Zoho Creator monthly roundup - September 2024

Zoho Creator monthly roundup - September 2024

Hello all,

We're back with an exciting set of new features and enhancements that will elevate your Creator experience even further. In case you missed it, we’ve recently revamped our Product Roadmap page, now with a refreshed design and showcasing all the updates planned for the rest of the year. Be sure to check it out for a peek into what's coming next!

Now, let's dive into the updates for this month:
  • Zia assistance using Zoho GenAI
  • Field permissions for portal users
  • Enhanced flow for connection creation
  • SAML authentication enhancement for portals
  • Extension testing before publishing
- - - - - - - - - -

Zia assistance using Zoho GenAI 

We’re excited to announce the launch of our own large language model (LLM), Zoho GenAI, which will power Zia assistance by default. However, we’ll continue offering OpenAI as a paid option via BYOK (bring your own key).

How does it work?
  1. Going forward, when you use Zia Assistance to create a new app or form, or get next-field suggestions, Zia will be powered by Zoho GenAI by default.
  2. If you prefer to use OpenAI with Zia, you can integrate it by visiting the Zia section under Operations and configuring it by adding your API key.
Business value
By leveraging Zoho GenAI as the default option for Zia Assistance, you benefit from our in-house AI capabilities at no extra cost. The dual options (Zoho GenAI and OpenAI) also offer enhanced flexibility and convenience, allowing you to choose the product that best fits your needs.
 
Applicable for: C6
Availability: US, IN DCs
Reference: Understand Zia features in Creator
 
- - - - - - - - - -

Field permissions for portal users 

Our existing portal permission sets have empowered you to control the application components and data that portal users can access and interact with. With this new update, we’re taking it a step further by giving you the ability to configure field-level permissions within the portal, providing you with even more granular control over which fields are visible to your portal users. A key use case for this feature is handling personally identifiable information (PII), allowing you to control exposure to sensitive fields (like email addresses) by selectively granting or restricting access based on user permissions.

How will it work?
You’ll now find a Field Permission option under the More section on the Portal User Permissions page.

 
Business value 
Field permissions provide greater flexibility and security and ensure portal users see only the information that’s relevant to them.
 
Applicable for: C5, C6
Availability: All DCs
Reference: Understand portal permissions

- - - - - - - - - -

Enhanced flow for connection creation 

We’ve made several updates to streamline the connection creation flow, with the aim of making it easier for you to create and authorize connections:
  • Automatic connection name: The connection name will now be auto-generated when you select a connector. You can still edit it at any time.
  • Simplified authorization: By default, the same authorization will apply across all environments. If you prefer different authorizations for each environment, select the Use different authorizations for each environment option and specify the relevant environments.
  • Auto-generated authorization account name: The authorization account name will be automatically generated based on the third-party account name, if available, or assigned a system-generated name. You can edit this name later, on the Connection Details page.
Business value
This update streamlines third-party integration by enabling one-click connection creation for any selected built-in connector, reducing manual input and automating tasks, leading to increased efficiency and fewer potential errors.

Applicable for: C5 & C6
Availability: All DCs

- - - - - - - - - -

SAML authentication enhancement for portals     

We've rolled out enhancements to the user addition flow for Zoho Creator portals that use SAML authentication. Previously, there was no direct sync between the portal and the identity provider (IDP), requiring admins to manually add users under the Portal Users section before they could access the portal using SAML. With this new update, users from the IDP will now be automatically added as portal users upon signing up using SAML. The consumption of limits, as per your pricing plan, will be calculated as signups occur.

Note: This feature is applicable only to public portals.

Business value 
This enhancement simplifies user management by automating the user addition process, providing a smoother and more efficient onboarding experience.

Applicable for: C5, C6
Availability: All DCs
Reference: Understand SAML authentication

- - - - - - - - - -

Test extensions before publishing 

We'll be rolling out a new feature that lets you test your extensions on a sample application before you publish them. Previously, the process involved only development and publishing. With this enhancement, it will now include development, testing, and publishing. This added testing phase allows you to evaluate how your extensions perform in a live setting, giving you the chance to make any needed adjustments before completing the publishing process.

How will it work?
  • Going forward, you'll find a Test option for the Extensions.
  • By clicking this, you'll be taken to a sample application where you can create a new page and insert your widget. Once done, click Access Application to see how your extension appears and functions on the page.
Business value
This enhancement enables you to test your extensions in a sample environment before publication, ensuring they function as intended and minimizing the risk of issues after launch.

Applicable for: Creator in Sigma
Availability: All DCs

- - - - - - - - - -

That wraps up this month's updates. Feel free to share your thoughts on these updates in the comments below!
 
