Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest – March 2025

Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest – March 2025



Hello everyone,

This month is packed with exciting product updates, learning sessions, and powerful community conversations that remind us: sometimes, the best solutions come from a single shared question. From quick workarounds to upcoming training events and product releases, there's something here for everyone.

Let's dive in!

Upcoming Events

Creator Tech Connect

Title: Product release updates in Zoho Creator
Date: April 9–10, 2025
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 comprises 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. In our previous session, we discussed advanced UI/UX customizations in Zoho Creator. In the upcoming session, we will explore the recent product release updates in Zoho Creator.

ZDK CLI (Zoho Development Kit Command Line Interface)

Date: April 10
Time: 10:00 AM IST & 8:00 PM IST (GMT+5:30)

Managing metadata in Zoho CRM shouldn’t feel like navigating a maze. Yet, the endless clicks to modify profiles, roles, modules, or layouts—and the challenges of version control—can quickly become overwhelming. What if you could skip the hassle and manage your metadata effortlessly? Introducing ZDK CLI—your one-stop solution for streamlining metadata modifications, pushing changes directly from the command line, and tracking updates seamlessly with your preferred Version Control System (VCS). Register now to discover how to take control of your CRM workflow with ZDK CLI.

Extensions 101

Title: Zoho Projects – Data Storage
Date: April 17
Time: 10:00 AM IST & 8:00 PM IST (GMT+5:30)

This series aims to guide developers through the process of building extensions for various Zoho products using the Zoho Developer platform, Sigma. Our previous sessions in this series covered extension development for multiple Zoho products and highlighted the platform's key capabilities for developing efficient extensions. Register for the upcoming sessions, where we'll delve deep into developing extensions for Zoho products like Projects, CRM, Books, and Desk.

Zoho Developer Hangout – Episode 21

Title: Zoho System Integration: Collect, Manage, and Utilize Data
Date: April 23
Time: 8:00 PM IST (GMT+5:30)

In this session, we’re featuring a ZDC Hackathon 2024 winner from the Zoho Creator Category who tackled one of the biggest business bottlenecks—hiring—and turned it into a fully streamlined, automated system. Wonderboy, Sourcing Coordinator & Junior Developer at WeThinkCode_, built this project using Zoho Creator, CRM, and Forms, simplifying the entire recruitment process—from collecting applications to sending updates via WhatsApp and email. It’s smart, practical, and something you could absolutely build on. Register here.

Catalyst 101

Title: Data & File Management and Querying
Date: April 29
Time: 10:00 AM IST & 8:00 PM IST (GMT+5:30)

Catalyst is a full-stack cloud development platform that simplifies the complex. Build, test, host, deploy, and optimize solutions like never before. Its easy learning curve eliminates complexities, empowering you to craft bold innovations at the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO). This is a four-part learning initiative that focuses on offering a thorough understanding of Catalyst—Zoho's cloud computing platform. Click here for registration and more details.

Learning Table Series

Title: Creator for the Property Management
Date: May 8, 2025
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 of Creator's capabilities in various business use cases and applications. This year as well, 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 Asset Management was a success, and during the upcoming session, we'll be exploring Creator for the Property Management.

Zoholics USA 2025

Date: May 13–15
Location: GRB Convention Center in Houston

Join us for three days of inspiration, innovation, and invaluable connections. Whether you’re attending breakout tracks, scheduling 1-on-1 expert sessions, or mingling in networking lounges, we promise you’ll leave with actionable insights and a refreshed perspective on your business. More details here.

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.
Alert
Postman’s 2025 Developers’ Choice Awards at POSTCON ’25

If you’ve found our Zoho CRM Developers API collection on Postman helpful, we’d be honored to have your support! This collection is regularly updated with a focus on simplifying your development experience and helping you work with our APIs effortlessly. We’re excited to be a part of this contest and your vote could help us win. Your support not only motivates us but also drives us to improve and deliver more value to our developer community.

Please cast your vote here and share our profile. Voting lines are open until April 18, 2025. 
  • Zoho Creator
    Get access to the previous Zoho Creator Session recordings from Youtube & Zoho Creator Studio below:
  • Zoho Analytics
    Let's explore how the integration between Zoho Analytics and Zoho Desk can transform customer support, helping teams move from basic reporting to data-driven decision making in this blog.

  • Zoho Flow
    One of the biggest advantages of using Zoho Flow is that all your workflows are in one place, making it easy to make changes, switch them on or off, and monitor how every step is performing.     Now we're making it even easier for you to keep track of your flows and perform quick operations. Say hello to the Zoho Flow mobile app for iPhone!

