Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest - January 2024

Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest - January 2024



Hello everyone!

Welcome to the latest edition of the Zoho Developer Community Digest. As we begin the year with renewed vigor, we're thrilled to present a roundup of engaging discussions, valuable resources, and noteworthy community highlights from January. Dive in to stay updated on the latest developments in Zoho and join us in fostering collaboration within the developer community.

Upcoming Events

  1. Zoho Developer Hangout 13: Zoho CRM offers flexibility for businesses to tailor it precisely according to their unique requirements. However, even the best suits may need a few extra accessories. That's where Zoho Creator steps in. When integrated with Zoho CRM, it extends the platform's capabilities, allowing you to build custom applications, forms, and views, transforming them into custom tabs within the CRM interface. Think of it as the stylish pocket square that completes the look. In this session, our MVP @Anonymous User, will provide an introduction to Deluge scripting and its role in creating integrations between Zoho Creator and Zoho CRM. He will delve into the intricacies of fetching records from Creator within CRM and vice versa, as well as creating and updating records in both platforms. Click here for registration.

  2. Zoho Developer Community Bootcamp (In-Person): This has been long overdue! We're hosting our first-ever in-person developer meetup, and we're doing it right here in our home base. If you're in Chennai, you're in for a special treat. The bootcamp is designed to empower developers of all skill levels, guiding them to learn and create extensions for Zoho products. Participants also have the opportunity to potentially monetize their creations by listing them on the Zoho Marketplace. Registration and more details here.

  3. Creator 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 Agriculture Industry was a success, and during the upcoming session, we'll be exploring Creator for the Real Estate Industry.

    Title: Creator For Real Estate Industry
    Date: March 7, 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

  4. 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 planning to conduct a three-month series on Custom widgets: Extension in Zoho Creator and its development process. While the first session of the series focused on developing widgets with JS API in Zoho Creator, the upcoming session will be about using Widgets from Zoho Marketplace as Extensions in Zoho Creator.

    Title: Developing Widgets in Zoho Creator
    Date: February 15, 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

  5. Application Development Bootcamp: Application Development Bootcamp is a three-day webinar on Zoho Creator features and the application-building process. During these sessions, users get to learn how to turn their ideas into fully functional applications through live sessions and exercises. The webinars, each lasting an hour, cover sessions on ideating, structuring, developing, and managing solutions in Zoho Creator.

    Title: Application Development Bootcamp 1.0
    Date:  March 19, 20, and 21, 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

  6. Catalyst Webinar: Turn Ideas into Modern Apps with Ease using Catalyst AppSail
    Catalyst AppSail is a highly scalable platform that allows you to quickly build apps using popular programming languages such as Java, Node.js, or Python, and your favorite frameworks like Spring, SpringBoot, Flutter, Angular, Django, Flask, and many more. Tune into our webinar to gain insights on using AppSail from our in-house industry experts. Registration and more details yet.

Having hosted many meetups and events in the past, we've witnessed the value of networking, shared learning, and collaboration among the developer community members. As we look forward to 2024, an exclusive series of events is on the horizon, and we invite developers from all corners to join us. Embrace the community experience with Zoho, and let's make the most of these opportunities together. Take a moment to review the details of each event listed in this forum post and complete the form by indicating your preferred events. Feel free to select all that pique your interest – there's no need to hold back; we'll ensure you receive the invitations accordingly.

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.

Community Discussions

Zoho Developer Forum

  • When @Federico needed help with dynamically adjusting a webhook to distinguish calls from production and sandbox environments, @Hugh Marshall and @Ishwarya SG offered three methods to accomplish this task in this discussion
  • When @Scholfield's code logic didn't meet his requirements of identifying accounts in Zoho CRM without any scheduled calls or calls altogether, @Ishwarya SG stepped in with a solution, offering advice on scaling it and providing a code snippet for implementation.
  • @Federico sought help in the community forum to add a "Ask for a quote" button to the Deals Detail page that opens a form to collect data. @Haiku technical support stepped in and suggested the best ways to implement this scenario effectively. Check out the conversation here.
  • Check out the code snippet shared by @Pheranda Nongpiur to fetch values from a Subform in one module and display those values for comparison in another module in Zoho CRM. 
  • Do you want to get the ID of a CRM record created using Client Script? Then this post is for you. When @Serge Piskarev was finding it difficult, @Maadhari M provided guidance with creating a record successfully and getting the ID. She also went the extra mile and suggested @Serge to use ZDK.Apps.CRM.Contacts.Models.Contacts() model, as it has more extensive features.

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.

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.

As a continuation of featuring a ZDH presenter each month, this time, we would like to introduce our sixth ZDH presenter, @Anonymous User. Explore this post to discover the knowledge and insights he shared with the community.

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. 

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 to be features in the upcoming month's digest. Wishing you an amazing month ahead!

