Kaizen #194 : Trigger Client Script via Custom buttons

Kaizen #194 : Trigger Client Script via Custom buttons



Hello everyone!

Welcome back to another interesting and useful Kaizen post.

We know that Client Scripts can be triggered with Canvas buttons and we discussed this with a use case in Kaizen#180. Today, let us discuss how to trigger Client Script when a Custom Button is clicked. Using this, you can execute Client Script when a custom button is clicked.

In this post,

1. Event Details 
2. Supported Pages
3. Use Case - Export Subform Rows to Zoho Sheet in a Single Click!
4. Solution
5. Summary
6. Related Links


Client Script support for Custom Buttons opens up possibilities for automation, personalization, and enhanced user interactions in Zoho CRM when a custom button is clicked.
Here is a detailed walkthrough to help you understand it better.

1. Event Details 

The Button event triggers the Client Script when a custom button is clicked. Each time this event is invoked, the context argument is passed to the Client Script. The context contains information about the page from which the button was clicked.


Click here to know more about Client Script Events.

2. Supported Pages

A Custom Button can be placed in different positions based on the Page.


You can add a  custom button in the Util Menu, in Each Record or in the Mass Action Menu of the List Page.


Also, a Detail Page can have a custom button either In Record or in the Related List. Click here for more details about the different possible positions of a custom button.

The following table lists the supported pages and the corresponding context argument, which provides different details based on the page type.


To create a Client Script and make it trigger when a custom button is clicked, first create a Custom button and associate it with a Client Script as shown in the following image.


 Click here to view the steps to create a custom button and configure a Client Script. 

Note:

You can configure the Client Script only from the Buttons page to trigger it when a user clicks a custom button, and not the usual way of Creating Client Script via setup page. Once a script is created, it can be edited and updated from the Client Script setup page

3. Use Case - Export Subform Rows to Zoho Sheet in a Single Click!

Zylker manufactures medical instruments, and its sales representatives frequently need to share bulk order details with distributors and hospital partners using Zoho Sheets. These details such as product names, quantities, and prices are captured in a Subform on the Purchase Order Detail(Standard) Page.
To simplify this, the admin wants to add a custom button called "Export Products" on the Purchase Order Detail Page. When clicked, it should export the Purchase Items from the Subform and move the content to the specified sheet.

4. Solution

To export subform rows to Zoho Sheet with a single click, you can add a custom button to the Detail Page of the record. When clicked, a Client Script will be triggered to fetch the subform data from the Detail Page and pass it to a Function that uses zoho.sheet.createRecords() to insert data into Zoho Sheet.

Here’s how to implement this:

  • Add  “Export Products” custom button on the Detail Page.
  • Add the script to collect subform rows which invokes the Function.
  • Write a Function to create entry in Zoho Sheets  

A. Add “Export Products” custom button on the Detail Page.

  • Go to Setup → Modules and Fields under Customization.
  • Select a Module as Purchase Order.
  • Click on Buttons → Then click + New Button.
  • Enter Button Name and select Action Type as "Client Script"
  • Choose Button Position and Layout details as shown in the following image.
  • Click Create in Configured Client Script, enter the script, and click Add.
  • Select the profiles for which these buttons should be visible.
  • Click Save.



B. Add the Script to collect subform rows and invoke the Function

Use the following Client Script when you configure the custom button.

  1. var casesheetid = ZDK.Client.getInput([{ type: 'text', label: 'Enter the Sheet ID' }], 'Sheet details', 'OK', 'Cancel');
  2. if (casesheetid == null) {
  3.         ZDK.Client.showAlert("Enter the *Case Sheet ID - Import* to import data");
  4.  }
  5. var purchase_items = ZDK.Page.getField('Purchase_items).getValue();
  6. ZDK.Client.showLoader({type: 'page', template:'spinner', message: 'Export in progress, please wait'});
  7. var c=1;
  8. if (sheetid == null) {
  9.     ZDK.Client.hideLoader(); 
  10.     ZDK.Client.showAlert("Enter the *Case Sheet - Export* ID to export data");
  11. }
  12. purchase_items.forEach((r,i) => {
  13.             try {
  14.                resp = ZDK.Apps.CRM.Functions.execute("csvWrite", { "Product_Name": r.Product_Name.name, "List_Price": r.List_Price, "Discount": r.Discount, "Total": r.Total,"Sheetid":casesheetid }); }
  15.             catch (error) {
  16.                 c = 0;
  17.                  ZDK.Client.hideLoader(); 
  18.                 ZDK.Client.showAlert("Unexpected issue occured while adding data in row number "); }
  19.     });
  20.     ZDK.Client.hideLoader(); 
  21.     if (c) {
  22.         ZDK.Client.showMessage("Export completed. Please check the Sheet");
  23.     }
  24.     else
  25.     {
  26.        ZDK.Client.showMessage("Unexpected error "); }}

In this code, several ZDKs are used for various purposes. Click on the ZDK hyperlinks to learn more.


