Enhancements to Custom Connectors in Zoho Creator

Enhancements to Custom Connectors in Zoho Creator

Hello everyone,

At Zoho Creator, we believe in providing you with the necessary tools to achieve a well connected ecosystem of apps. Our Custom Connectors feature is a testament to this, enabling you to integrate with a wide range of external services beyond those available through built-in connectors.

While our built-in connectors already cover over 500 popular services (with new ones being added regularly), custom connectors take this a step further by allowing you to connect with virtually any third-party service.

To make this powerful feature even more robust and enterprise-ready, we've rolled out a series of enhancements designed to support advanced authentication methods, enable secure cloud integrations, and ensure seamless connectivity with external services. In this post, we'll walk you through the most recent updates:
  • OAuth 2.0 - Client authentication modes
  • AWS Signature authentication 
  • Bearer token authentication
Let's explore each in detail:

OAuth 2.0 - Client authentication modes

Different APIs have varying expectations for how client credentials should be presented during OAuth token exchange. Until now, our OAuth authentication type assumed a single client authentication method, and users faced issues when credentials had to be sent in the authorization header. To address this, we've introduced a new Client Authentication option for custom connectors using OAuth 2.0. This allows you to specify how your client credentials (Client ID and Client secret) are transmitted to the authorization server during the token request process. You can choose from two options:
  • Include in the form data (Default): This method adds your credentials to the form data submitted within the body of the request.
  • Include in the authorization header: This method places your credentials in the request's security header using HTTP basic authentication.
Why this matters
  • Improved compatibility with APIs that enforce strict authentication rules
  • Smoother integrations with enterprise-grade APIs
  • Reduced authentication errors

Example
Assume you want to integrate Zoho Creator with Reddit, a popular social media platform. The Reddit API uses OAuth 2.0 and its documentation explicitly states that client credentials must be sent in the Authorization header using basic authentication.

Now, when configuring your OAuth 2.0 custom connector in Zoho Creator, you can simply select Include in authorization header under the Client Authentication field. This ensures your authentication flow will work as expected, without any custom code or middleware.

AWS Signature authentication

The industry-standard authentication required to securely interact with AWS services is now supported in Zoho Creator. The new AWS Signature 4 authentication type within Custom Connectors enables you to integrate with AWS services without relying on any middleware or authentication workarounds. This unlocks the ability to connect to a wide range of popular AWS services (such as S3, Lambda, DynamoDB, and more) and perform the required actions.

Why this matters
  • Enterprise-grade security for applications that deal with critical workloads or sensitive data
  • Seamless automation of workflows with your existing AWS infrastructure from within Zoho Creator
  • Complies with AWS's Signature Version 4 method, which ensures robust security and maximum compatibility while authenticating requests to AWS services
Example
Consider a setup where your organization generates critical business documents using a Zoho Creator application. You may need to store these documents in their AWS S3 bucket for recordkeeping and auditing purposes.

With the introduction of the new AWS Signature authentication in Custom Connectors, you can easily connect to S3 by providing your AWS credentials and region. Then you can use the invokeURL task to transfer documents from Zoho Creator to your S3 bucket.

This enables seamless and secure integration with AWS, bringing the full power of AWS's cloud capabilities into your Creator apps.

Bearer token authentication

Zoho Creator now supports Bearer token authentication. Many third-party services, like GitHub and Slack, use this authentication type, which is a lightweight method that enables secure API calls without the need for full OAuth. Now you can seamlessly integrate these services into your applications using custom connectors.

Why this matters
  • Eliminates the need for complex setups associated with other authentication types, like OAuth, making it ideal for APIs that use token-based access
  • Enables faster, hassle-free integrations with internal tools, developer platforms, and microservices
Example
Assume your sales team relies on Slack for internal communication. With Bearer token authentication now supported in Zoho Creator, you can establish a custom connector with Slack. Then you call Slack's API using invokeURL to automatically post updates to a channel whenever a new lead is generated.

In essence, this is a simpler, more secure path to connect Creator with modern APIs from GitHub and Notion to your own internal systems.

Help documentation

We've updated our help resources to reflect the recent enhancements to Custom Connectors. For detailed information, please refer to the Understand Connectors page.

