Building Extensions #15: Creating widgets with the JS SDK bundle in Zoho Desk—Inter-widget communication

Building Extensions #15: Creating widgets with the JS SDK bundle in Zoho Desk—Inter-widget communication

This series aims to equip developers with all they need to build extensions for Zoho Desk in Zoho Sigma and publish them in Zoho Marketplace.

Hello Developers!

In our previous post, we briefed the use of Hooks API and explained it with an example on how to use them in a Desk extension. In this post, we'll learn about the inter-widget communication feature and how it can be used in your extensions with an example.

Inter-widget communication

There are scenarios where an extension could have multiple widgets. In such cases, it is important to have communication between these widgets for the extension to be more user-friendly. The inter-widget communication feature of Zoho Desk helps you create a connection between widgets and facilitate communication between them. When two widgets are communicating, there are a few points to remember during implementation. Let’s consider one widget as the sender and the other as the receiver.

Sender widget
  1. This widget should know the receiving widget's identity.
  2. When it knows that identity, it can send the desired data to the receiving widget.
Receiving widget
  1. This widget needs to be active to receive data from any sender.
  2. It can then process the received data.
You can achieve this with the help of a couple of SDK methods provided by the Zoho developer platform.
  1. App.instance.getWidgets(): The getWidgets() method will return an array of all the widgets available in the extension, including the one from where this call is made.
  2. siblingwidgetId: Every widget associated to the extension will have a unique ID. You can use the code widgets[0].widgetID to get the widget ID of the desired widget from the array of widgets available. The array index for the widget is defined based on the order in which the widgets are listed in the plugin-manifest file of the extension.
  3. var siblingWidget = App.instance.getWidgetInstance(siblingwidgetId): This returns the whole instance of the selected widget.
  4. siblingWidget.emit('event', data): This sends the data from the selected widget on the event occurrence.
Once we pass the data from the first widget (sender), we need to enable the other widget (receiver) to receive the event sent from the first widget. The following code snippet needs to listen to an event emitted by the sibling widget.

App.instance.on('event', function(data){});

Sender Widget
Receiving Widget
Need to know the receiving widget's IdentityNeed to be active to receive the data
Get the instance of the desired widgetReceive data and process it as required
Send the data

Let’s learn about inter-widget communication with an example.

Scenario

Consider a scenario where an agent is provided with detailed information about a particular customer within Zoho Desk itself that is easily accessible. Wouldn’t it be useful for the agents to understand the value of their customer easily? Yes, this can be done using an extension.
  1. Fetch the details of the customer from Zoho CRM.
  2. Showcase the required customer’s information in Zoho Desk.

Platform features

To implement the above scenario, the following Desk platform features are used.
  1. Background widget: This widget runs on its own in the background by default. In our use case, as soon as an agent opens a ticket, the customer's email ID needs to be fetched and the corresponding details are imported from Zoho CRM accordingly. In this case, we can use the background widget feature to fetch the data from Zoho CRM. This can be implemented using the background widget.
  2. Tickets subtab widget: In our example use case, we need the customer’s details to be shown to the agent. Let’s choose the ticket's subtab location to display the same.
  3. Inter-widget communication: Because there are two widgets being used, we can use the inter-widget communication feature for a seamless data flow between the two widgets.

Subtab widget

An agent opens a ticket. Now the background widget gets loaded by default. When the agent moves to the subtab widget to view the customer details, the subtab widget is loaded and we communicate to the background widget about the same. The customer data transferred to the subtab widget will be displayed to the agent.


Background widget

As soon as the background widget gets a communication from the subtab widget, the customer's details are fetched and transmitted back to the subtab widget.





We have attached the entire code of our sample in this post. You can download the same and reuse, if required.

Sample output



Hope you found this post to be useful. Stay tuned for more posts in this space!

See Also



      • Recent Topics

      • Email was sent out without our permission

        Hi there, One customer just reached out to us about this email that we were not aware was being sent to our customers. Can you please check on your end?