SEE ALSO



        • Recent Topics

        • Why Sharing Rules do Not support relative date comparison???

          I am creating a Sharing Rule and simply want to share where "Last Day of Coverage" (Date field) is Greater than TODAY (Starting Tomorrow). However, sharing rules don't have the option to compare a date field to a relative date (like today), only to Static
        • Workflow rule only allows 10 workflow per module

          Apparently a Zoho professional edition only allows 10 workflow rules per module. This makes workflow allocation literally impossible while allocating potential to different members of the team. I have 15 licenses. Is there a way in which related alerts can be varied? In other words, is it possible to have different related alerts be triggered with different rule criteria. so if I say, if potential is 'x' then trigger related alert 'x' and if potential is 'y' then trigger related alert 'y' Thanks,
        • IF Statement in Zoho CRM Formula Field

          Hi, I am attempting to write a formula field that will give me one result if one statement AND another statement are true, then a different value if the first statement AND a different statement are true, else 0. Stated differently: if account = destination
        • CRM Percent custom fields: When will it show the % symbol and behave like %?

          1. Actually Percent custom fields fail to show the % symbol. 2. When in formulas Percent fields work like number: 100 x 5% = 5 ideal world 100 x 5% = 500 what happens actually 3. When importing Percent fields the % symbol has to be removed and the data
        • Editing the Ticket Properties column

          This is going to sound like a dumb question, but I cannot figure out how to configure/edit the sections (and their fields) in this column: For example, we have a custom "Resolution" field, which parked itself in the "Ticket Information" section of this
        • "Total Hours" on Employee Attendance Report

          I'm learning that in Zoho jargon, "total hours" does not include paid breaks. Or at least not the way that my setup is working. That seems a little weird to me, since most jurisdictions in the US don't differentiate between time spent on paid break and
        • Fixed assets in Zoho One?

          Hi, We use Zoho Books and have the fixed asset option in it. I started a trial for Zoho One and I do not see that as an option. Is the books that is part of zoho one equivalent to Zoho Books Elite subscription or is it a lesser version? Thanks, Matt
        • Integration with...

          Dear Zoho Commerce team, Please could you consider the integration within Zoho Commerce / Inventory and Qapla'? (https://www.qapla.it/en/) This app is better than Aftership in many ways: - Aftership integration require PRO plan and price start from more
        • Generate leads from instagram

          hello i have question. If connect instagram using zoho social, it is possible to get lead from instagram? example if someone send me direct message or comment on my post and then they generate to lead
        • Adding Markdown text using Zoho Desk API into the Knowledge Base

          Hi Zoho Community members, We currently maintain the documentation of out company in its website. This documentation is written in markdown text format and we would like to add it in Zoho Knowledge Base. Do you know if there is REST API functionality
        • Create case via email

          Good Afternoon, I have just registered and am taking a look around the system. Is it possible to create a case via email.  I.e. an employee/client/supplier emails a certain address and that auto generates the case which then prompts a member of staff
        • Need a Universal Search Option in Zohobooks

          Hello Zoho, Need a Universal Search Option in Zohobooks to search across all transactions in our books of accounts. Please do the needful Thanks
        • Locked Notebook

          Hi, I hadn't used my Notebook in some time and was refamiliarizing myself with it. I clicked a lock icon and now I can't unlock. When I hit the information or unlock icons I'm taken to a page with the notebook icon and a keyboard. When I type, nothing
        • Hide fields only for creation

          Hello, I'd like to hide some fields only during the creation of a contact in Zoho CRM. In fact I have some fields that are automatically calculated thanks to an automation, so when my users create a contact I don't want them to fill those fields. I know
        • Issues with Zoho Sheet in Mac

          I have downloaded the Zoho App from App Store but It is failing to Save As, Open & Download Operations. App Store
        • Weekly Sales Summary

          Is it possible to generate a weekly report in Zoho Books to show -$$ amount of estimates generated -# of estimates generated by Salesperson -$$ amount of Sales Orders created -$$ amount of Invoices generated
        • OpenAPI Specs are just plain wrong

          The provided yml files for generating the OpenAPI specs are absolutely riddled with errors and inconsistencies. From missing fields on the objects, to just incorrectly named resource objects. I'm having to go through and manually changing the spec to
        • Add Account column to Invoice screen

          Please show the account column on Invoice creation screen. It is an unnecessary step to have to click add additional info and then select the account for line item. Example : on the bill creation screen when entering description we can easily code it against an account. On the invoice screen it requires additional click. Adding the column on the Invoice screen will make it faster to enter transactions. We currently have 5-6 different accounts that we code line items against, You can imagine the extra
        • Custom Footer – Zoho Writer Document

          Hello everyone, I’m having an issue adding a custom footer in a Zoho Writer document. I would like to insert my company information (including a logo + address) in the footer. The problem is that when I add these elements, the main content of my pages
        • Report grouping