Bonus: mTLS in Zoho Creator

While we're on the topic of custom connectors, let's wrap things up with a platform-level security upgrade. For the first time in the Zoho ecosystem, Zoho Creator now supports Mutual Transport Layer Security (mTLS) across all integrations. mTLS is available for both built-in and custom connectors. 

mTLS provides an added layer of security by enabling certificate-based, two-way authentication and ensures that both the client and server verify each other's identity. 

Why this matters
  • Particularly valuable for enterprises operating in zero-trust environments
  • Helps meet compliance requirements, such as HIPAA, ISO 27001, GDPR, and other industry standards
Availability
mTLS is currently available only on demand. Please reach out to our support team if your integrations require mTLS-based authentication.

These powerful enhancements reaffirm Zoho Creator's commitment to helping you build deeply integrated, enterprise-grade business applications—and we'll continue enhancing the platform to support your evolving needs. Stay tuned for more updates coming soon!

Till then,
The Zoho Creator Team

    • Sticky Posts

    • Introducing Zoho Creator's 2025 Release Projection 2

      Hello Creators! I'm Prakash, from the Creator product management team, and today I'm delighted to unveil our next set of features as part of Release Projection 2 for 2025. With thoughtful analysis and planning, we've curated powerful new capabilities

    • Zoho Creator - 2023 Release Projection 1

      Hello everyone! A very Happy New Year to you and your family. Hope you're all good and having a great time using Zoho Creator to make your lives easier and your businesses prosper. 2022 was an action-packed year for us at Creator, and we hope to continue

    • Zoho Creator User Group meetups in a city near you! - Oct - Nov, 2023

      Greetings from the Zoho Creator team! We're hosting a series of Zoho Creator meetups in various cities across the globe, and we'd love to meet you there! Our meetups are a great opportunity to network with industry peers, exchange ideas and best practices,

    • Zoho Creator - 2023 Release Projection 2

      Hello everyone! Time truly flies when you're having an incredible journey, and today we mark the completion of an eventful and action-packed six months. It feels like just yesterday when we embarked on this adventure together with the launch of our new

    • Upcoming Updates - August 2022

      Hi all, Greetings from the Zoho Creator team! Today we've got news for you on some exciting updates. And rest assured— there’s more to come! In this post, we'll be going over the upcoming features and improvements for this month as mentioned below. A

      • Recent Topics

      • The improved portal experience: Introducing the template view for inventory modules, enhanced configurations, and PDF export support

        Availability: Open for all DCs. Editions: All Hello everyone, You can now achieve a seamless, brand-aligned portal experience with our enhanced configuration options and the new template view for inventory modules. Your clients will now be able to view

      • Zoho Analytics Bulk Api Import json Data

        HI, I’m trying to bulk-update rows in Zoho Analytics, and below are the request and response details. I’d like to understand the required parameters for constructing a bulk API request to import or update data in a table using Deluge. Any guidance on

      • Project Management Bulletin: December, 2025

        The holiday cheer is in the air and it’s time to reflect on the year that was. At Zoho PM Suite, we've been working behind the scenes on something huge and exciting all year and now we are almost ready—with just a bit of confetti—for our grand release

      • Inventory batch details

        Hi there, I'm trying to get the batch details of an item, here's what I've done so far. I've sent cUrl request to the below endpoint and I get a successful response. Within in the response I find the "warehouses" property which correctly lists all the

      • Auto check out after shift complete

        i'm just stuck here right now, i wanna know how to do this thing, now tell me, how can i configure a custom function that runs after complete shift time if employee forget to check-out ?

      • How to create a flow that creates tickets automaticaly everyday based on specific times

        Hi guys Does anyone know how to create a flow that will create tickets automaticaly in ZOHO Desk when a certain time is reached. Im havin a hard time configuring a flow that will create tickets automaticaly everyday during specific hours of the day For

      • ZOHO FLOW - ZOHO CREATOR - ZOHO WRITER : Get Related records

        Bonjour, J'ai besoin que vous m'ajoutiez la solution "Get related Records" dans la liste de choix de zoho creator (sous Zoho flow). En effet, j'ai besoin de récupérer les champs d'un sous formulaire pour l'ajouter à l'impression de mon document. Mer

      • Will zoho thrive be integrated with Zoho Books?

        title

      • Connecting email for each department in ZohoDesk

        Hi! Could someone help me to go through connecting emails for each department?

      • How do I trigger a Flow based on a campaign response?

