow threw an error. While @Ishwarya guided them through the workflow setup, it was @Max Tyack who shared a golden tip that turned the tide. The moment @ebizness tried it, everything clicked into place. Curious what that magic tip was? Head to the thread to see the clever trick that made the automation work seamlessly!
  • @Hayden’s post casually introduces the concept of the Levenshtein Distance algorithm—measuring how many edits it takes to turn one word into another—while showing how he built a working fuzzy matching system in Deluge. Using maps to mimic 2D arrays and a quirky recursive helper, he proved that with a bit of creativity, even compact scripting tools can be stretched to do pretty impressive things. A fun read that’s both educational, entertaining, and super cool!

Developers ZUG Cliq Channel

Info
These conversations are confined to the Developers ZUG Cliq channel members. If you're keen on becoming a part of this space, visit our website, click JOIN NOW, and complete the form to get an invite to the channel.
  • This thread explores a real-world use case that pushes readers to think beyond the UI. By sharing her situation, Trish uncovered a workaround others can benefit from. Conversations like these empower developers to dive deeper into Deluge, workflows, and modular automation—things the docs might not cover, but the community certainly does!
  • When the documentation doesn’t cover a unique use case, conversations with peers help fill the gaps. When @LaVerne set out to trigger a custom function from the Zoho Cliq check-in (without using Zoho People), @Mike helped highlight some platform boundaries, while @Pranit offered practical insights and opened up the idea of using Cliq Widgets as a potential custom solution.
  • @Mangesh faced a common developer pain point: missing custom fields in the Zoho Books API response. His precise question led to a straightforward and helpful answer from @Pranit, who offered a simple tip that now makes API calls more predictable. It’s proof that asking clear questions gets you closer to clean solutions—especially when the right folks are listening.

Community Spotlight

Cliq Contributors

We want to express our sincere appreciation to all our community contributors. Your commitment, expertise, and the time you invest are invaluable to the community. 



For those who are new to the Zoho Developer Community, check out this post to get started. 

Make sure to follow the digest every month for the most recent updates and conversations. Stay connected and participate in the forums and the Cliq channel to be featured in the upcoming month's digest. Wishing you all an amazing month ahead!


SEE ALSO

    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






                                                            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 Connected Records to bring business context to every aspect of your work in Zoho CRM for Everyone

                                                                                                              Hello Everyone, We are excited to unveil phase one of a powerful enhancement to CRM for Everyone - Connected Records, available only in CRM's Nextgen UI. With CRM for Everyone, businesses can onboard all customer-facing teams onto the CRM platform to
                                                                                                            • Zoho CRM in Microsoft Power Automate Custom Connector

                                                                                                              Hi everyone, I’m building a Power Automate flow that integrates Microsoft Bookings with Zoho CRM. The goal is to automatically create a meeting (event) in Zoho CRM whenever a new appointment is booked via Microsoft Bookings. To achieve this, I created
                                                                                                            • Granular Email Forwarding Controls in Zoho Mail (Admin Console and Zoho One)

                                                                                                              Hello Zoho Mail Team, How are you? At present, the Zoho Mail Admin Console allows administrators to configure email forwarding for an entire mailbox, forwarding all incoming emails to another address. This is helpful for delegation or backup purposes,
                                                                                                            • Sales order & purchase order item links for item details

                                                                                                              This is fantastic for checking lots of things, I use it a lot. It would be great to see it extended to invoices & bills On another note, may as well throw in my favourite whinge ..... Wish you guys would get the PO receive differences sorted urgently,
                                                                                                            • Custom Fonts in Zoho CRM Template Builder

                                                                                                              Hi, I am currently creating a new template for our quotes using the Zoho CRM template builder. However, I noticed that there is no option to add custom fonts to the template builder. It would greatly enhance the flexibility and branding capabilities if
                                                                                                            • Problem with Email an invoice with multiple attachments using API

                                                                                                              I have an invoice with 3 attachments. When I send an email manually using the UI, everything works correctly. I receive an email with three attachments. The problem occurs when I try to initiate sending an email using the API. The email comes with only
                                                                                                            • Zoho Workdrive - Communication / Chat Bar

                                                                                                              Hi Team, Please consider adding an option to allow admins to turn on or off the Zoho Communication Bar. Example of what I mean by Communication Bar: It's such a pain sometimes when I'm in WorkDrive and I want to share a link to a file with a colleague
                                                                                                            • Introducing Profile Summary: Faster Candidate Insights with Zia

                                                                                                              We’re excited to launch Profile Summary, a powerful new feature in Zoho Recruit that transforms how you review candidate profiles. What used to take minutes of resume scanning can now be assessed in seconds—thanks to Zia. A Quick Example Say you’re hiring
                                                                                                            • Kaizen #190 - Queries in Custom Related Lists

                                                                                                              Hello everyone! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! This week, we will discuss yet another interesting enhancement to Queries. As you all know, Queries allow you to dynamically retrieve data from CRM as well as third-party services directly within
                                                                                                            • Need the ability to have read only fields on a form.