          I have added a grouping in a report but it is not working how i had expected. I wanted to group a summary on a field named Size but when i add the grouping the report is still showing me each record and making a summary at the bottom of the report. What
        • Social Media Simplified with Zoho Social: Preview your Instagram grid before posting

          For a platform like Instagram that relies on visual appeal, it's important that you plan your image and video content in a way that holds your audience's attention. Planning your grid ahead of time gives you the benefit of understanding how your posts
        • Error code 1000

          Can you please tell me why the following, occasionally causes this error via the api, not every time ?... zoho.books.updateRecord("salesorders",organizationID,salesorderID,{"template_id":"#################069","custom_fields":[{"label":"DelDate","value":"Tuesday,
        • VAT rates - exempt and out of scope

          Good Evening, UK based company here. I am a bit confused in respect of setting up VAT rates for exempt goods and services; at present I am simply leaving the VAT rate blank in the transactions in order to prevent any VAT appearing in the VAT return. When
        • How to loop through Multiple Upload and Display Actual File Name

          I have been reading the help on the File Upload Control and reviewed the Deluge help on files and I can not figure out how to loop through the uploaded files and do anything but get the automatically created file names. The code below will run but each
        • abou arattai

          I want to use the Arattai app for business purposes, so please convert my account to a business account.I have my own invoice app, and I want to link it with the Arattai app for direct messaging.
        • vendors / customers with 2 different address and gst no

          Why can't we have option for more than one address and depending on the state option for more than 1 GST no. ? We have customers / vendors PAN india with different addresses and GST no. for different states.
        • Configurable Zoho Cliq Notifications for Zoho People Alerts

          Hello Zoho People Product Team, Greetings and hope you are doing well. We would like to request an enhancement to Zoho People notifications, enabling a native delivery via Zoho Cliq with admin-level control, similar to the notification settings available
        • Looking back at Zoho Calendar in 2025

          Hello Zoho Calendar Community, As we step into a brand-new year, we’d like to take a moment to thank you for being an active and valued part of the Zoho Calendar community. Your trust, feedback, and continued engagement motivate us to keep evolving and
        • There was an error while connecting to GSTN

          I am trying to file GSTR1. Everything flows smoothly until I reach the final step of filing the return. After I enter the PAN and OTP for filing it raises the error "There was an error while connecting to GSTN"
        • Zoho Books Extension: What Happens If Custom Fields Already Exist?

          When developing Zoho Books extensions, what happens if the target Zoho Books organization already has a custom field with the same API name as one defined in the extension? I’m asking because we originally created an on-Books version of this functionality,
        • Internal Server Error (500) When Attempting to View Banking Transactions

          I am experiencing an Internal Server Error (500) when attempting to view transactions across all of my banking accounts. Despite multiple attempts to resolve this, I have received little more than runaround from support, and the issue remains unresolved.
        • How do I add a blank line to the Organisation Address Format?

          I'd like to have my VAT number, for example, shown prominently by having a clear gap between it and the address block above, but any blank lines in the address format get ignored in PDF outputs.
        • Automatic Invoice Number generation for createRecord

          Hello, while testing some custom Buttons in my Zoho Books application, I noticed that I get an error that previously did not occur. After some further digging I found that the automatic transaction numbering of invoices no longer work in my organization.
        • Adding number of days to an estimate.

          I need both QTY of item and "number of days hire" in my estimates at the line item level. Any clues as to how this is done would be greatly appreciated. It needs to calculate. Thanks J
        • Books Api: listing expenses created after certain dates

          Is there any parameter I can add to the List Expenses endpoint that will let me look up expenses by when they were created?
        • Why can't we change the Account type from an Expense to an Asset?

          Like the question. Why in QuickBooks for example if I mistakenly created an account as an expenses and I already captured information in those accounts, I can just change the account type from expense to asset
        • Is it possible to do validation for the Actions added to Reports?

          We have an all-around On Validate function that checks all the possibilities before the Created/Edited form submissions. We want to have a button in the report view, so we can change records without entering. We are able to add this button, and it does
        • Ability to Edit Ticket Subject when Splitting a Ticket

          Often someone will make an additional or new request within an existing ticket that requires we split the ticket. The annoying part is that the new ticket maintains the subject of the original ticket after the split so when the new ticket email notification
        • [Free Webinar] Environments in Zoho Creator - Creator Tech Connect

          Hello Everyone, We’re delighted to kick off the 2026 edition of the Zoho Creator Tech Connect Series and are excited to continue this learning journey with you. The Creator Tech Connect series is a free monthly webinar featuring deep-dive technical sessions
        • Zoho Voice API SMS

          I made a post request in Zapier to try to send an SMS. Authentication appears to be configured correctly. I followed the documentation and I'm getting a 400 Error "Internal Server Error". Not helpful at all. Anyways, I could not find any information on
        • Next Page