Kaizen #116 - Client Types in Zoho API Console

Kaizen #116 - Client Types in Zoho API Console

Hello everyone!
Welcome back to another post in the Kaizen series!

This week, we will discuss different client types available in Zoho API Console, and when to use each.

When you register an app in Zoho API Console, you typically choose a client type based on how your application interacts with Zoho services.
Let us discuss the available client types and how authorization is handled for each.

Available client types

  1. Server-based
  2. Client-based
  3. Self client
  4. Non-browser-based
  5. Mobile-based

1. Server-based

If you have a web-based application that runs on a dedicated HTTP server and interacts with Zoho services by calling Zoho APIs via that server, you must register your app with this client type.
This client type is for applications that redirect the users to another URL on a web browser to authorize themselves, where they give consent to your application to use their data.
In other words, you must use this client type when you have a front-end web UI and require user intervention before your app can access user data via the dedicated server.

Consider that you are developing a web-based custom application. Users authorize that app via browser to allow their Zoho CRM data to be accessed and used by that application.
During the registration process in Zoho API Console, you would choose the "Web-based" client type.
OAuth 2.0 would be used for user authentication, allowing your app to securely access and interact with Zoho CRM data on behalf of the users.

Here is a gist of what happens:
  1. Users visit your website where you have the Login with Zoho button.
  2. When a user clicks it, that user will be redirected to accounts.zoho.com with the details of your app such as client ID, scope, redirect uri, access type as the URL parameters.
  3. Your app must make an API call to Zoho Accounts with the client ID, scope, redirect uri, and access type. Users are shown the data that your application wants to use.
  4. When users give their consent, Zoho redirects them back to your app.This will be the "Redirect URL" you give while registering your app.
  5. The redirect URL will have the authorization code(grant token) as one of the parameters, along with the location(user's domain).
  6. Your app must then make API calls from your web server to Zoho Accounts to generate access and refresh tokens with the generated grant token.
  7. You must store these tokens in your DB to access that user's data in Zoho CRM. While making API calls, you must send this access token in the header.
  8. Your app must also have the logic to regenerate access tokens from refresh tokens when the access token expires.
Note that your app must take care of storing user's details like email, organization ID, and tokens.

The following image shows the protocol flow.


You can use any of our server-side SDKs to simplify this process.
When you use our SDK, all you have to do is, generate the grant token and initialize the SDK with the client details and this token. The SDK takes care of access token generation, refreshing it, and token storage.


For more details, you can refer to the Accounts guide and CRM help doc.

2. Client-based applications

This client type is for applications that do not have a server and run exclusively on a web browser.
This is also called the Implicit flow as your app makes API calls to Zoho only when users are using your app.
This type of application loads data dynamically on the webpage, and accesses Zoho CRM data by making API calls via Javascript.

Consider the same example where there is a Login with Zoho button on your webpage.
Here is a gist of what happens when a user clicks it.
  1. Your app redirects the user to Zoho Accounts.
  2. Your app makes the authorization request with the client ID, redirect uri, scope, and response type as token.
  3. The user is shown the data that your webpage would use.
  4. When the user gives consent, Zoho Accounts sends the access token to the redirect uri as a parameter, along with the expiry time and the location of user's data in Zoho's accounts server.
  5. You can include the "email" in your scope parameter in the access token request to get user's information. The response will have a parameter called id_token that will be in the header.payload.signature format. You need to decrypt the payload section of the parameter using the base-64 decryption algorithm to get user information.
  6. Your app must then make API calls to Zoho with this access token to fetch data.
  7. When the access token expires, your app must take care of regeneration and storage.


As the API calls are made from your domain to a different domain(zohoapis.com), for security reasons, the browser will throw the CORS error. So, your domain will be registered while registering your app, and Zoho will know to allow the API calls made from that domain.

As the tokens are available on the browser itself, we recommend handling them with care.
When you use our client-side JS SDK, it automatically generates a new access token upon expiry.

3. Self Client Applications

When your application does not have a redirect URL or a UI, but performs only a backend job, and does not need user intervention, then you must choose this client type.

A self client is often used when the application and Zoho services are operated by the same entity, and you want to enable secure communication between them. For example, you have an internal reporting tool and integrate it with Zoho Analytics. In this case, both the tool and Zoho Analytics are operated by the same entity.
Similarly, consider that you have a legacy product management system and want to perform data sync between Zoho CRM and the system, then you must use the self client.

