Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest - October 2024

Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest - October 2024



Hello everyone,

This edition highlights October's product updates, upcoming community events, engaging discussions that sparked inspiration, and celebrates the top contributors who drove progress. Grab your favorite beverage and dive in!

Upcoming Events

Alert
We're super excited to announce our first-ever Zoho Developer Community Hackathon, coming your way this November. Get ready to innovate and compete on a global scale! Registration opens soon, so stay tuned for more details!

Zoho Apptics 101 

Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 12:30 pm IST & 9:30 PM IST
Title: Sessions, Screens, and APIs

In this series, we’ll dive deep into every aspect of application analytics to help you understand how Zoho Apptics aids in measuring important KPIs that reflect your app's performance, growth, and engagement. The last session of the series this year, focuses on Sessions, Screens, and API tracking. Registration and more details here.

Creator Tech Connect:

Title: Directory stores and device management in Zoho Creator using Zoho Directory.
Date: November 14, 2024
APAC & ANZ: 11 AM to 12 PM IST - Registration Link
EMEA: 4 PM to 5 PM IST - Registration Link
Americas: 9 PM to 10 PM IST - Registration Link

Creator's tech connect series would comprise of technical sessions that provide immersive training on the key essentials and technical nuances of building a solution in Zoho Creator. This is a great opportunity for our developer community to stay informed about Creator's new feature releases, product roadmap, best practices to follow while scripting in deluge, new deluge concepts, and cloud functions. The previous session focused on managing domains, controls, and security policies in Zoho Creator using Zoho Directory and in the upcoming session, we will explore directory stores and device management in Zoho Creator using Zoho Directory.

Catalyst Webinar

Title: Boost eCommerce Efficiency by Automating PDF and Invoice Generation at Scale
Date: November 21, 2024
Time: 8:30 pm - 9:30 pm IST or 8 AM - 9AM PT
 
Are manual processes slowing down your ecommerce business? Join this webinar to discover how automation can revolutionize your operations. Learn how to generate invoices and PDFs seamlessly, reduce errors, and scale your business effortlessly.

Agenda:
  • The Power of Automation: Understand how automating invoices and PDFs can drive efficiency and enhance your ecommerce operations.
  • Seamless Integration: Learn how to implement automated PDF generation into your existing systems with ease.
  • Scaling for Growth: Explore strategies to optimize your processes and scale your ecommerce business effortlessly.

Learning Table Series:

Title: Creator for the Finance Industry
Date: December 5, 2024
APAC & ANZ: 11 AM to 12 PM IST - Registration Link
EMEA: 4 PM to 5 PM IST - Registration Link
Americas: 9 PM to 10 PM IST - Registration Link

We designed this series to provide users with valuable insights and knowledge about Creator's capabilities in various business use cases and applications. This year, we have adopted the 12 Months 12 Industries concept. Every month, we will focus on a specific industry, illustrating its unique processes with real-time business scenarios and how to make best use of Creator for that industry. Our previous webinar on Creator for the NGO Industry was a success, and in the upcoming session, we'll be exploring Creator for the finance industry.

Feature Spotlight

Zoho Creator

We're thrilled to announce the launch of the revamped Zoho Creator Developer Console—a dedicated platform designed specifically for Creator developers and partners to build, test, and distribute apps to your clients. The revamped Zoho Creator Developer Console introduces a more streamlined, intuitive experience designed to empower developers at every stage of their app-building journey. Key updates include testing environments, seamless update deployment, the ability to publish apps for monetization in the Marketplace or distribute them privately with specific clients, and much more. Overall, the Zoho Creator Developer Console is an indispensable toolkit, enabling developers to innovate faster and deliver tailored, robust solutions to their clients.

Read more about this new launch in this community post or the partner network post.

Zoho Finance Platform: External Lookup Data Type in Custom Fields

We've added the External Lookup data to custom fields. Using this data type, you can select one of the available Zoho apps and look up data from one of its fields. Currently, you can look up data from Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk. After selecting the Zoho app, you need to select the organization, module, and field to lookup. For example, if you want to view the meetings you've had with your customers, you can create an external lookup for Zoho CRM, choose the CRM organization, select the Meetings module, and select the field to lookup (say Title). Learn More.

Products supported: Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory, and Zoho Billing.

Keep an eye out for our ongoing Custom Function Series!
 
For any queries related to the Zoho Finance development platform, reach out to our tech team at devsupport@zohofinance.com

Resource Spotlight

Info
We've consolidated all the resources from the developer community learning series into a centralized hub for your convenient access. Consider bookmarking our Zoho Developer Community website to stay informed about the latest updates in the developer community.

