Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest - April 2024
Hello everyone,
April was an action-packed month for the Zoho Developer Community! From insightful sessions on strategic software development to the conclusion of the exciting bootcamps in India, there's plenty to catch up on. Explore upcoming events, valuable resources, and engaging community discussions in this month's digest. Dive in for a dose of inspiration and stay connected with the latest updates!
April Highlights
Zoho Developer Hangout 15
This session was all about exploring how to strategically develop software that drives business growth. @David Afolabi—Business Program Manager, Boost Media Group—gave practical insights into value chain architecture and learn how to align your solutions with evolving business processes. Watch the recording of this session here. Extensions - India Bootcamps
We wrapped up the Zoho Developer Community Bootcamps in India! The bootcamps were all about building connections, getting expert tips from Zoho pros, and feeling the power of the community. Big thanks to the Zoho experts who shared their knowledge and to everyone who participated. This is just the beginning – stay tuned for even more opportunities to learn, connect, and collaborate in the next round of bootcamps! Here's a small recap from the Chennai bootcamp.
Upcoming Events
- Zoho Extensions 101 – Extensions for Zoho Finance Suite: This series offers a comprehensive exploration of developing extensions and widgets for the Zoho Finance suite. Did you know that we have a dedicated portal in Sigma with which you can create extensions for a range of applications in the Zoho Finance Suite, including Zoho Books, Zoho Billing, Zoho Expense, Zoho Inventory, and Zoho Invoice? Starting with an introduction to Sigma and the Zoho Books platform, subsequent sessions cover creating extensions, testing, publishing, and listing apps in the Zoho Marketplace. Registration and more details here.
- Zoho QEngine 101: This series aims to enable attendees to create test cases from scratch, manage them under modules, and execute them for three different platforms—web, mobile, and API—using Zoho QEngine. With three sessions already completed, our focus will now shift to Mobile testing in the upcoming session slated for June 6. Register here.
- eSignatures with Zoho Sign: Discover how to create legally binding documents and seamlessly integrate Zoho Sign into your website or mobile application using Zoho Sign APIs and SDKs. Join us on May 16 to learn the importance of integrating a digital signature solution into your website, get a product walkthrough of Zoho Sign, and gain insights into utilizing Zoho Sign's APIs effectively. Register here.
- Zoho CRM APIs: In this series, you will learn about OAuth2.0 authorization used by Zoho CRM APIs, CRUD operations for retrieving, creating, updating, and deleting records, efficient search/query methods, data synchronization techniques for consistency across platforms, and working with SDKs for seamless integration of Zoho CRM functionality into applications. Check out part 2 of this series where we discussed Python SDK and the API credit system. In the upcoming session on May 29, we'll be covering Search API & COQL API. Register here.
- Zoho Apptics 101: In this series starting June 11, 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. Click here to register.
- Learning Table Series: 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 recent webinar on Creator for the Education Industry was a success, and during the upcoming session, we'll be exploring Creator for the Manufacturing Industry.
Title: Creator For the Manufacturing Industry
Date: June 6, 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 Tech Connect: 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. We are conducting a three-month series on mobile applications in Zoho Creator. The recent session of the series focused on rebranding mobile applications in Zoho Creator, while the upcoming session in the series will be about Mobile SDK in Zoho Creator.
Title: Mobile SDK in Zoho Creator
Date: June 13, 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
Resource Spotlight
We've consolidated all the resources from the developer community learning series into a centralized hub for your convenient access. Consider bookmarking the Zoho Developer Community website to stay informed about the latest updates in the developer community.
- Building Extensions for Zoho Projects #8: Explore the potential benefits of using modal boxes during extension development.
- Zoho BugTracker: Bug tracking software is indispensable for developers as it provides a centralized platform for managing the complexity of software development projects, communicate effectively with team members, and deliver high-quality software. That being said, we bring you the newest version of Zoho BugTracker, where the existing robust functionalities meet a fresh, intuitive design outlook. Read what's new here.
- Zoho Books: In addition to building Extensions for Zoho Books to improve efficiency of your finance management, we also offer features to save your time with effortless automations! Explore our blog to discover how these functionalities not only streamline repetitive tasks but also minimize errors, improve financial reporting accuracy with real-time updates, and more.
- Zoho Finance Applications: Until now, both the Zoho Finance apps and their APIs shared a common domain. We've recently introduced separate domains for APIs. You can now start using the new domains for API calls. The deadline to update the old domain has been extended from April 1 to June 1, 2024. More details here.
- Zoho CRM Developer Updates:
- GraphQL APIs were released for the Ultimate edition (on early access) in Feb, 2024. Now, these APIs are also available for the Enterprise, Zoho One Enterprise, and CRM Plus editions, on early access. Register here to have it enabled for your account.
