Overview

In the topic Zoho Creator URL Patterns we learned about the default URLs to access a Zoho Creator application and its forms, reports and pages. In this topic, we will learn about the functionality based URLs to set default values for form fields, edit individual records by passing record-ID in the URL, set criteria for and print reports and pages.

All URL formats will use the following:

Permalink of Forms, Reports and Pages

You can also access the components (forms, reports and pages) in your Zoho Creator application using their permalinks. As the word suggests, a permalink is a permanent link; it refers to the URL of a particular webpage (a form, report or page, here). 

The format of permalinks of your app's components are as given below:

Note: Accessing a component using its permalink requires the end user to be logged in.

To allow public access to your application components, refer to publish and embed forms, publish and embed reports, and publish and embed pages.

Functionality based URLs for Forms

To set default values for Form Fields

The default values for Form Fields can be set by passing additional parameters in the Form's URL. For example, to automatically load a value for the Field Employee ID in the Employee Manager Application, the default value is passed as query string (Employee_ID=1234) in the Form's URL, where Employee_ID is the Deluge script name of the Field in the Employee Form.

The Form's URL with query string will be in the below formats:

1. Accessing within the Application:
   https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/#Form:Employee?Employee_ID=1234
2. Accessing via its permalink:
   https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/form-perma/Employee?Employee_ID=1234
3. Accessing a Form, which is embedded in another webpage:
   https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/form-embed/Employee?Employee_ID=1234

For the multi select and checkbox fields, there can be the need to set multiple values. For this, the values must be comma-separated in the URL. For example, if the values "Manager" and "Programmer" are to be set for the field Roles in the Employee Form, the URL will be: https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/#Form:Employee?Roles=Manager,Programmer

Note: The values that are passed as querystring in the URL will be set when the user accesses the form, i.e., On Load of the form.

To load Form without Field focus

You may note that when you access your form in your Zoho Creator application, the focus gets set on the first Field of the Form, i.e., the cursor appears on the first Field of the Form.

Assume that you have a website or blog, in which you have embedded your form. When your webpage is accessed, this default auto-focus behavior will scroll your webpage to where your form is placed. This may hinder a user's experience as the content present above the embedded form gets skipped. To handle this, Zoho Creator provides the zc_Focus parameter.

To edit individual records by passing record-ID in the URL

The URL to view and edit individual records using their record-ID is given below. This will display the Zoho Creator Form in Edit mode.

Refer to the topic Editing Records via Record ID for more information.

Functionality based URLs for Reports

To display a record in detail view

To filter the data displayed by a Report

You can filter the data displayed by a report by setting the filter criteria as querystring in its URL. Filtering using multiple criteria is supported — use an ampersand character (&) to separate two field-value pairs. Below are examples of filtering the Employee Manager application's Employee View report. This report's URL:
https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/#Report:Employee_View

URL format for filtering a report based on the EQUALS operator

where, FieldName1 and FieldName2 are the link names of the fields in the form

Examples:

• The URL to have this report display only those employee records where the employee's name is Daniel (Name=Daniel):
  https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/#Report:Employee_View?Name=Daniel
• The URL to have this report display only those employee records where the employee ID is 2466 (Employee_ID=2466):
  https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/#Report:Employee_View?Employee_ID=2466
• The URL to have this report display only those employee records where the employee's date of joining is 13-May-2019 (Date_of_Joining=13-May-2019):
  https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/#Report:Employee_View?Date_of_Joining=13-May-2019

Note: Here, the date 13-May-2019 is according to the date format set in this Employee Manager application's Settings. The date value that you add as querystring in your report's URL must match the date format set in your application.