Note

The Client Script you intend to link with the button will be saved only after the custom button is saved.

C. Write a Function to create entry in Zoho Sheets 

  • Go to Setup > Developer Hub > Functions.
  • In the Functions page, click + Create New Function.
  • Choose the category as Button.
  • Click Create.
  • In the Create Function page, enter a name as csvWrite and description for your function.
  • Enter the following function code and click Save.
  1. string standalone.csvWrite(String product,String qty,String up,String amt, String Sheetid){
  2. queryData = Map();
  3. writeData = Map();
  4. header = Map();
  5. writeData.put("Product",product);
  6. writeData.put("Quantity",qty);
  7. writeData.put("Unit_Price",up);
  8. writeData.put("Amount",amt);
  9. SheetData = zoho.sheet.createRecords("Sheetid","Sheet1",writeData,queryData,"sheetconnection");
  10. return SheetData;
  11. }

Click here to know more about zoho.sheet.createRecords().

In the code above:
  • sheetconnection refers to the name of the Zoho Sheet connection, which must have the scopes: ZohoSheet.dataAPI.UPDATE and ZohoSheet.dataAPI.READ.
  • Click here to know how to create a Connection with the required scopes.
  • sheetid is the unique identifier of the Zoho Sheet, available in the sheet’s URL.
  • Sheet1 represents the name of the worksheet (i.e., the tab name shown at the bottom of the Zoho Sheet).
  • Now, when the custom button is clicked, the Client Script is triggered. It prompts for the Sheet ID, fetches the contents of the Purchase Order subform, and invokes a function that writes the content to the Sheet.
Here's how the Client Script works.



5. Summary

In this post we have seen,
  • What is a Button event?
  • How to configure Client Script for a custom button
  • How to write data into Zoho Sheets from Client Script
  • How to create a Function and call it from Client Script

6. Related Links


We are thrilled to be nearing the 200th post in our Kaizen series. As we approach this exciting milestone, we would love to hear from you. Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your input helps us improve and shape the series to serve you better.

Please take a moment to share your thoughts using ✨ this form ✨

We hope you found this post useful!

Happy Client Scripting! 😊


      • Sticky Posts

      • Kaizen #226: Using ZRC in Client Script

        Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. In today's post, lets see what is ZRC (Zoho Request Client) and how we can use ZRC methods in Client Script to get inputs from a Salesperson and update the Lead status with a single button click. In this

      • Kaizen #222 - Client Script Support for Notes Related List

        Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. The final Kaizen post of the year 2025 is here! With the new Client Script support for the Notes Related List, you can validate, enrich, and manage notes across modules. In this post, we’ll explore how

      • Kaizen #217 - Actions APIs : Tasks

        Welcome to another week of Kaizen! In last week's post we discussed Email Notifications APIs which act as the link between your Workflow automations and you. We have discussed how Zylker Cloud Services uses Email Notifications API in their custom dashboard.

      • Kaizen #216 - Actions APIs : Email Notifications

        Welcome to another week of Kaizen! For the last three weeks, we have been discussing Zylker's workflows. We successfully updated a dormant workflow, built a new one from the ground up and more. But our work is not finished—these automated processes are

      • Kaizen #152 - Client Script Support for the new Canvas Record Forms

        Hello everyone! Have you ever wanted to trigger actions on click of a canvas button, icon, or text mandatory forms in Create/Edit and Clone Pages? Have you ever wanted to control how elements behave on the new Canvas Record Forms? This can be achieved

        • Recent Topics

        • Zoho CRM's mobile apps: A 2025 Recap

          2025 marked a year of steady progress for Zoho CRM's mobile apps. We rolled out several updates and features to improve usability and make everyday CRM work a lot easier to manage. Here’s a look back at some of the key releases from 2025. Android releases

        • Facebook follower count doesn't match FB Analytics

          Hi all, I am wondering if anyone else has issues with follower counts for Facebook not matching FB's native analytics tool. On the Zoho dashboard, it's showing 1,007, but FB shows 1,060. All the other channels match up. Any insights are much appreciated!

        • Meta and Facebook data report discrepancy

          I have been currently gathering manually facebook follower data thru meta. In zoho marketing plus the social media reporting only allows for page likes, and so there is a discrepancy with the data. please the difference in files attached. Is there way

        • Unlocking New Levels: Zoho Payroll's Journey in 2025

          Every year brings its own set of challenges and opportunities to rethink how payroll works across regulations and teams. In 2025, Zoho Payroll continued to evolve with one clear focus: giving businesses more flexibility, clarity, and control as they grow.