- Check out our new API additions - Email drafts and Rich Text Field
- Refer to this post to learn about the updates to Assign and Remove Territories of a record APIs.
- SDKs: This month is packed with a lot of updates to our SDKs.
- Kaizen series:
- Learn how to work with subforms and external fields in a module through CRM functions in our 132nd Kaizen post.
- Confused between choosing a self-client and a server-based client? Take a look at our 133rd Kaizen post.
- Learn how to create Rich Text Fields (RTFs), how to add and update values to them, and understand an RTF’s behaviour in Query and Bulk APIs in our 134th Kaizen post.
- Life’s a little dull in the coding universe without a bit of Client Script? Check out our 135th Kaizen post to populate value in a field based on the response from a third-party API.
- Zoho Creator Webinars: Get access to the previous Zoho Creator Session recordings from Youtube & Zoho Creator Studio below:
- Previous Session Links (Youtube):
- Playlist Links (Youtube):
- Previous Session Links (Zoho Creator Studio):
- Playlist Links (Zoho Creator Studio):
Community Discussions
Zoho Developer Forum
This post is a goldmine for anyone working with Deluge scripting! @Rodger shares a struggle many face (confusing variable names) and nailed down a simple yet effective naming convention for variables and objects, making scripts way easier to read and manage. It's clear he's put a lot of thought into this, and kudos to him for generously passing on the knowledge. Look no further than this forum discussion if you're grappling with generating invoices from quotes in Zoho CRM, particularly with custom fields and API restrictions. Check out the code snippet shared by our MVP @Bhoomi to assist @Lili. @Jean wants to nudge employees to fill a non-mandatory field in Zoho CRM. Our MVP @Hugh steps in with a clever client script that triggers a pop-up reminder upon saving. As @Jean digs deeper with follow-up questions, the conversation evolves with @Javier and @Subhash joining the mix to explore advanced options. Check it out here.
Developers ZUG Cliq Channel
Note: These conversations are confined to the Developers ZUG Cliq channel members. If you're keen on becoming a part of this space, please fill in this onboarding form to receive your invitation to join the channel. - A little delay is needed at times, only when it's a part of the code! @Labiol needed help with hard-coding a delay in his Deluge code, and thankfully, there was no delay in @Richard and @Mike coming to his aid with an effective, documented solution. Check it out here.
- Sometimes the answer is right under the nose! @Eric Chrobak faced an issue spanning various Zoho Products, which required work with SQL, and @Ed jumped in with the simplest solution one can imagine. Check it out for yourself here!
- They say there's more than one way to skin a cat. Apparently, there were also mutiple ways to solve @Reid's need to filter contacts and deals based on different stages in communication. Check out the different solutions offered by Mike and Sayali here!
- Syncing data between applications lets users manipulate data in specific ways for specific needs. That's what Ram needed help with; syncing contacts between Zoho CRM and Zoho Books. Janani jumped in with sample code that saved Ram's day!
- Calculating geographical distances is an integral part of a multitude of businesses, such as Real Estate, eCommerce, and so on, for varied use cases. When @Ron needed help, @Puneet took him a lot closer to solving his query on calculating geographical distances using Zoho Creator.
- Not all code that is written in Zoho's suite of products has to be in Deluge, Zoho's own coding language! Check out this interaction that happened when Vigneshwaran needed help with Javascript to retrieve records from Zoho Creator.
Community Spotlight
ZDH Speakers
The contributions of our ZDH presenters have been instrumental in the success of the this segment. We extend our heartfelt appreciation for their efforts.
Cliq Contributors
The Developers ZUG Cliq channel has consistently served as the primary hub for community members seeking technical assistance and engaging in savvy discussions. Here are our top contributors who have gone the extra mile to support and assist the Zoho Developer 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.
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 to be featured in the upcoming month's digest. Wishing you an amazing month ahead!
SEE ALSO
Sticky Posts
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
Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest - September 2024
Hello everyone, This month's Developer Digest is packed with resources to help you build powerful applications. Learn how to leverage Zoho CRM's new features, explore the latest in Zoho Finance and Catalyst, and join exciting bootcamps, webinars, and
Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest - August 2024
Hello everyone, Get ready for another exciting month of Zoho development! Our August digest is packed with events, resources, and community discussions to empower you as a Zoho developer. Let's dive right in! Upcoming Events To stay on top of the upcoming
Extensions 101: Build Extensions for Zoho Finance suite
Hello Developers! We are thrilled to announce our 5-day webinar series on building extensions for Zoho Finance Suite products. Our first session was a resounding success, introducing Extensions, Zoho Developer, Zoho Marketplace, and the Zoho Books Developer
Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest - July 2024
Hello everyone, We're here again with July month's digest packed with exciting events, resources, updates, and community discussions to empower you as a Zoho developer. Dive right in! Upcoming Events To stay on top of the upcoming developer community