      • Zoho OAuth Connector Deprecation and Its Impact on Zoho Desk

        Hello everyone, Zoho believes in continuously refining its integrations to uphold the highest standards of security, reliability, and compliance. As part of this ongoing improvement, the Zoho OAuth default connector will be deprecated for all Zoho services

      • Automatically CC an address using Zoho CRM Email Templates

        Hi all - have searched but can't see a definitive answer. We have built multiple email templates in CRM. Every time we send this we want it to CC a particular address (the same address for every email sent) so that it populates the reply back into our

      • Uplifted homepage experience

        Hello everyone, Creating your homepage is now much easier, more visual, and more impactful. Until now, your homepage allowed you to display custom views, widgets, analytic components, and Kiosk. With the following improvements, the homepage is now a smarter,

      • What are the create bill API line item requiered fields

        While the following documentation says that the line items array is requiered it doesn't say what if any files are requiered in the array. Does anyone know? API documentation: https://www.zoho.com/inventory/api/v1/bills/#create-a-bill I'm trying to add

      • Transfer ownership of files and folders in My Folders

        People work together as a team to achieve organizational goals and objectives. In an organization, there may be situations when someone leaves unexpectedly or is no longer available. This can put their team in a difficult position, especially if there

      • Free Webinar: Zoho Sign for Zoho Projects: Automate tasks and approvals with e-signatures

        Hi there! Handling multiple projects at once? Zoho Projects is your solution for automated and streamlined project management, and with the Zoho Sign extension, you can sign, send, and manage digital paperwork directly from your project workspace. Join

      • Customer ticket creation via Microsoft Teams

        Hi all, I'm looking to see if someone could point me in the right direction. I'd love to make it so my customers/ end users can make tickets, see responses and respond within microsoft teams. As Admin and an Agent i've installed the zoho assist app within

      • Is there a way to update all the start and end dates of tasks of a project after a calendar change?

        Hi! Here's my situation. I've built a complete project planning. All its tasks have start dates and due dates. After completing the planning, I've realized that the project calendar was not the right one. So I changed the project calendar. I now have

      • How to update task start date when project start date changes?

        Hi there, When the start date of a project changes, it's important to update the start dates of the tasks associated with that project to reflect the new timeline. Is there a way to shift the start date of all project tasks when the start date of a project

      • Unattended - Silent

        How can I hide the tray icon / pop up window during unattended remote access for silent unattended remote access?

      • Issue with Picklist Dropdown Not Opening on Mobile

        Hello I am experiencing an issue with picklist values on mobile. While the arrow is visible, the dropdown to scroll through the available values often does not open. This issue occurs sporadically, it has worked occasionally, but it is very rare and quite

      • using the client script based on the look up filed i wnat to fetch the record details like service number , service rate

        based on selected service look up field iwant to fetch the service serial number in the serice form how i achive using client script also how i get the current date in the date field in the on load of the form

      • Zoho Books/Square integration, using 2 Square 'locations' with new Books 'locations'?

        Hello! I saw some old threads about this but wasn't sure if there were any updates. Is there a way to integrate the Square locations feature with the Books locations feature? As in, transactions from separate Books locations go to separate Square locations

      • Add zoho calendar to google calendar

        Hi I keep seeing instructions on how to sync Zoho CRM calendar with google calendar but no instructions on how to view Zoho calendar in my google calendar.

      • Zoho Commerce - How To Change Blog Published Date and Author

        Hi Commerce Team, I'm discussing a project with a client who wants to move from Woo Commerce / Wordpress to Zoho Commerce. They have around 620 blog posts which will need to be migrated. I am now aware of the blog import feature and I have run some tests.

      • Add RTL and Hebrew Support for Candidate Portal (and Other Zoho Recruit Portals)

        Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you're doing well. We would like to request the ability to set the Candidate Portal to be Right-to-Left (RTL) and in Hebrew, similar to the existing functionality for the Career Site. Currently, when we set the Career Site

      • Does zoho inventory need Enterprise or Premium subsrciption to make Widgets.

        We have Zoho One Enterprise and yet we can't create widgets on inventory.

      • Writing by Hand in "Write" Notes

        Hi there! I just downloaded this app a few moments ago, and I was wondering if there was a way to write things by hand in "Write" mode instead of just typing in the keyboard. It would make things a bit more efficient for me in this moment. Thanks!