Community Discussions

Zoho Developer Forum

  • Sometimes, choosing the right data structure can make a big difference. @Ilja wanted to know the best way to compare a list of countries with their corresponding ISO codes. While a long chain of if-else statements might seem like a simple solution, it gets slow and hard to manage with a large number of countries. @Anonymous User, @Abhishek , and @Anonymous User jumped in and explained that a Map approach is superior. Go through this conversation to know why!
  • @Anonymous User encountered a roadblock in their client script where changes to a specific field weren't triggering updates in other fields. Find out how they resolved the issue as this thread underscores the importance of understanding the appropriate methods for field updates in different contexts.
  • @Anonymous User sought a way to send emails to each contact listed in a Zoho CRM subform. @Anonymous User suggested using Zoho Flow to automate this process, while @Anonymous User offered a more direct approach with a custom Deluge code snippet. This conversation underscores the flexibility of Zoho CRM, with both low-code and custom coding options available to fulfill specific needs.
  • @Anonymous User wanted to automate a field update based on user data. @Anonymous User, a dedicated Zoho MVP, went above and beyond, providing a detailed client script solution and even offering a personalized debugging session. This thread showcases the power of community support and the importance of clear communication in resolving technical hurdles.

Developers ZUG Cliq Channel

InfoThese conversations are confined to the Developers ZUG Cliq channel members. If you're keen on becoming a part of this space, visit our website, click JOIN NOW, and complete the form to get an invite to the channel.
  • Redundant work can get pretty tiresome. Our top contributor, @Anonymous User, tried to overcome such a task through auto-populating fields in Zoho Desk. Check out this conversation where the community members bring together different pieces of the puzzle to get the complete picture. @Carter shares the logical flow, and @Anonymous User shares the coding solution with @Venessa and @Dr. Joe Sweeney backing it up with their thoughts.
  • Almost always, someone from the Community has the answer to another's question. Sometimes, a member ventures into something unventured. @Anonymous User found himself in such a situation. Needing to convert a byte array to PDF, he turned to the community for help. While the community offered various suggestions, the perfect solution remained elusive. Check out the conversation to see if you might have a solution to his problem. Who knows, you might even find any of the offered solutions beneficial to your business!
  • Each integration between products gives any business an additional dimension of functionality. It's even more pivotal when that integration deals with the final step of the sales cycle—creating and delivering the invoice for a completed deal. @Buddy Quaid faced an issue while creating an invoice with Zoho Writer and storing & sending it from Zoho Workdrive. This month's top Cliq contributor, Vivek Rai, joins Buddy on quite a journey of issues and stumbling blocks, before reaching the solution. Check it out here!

Community Spotlight

ZDH Speakers

As a continuation of featuring a ZDH presenter each month, this time, we are delighted to introduce the 16th episode presenter 
@Vigneshwaran K
. Explore this post to discover the knowledge and insights he shared with the community.

Cliq Contributors

Here are our top contributors who have gone the extra mile to support and assist the community:


We want to express our sincere appreciation to all our community contributors. Your commitment, expertise, and the time you invest are invaluable to the community. 

For those who are new to the Zoho Developer Community, check out this post to get started. 

We appreciate you dedicating your time to peruse this month's digest. Make sure to follow the digest each month for the most recent updates and conversations. Stay connected and participate in the forums and the Cliq channel to be featured in the upcoming month's digest. Wishing you an amazing month ahead!



SEE ALSO

      • Recent Topics

      • Customising Sign Up Page in Zoho Help Centre Sandbox

        Hi, I would like to customise the Sign Up page in my Help Centre Sandbox Environment but when I try to access it I get this message: What setting or permission do I need to achieve this? Many thanks, Kunal

      • Sort data in Pivot Table

        Is it possible to sort by a data field. I can gruop and filter, but I culdn't find how to sort the results. Tank You.

      • How to interact webhooks with Creator?

        How can I interact webhooks from external websites with Zoho Creator?  I'd like to get notifications from external websites (Stripe, Zoho Subscription, etc.) These notifications are coming as HTTP POST request from those servers, on maybe daily, monthly or based on any events.  How should I prepare my app in creator to receive these requests? Where and how to should I program in Deluge if I'd like to add some part of the JSON/XML data to my form?  Thank you BR, Balazs

      • No Experiment Visitors

        I have an experiment running for five days. PageSense web analytics data shows the page is getting visitors, but the experiment data itself says zero visitors. I am in trial mode, not sure if that's related. A week ago, I contacted support through chat

      • How do I get at the data in "Partially Saved Entries"?