        • Can I export all attachments from Zoho CRM?

          Can I export all attachments from Zoho CRM?

        • Community Digest — Noviembre y Diciembre 2025

          ¡Hola, Comunidad de Zoho en Español! Cerramos el año de la mejor forma con nuestro último Community Digest de 2025, donde podrás encontrar las últimas novedades de nuestros productos. ¿Todo listo para empezar 2026 con el mejor pie? ¡Vamos a ello! Zoho

        • Zoho Projects Plus’ 2025- the year we launched

          We’ve been building project management tools for the past 19 years, and a question we often hear is: Different teams in our organization prefer different project management methods; while the development team prefers agile, the marketing and sales teams

        • Zoho Books emails suddenly going to Spam since 11 Nov 2025 (Gmail + now Outlook) — anyone else?

          Hi everyone, We migrated to Zoho Books in July 2025 and everything worked fine until 11 Nov 2025. Since then, Zoho Books system emails are landing in customers’ Spam (first Gmail, and now we’re seeing Outlook/Office 365 also starting to spam them). Impacted

        • How do you print a refund check to customer?

          Maybe this is a dumb question, but how does anyone print a refund check to a customer? We cant find anywhere to either just print a check and pick a customer, or where to do so from a credit note.

        • Company Multiple Branch/ Location Accounting

          Hi All, anyone know whether company can maintain their multiple Branch Accounting in Zoho  Books. It will be chart of Accounts & Master Data will be same but different report available as per per Branch. Thanks & regards, Vivek +91 9766906737

        • Zoho Books Invoices Templates

          It would be really helpful to have more advanced features to customise the invoice templates in Zoho Books. Especially I´m thinking of the spacing of the different parts of the invoice (Address line etc.). If you have a sender and receiver address in

        • Email Administrators! Join our tips & troubleshooting series

          Greetings to all the admins out there! This announcement is exclusively for you. As we step into the New Year, we’re excited to start a dedicated series of admin-specific tips curated to support you. These posts will help you overcome everyday challenges

        • Deprecation of the Zoho OAuth connector

          Hello everyone, At Zoho, we continuously evaluate our integrations to ensure they meet the highest standards of security, reliability, and compliance. As part of these ongoing efforts, we've made the decision to deprecate the Zoho OAuth default connector

        • 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

        • Import Function: ONLY update empty fields

          When setting up an import from a spreadsheet to CRM, there is a checkbox "Don't update empty values for existing contacts" (see screenshot below). While I see some limited benefit from this functionality, I think there should also be an "ONLY update empty

        • Begin the year with best practices in the Zoho Desk mobile app : Part 2

          In focus: Optimizing collaboration and supervision Let's begin 2026 with Part 2 of our tips series on driving your ticketing operations at your fingertips. In Part 1, we explored streamlining operations within tickets. This helped individuals at Omniserve

        • How to update "Lead Status" to more than 100 records

          Hello Zoho CRM, How do I update "Lead Status" to more than 100 records at once? To give you a background, these leads were uploaded or Imported at once but the lead status record was incorrectly chosen. So since there was a way to quickly add records in the system no matter how many they are, we are also wondering if there is a quicker way to update these records to the correct "Lead Status". I hope our concern makes sense and that there will be a fix for it. All the best, Jonathan

        • JWT Token authentication problem that sometimes generates infinite redirect loops

          Description : Nous proposons un bouton sur notre plateforme permettant de rediriger l'utilisateur vers le portail ZohoDesk via un jeton JWT pour une authentification transparente. Cependant, il arrive que certains utilisateurs soient pris dans une boucle

        • ZOHO Work Drive Back Up

          I am looking for a ZOHO Work Drive backup solution. Something that is cloud based. There's lots of these kinds of options for Google Drive and other providers, but I have not seen anything for WorkDrive. Any suggestions?

        • ZOHO Reports - Filter Logic?

          Hi, I need a way to apply filter logics such as ((1 AND 2) OR 3). All I can see as of now is a way to enter different AND filters in the respective filter column. But how can I add an OR filter? Any advice would be highly appreciated. Mark

        • Scanned Doc - selecting Item overwrites Rate

          I have a Vendor Invoice which was uploaded to Documents. I select Add To > New Bill. The OCR is actually quite good, but it is reading an Item Description instead of an Item Number. I remove the description and select the correct Item Number... and it

        • Recruit API search

          Hi all, Attempting to call the search api endpoint from Postman using the word element as mentioned in api docs Search Records - APIs | Online Help - Zoho Recruit When making the call to /v2/Candidates/search?word=Saudi receive response of { "code": "MANDATORY_NOT_FOUND",

        • Saving reading position + Keep screen on

          While Zoho Notebook is excellent for saving and annotating articles, its utility is severely limited by the lack of reading progress synchronization. On the Android app, if a user exits a long note after reading 50%, the app fails to save the position.