                                                                                                              There needs to be functionality in Creator that allows a field on a form to be read only. Most screen building software applications have this capability. I know you can hide certain fields from specific users and that you can also make the whole form read only but that's not the functionality I need. I want to be able to create a form where certain fields are editable and other are for display purposes only (read only). For example if the form was displaying information on an item that the user
                                                                                                            • Reverse payment on accidentally closed invoice.

                                                                                                              An invoice was closed accidentally with the full payment added. However, only partial payment was paid. How can I reopen the invoice and reverse this to update it to show partial payment?
                                                                                                            • New integration: Track booking page appointments in Google Analytics 4

                                                                                                              Hello all, Greetings from the Zoho Bookings team! We’re excited to introduce our new Google Analytics 4 (GA4) integration designed to help you track booking activity, understand customer behavior, and measure marketing performance, all in one place. What
                                                                                                            • Zoho Books Sandbox environment

                                                                                                              Hello. Is there a free sandbox environment for the developers using Zoho Books API? I am working on the Zoho Books add-on and currently not ready to buy a premium service - maybe later when my add-on will start to bring money. Right now I just need a
                                                                                                            • How to list emails in a folder, e.g. Inbox, on multiple pages when using Zoho mail webpage?

                                                                                                              Something as shown in the figure. There are totally 50 emails in Sent folder. If "Mail per page" equals 20, then the Sent folder is split into 3 pages. When I wander through Sent folder, I can just select a specific page to jump to. BTW, it seems that
                                                                                                            • Zoho Calendar soft bounce on @hotmail.com and @yahoo.com email addresses

                                                                                                              Hello, our Zoho calendar recently does not send the calendar invites to emails with hotmail and yahoo domains and comes back with a "soft bounce". other domains like Gmail works fine. Also sending "email" to the same emails to the above domains work well
                                                                                                            • IMAP Server not responding.

                                                                                                              Trying to connect a phone via IMAP and getting "imap.zoho.com not responding." Is the server down, for maintenance or otherwise? I've tried this on two different devices and got the same error on both.
                                                                                                            • Elevate your CX delivery using CommandCenter 2.0: Simplified builder; seamless orchestration

                                                                                                              Most businesses want to create memorable customer experiences—but they often find it hard to keep them smooth, especially as they grow. To achieve a state of flow across their processes, teams often stitch together a series of automations using Workflow
                                                                                                            • ERROR CODE :512 - 5.4.4 DNS error:NXDOMAIN.

                                                                                                              Suddenly we cant send mail, we are getting this error for all outbound mail to multiple domains.
                                                                                                            • New in Cadences: WhatsApp follow-ups, upgraded limits, and options for add-ons

                                                                                                              Hello everyone, We're rolling out two key updates to help you engage better and scale smarter with Cadences in Zoho CRM. Reach customers on WhatsApp, directly from Cadences Previously, Cadences have enabled you to automate follow-ups through emails, calls,
                                                                                                            • Zoho CRM Analytics - Allow To Reorder Dashboards

                                                                                                              I would like to suggest that you add the ability to reorder dashboards in the Analytics Module. I can see that this has been requested some time ago, the latest 9 years ago. I am not sure if this is a big or small endeavor, but such a small fix can go
                                                                                                            • Can Zoho Flows repeat Actions more than once?

                                                                                                              I'm attempting to make an intentional Zoho Flow loop using the below layout. However, when "WithinLimit" condition is met, the program fails to execute the action "Get & Add Request Co..." again. Is this by design? Is Zoho Flows unable to repeat actions
                                                                                                            • Unveiling Cadences: Redefining CRM interactions with automated sequential follow-ups

                                                                                                              Last modified on 01/04/2024: Cadences is now available for all Zoho CRM users in all data centres (DCs). Note that it was previously an early access feature, available only upon request, and was also known as Cadences Studio. As of April 1, 2024, it's
                                                                                                            • customer data security

                                                                                                              We are exploring ways to enhance our within Zoho CRM. Our Goal: We want to fully integrate RingCentral with Zoho CRM to enable click-to-call functionality for our sales team. However, to comply with data privacy regulations and protect customer contact
                                                                                                            • Zoho 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 constantly
                                                                                                            • Sync CRM inventory data with Zoho Books

