This help page is for users in Creator 6. If you are in the older version(Creator 5),  click here. Know your Creator version.

1. Steps to create a connection

Note:

1. Connections to services hosted in different data centers may involve cross-border data transfers. While Zoho Creator handles data securely, ensure this aligns with your organization’s data residency and compliance requirements before proceeding.
   
2. Payment workflows now rely on Payment Gateways powered by Zoho Checkout. All payment services have been moved under Microservices > Operations > Payment Gateways. The existing version of PayPal, PayflowPro, and Payments Pro has been deprecated on 26th September, 2024 and none of the payment transactions will be processed after this date. To ensure uninterrupted payment processing, migrate to the latest version. Learn more

1. Navigate to the Microservices in the left pane and click + Create New.
   
2. Click Pick & Create under Connections. The list of built-in connectors will appear as cards.
   
3. Select the connector of the required service for creating a connection.
Note: If the required service is not available in the list of built-in connectors, you can create a custom connector and proceed further. 


4. In the popup that follows, the Connection Name will be auto-generated based on the selected connector. This can be edited by clicking inside the input box.
   
1. If there are multiple connections with the same connector, then the naming format will be as follows, <service-name> [space] Connection <sequence>. For example if there are multiple Twilio connections then the new connection will be, Twilio Connection 1.
   

5. Choose how the connection is authorized under Authorization Access.
   

1. Administrators only: Admins, developers and the super admin of the application have the authority to authorize the connection. Regular users or non-administrative roles cannot authorize the connection but can consume them through admin authorization, making the connection an admin connection.  
2. All logged-in users: Any logged-in user, regardless of their role, can authorize the connection. Unlike admin connections, these connections can hold individual authorization for all logged in users and can perform the integrations based on the authorization of the user who executes it. This means that both administrators and regular users can grant authorization for the connection, making the connection a logged-in user connection. 
6. Choose your Connection Mode, to define how the connection is authorized:
   
1. Quick connect (Zoho-managed OAuth credentials) - This is the default Zoho managed OAuth credential.
   
2. Custom (Bring your own OAuth credential) - You can use your own credentials to manage your connections.
   

• Enter the Client Credential, ID, and Client Secret obtained from your registered third-party OAuth app.
  

• If you have existing credentials and want to create a new one, choose Add New from the dropdown. A system-generated Client Credential will be assigned.
  
• If you want to reuse an existing OAuth credential which is already mapped to the connector across multiple connections, choose one from the Client Credential dropdown.
  




Note: You can't update the existing credentials during the connection creation. To update a client credential, you'll have to navigate to the Connections details page.  Ensure there are no duplicate credential values.
The Client ID can only contain the following special characters: * _ - @ / ! : | & ~ \ + and cannot exceed 50 characters.

• Copy the Callback URL(redirect URL) provided for Zoho Creator and ensure that its used when registering your third-party OAuth app to generate the client ID and client secret.
  
7. Select the required scopes under Advanced dropdown before creating the connection. Choose All Actions to grant access to all available modules, or Only Specific Actions to select limited actions.  By default, the All Actions option will be selected.
   

Note: Under Advanced, if you choose to use the connection credentials to enable access to All Actions, all the actions related to the connection will be enabled by default and cannot be deselected.

In case of client credential (custom), ensure that the actions selected in Zoho Creator match those configured in the third-party service.

8. Click Create and Authorize. 
   
1. By default, the same authorization will be used for all environments unless the Use different authorizations for each environment box is checked. The authorization remains consistent across all environments by default.
   
   
2. If you need your users to use different credentials to authorize the application across different environments, select the checkbox. Learn more about using different authorizations for each environment. 
   
1. Select the environments for which the authorization needs to be applied. Click Authorize and the connection will be created and prompted for authorization.
   
Note: The third-party service's credentials required to authorize are based on the authentication type supported by the target service. 
For built-in connectors, the parameters that are required by the service are preconfigured. While creating connections, you can simply provide your credentials. 
For custom connectors, you will need to configure the parameters required by the service while creating the custom connector. Configured parameters will be prompted as fields while authorizing the connection with the custom connector. Based on the authentication type used, there will be a difference in the authorization of custom connectors.
9. For OAuth2, once you click Authorize. You will be redirected to the third-party service authorization page.
   
10. Enter your authorization credentials and accept the access permissions before the time limit of 90 seconds expire.
    
    

After authorization, the connection is ready to be used in your applications, for example. If you want to push data from a Zoho Creator field Vendor name to the Quickbooks account's Vendor module every time the form is submitted, you can achieve this using integrations actions in form workflow. To do so, create a Quickbooks connection, authorize it with the desired account's credentials, and supply it to the connections field while configuring the integrations action. The other users of your application can also authorize and use this connection based on the authorization level set while creating the connection.

1.1 Difference in authorization of custom connectors

The authorization will differ based on the authentication type used while creating the custom connector. Let's consider a few examples:

1. A basic authentication type service, Atlassian, requires a username and password to establish a connection with it. In the case of Atlassian, the username will be an email, and the password will be an auth token. These need to be configured as parameters while creating the custom connector. The configured parameters are prompted as fields to get the credentials from the user while authorizing the connection. If you choose to Use different authorization for each environment, then choose the environments in the popup that follows.
   
   
   
2. An API key authentication type service, Open Weather, requires an API key to establish a connection. As with the basic connector, this needs to be configured while creating the custom connector.
   
3. An OAuth1 authentication service, Trello, requires you to select the Connection Authorization Level.
   
   
1. If you choose to Use different authorization for each environment, then choose the environments in the popup that follows. Once you click Authorize, it redirects you to the service's (Trello) authorization page, where you need to give access to the requested permissions.
   
4. An OAuth2 authentication service, Dropbox, requires you to select the Connection Authorization Level.
   
   
1. If you choose to Use different authorization for each environment, then choose the environments in the popup that follows. Once you click Authorize, it redirects you to the service's (Dropbox) authorization page, where you need to give access to the requested permissions.
   

2. Points to note

1. Connections can be created only by administrators.
2. System connections can be authorized by super admin, admin or developers.
3. Logged-in user connections can only be created in C6.
4. For creating datasources and schedulers in logged-in user connections, the primary account is mandatory to channelize integrated services through a single account. 
5. The connections created with custom connectors can be used only in Deluge invoke URL tasks, mentioning the respective action API for any specific scenario/workflow. Refer to this example to fetch files from the connected Dropbox account using an invoke URL task.
6. If a connection is used in an application, it can also be viewed and authorized in the live and edit mode of the application. Click here to learn more about accessing connections in live and edit mode.
   

3. Related topics

1. Understanding connections
2. Managing connections
3. Connection in live and edit mode
4. Understanding connectors