        Hi, Zoho Newbie here - I'm helping to support an existing Zoho installation, so this is all a bit new to me. I have to say, I'm liking what I've seen so far! We've just spotted that we have a number of respondents to our forms who don't end up submitting

      • SOLVED: Stopping Multiple Invitations when sync with Google Calendar

        I wanted to share this solution as I wasn't able to find it when searching through the Zoho community and via web search. The issue: When requestor books a meeting through Zoho Bookings, the requestor receives a confirmation email from both Bookings and

      • Help Needed with Creating Close % Reporting

        Now that our company has a good data set to work with we want to use ZCRM reports ways to track the performance metrics we have established. Specifically, I want to be able to calculate closing % for individual salespeople and individual support people.

      • Restricting Calendar View to Working Hours

        Hi: I'm trying to implement a calendar which displays all of my customer appointments.  Currently, the calendar shows all 24 hours of the day.  Is there a way to restrict the hours to simply the times my business is open? Thanks!

      • Static Prefill URLs Functionality in the App

        Hi, It would be great to be able to use the same functionality within the App, so create the Static Prefill URL as today and be able to use online as today, and then have an area within the App showing these Entries that can be pressed and opens the form

      • Outbound Gateway

        Hi, Is it possible to configure the Outbound Gateway to route external domains only and keep inter-domain emails locally delivered? When one of my users sends an email to another user within our own domain, I want user1@mydomain.com to user2@mydomain.com not to exit. However, if anyone within our domain sends to an external address, I want that email to be routed using the Outbound Gateway. Thanks. P.

      • Free Webinar : Unlock AI driven business insights with Zoho Inventory + Zoho Analytics

        Are you tired of switching between apps and exporting data to build customized reports? Say hello to smarter & streamlined insights! Join us for this exclusive webinar where we explore the power of the Zoho Inventory–Zoho Analytics integration. Learn

      • Delivery Note Delivered item must be reduce in inventory stock

        When I create any Delivery note with product like mobile In our stock if it was 10 Unit I sold thru invoice, 4 unit And thru Delivery note, 2 Unit and I also change Delivery note status as delivered So in my stock it should display remaining 4 unit But write now it display 6 unit only. Please help me for that Because when I creating new invoice it display 6 unit in stock but actually in my physical stock its only 4. So I miss guide with stock display

      • Adding bills from docs *** Internal Error ***

        Same internal errors in Chrome & Edge !

      • Response time when adding customers to the database is increasing over time.

        Response time when adding customers to the ZoHo books database is increasing over time. The response time to retrieve a newly added customer is now 1.5 to 2 minutes. The database has approximately 2,000 customers. I think you need to reorganise the

      • Excluded transactions in Banking

        Why are the payees not checked when 2 payments are for the same amount to avoid exclusion? If there are 2 ( or more ) payment amounts which are the same then they are automatically excluded, this should not happen unless the payee names are the same

      • Introducing Zia AI in Zoho Show

        AI is no longer a distant concept. It’s one of our everyday tools, from answering casual questions to generating critical business documents. And presentations are one area where AI can be especially helpful. At Zoho Show, we’ve been deliberate in how

      • Plug Sample #10 - Simplify Ticket Management (Zoho Desk) with Chatbots

        Hi everyone! We're here with another simple yet effective plug for your chatbot to integrate with Zoho Desk. When a customer reports an issue/request during chat, it's logged as a ticket on Desk. When they return for updates, you end up searching through

      • Trigger a field rule when Choice Availability reaches 0

        First of all, thanks for shipping the new Choice Availability counter. It solves the basic “stop over-booking” problem. What’s missing, though, is a way to react when an option is sold out. Right now we can only disable/hide the choice; we can’t fire

      • Zoho People > Performance Management > Appraisal cycle

        Hello All I am using this 2 users to test out how it work on Performance Management User 1 - Reportee User 2 - Reporting Manager : Li Ting Haley User 1 : Self Appraisal Error How do i fix this error?

      • What's New - June 2025 | Zoho Backstage

        Plans change. People cancel. Tickets get handed off. It happens, and we understand. As an organizer, you need tools that offer flexibility for attendees while protecting your event’s integrity. That’s why we’ve built features to help you manage these

      • Include Article Sync Details in SalesIQ–Desk Integration Notification Email

        Dear Zoho SalesIQ Team, Greetings, We are using the integration between Zoho SalesIQ and Zoho Desk to sync articles from the Zoho Desk Knowledge Base into SalesIQ. As part of this integration, we receive the following email notification: "Your scheduled

      • Naming a Visitor in SalesIQ Messes up First and Last Name

        When I go to Visitor History to manually associate a visitor with a known contact, I press the pencil symbol next to the system-generated ID number. I enter first and last name, then email. Looks good so far. However, when it syncs with CRM, first name

      • Partial Sync

        Hi, got an issue with syncing cards across windows app, web app and iphone app. If I create a card and add some text content then everything syncs across all platforms ok. If I create a card and add an attachment, be it pdf, jpg or movie then the card

      • Related activity records for custom modules

        For default modules in CRM, whenever I create a task for a contact, the task also appears in the record for the parent account. How do I replicate this with custom modules? My specific situation is that I have a custom module as a child module to Accounts.