        Is there a way to trgiider a Zoho Flow based upon a lead opening an email sent via Zoho Campaigns? I see that the data is recorded in the 'Campaigns' section of Zoho CRM under 'Member Status' and I want to trgigger a flow based upon that record changing.

      • All Zoho Flows are filtered

        My two flows operate perfectly when I run them as a test, but when they're activated each run ends with a status of neither success, nor fail, but filtered. I haven't set up any filters. I don't see where to turn off filters. When I test run on a sequence

      • Creating Multiple Items on Sales Order

        Hi, I’m trying to automate some processes using Zoho Flow, specifically the creation of sales orders in my Zoho Inventory. However, Zoho Flow's Create Sales Order function can only add one item. I would like to include multiple items in a single sales

      • Problem Connection from Zoho Flow and Gravity Form

        I obtained my API key from Gravity Forms via WordPress. However, when I enter my Zoho Flow, it states: Gravity Forms says, 'You are not authorised to access the API." I tried recreating a new API key, but it is still not working.

      • Eventbrite Email Field in Zoho Flow Returns "Info Requested" Instead of Actual Email

        Hi Zoho team, I'm using Zoho Flow to connect Eventbrite with Zoho CRM. My goal is to automatically add event attendees as leads in Zoho CRM. I’ve set up the flow and mapped the ${trigger.profile_email}} field to the Email field in CRM. However, I'm running

      • "Invalid value passed for Product ID" Error in Zoho Flow "Create Sales Order" Node

        Hello Zoho Community, I’m facing an issue with Zoho Flow while trying to create a sales order in Zoho Inventory using the "Create Sales Order" node. Here’s a detailed explanation of my setup and the problem: What I’m Trying to Achieve I’m building an

      • Associating Project with an Account via Flow

        I'm using flow to create a Project based on a Deal status update using flow. The fields exist to pass the Account Name through properly, but when you view the Projects module in a CRM Account Record it doesn't automatically associate the new Project Record

      • How to follow up a member in a meeting?

        Hello, I make weekly meeting online with a lot of people. I want(I've been using calendly to do it). I want to do a follow-up to it. I want to send messages via Zoho-flow to all the member that participated in the meeting. How can I do it?

      • Setting Delays in Invoice Reminder Flow

        I am currently working on a flow that sends reminders for unpaid invoices. The flow is designed to delay actions until specific intervals before the due date: A reminder should be sent 7 days before the due date. A second reminder should be sent 3 days

      • Get Sales Orders Related to Inventory Item

        Dear Team, I'm just wondering if there is a way to get a list of all Sales Orders related to a specific Inventory Item. I did search all articles but couldn't find any article that could help.

      • Endpoint Central Cloud Asset Update from Fresh Service

        All, Does anyone use the asset management feature in Fresh Service? I'd like some help on building a flow to update asset attributes in Endpoint Central Cloud based off of an update to that same asset in Fresh Service. The trigger is "asset is updated"

      • Zoho Flow Export to Deluge

        It would be great to take a user built zoho flow and export the entire flow as a deluge script including having multiple connected applications (showing the API connections and webhooks) and different functionality in the other applications interacting

      • Action Iteration/Loop using Zoho Flow

        Trying to use Zoho Flow for automating following Context - A zoho form entry which has image upload field with upto 5 images setting and files are saved into Workdrive. After form is submitted need to create folder based on some fields and move files

      • Zoho Flow - Unable to evaluate formatDate with Zoho Invoice Date Field for Calendar Integration

        Hello Community, I'm trying to automate the creation of all-day events in Zoho Calendar whenever a new invoice is created in Zoho Invoice. I'm using Zoho Flow for this automation. My Goal: When an invoice is created with a specific "Event Date," I want

      • Zoho Inventory Sales Order Items

        I'm trying to build automation using Zoho Flow to add items to a Sales Order. In the automation options for both "create sales order" and "update sales order", The item ID is required. However, when I update the Sales Order, it's just replacing the item

      • Permissions for Azure Devops connection

        I am trying to set up a connection with our Azure DevOps org but it keeps giving me this error. On Azure I should be able to have admin-level access to everything. Can you please point me to which permission this is checking for so I can enable it?