        • Multiple Vendor SKUs

          One of the big concerns we have with ZOHO Inventory is lack of Vendor Skus like many other inventory software packages offer. Being able to have multiple vendor skus for the same product would be HUGE! It would populate the appropriate vendor Sku for

        • Zoho LandingPage is integrated with Zoho One!

          Greetings to the Zoho One users out there! We're delighted to let you know that Zoho LandingPage is available in Zoho One too! With Zoho LandingPage, you can host custom-made landing pages, and persuade the visitors to dive deeper by making further clicks,

        • Android app sync problem - multiple devices have same problem

          Hello, I am having a problem with synchronization in the Android app. When I create a drawing, the data does not sync correctly—only a blank note is created without the drawing. I tested this on multiple devices, including phones and tablets, and the

        • How can i resend a campaign to only one of the recipients on the original campaign

          How can i resend a campaign to only one of the recipients on the original campaign ? Sincererly, Mike

        • How to show branch instead of org name on invoice template?

          Not sure why invoices are showing the org name not the branch name? I can insert the branch name using the ${ORGANIZATION.BRANCHNAME} placeholder, but then it isn't bold text anymore. Any other ideas?

        • Marketing Automation Requirements Questions

          I would like to set up a multi-email drip campaign- please see the structure below and confirm if I can achieve this set up in Zoho marketing automation. Where applicable, highlight gaps and workarounds. Thanks Drip email campaign- Can I create one drip

        • how to change the page signers see after signing a document in zoho sign

          Hello, How can I please change the page a signer sees after signing a document in Zoho Sign? I cannot seem to find it. As it is now, it shows a default landing page "return to Zoho Sign Home". Thanks!

        • Question about using custom_fields in Storefront Add-to-Cart API (error 2003 – required details)

          Hi everyone, I’m working with the Zoho Commerce Storefront API, specifically the Add to Cart endpoint: POST /storefront/api/v1/cart According to the documentation, this endpoint supports a custom_fields parameter for adding line-item custom data. I’m

        • Can a project be cloned?

          Good afternoon, greetings. I would like to ask if it's possible to clone a project in Microsoft Project. I found a way to do it using templates, but I'm not sure if there's a direct way to clone a project. Thank you in advance for your attention, and

        • Timesheet Tasks in Zoho Books: associate to service item

          How do we associate a service item to timesheet tasks in Zoho Books? For example: Joe spent 5 hours on project:task1 which is Service Item#1 (Income:Service1). When the invoice is issued thru the Project Invoice section, this is not available. When the

        • Task/Activity indicator in SalesPipeline overview has disappeared

          I Just logged in my ZOHO CRM first 2026 checking my salespipeline overview , Every record card used to show an indication that there was an open task (Yellow if the expiry date was close, red if the expiry date was today and grey when it had expired).

        • Tip #56- Accessibility Controls in Zoho Assist: Hearing- 'Insider Insights'

          As we begin the new year, it’s a great time to focus on making our tools more inclusive and accessible for everyone. Remote support often involves long hours in front of screens, varying lighting conditions, and users with diverse accessibility needs.

        • Zoho Desk Android app update: Table view for All Departments view, custom button

          Hello everyone! In the latest version(v2.9.25) of the Zoho Desk Android app update, we have introduced Table view for the 'All Departments' view in the ticket module. We also have supported an option that allows tickets in the Table view to be sorted

        • What's New - December 2025 | Zoho Backstage

          In December, Backstage introduced a focused set of updates that improve how you manage registrations, communicate with attendees, and track participation. These enhancements are designed to give organizers greater flexibility and clearer control across

        • Add multiple users to a task

          When I´m assigning a task it is almost always related to more than one person. Practical situation: When a client request some improvement the related department opens the task with the situation and people related to it as the client itself, the salesman

        • A Roundup of Zoho Sprints 2025

        • Sorting Custom Date in API isn't working w pagination limit

          How can we sort a custom field with DATE using pagination? Starting at page=1 then moving to page=2 with a limit of 10 each, its all messed up and even shows some of the same records as page 1? https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v2/INVOICE_MODULE/search?criteria=(FM_Contact_ID:equals:1234)&sort_by=Invoice_Date&sort_order=desc&per_page=10&page='

        • Next Page