                                                                                                              I just switched everything over to ZoHo books, but I am trying to find out why the CRM Estimates, Invoices, and Sales Orders created in ZoHo CRM are not then duplicated in ZoHo Books? I had Quickbooks before, and had to do everything twice, I thought
                                                                                                            • mask Customer phone number and agents cant see customer phone number

                                                                                                              Is there any way we can integrate Zoom Phone with Zoho CRM while ensuring that customer phone numbers remain masked? We need a solution where agents can make outbound calls but cannot see customer phone numbers. Please let us know if there is any solution
                                                                                                            • Presenting ABM for Zoho CRM: Expand and retain your customers with precision

                                                                                                              Picture this scenario: You're a growing SaaS company ready to launch a powerful business suite, and are looking to gain traction and momentum. But as a business with a tight budget, you know acquiring new customers is slow, expensive, and often delivers
                                                                                                            • how to differentiate if whatsapp comes from certain landing page?

                                                                                                              I create a Zobot in SalesIQ to create a Whatsapp bot to capture the lead. I have 2 landing pages, one is SEO optimized and the other want is optimized for leads comes from Google Ads. I want to know from which landing page this lead came through WhatsApp
                                                                                                            • Email Reminders on Shared Calendars

                                                                                                              How do we turn off the setting that emails reminders to everyone who has accepted or declined a calendar invite? If 8 of us have been invited to the same meeting, we receive 8 notifications for every step of the process, from invitation to decision.
                                                                                                            • Default Sorting on Related Lists

                                                                                                              Is it possible to set the default sorting options on the related lists. For example on the Contact Details view I have related lists for activities, emails, products cases, notes etc... currently: Activities 'created date' newest first Emails - 'created
                                                                                                            • additional accounts

                                                                                                              If I brought 5 emails to my account. Can I later buy additional emails.
                                                                                                            • WebDAV / FTP / SFTP protocols for syncing

                                                                                                              I believe the Zoho for Desktop app is built using a proprietary protocol. For the growing number of people using services such as odrive to sync multiple accounts from various providers (Google, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, etc.) it would be really helpful if you implemented standard protocols such as WebDAV / FTP / SFTP so that alternative inc clients can be used.
                                                                                                            • Open Sans Font in Zoho Books is not Open Sans.

                                                                                                              Font choice in customising PDF Templates is very limited, we cannot upload custom fonts, and to make things worse, the font names are not accurate. I selected Open Sans, and thought the system was bugging, but no, Open Sans is not Open Sans. The real
                                                                                                            • What's New in Zoho Inventory | Q2 2025

                                                                                                              Hello Customers, The second quarter have been exciting months for Zoho Inventory! We’ve introduced impactful new features and enhancements to help you manage inventory operations with even greater precision and control. While we have many more exciting
                                                                                                            • How to refresh a ticket view ?

                                                                                                              I am doing a widget where I send a rest api call to make a new draft to the ticket I am viewing. The issue is sometimes it refresh a ticket view and I can see inserted draft right away, but sometimes I do not see it even if it is inserted correctly and
                                                                                                            • Ugh! - Text Box (Single Line) Not Enough - Text Box (Multi-line) Unavailable in PDF!

                                                                                                              I provide services, I do not sell items. In each estimate I send I provide a customized job description. A two or three sentence summary of the job to be performed. I need to be able to include this job description on each estimate I send as it's a critical
                                                                                                            • Supervisor Rules - Zoho Desk

                                                                                                              Hi, I have set up a Supervisor Rule in Zoho Desk to send an email alert when a ticket has been on hold for 48 hours. Is there a way to change it so that the alert only sends once and not on an hourly basis? Thank you Laura
                                                                                                            • ResponseCode 421, 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 136.143.188.51 temporarily deferred due to user complaints

                                                                                                              Had email bounce. Let me know if you can fix this. Thanks. Michael
                                                                                                            • Zoho Canvas - Custom templates for related lists

                                                                                                              Hi, I see that the example pages load always one of our related lists in a custom template, but I dont know how to work with that:  1) How can i make my own custom templates for related lists?  2) Where and how can i check out existing custom templates?
                                                                                                            • Automation #15: Automatically Adding Static Secondary Contacts

                                                                                                              Rockel is a top-tier client of Zylker traders. Marcus handles communications with Rockel and would like to add Terence, the CTO of Zylker traders to the email conversations. In this case, the emails coming from user address rockel.com should have Terence
                                                                                                            • Next Page