Here is a gist of what happens.
  1. You register your app as self client in Zoho API Console.
  2. You will get the client details such as ID and secret.
  3. You provide the scopes required for your app to access CRM data.
  4. You will receive the grant token.
  5. Your app must then make API calls to Zoho Accounts to generate access and refresh tokens.
  6. Your app can then use this access token to make API calls to Zoho CRM and use data.
You can refer to our older Kaizen post on this topic for more details.
Note that self client apps can also use any of our server-side SDKs. As already said, the SDK takes care of access and refresh token generation, refreshing the access token, and token storage.

4. Non-browser applications

This client type is for devices that do not have a user agent such a web browser. A TV, for instance.
Let us consider an example involving a smart TV application that integrates with Zoho ShowTime. In this scenario, the smart TV application acts as a non-browser client.
Here is how authentication is handled:
  1. You must register your smart TV app in Zoho API Console with the type "Non-browser application".
  2. Users install a dedicated Zoho ShowTime application on their smart TVs.
  3. When users launch the Zoho ShowTime application on their smart TV, they are prompted to authenticate with their Zoho ShowTime account.
  4. When they successfully authenticate, Zoho Accounts sends the grant token to your app, along with the user-code, device-code and verification URL,The user must go to this verification URL on a browser and enter the user-code to grant permission to the app.
  5. Meanwhile, your app must poll the accounts server using the grant token to check if the token has been received.
  6. When the user enters the user code, Zoho Accounts sends the access token to your app.
  7. Your app can then use the access token to make API calls to Zoho. Your app must take care of token storage and renewals.

Here is the protocol flow. For more details, refer to this doc.


5. Mobile-based applications

You must use this client type when you have developed an app exclusively for mobile devices. The protocol flow is similar to server-based application where a browser session is required for the users to authenticate.



Similar to server-side apps, mobile apps also need to handle redirection, token generation and storage.
If you use any of our Mobile SDKs, the SDK itself handles token generation and storage.

We hope you found this post useful. Let us know your thoughts in the Comment section or write to us at support@zohocrm.com.


Cheers!

      • Recent Topics

      • Zoho Desk: Q2 2025 | What's New

        Hello everyone, We are excited to announce Zoho Desk's 2025 Autumn updates. This release brings new features and enhancements that improve work management and enable businesses to provide a better overall support experience. Spanning from Zia Agents to

      • Checkboxes not adhering to any policy in mail merge - data from CRM

        I want checkboxes to appear depending on whether the checkbox in the CRM module is ticked or not. However, the tickboxes that appear are either ticked or not, but don't correlate to the actual selections in the CRM module. This is is despite updating

      • Items Landed Cost and Profit?

        Hello, we recently went live with Zoho Inventory, and I have a question about the Landed Cost feature. The FAQ reads: "Tracking the landed cost helps determine the overall cost incurred in procuring the product. This, in turn, helps you to decide the

      • CC and/or BCC users in email templates

        I would like the ability to automatically assign a CC and BCC "User (company employee)" into email templates. Specifically, I would like to be able to add the "User who owns the client" as a CC automatically on any interview scheduled or candidate submitted

      • Create Contract API Endpoint Unclear "inputfields" Requirements

        Hello, I'm trying to create a Deluge function that accepts inputs from a form in Zoho Creator and creates a barebones contract of a given type. See below for the current code, cleaned of authentication information. // Fetch form data // Hidden field client_name

      • Kaizen #46 - Handling Notes through Zoho CRM API (Part 1/2)

        Hello everyone! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! This week, we will discuss Handling Notes through Zoho CRM API. What will you learn from this post? Notes in Zoho CRM Working with Notes through Notes APIs 1. Notes in Zoho CRM 1a. Why add Notes to records? Notes are a great way to summarize your observations on customer and prospect interactions and outcomes. By saving notes as CRM data, a sales rep will always be able to keep track of how a sale is progressing. To know more about notes in

      • Marketer's Space - Why email marketing matters in ecommerce (and how to get started with Zoho Campaigns)

        Hello Marketers, Welcome to this week's Marketer's space post. Today, we'll discus why email marketing matters in ecommerce businesses. Running an online store is exciting but challenging. If you're running an online store, you've probably experienced