  • Zoho Notebook
    AI is advancing rapidly and becoming a staple in our daily lives. From boosting our writing skills to enhancing productivity, AI tech is all around us. Because AI is so impactful and becoming the future of advanced technology, we thought, why not implement it in Zoho Notebook to make your writing experience a piece of cake? I    ntroducing Notebook AI, our powerful AI writing assistant in Zoho Notebook.

  • Zoho Directory – Always Verify #09
    As we march ahead into April 2025, you have on your screens yet another edition of Always Verify. We have searched the internet far and wide to bring you impactful Identity and Access Management stories- MFA mandates, ransomware attacks, crazy authentication workflows and of course, the Oracle Cloud breach.

Community Discussions

It’s a great reminder that in the right community, every challenge is just one conversation away from a breakthrough.

Zoho Developer Forum

  • @Nik ran into a snag trying to remove backslashes from a string in Deluge, so he came up with a quick workaround—bit of a hack, but hey, it did the trick. Then @Andres stepped in with a much cleaner fix that made things way easier. Want to know what the fix was? You’ll have to check out the post! Just goes to show, even a messy workaround can lead to a solid solution when you share it with the right crowd.
  • @Federico ran into a workflow hiccup while creating a related record in Zoho CRM—every time he hit “Save,” it would bounce him right back to the parent record. He wanted to stay on the newly created record instead. What followed was a thoughtful exchange around client scripts, potential workarounds, and platform limitations. While there's no one-click fix (yet), the conversation shed light on the why behind this behavior—and sparked ideas that might just lead to a future product tweak. Curious how others are handling it? The post’s worth a read.
  • When @Richard ran into a frustrating error in his Zoho Books Deluge script, the error message wasn’t giving him much to work with. He reached out to the community, and @Bhoomi, our MVP, stepped in to help, spotting a small but crucial syntax issue—something as simple as a missing semicolon. It’s a reminder of how sometimes the smallest detail can cause the biggest roadblock. Check out the post for the full solution!
  • @Taryn noticed something strange—values entered into a custom field on the Lead form in Zoho CRM weren’t saving, and the field just lit up yellow with no error message in sight. It was one of those head-scratcher moments until @Hugh Marshall stepped in with a simple but spot-on suggestion: check the field’s permissions. Sure enough, that was the culprit. Just another example of how a fresh pair of eyes in the community can help uncover what you might’ve missed.
  • When @ebizness set out to automatically create a new Contact every time a custom CRM module received a new record, things seemed straightforward—until the workflow threw an error. While @Ishwarya guided them through the workflow setup, it was @Max Tyack who shared a golden tip that turned the tide. The moment @ebizness tried it, everything clicked into place. Curious what that magic tip was? Head to the thread to see the clever trick that made the automation work seamlessly!
  • @Hayden’s post casually introduces the concept of the Levenshtein Distance algorithm—measuring how many edits it takes to turn one word into another—while showing how he built a working fuzzy matching system in Deluge. Using maps to mimic 2D arrays and a quirky recursive helper, he proved that with a bit of creativity, even compact scripting tools can be stretched to do pretty impressive things. A fun read that’s both educational, entertaining, and super cool!

Developers ZUG Cliq Channel

Info
These 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.
  • This thread explores a real-world use case that pushes readers to think beyond the UI. By sharing her situation, Trish uncovered a workaround others can benefit from. Conversations like these empower developers to dive deeper into Deluge, workflows, and modular automation—things the docs might not cover, but the community certainly does!
  • When the documentation doesn’t cover a unique use case, conversations with peers help fill the gaps. When @LaVerne set out to trigger a custom function from the Zoho Cliq check-in (without using Zoho People), @Mike helped highlight some platform boundaries, while @Pranit offered practical insights and opened up the idea of using Cliq Widgets as a potential custom solution.
  • @Mangesh faced a common developer pain point: missing custom fields in the Zoho Books API response. His precise question led to a straightforward and helpful answer from @Pranit, who offered a simple tip that now makes API calls more predictable. It’s proof that asking clear questions gets you closer to clean solutions—especially when the right folks are listening.

Community Spotlight

Cliq Contributors

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. 

Make sure to follow the digest every 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 all an amazing month ahead!


SEE ALSO




        • Recent Topics

        • Zoho People API - all active employees' emails

          Hello, how can i get all active employees' emails in Zoho People using api?

        • Default Lookup Field Value based on Picklist

          How do I change a lookup field value based on another field's value, while creating/editing a record using form? I have a picklist of different types of Loans. For example: PPP, EDIL, Term, etc. When I create a record using the form, if I choose PPP from

        • Notice: Revise OpenAI model permissions to continue Using Zia Writing Assistant

          Dear Users, We’re upgrading the Zia Writing Assistant to use the GPT-4o-mini model for improved performance and accuracy. To continue using the Writing Assistant, please revise your OpenAI model settings by May 27, 2025. After this date, older models

        • Automate Note Creation for Service Appointments

          Hi Latha, I hope you're doing great. Thank you for your continued support in helping resolve previous issues — it's truly appreciated. I'm currently working on automating another workflow using Deluge in the Service_Appointment module. Specifically, I

        • Managing manual users

          Why are there two seemingly-identical lines in the manual user management? How can someone in the space be both Disabled and Admin? What is the difference between the two groups?