Regards,
The Zoho Creator Team



      • Sticky Posts

      • 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

      • Introducing Zoho Creator's v2 APIs

        Hello App Creators, Welcome to Zoho Creator's v2 APIs! This post will serve as the central point for migrating implementations of Creator's current APIs (v1) to v2. Improvements that v2 brings OAuth-based authentication, which is more secure than the

        • Recent Topics

        • Tip #43 - Track, Review, and Analyze Your Assist Sessions with Reports-'Insider Insights'

          Did you know you can generate detailed reports for both remote support sessions and unattended access sessions in Zoho Assist? This makes it easy to monitor technician activity, measure efficiency, and review customer interactions. Let us now take a closer

        • Cannot access KB within Help Center

          Im working with my boss to customize our knowledge base, but for some reason I can see the KB tab, and see the KB categories, but I cannot access the articles within the KB. We have been troubleshooting for weeks, and we have all permissions set up, customers

        • Kaizen #190 - Queries in Custom Related Lists

          Hello everyone! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! This week, we will discuss yet another interesting enhancement to Queries. As you all know, Queries allow you to dynamically retrieve data from CRM as well as third-party services directly within

        • Search in module lists has detiorated

          Every module has a problem with the search function :-/

        • Can we generate APK and IOS app?

          Dears, I want to know the availability to develop the app on zoho and after that .. generate the APK or IOS app  and after that I added them to play store or IOS store.. Is it possible to do this .. I want not to use zoho app or let my customers use it. thanks 

        • Default Sorting on Related Lists

          Is it possible to set the default sorting options on the related lists. For example on the Contact Details view I have related lists for activities, emails, products cases, notes etc... currently: Activities 'created date' newest first Emails - 'created

        • Simplified Call Logging

          Our organization would like to start logging calls in our CRM; however, with 13 fields that can't be removed, our team is finding it extremely cumbersome. For our use case, we only need to record that a call happened theirfor would only need the following

        • Sub form doesn't as formula field

          Is it possible to get formula field in sub form in futures?

        • Signup forms behaviour : Same email & multiple submissions

          My use case is that I have a signup form (FormA) that I use in several places on my website, with a hidden field so I can see where the contact has been made from. I also have a couple of other signup forms (FormB and FormC) that slight differences. All

        • Nimble enhancements to WhatsApp for Business integration in Zoho CRM: Enjoy context and clarity in business messaging

          Dear Customers, We hope you're well! WhatsApp for business is a renowned business messaging platform that takes your business closer to your customers; it gives your business the power of personalized outreach. Using the WhatsApp for Business integration

        • Zoho Devops

          We have a Zoho one account which we have integrated with an SAS educational product, sold on a subscription model, using webhooks and API calls. We make some use of custom fields and cross module lookups and relationships. We utilize CRM, Books and billing

        • How can I track which zoho users are actively using Zoho CRM

          I have several licenses of Zoho CRM. We now need to add a new user. I could purchase a new license, but before I do, I would like to see if any of our existing users are not actively using the license assigned to them. How can I determine the activity

        • Week date range in pivot table

          Hello, I need to create a report that breakouts the data by week.  I am using the pivot table report, and breaking out the date by week, however the date is displayed as 'Week 1 2014' format.  Is there anyway to get the actual dates in there? ex. 1/6/2014-1/12/2014 Thanks,

        • How do I get Status History data of my Projects?

          I want to build a table in Zoho Analytics that Groups by Date, when Projects entered a certain status. I cannot find Status History or any such useful data available in the Setup of my Data Source sync. Please advise how I can achieve this?

        • Is it possible to hide fields in a Subform?

          Since layout rules cannot be used with Subforms, is there another way, or is it even possible, to hide fields in a subform based on a picklist fields within said subform? For example, if the Service Provided is Internet, then I do not want to see the

        • Single Task Report

          I'd like a report or a way to print to PDF the task detail page. I'd like at least the Task Information section but I'd also like to see the Activity Stream, Status Timeline and Comments. I'd like to export the record and save it as a PDF. I'd like the

        • RingCentral/Zoho CRM integration

          Hi I would like to know if our RingCentral/Zoho CRM integration will record incoming calls from clients to my mobile number. I have both Ringcenral and Zoho CRM apps on my iPhone. I know it records the outgoing calls I make and shows them in Zoho CRM

        • Weekly Tips :Instantly find what you need with Attachment Viewer

          Your inbox must be packed with project emails, shared notes, and scattered attachments. You are looking for one specific file—a presentation slide or maybe a media clip from a team update—but don’t want to dig through endless email threads or switch between

        • Has Zoho changed the way it searches Items?

          Right now all of our searches have broken and we can no longer search using the SKU or alias. It was fine last night and we came in this morning to broken.....this is impacting our operations now.

        • Missing Zoho Desk integration option for form workflows

          According to the help page "Configure Zoho Desk integration in form workflows" we should be able to select Zoho Desk as an integration target but when I open the integrations list then Zoho Desk is not being listed in it. We are on the Premium plan which should already support Zoho Desk integrations.