      • Why Do My Portal Users Can't See Any Data in Reports

        In My zoho crm i have created a button automation which basically is it converts a quote into invoice and sales order , so initially when a person who is my app user submits a quotation form it goes into quote module and record is created and in each

      • Introducing Zoho Commerce 2.0 — It's more than just selling!

        Hello! We are proud to launch Zoho Commerce 2.0, a reimagination of how online businesses look, feel, and function. This launch is both timely and symbolic, as we reaffirm our commitment to empowering small and medium enterprises with powerful, yet simple-to-use

      • Introducing prompt builder in Zoho CRM

        We’ve introduced a new way to put Zia’s generative AI to work—right where your teams need it most. With the all new prompt builder for custom buttons, you can create your own AI instructions to generate tailored content, suggestions, or summaries across

      • Item Batch Creation/Updation

        I have a requirement to integrate a local system with Zoho Books. I need to create items in Zoho Books with batch tracking enabled, but I couldn't find a specific API for that in the Zoho Books API documentation. Is there a dedicated API endpoint to create

      • Education Zoho User Group (ZUG) virtual meetup featuring Zoho Sign

        Hi there! The educational sector often faces the hassle of handling extensive paperwork, which leads to increased operational costs. A digital signature solution like Zoho Sign can help you modernize your processes, go fully digital, and seamlessly collect

      • Troubleshooting Delays in Zoho CRM Automation Workflows for Lead Status Updates

        Dear Zoho Community, I am refining a sales pipeline in Zoho CRM, implemented in May 2025, to enhance efficiency for a small business managing client leads. While the CRM effectively tracks leads, I am encountering delays in automation workflows that update

      • 📣 [Webinar] Spikra shows how businesses leverage Zoho Bookings to increase revenue

        [Webinar] Spikra shows how businesses leverage Zoho Bookings to increase revenue Hi all, Service-based businesses need to be on top of their client experience game to stay ahead. Spikra, one of our Advanced Zoho Partners, has been helping businesses deliver

      • Kaizen #172 - Leveraging the 'crmAPIResponse' Object in Queries

        Hello everyone! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! We released the Queries feature sometime back and hope you have tried it out. A little gist about this feature before we move on to our post. Zoho CRM's Queries feature enables dynamic data retrieval

      • transforming 1D tables to 2D and the other way round

        Does Dataprep have tools to convert 1D tables to 2D tables and the other way round? The actions that are commonly called "pivot" and "melt". What I mean is transitioning between these two kinds of table: 2D id ____ name ____ surname ____ age 00 ____ Matt

      • How I Migrate data from one SharePoint Tenant to another

        I want to perform SharePoint tenant to tenant migration, but the problem is I don't know how to do so. I’ve heard about different SharePoint Migrator, but I’m not sure which one is the best for this type of migration. Any guidance would be really he

      • Rebrand your CRM with the all-new custom domain mapping setup

        UPDATES TO THIS FEATURE! 19th Jan, 2024 — Custom domain mapping has been made available for portal users in Zoho One and CRM Plus. 23rd June, 2023 — Custom domain mapping has been made available for all users, in all DCs. Hello everyone! We are elated

      • authentication

        We cannot connect via IMAP. We are receiving the following error: Error: You are yet to enable IMAP for your account. Please contact your administrator (Failure)

      • Bad User: Authenticated but not connected

        Zoho CRM cannot send/receive emails and it appears as if it may be an api configuration change either via Zoho or MS. Does anyone have information on how to fix this error message? I am admin on all my accounts. Zoho and MS are blaming each other.

      • Edit email address that appears on invoice

        Hi How do I change the email address that appears on invoices, it is showing the email address that i used to sign up to zoho with but I want to change it to another email address that we use for accounts. also is there a way to edit the position of a

      • Zoho Tasks - Add Sorting by Priority

        We are able to Group by and Filter by Priority but for some reason we can't Sort by Priority on the Task lists. Please allow for sorting by priority if the current view is not grouped by priority.

      • Zoho People > Candidate Form > error Editable Primary Lookup is needed to set add permission

        Hello All I have try to turn on the add feature in the candidate form It show the error Editable Primary Lookup is needed to set add permission What is missing from my side?

      • Next Page