        • Sum Total of various fields in child module and add value to parent module field

          Hi! Having trouble with a custom function, im trying to calculate the total of all the rent and sqm fields of our offices in Products module and have them transfer to the parent module Location. The API names are as below: Child module Products = "Products"

        • Work Order Creation Issue

          Dear Team, I would like to inquire about the daily limit for Work Order creation in Zoho FSM. Yesterday (02/05/2025) at around 6:30 PM GST, I attempted to create a Work Order, but I have been unable to do so since then. Please find the attached image

        • The 3.1 biggest problems with Kiosk right now

          I can see a lot of promise in Kiosk, but it currently has limited functionality that makes it a bit of an ugly duckling. It's great at some things, but woeful at others, meaning people must rely on multiple tools within CRM for their business processes.

        • We need customizable sub-form layouts

          Currently, we can arrange sub-form fields only in a single row. The single row layout means salespeople must horizontally scroll to uncover information. As a result, salespeople cannot see all of the relevant information simultaneously.  The administrator

        • How can i connect the zoho people to n8n.io

          Hello, I hope you are doing well Iam working on an automation in which I will be fetching the data from Zoho People of my employees to arrange, modify, and upload on Google Sheets to maintain their attendance data. I tried through the Zoho Developer Console

        • Staff Tracking in

          Hi , I would like to see what activity my staff does over Zoho CRM and over Zoho Mail . I need to know which deals in CRM haven't been touched or had an activity on by a particular staff member . Basically need to establish what work.gets done by WFH

        • How do you make sure the same person doesn't answer the survey twice?

          Preventing multiple responses to a survey is really important because letting people answer more than once can seriously ruin the data. It skews results, making it seem like certain opinions are more popular than they are. This can lead to misleading

        • In line code commenting in Deluge

          A request to enhance readability: currently you can add 'in line' comments for Deluge code, but after you save and reopen, the comments are moved down to the new line. i.e. info "test response"; //this is a info statement for a test response gets changed

        • GCLID arrives not in CRM with iframe integrated ZOHO Form

          Hello amazing community, I enabled Adwords integration in ZOHO CRM. I have a ZOHO Form integrated in a wordpress. I tested iframe and Javascript. I enabled the "handover" GCLID in the ZOHO Form. When I add a GLID with http://www.example.com/?gclid=TeSter-123.

        • Sending Recruit SMS's to Zoho Cliq - Or tracking in the Messages module in Recruit?

          Is there any way to send SMS Gateway messages in Recruit to ZOho Cliq? We use 2-way SMS massages a lot in Zoho Recruit to speed up communication with Candidates. However the only way to keep track of received SMS's is by keeping a look out for the Email

        • Feature Request - Insert URL Links in Folders

          I would love to see the ability to create simple URL links with titles in WorkDrive. or perhaps a WorkDrive extension to allow it. Example use case: A team is working on a project and there is project folder in WordDrive. The team uses LucidChart to create

        • Allowing workflows to execute as an admin

          Workflows currently seem to execute with the permissions of the logged in user. This is a problem for most of the forms we have where we have hidden fields that perform business logic. If we restrict the permissions of these fields so users can't view

        • How to validate Rich Text in Zoho Creator! Urgent!

          Hi members, Recently I just started to use Rich Text field. Now I have a requirement where I need to validate to ensure this Rich Text field must contain a value. Meaning must contain something. I use the below script if(input.Rich_Text == null) { alert

        • Custom Function to Format Phone / Mobile numbers in Australian Standard format

          So I got sick of phone numbers being formatted incorrectly and Zoho not doing anything to standardise phone numbers to meet E.164 formats. So I went and coded my own function to fix this. And figured I'd share with the community This is specifically for

        • Add Lookup Field in Tasks Module

          Hello, I have a need to add a Lookup field in addition to the ones that are already there in the Tasks module. I've seen this thread and so understand that the reason lookup fields may not be part of it is that there are already links to the tables (https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/custom-fields-on-task-module).

        • Group Emails

          I have synced Zoho CRM to Campaigns but there are certain email not synced. showing it is Group Emails, but this email ids belongs to different individuals. please provide a solution as i nedd to sync the same.

        • How to modify query from a DataBridge Connection

          Hello, I just installed the new DataBridge tool to import data to our Zoho Analytycs account from our local database. It works well so far, and data gets sync every day. The only issue that I found is that we do not know how to modify the query that imports

        • Is there a way to force a page refresh after changing a Subform via Workflow / Function?