URL format for filtering a report based on the STARTS WITH operator

where,

Examples:

• The URL to have this report display only those employee records where the employee's name starts with Dan, is as follows. The Name field in this application is of type single line and 24 is the constant that identifies the STARTS WITH operator.
  https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/#Report:Employee_View?Name=Dan&Name_op=24
• The URL to have this report display only those employee records where the employee ID starts with 246, is as follows. In this application, Employee ID is a number field.
  https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/#Report:Employee_View?Employee_ID=246&Employee_ID_op=24

URL format for filtering a report based on the CONTAINS operator

For example, the URL to have this report display only those employee records where the employee is in some administrative role, is as follows. In this application, Role is a checkbox field and 26 is the constant that identifies the CONTAINS operator.
https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/#Report:Employee_View?Roles=Admin&Roles_op=26

URL format for filtering a report based on the BETWEEN operator

where, StartingValue and EndingValue can be a number, decimal value, or date

Example: The URL to have this report display only those employee records where the date of joining is between 10-Sep-2019 and 30-Mar-2020, is as follows. The Date of Joining field in this application is of type date and 58 is the constant that identifies the BETWEEN operator.
https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/#Report:Employee_View?Date_of_Joining=10-Sep-2019;30-Mar-2020&Date_of_Joining_op=58

URL format for filtering a report based on other date/date-time specific operators

Note: Refer to the table below for the list of constants that denote the operators.

• The URL to have this report display only those employee records where the Date of Joining is in the last n years, is as follows. Here, 70 is the constant that identifies the LAST N YEAR operator. This format also applies to operators such as NEXT N YEAR, LAST N MONTH, LAST N WEEK, and LAST N DAYS.
  https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/#Report:Employee_View?Date_of_Joining=2&Date_of_Joining_op=70
• The URL to have this report display only those employee records where the Date of Joining is in the current and previous year, is as follows. Here, 56 is the constant that identifies the CURRENT_PREVIOUS_YEAR operator. This format also applies to operators such as CURR_PREV_MONTH and CURRENT_PREVIOUS_WEEK.
  https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/#Report:Employee_View?Date_of_Joining_op=56

List of Operators and their Constants

To print a Report

Example: https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/print/Employee_View

To print a Report with criteria

• URL format to print a Report with criteria using "=" (Equal) Operator:
  
  https://<base_url>/<account_owner_name>/<app_link_name>/print/<report_link_name>?<FieldName1>=<FieldName1 Value>&<FieldName2>=<FieldName2 Value>

  Example: The URL to print Employee records belonging to the "Engineering" Department is,
  https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/print/Employee_View?Department=Engineering

• URL format to print a Report with criteria other than "=" (Equal) Operator:
  
  https://<base_url>/<account_owner_name>/<app_link_name>/print/<report_link_name>?<FieldName1>=<FieldName1 Value>&<FieldName2>=<FieldName2 Value>&<FieldName1_op>=<constant>&<FieldName2_op>=<constant>
  
  
  where,
  

  FieldName1 & FieldName2	are the Deluge script names for the Fields in the Form
  FieldName1_op & FieldName2_op	are parameter names for the Operator ("FieldName" appended with "_op")
  constant	is the value assigned for each Operator. Refer this table to view the list of all Operators and their Constants

  Example: The URL to print records with Employee ID GREATER_THAN 1235,
  https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/print/Employee_View?Employee_ID=1235&Employee_ID_op=21

• URL format to print a Report with criteria, using "between" Operator -
  
  https://<base_url>/<account_owner_name>/<app_link_name>/print/<report_link_name>?<FieldName1>=<StartingValue>;<EndingValue>&<FieldName1_op>=<constant>

  where, <StartingValue> and <EndingValue> can be any number, decimal or date.

  Example: The URL to print records with Date_of_Joining between any two dates is given below. Here, Date_of_Joining is a Date Field.
  https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/print/Employee_View?Date_of_Joining=18-Jan-2006;30-Apr-2007&Date_of_Joining_op=58

To import data to Report

By adding this URL to the application components like page, form, or workflow in your application, you may enable users to import the data to the specified report by directing them to the import interface when the user accesses it. For instance, you can include this URL in the page panel or in openURL task within a workflow depending on you preference.

Note: The users can import data only when they have import permission to the application.