      • My IMAP mail suddenly stopped working

        On my iPhone and iPad, IMAP stopped working for my Zoho account with the error "User name or password incorrect" and "Invalid credentials failure" however I was able to access via web with the same credentials. Also stopped working on Apple Mail client.

      • Confused by the distiction between matched and categorized when reconciling a bank statement an how to

        I used to use quickbooks. In quickbooks, it was possible to use the check writing feature to add an expense that was on the bank statement that did not go through the AP and check writing process. I would write a check, assign it a number like etf (for

      • Not Receiving OTP • https://voters.eci.gov.in/home/family

        Hello Customer, Greetings from Zoho Mail. Upon a detailed review of our delivery logs, we can confirm that other Zoho Mail users are successfully receiving OTP emails from eci.gov.in. However, in your specific case, it appears that the OTP emails are

      • WorkDrive for Excel Add on

        Dear Sir/Madam Have installed Workdrive for Microsoft add on But unable to view the same added in Excel

      • Splitting Transactions in Zoho Books

        I have read in past forum posts that the ability to split bank transactions would likely be implemented - it's definitely a typical accounting program feature.  I'm new to Zoho and thought I'd found nirvana until I realized this feature doesn't seem to

      • Zoho Calendar s’enrichit avec une intégration à Zoho People et Zoho Cliq

        Les journées de travail ne se déroulent jamais exactement comme prévu. Une conversation informelle devient une séance d’échange d'idées, une absence modifie un planning, et votre agenda se retrouve vite décalé par rapport à la réalité. Chez Zoho Calendar,

      • Holidays

        Hi; For defining Holidays, you need to add logic to handle the year as well as the month & day. We need to be able to enter Holidays for the next year. I need to add a holiday for January 2, 2017, but I can't until January 1st, which is a Sunday and we

      • Zoho public comments are confusing and unnecessary

        Hi, we use zoho desk and have issues with public comments. We started using them because the "Reply" option just seemed very clumsy because of the following reasons: - the top "Reply" button starts what seems to be a regular email, showing the entire

      • Zoho API - ticket creation - Validation failed for the condition : Ticket Status Info should not be empty

        Hi ! I'm trying to create ticket through Zoho API, and I'm getting a 422 response : "Validation failed for the condition : Ticket Status Info should not be empty" My request looks like this : curl --location 'https://desk.zoho.eu/api/v1/tickets' \ --header

      • Deleting unwanted ticket replies

        Hello, In a Zoho Desk Ticket thread, sometimes one of the recipients has auto-reply activated. This creates a new message in the Ticket thread that not only pollutes the thread, but most importantly cannot be replied properly because usually auto-reply e-mails don't do "reply all", so the other recipients are not included. I want to delete such a message in the Ticket thread. I searched the help of Zoho Desk, but only found a way to mark as Spam (https://help.zoho.com/portal/kb/articles/marking-support-tickets-as-spam)

      • System-generated support email added in CC on “Reply All”

        Hi, I recently set up Zoho Desk for a client and we are trying to prevent the Zoho Desk system-generated support email address (not the mailbox used as the department’s "From address") from being automatically added in CC when agents use “Reply All” on

      • Convenience Fees

        I use Zoho Invoice for invoicing my billboard customers.  I have a few customers that want to pay using credit cards and ACH.  As a result, I have integrated an Online Payment Gateway (Stripe) for these customers.  I currently charge these customers a "Convenience Fee" of 3% for using this service as I typically only take checks as payment (and the gateway charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction).  I do this by creating a separate line item on the invoice and adding 3% to it.  I would like to offer

      • HTML Tags added to Reports with Notes

        Recently Zoho added the ability to markup text within notes. That way, users can change font size, colors, etc. It's a great change. However, since the change, reports that include a column for "Note Content" are printing HTML tags within the report.

      • Restrict Payment Methods

        Allow us to restrict certain payment methods specific for each customer.

      • Emails Getting Delay Error Messages - Status: 451

        Hi. Hoping someone can help. I've been using Zoho for over a year now with no problems at all. Today, the majority of my emails I send out or reply to are getting this error: This message was created automatically by mail delivery system. THIS IS A WARNING MESSAGE ONLY. YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE. The original message was received at Sun, 22 Dec 2019 18:20:19 -0800 from wazza@amninjas.com [wazza@amninjas.com] ----- The following addresses had fatal errors ----- [Status: ERROR, Address:

      • Next Page