        • Search in module lists has detiorated

          Every module has a problem with the search function :-/

        • CRM x WorkDrive: File storage for new CRM signups is now powered by WorkDrive

          Availability Editions: All DCs: All Release plan: Released for new signups in all DCs. It will be enabled for existing users in a phased manner in the upcoming months. Help documentation: Documents in Zoho CRM Manage folders in Documents tab Manage files

        • Gantt for 2 or more projects

          Hello, I'm trying the free version of your produtc. It is veryyy good!!!! I don't know if in the Standard plan, I can overview a Gantt Graph for 2 or more Projects Milestone. This would be very helpfull for managing teams and taking decisions about who I will assign a task to. In the paid plan Do I have this possibility? Thank you.

        • Integrating a Zoho Project Gantt Chart into Reports

          Is is possible to integrate a Zoho Project Gantt Chart into a Zoho Report Dashboard. I am in the process of creating Project Status Dashboards for the projects that we track in Zoho Projects and I would like to incorporate the gantt chart within Reports.  Please let me know! Thanks

        • ZOHO BOOKS - EXCESSIVELY SLOW TODAY

          Dear Zoho Books This is not the first time but it seems to be 3 times per week now that the system is extremely slow. I work on Zoho Books 95% of my day so this is very frustrating. Zoho you need to do something about this. I have had my IT guy check

        • Gantt Chart - Zoho Analytics

          Are there any plans to add Gantt Charts capabilities to Zoho Analytics?

        • Displaying related quotes in sales order and back

          Hi, My colleague liked to see to which sales orders, the quote has been converted. Quote shows Invoices, but not SO. Same, they would like to see the quotes in the sales order, as they can see invoices, packages, shipment, How can we achieve this ? Thank

        • Tip of the Week #71–Auto-move incoming messages to the right inboxes with keywords

          We all know that customer-facing teams, especially your sales and support teams, can’t afford to miss even a single customer conversation. But sometimes, sales queries or support requests can easily get lost in a crowded inbox or even end up in the wrong

        • Clearing Fields using MACROS?

          How would I go about clearing a follow-up field date from my deals? Currently I cannot set the new value as an empty box.

        • Bigin: filter Contacts by Company fields

          Hello, I was wondering if there's a way to filter the contacts based on a field belonging to their company. I.e.: - filter contacts by Company Annual Revenue field - filter contacts by Company Employee No. field In case this is not possibile, what workaround

        • Sending emails from an outlook account

          Hi, I need to know if it's possible to send automatic emails from an Outlook account configured in Zoho CRM and, if so, how I can accomplish that. To give you some context, I set up a domain and created a function that generates PDF files to be sent later

        • Migrating a Zoho Forms form into Zoho Creator

          Hi, How can I migrate my Zoho Forms form into Zoho Creator? Thanks. Truly, Emad

        • Is there any way to recall an email sent using Zoho CRM?

          If an email is sent using Zoho Mail, there is a recall option/functionality that is available to the sender. Is there any way to recall an email if it was sent using Zoho CRM? I can't seem to find that option. Any help would be appreciated.

        • Quick Create needs Client Script support

          As per the title. We need client scripts to apply at a Quick Create level. We enforce logic on the form to ensure data quality, automate field values, etc. However, all this is lost when a user attempts a "Quick Create". It is disappointing because, from

        • is it possible to add more than one Whatsapp Phone Number to be integrated to Zoho CRM?

          so I have successfully added one Whatsapp number like this from this User Interface it seems I can't add a new Whatsapp Number. I need to add a new Whatsapp Number so I can control the lead assignment if a chat sent to Whatsapp Phone Number 1 then assign

        • Problem with reports due to "Connected" items change - Yes this IS a problem

          Now that the change has been made to use "connected" items I can no longer run the reporting I need in CRM. I should be able to start with Deals as the parent, connect down to the Account (Account_Name) on the deal as the child, then to any child items

        • Zoho sheet desktop version

          Hi Zoho team Where can I access desktop version of zoho sheets? It is important as web version is slow and requires one to be online all the time to do even basic work. If it is available, please guide me to the same.

        • Introducing notifications in the vendor portal

          Imagine this: You're a recruiter working with multiple vendors on a high-volume hiring project. You’ve just updated a job description after a last-minute change from the hiring manager. One of your vendors, however, is still working off the older version

        • CRM limit reached: only 2 subforms can be created

          we recently stumbled upon a limit of 2 subforms per module. while we found a workaround on this occasion, only 2 subforms can be quite limiting in an enterprise setting. @Ishwarya SG I've read about imminent increase of other components (e.

        • Settings Icon No Longer in ZOHO Desk?

          In ZOHO desk, there has been a gear icon for settings. as of yesterday, it is no longer there. I showed up briefly this morning but is gone again. Anybody else experiecing this?

        • Next Page