      • Zoho Campaigns Event timestamps do not propagate to Zoho CRM

        We have integrated Zoho CRM and Zoho Campaigns. But when looking at Contact records, the Campaign event data is missing the actual timestamps: especially when a particular email was sent. They're not in the Campaigns related list, and the cannot be found

      • Kaizen #121 : Customize List Views using Client Script

        Hello everyone! Welcome back to another interesting Kaizen post. In this post, we can discuss how to customize List Views using Client Script. This post will answer the questions Ability to remove public views by the super admin in the Zoho CRM and Is

      • Setting default From address when replying to request

        At the moment, if I want to reply to a request, the From field has three options, company@zohosupport.com, support@company.zohosupport.com, and support@company.com.  The first two are really internal address that should never be seen by the customer and

      • Tip #45 - Explore Your Support Reach with Zoho Assist’s Geo Insights - 'Insider Insights'

        Understanding where your remote support sessions are happening can help you make smarter decisions, allocate resources effectively, and improve overall customer satisfaction. In this week's Zoho Assist's community post we will be exploring Geo Insights

      • Formatting of text pasted into Zoho documents

        Howdy, I'm a newbie and finding Zoho an improvement to MS Word. Consider yourself hugged. High on my wish list would be plain text cut-and-paste. When pasting text from the web to Zoho, presently Zoho imports the formatting along with the text. This means that every cut-and-paste operation brings in text in a different font, size, or style. Can we have at least the option of importing plain text without formatting (or better yet, is this option already out there?) ... Thanks Helen

      • Add additional features to Zoho Tables

        Zoho Tables is a really great tool, why not add features like diagramming capability into the tool from applications like Draw.io which I believe is open source, you should be able to do wireframes, process flow diagrams, network design, etc. Please note

      • The Social Wall: August 2025

        Hello everyone, As summer ends, Zoho Social is gearing up for some exciting, bigger updates lined up for the months ahead. While those are in the works, we rolled out a few handy feature updates in August to keep your social media management running smoothly.

      • The Social Wall: July 2025

        Hello everyone! July has brought some exciting new updates to Zoho Social. From powerful enhancements in the Social Toolkit to new capabilities in the mobile app, we’ve packed this month with features designed to help you level up your social media presence.

      • Use Zoho Creator as a source for merge templates in Zoho Writer

        Hello all! We're excited to share that we've enhanced Zoho Creator's integration with Zoho Writer to make this combination even more powerful. You can now use Zoho Creator as a data source for mail merge templates in Zoho Writer. Making more data from

      • Tagged problem !!!

        Damn it, we're one of dozens of construction companies in Africa, but we can't link purchasing invoices to projects. Why isn't this feature available?

      • Syntax for URLs in HTML Snippets

        What are some best practices for inserting a URL in an HTML snippet? I've looked at Zoho Help articles on navigation-based and functional-based URLs, but I'm still unclear on how to incorporate them in an HTML snippet. For example, 1. How do I link to

      • The Social Wall: June 2025

        Hello everyone, We’re back with June Zoho Social highlights. This month brought some exciting feature updates—especially within the Social Toolkit—to enhance your social media presence. We engaged with several MSME companies through community meet-ups

      • Make panel configuration interface wider

        Hi there, The same way you changed the custom function editor's interface wider, it would be nice to be able to edit panels in pages using the full width of the screen rather than the currently max-width: 1368px. Is there a reason for having the configuration panel not taking the full width? Its impossible at this width to edit panels that have a lot of elements. Please change it to 100% so we can better edit the layouts. Thanks! B.

      • Tip 7: How to fetch data from another application?

        Hi everyone, Following our Zoho Creator - Tips and Tricks series every fortnight, we are back today with a tip based on one of the most popular questions asked in our forum. This tip would help you fetch data from another application(App B) and use it

      • The Social Wall: May 2025

        Hey everyone, We're excited to share some powerful updates for the month of May! Let's take a look! Reply to your Instagram and Facebook comments privately through direct messages Are you tired of cluttered comment threads or exposing customer queries

      • Sub-Form Fields as Filters for Reports

        Hi, I would like to use the Sub-Form Fields as Filters in Reports just like we do for Main Page Fields. Thanks Dan

      • Zoho CRM Formula - Current Time minus Date/Time field

        Hello, I am trying to prevent duplicate emails going to clients when more than 1 deal is being updated. To do this, I would like to create a formula to identify if a date/time field is >= 2 hours ago. Can someone please help me write this formula? Example:

      • Billing Management: #7 Usage Billing in Telecom & Internet Service Provider

        Telecom and Internet Service Providers operate in markets where usage varies drastically from one customer to another. While flexible, usage-based models align revenue directly with consumption, they also introduce operational challenges like real-time

      • Zoho Sprints - Q3 updates for 2025

        The updates for the third quarter of 2025 are out. A few significant features and enhancements have been rolled out to improve user experience and product capabilities. The following are the updates: Manage tags and cluster tags Record and maintain project

      • Kaizen #208 - Answering your Questions | Functions, AI and Extensions

        Hello Developers! Welcome back to a fresh week of Kaizen! We are grateful for your active participation in sharing feedback and queries for our 200th milestone. This week, we will answer the queries related to Functions and Extensions in Zoho CRM. 1.

      • Zoho CRM still doesn't let you manage timezones (yearly reminder)

        This is something I have asked repeatedly. I'll ask once again. Suppose that you work in France. Next month you have a trip to Guatemala. You call a contact there, close a meeting, record that meeting in CRM. On the phone, your contact said: "meet me

      • Creating Restaurant Inventory Management on Zoho

        Hi,  We run a small cloud kitchen and are interested to use Zoho for Inventory and Composite Item tracking for our food served and supplied procured to make food items.  Our model is basically like subway where the customer can choose breads, veggies,

      • To Zoho customers and partners: how do you use Linked Workspaces?

        Hello, I'm exploring how we can set up and use Linked Workspaces and would like to hear from customers and partners about your use cases and experience with them. I have a Zoho ticket open, because my workspace creation fails. In the meantime, how is

      • Zoho Forms to Zoho CRM : First/Last Name to just Name ?

        When integrating a Zoho Form into the Accounts menu of the CRM I'm having trouble with how names are formatted ; In Forms the data is available as First Name or Last Name In the CRM there is only one field called Name How can I ensure that "John" "Smith"

      • This festive season, offer discounts with coupon code support in Stripe Checkout

        Hello form builders! It’s the festive season, the perfect time to spread joy and great deals! Now, with Zoho Forms’ latest enhancement for Stripe Checkout, you can do exactly that with coupon codes! Your payment forms integrated with Stripe Checkout can

      • Cómo creo una factura negativa o de abono?

        NEcesito anular una factura y crear una nueva igual pero en negativo. El sistema no me lo permite

      • Power of Automation::Streamline log hours to work hours upon task completion.

        Hello Everyone, A Custom Function is a user-written set of code to achieve a specific requirement. Set the required conditions needed as to when to trigger using the Workflow rules (be it Tasks / Project) and associate the custom function to it. Requirement:-

      • CRM : Function to add user name to text field

        I have a lookup field in a module that is linked to the CRM users so we can assign a Project Lead to the customer. Sadly Zoho Marketing Automation doesn't sync Lookup fields so I need to extract information from the lookup to text fields: Lookup field

      • Zoho CRM - Restrict Login based on work hours

        Hi there, I'm wondering if we can restrict users to login during works - For example the users would be able to login from 8am to 5pm. I have seen the IP address restriction - the only downfall is what if the customer has dynamic IP. thanks Jiri

      • Tips and Tricks #46: Customize themes and templates using Show's Master View

        Hi All!  Let's say you want to revamp your presentation and make changes to its visual design. You can do this easily using the Master Slide and its associated layouts. The Master Slide stores information about all the layouts used in the presentation.

      • Sheet View in CRM portal

        Hi, When will it be possible for my CRM portal users to edit/add records with Sheet View? George

      • What's New in Zoho Invoice | July - September 2025

        Hello everyone! We’re back with the latest updates and enhancements we’ve rolled out in Zoho Invoice from July to September 2025. Here’s what’s new this quarter: Introducing the Singapore Edition in Zoho Invoice Share Invoices through WhatsApp GST 2.0

      • Alert: Audio Call Support to be discontinued for Old Live Chat Widget from December 31, 2025

        Action Required: Upgrade to the New SalesIQ Live Chat Widget We're reaching out with an important update regarding the SalesIQ Live Chat Widget that requires your immediate attention. Effective December 31, 2025, audio call functionality will no longer

      • Next Page