          I have a workflow which triggers a function, and in this function i am changing the values of a certain subform. The changed are only visibile when i manually refresh the page and this is a no-no for my use-case. When other workflows, that change certain

        • Unable to invite contacts

          Hi! I'm unable to invite contacts as end-users from my trial account. The green pop-up displays "Invited succesfully" but the email never arrives, nor the re-invitation - even though it's "sucessfully" as well. Tried with several e-mail accounts, even

        • Enable Full Theme Editor for Help Center (Disable Express Builder)

          Dear Zoho Support, We are currently using the Elegant theme in Zoho Desk Help Center, but we only have access to the limited Express Builder. We would like to switch to the full Theme Editor to be able to: Access Language Strings Edit all pages (HTML/CSS/JS)

        • Introducing Assemblies and Kits in Zoho Inventory

          Hello customers, We’re excited to share a major revamp to Zoho Inventory that brings both clarity and flexibility to your inventory management experience! Presenting Assemblies and Kits We’re thrilled to introduce Assemblies and Kits, which replaces the

        • Zoho Desk - account and contact lookup by phone

          Hi team, Does Zoho Desk allow to lookup Accounts and Contacts by phone or not? I am using this endpoint- GET https://desk.zoho.eu/api/v1/accounts/search?phone=987-654-3210 But I am getting this error- { "errorCode": "UNPROCESSABLE_ENTITY", "message":

        • Add picklist in subform lookup

          Hello, I am trying to rewrite a script that works on a from as parent form, to the same form when is is a subform. Here is what I did in the form itself : RefCat = Offre_de_produits.distinct(Categorie_OFFRE); clear Categorie_LIGNE; for each Record in

        • Way to export / import a Flow between different accounts?

          Hi, I developped some flows in my account and see that for some other organisation I'm working with, they would need the same or similar flows. Is there a way for me to export one flow from one account and import it to another ? This would be handy, as

        • Setting admin only field values in widget

          Hello If I'm using a Widget addRecord function invoked by a user input (the user has write permission not developer) can he set values to a field that is set to be visible to Admin only?

        • Exclude Segment from Campaign Recipients

          I've created two Segments in order to separate Non-Marketing Contacts from Marketing Contacts. I'd like to send an Eblast to all Marketing contacts in my lists, but when I go to select Recipients, I have two options: 1. To Choose Lists to Send to; 2.

        • Option to Delete Chats in IM

          Currently, there is no option to delete any chats in IM, regardless of their source.

        • Installing EMAIL Setup in New Domain

          Respected Support team, I'm facing an issue with cloudflare in Pakistan, I want to setup Zoho Mail Setup but I Don't know how to enable Zoho mail setup without cloudflare. My Website https://stumbleguymod.com/ is using CF, and I want a different Zoho

        • Stop completed task lists from disappearing?

          Is there any way to stop projects from making tasks lists disappear when all the tasks in the list are completed? That's one of those little things where we're constantly fighting the product. For instance we have some projects which are ongoing - no start and end date. We use Kanban view to show the various task lists. We don't want the kanban list to disappear every time the items on it happen to be closed out. Thanks

        • Adding Coloured Picklist Based On Email Body Text

          Hey All, So i am having this problem, Im currently trying to automate a coloured picklist so that when the body of an email contains a specific word it will assign one of my coloured picklist i have created automatically, But it appears this only works

        • Compliant SQL?

          I am a Microsoft Access developer. At the moment I am downloading tables from Zoho into an Access database to create join queries that I am unable to do in Zoho. I am doing this because Zoho doesn't seem to fully support all SQL statements that Access

        • Automation #11 - Auto Update Custom Fields with Values from Emails

          This is a monthly series designed to help you get the best out of Desk. We take our cue from what's being discussed or asked about the most in our community. Then we find the right use cases that specifically highlight solutions, ideas and tips to optimize

        • Email notification for followers

          Is there a way to enable email notification for followers of a support ticket? ie: Ticket #123 is owned by Agent#1, Agent#2 adds themselves as a follower. Whenever ticket #123 receives an email from the customer, Agent#1 receives an email. Agent#2 would

        • Unified WhatsApp Number Management in Zoho Desk and SalesIQ

          Dear Zoho Desk Support Team, We are currently utilizing both Zoho Desk and Zoho SalesIQ for our customer support operations. While both platforms offer WhatsApp integration, we are facing challenges due to the requirement of separate WhatsApp numbers

        • Zoho Desk is extremely slow

          Hi Team, We are facing extreme latency issue with Zoho Desk. It is currently unusable. I have submitted a ticket already could you please look into this asap. Regards, Priya Sharna

        • Next Page