      • Remove the “One Migration Per User” Limitation in Zoho WorkDrive

        Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, Hope you are doing well. We would like to raise a critical feature request regarding the Google Drive → Zoho WorkDrive migration process. Current Limitation: Zoho WorkDrive currently enforces a hard limitation: A Zoho WorkDrive

      • How do I add todays date to merge field

        I don't see any selection of todays date when creating a letter.  Surely the date option of printing is standard? John

      • Handling Agent Transfer from Marketing Automation Journey to SalesIQ WhatsApp

        We are currently using Marketing Automation for WhatsApp marketing, and the features are great so far We have a scenario where, during a campaign or journey, we give customers an option to chat with our sales team. For this, we are using SalesIQ WhatsApp

      • Comment to DM Automation

        Comment to DM automation feature in Zoho Marketing Automation, similar to what tools like ManyChat offer. Use case: When a user comments on a social media post (Instagram / Facebook), the system should automatically: Send a private DM to the user Capture

      • ZMA shows as already connected to Zoho CRM, but integration not working

        When I try to connect ZMA with Zoho CRM, it shows as already connected, but the integration doesn’t seem to be working. I’ve attached the screen recording for reference.

      • Automatic Email Alerts for Errors in Zoho Creator Logs

        Hello, We would like to request a feature enhancement in Zoho Creator regarding error notifications. Currently, Zoho Creator allows users to view logs and errors for each application by navigating to Zoho Creator > Operations > Logs. However, there is

      • Can you default reports/charts to report the current week?

        Our data table maintains two years of data. Management wants certain report to automatically filter the report to the latest calendar week. I know I can do this manually with filters but I want the report to automatically default to the latest calendar

      • How can I check all announce?

        Hiii, May I ask how can I check all the announce based on broadcast date instead of reply date based So that I will not will miss out any new function

      • Recurring Automated Reminders

        Hi, The reminders feature in Zoho Books is a really helpful feature to automate reminders for invoices. However, currently we can set reminders based on number of days before/after the invoice date. It would be really helpful if a recurring reminder feature

      • Zobot Execution Logs & Run History (Similar to Zoho Flow)

        Dear Zoho SalesIQ Team, We would like to request an enhancement for Zoho SalesIQ Zobot: adding an execution log / run history, similar to what already exists in Zoho Flow. Reference: Zoho Flow In Zoho Flow, every execution is recorded in the History tab,

      • Importing into Multiselect Picklist

        Hi, We just completed a trade show and one of the bits of information we collect is tool style. The application supplied by the show set this up as individual questions. For example, if the customer used Thick Turret and Trumpf style but not Thin Turret,

      • I need to know the IP address of ZOHO CRM.

        The link below is the IP address for Analytics, do you have CRM's? https://help.zoho.com/portal/ja/kb/analytics/users-guide/import-connect-to-database/cloud-database/articles/zoho-analytics%E3%81%AEip%E3%82%A2%E3%83%89%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B9 I would like to

      • Password Assessment Reports for all users

        I'm the super admin and looking at the reporting available for Zoho Vault. I can see that there is a Password Assessment report available showing the passwords/weak and security score by user. However I'm confused at the 'report generated on' value. Monitor

      • Allow people to sign a zoho form by using esign or scanned signature

        Allow people to sign a zoho form by using esign or scanned signature

      • Can't change form's original name in URL

        Hi all, I have been duplicating + editing forms for jobs regarding the same department to maintain formatting + styling. The issue I've not run into is because I've duplicated it from an existing form, the URL doesn't seem to want to update with the new

      • How to Print the Data Model Zoho CRM

        I have created the data model in Zoho CRM and I want the ability to Print this. How do we do this please? I want the diagram exported to a PDF. There doesnt appear to be an option to do this. Thanks Andrew

      • Setting certian items to be pickup only

        How do we have some items that are pickup only? I have several items in my item's list that I do not ship. But they need to be on the website to be sold, and picked up in store. Need to be able to do this as one of these products is a major seller for

      • Using gift vouchers

        We would like to be able to offer a limited number of gift vouchers, of varying values, to our customers, and are looking for the best way to do this. We have looked at Coupons and Gift Certificates, but neither seem to fit the bill perfectly. Coupons:

      • Automatically updating field(s) of lookup module

        I have a lookup field, which also pulls through the Status field from the linked record. When the lookup is first done, the Status is pulled through - this works perfectly. If that Status is later updated, the lookup field does not update as well. As

      • Zoho Commerce and Third-party shipping (MachShip) API integration

        We are implementing a third-party shipping (MachShip) API integration for our Zoho Commerce store and have made significant progress. However, we need guidance on a specific technical challenge. Current Challenge: We need to get the customer input to

      • Adding custom "lookup" fields in Zoho Customization

        How can I add a second “lookup” field in Zoho? I’m trying to create another lookup that pulls from my Contacts, but the option doesn’t appear in the module customization sidebar. In many cases, a single work order involves multiple contacts. Ideally,

      • Next Page