URL format for importing data to report is :

https://<base_url>/<account_owner_name>/<application_name>/report/<report_link_name>/import 

Example: Consider a sales management application, where a user has the invoice data and wants to import that data to the invoices report. The user can do it in a conventional way, or you can let user to import data directly with one click by attaching the URL as a button panel in the application page. When the user clicks the button, he will be directed to the import interface and by selecting the invoice file, data will be imported to the specified report.
https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/sales-management/report/invoices/import

Functionality based URLs for Pages

Pages can also accept URL parameters. You may access the below given URL as an example (parameter emp is being passed a value).

https://creatorapp.zoho.com/sampleapps/employees/#Page:Complete_Employee_details?emp=support@zohocreator.com

To print a Page with parameter

where,

Example: The URL to print a Page named "TestHTML" with paramName "dept" and paramValue as "Engineering" is given below. Here, the paramName "dept" is the name of the parameter defined in the Page to fetch records with the specified paramValue.
https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/print/TestHTML?dept=Engineering

To convert Page to PDF

For example https://creatorapp.zoho.com/export/sampleapps/customer-support/pdf/More_Details_Html_View?ticketID=104
where ticketID is the name of the parameter defined in the Page

You can add the following parameters to customize certain aspects of the output PDF:

Parameter	Values	Default value	Purpose
zc_FileName	(as required)	The page's display name	To set the name of the output PDF file. For example: https://creatorapp.zoho.com/export/sampleapps/customer-support/pdf/Most_Recent_Solution?zc_FileName=DownloadReport
zc_PdfOrientation	portrait, landscape	portrait	To set the orientation in which the page's contents will be exported. For example: https://creatorapp.zoho.com/export/sampleapps/customer-support/pdf/Most_Recent_Solution?zc_PdfOrientation=landscape
zc_PdfSize	Letter, A4, Legal, Executive	Letter	To set the page size of the output PDF file. For example: https://creatorapp.zoho.com/export/sampleapps/customer-support/pdf/Most_Recent_Solution?zc_PdfSize=A4
zc_PdfHeight	20 to 5600	A4 height i.e. 297mm/1122px	To set the height of the output PDF file. For example: https://creatorapp.zoho.com/export/sampleapps/customer-support/pdf/Most_Recent_Solution?zc_PdfHeight=1000
zc_PdfWidth	20 to 5600	A4 width i.e. 210mm/793px	To set the width of the output PDF file. For example: https://creatorapp.zoho.com/export/sampleapps/customer-support/pdf/Most_Recent_Solution?zc_PdfWidth=700
zc_PageNumber	true, false	false	To number the pages of the output PDF file. For example: https://creatorapp.zoho.com/export/sampleapps/customer-support/pdf/Most_Recent_Solution?zc_PageNumber=true

Note:

1. zc_PdfSize should not be given when height (zc_PdfHeight) and width (zc_PdfWidth) parameters are used.
   
2. By default, PDF file will be in A4 size. If either the height or width parameter is not specified, then the other parameter will adapt the A4 size.

URL format to retain changes in an embedded report

When a report is embedded in a page, the changes applied to the original report—such as search, sort, group, or filter —are not retained by default. Instead, you can configure the embedded report to retain these changes using the zc_RetainChanges parameter.

URL format:
https://<base_url>/<account_owner_name>/<app_link_name>/#Page:<page_link_name>?zc_RetainChanges=true

The zc_RetainChanges parameter accepts the following values:

• true: To enable retaining changes.

• false: To disable retaining changes.

For example, if you sort a report by the Employee Name field and embed it in the Employee_Dashboard page, you can use the following URL to retain the sorting in the embedded report:
https://creatorapp.zoho.com/zchelp/employee-manager/#Page:Employee_Dashboard?zc_RetainChanges=true

This ensures that the applied sorting (by Employee Name) is synchronized with the original report component in the embedded context.

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Limitations

1. Div embedded Forms/Reports inside Pages is not supported as already discussed in this Forum post. (This will be done only after we provide #include support, i.e., server-side include directive in Deluge. Users will have to change to the new implementation once done to enable PDF output). Refer to our limitations page for more details.
2. Any authenticated content like images/CSS that requires your current credential will not be supported, i.e., any link/embedding in the Page to be converted into PDF, should be public content.
   

Note: Refer to this page to learn how to control the visibility of the PDF export option for your pages.