Kaizen #182 - Queries in Canvas List View

Kaizen #182 - Queries in Canvas List View



Hello everyone!

Welcome to another week of Kaizen!
​
We're back with another post in this series on Queries in Canvas List View.

Queries in Zoho CRM allow you to dynamically retrieve data from CRM as well as third-party services directly within the CRM platform.
You can construct a query of one of the following types:
  1. CRM Module type query to retrieve data from CRM modules.
  2. COQL type query to construct a query using the COQL API.
  3. REST API type query to fetch data from an external service and use it in Zoho CRM.
You can associate a query with the 'Decision' component of Kiosk, Canvas Detail View, or Canvas List View.

In this post, we will take up a use case and see how you can associate a query with Canvas List View.

Use case

Sales and support teams often need quick access to Zoho Desk tickets related to a contact in Zoho CRM. To avoid switching between apps to check ticket statuses, we can use the Queries feature to fetch the latest Zoho Desk ticket's details of a contact dynamically and display them on the Canvas List View page of the Contacts module.
This ensures that CRM users can instantly view the most recent ticket linked to a contact without leaving Zoho CRM.

Follow along to see how you can achieve this!

Step 1 - Add a Source

  1. Go to Setup > Developer Hub > Queries > Sources > Add Source.
  2. Under Information,
    1. Give a name for the source and its Base URL. Queries will make API calls to this URL to fetch data. Ensure to add this to Trusted Domain.
    2. Specify any default parameters and headers for this base URL.
  3. Under Connection, choose the connection you have created with Zoho Desk with the necessary scopes. If you haven't, create one.
  4. Click Save.

Notes
Note
Queries will make API calls to the URL you add in the Source and consume credits that are applicable in that service. Ensure you monitor your API usage in your source provider.

Step 2 - Create a REST API Query

  1. Go to Setup > Developer Hub > Queries > Add Query.
  2. Under Source, choose the source you created in step 1.
  3. Under Information,
    1. Enter the Name, API Name, and the Endpoint of the query.
    2. Specify the parameter email that takes the dynamic variable {{Contact_Email}} as its value. This is to fetch the latest ticket from Zoho Desk for a contact with the email in this variable during runtime. Refer to our Kaizen post on Handling Query Variables in Zoho CRM for additional details.
    3. Specify Headers, if any.
  4. You can serialize the output to fit your needs using JavaScript in the Serializer.

  5. Click Next.
  6. Enter an email address in the box to test the query.

  7. Click Save. You can see the response of the query and the serialized response if you had serialized the output.

  8. Click Next.
  9. You can see the Schema of the query. The Schema acts as a bridge/mapping layer between external API responses and Zoho CRM's internal data structure. For example, the response of the Desk API returns result[].assignee.firstName, which is mapped to CRM as Assignee > FirstName. Schema ensures that the CRM UI knows how to display the field correctly.
    With the right mapping in the schema, you can avoid manual data entry or syncing, and use the API data in workflows, reports, and dashboards.
    You can change the CRM Field Type and Label to suit your needs. Refer to our Kaizen post on Serialization and Schema Management for more details.
  10. Click Save to save the query.
Now that our query and fetching data from Zoho Desk is sorted, let's move on to the Canvas.

The Custom List view in Canvas enables you to stack records horizontally, one above the other.
Follow the steps in the How to Work with Canvas? guide to create a Custom List View Canvas for the Contacts module.
  1. On the Canvas, click the database icon for the Queries component.
  2. Click Associate Query.
  3. Give an Association Name and select the Source(added in step 1) for the query.
  4. Under Query, select the query you created.
  5. The Variables section will contain the variables in the query. The drop-down displays all fields in the Contacts module. Select the Email field.
  6. Under Result Mapping, choose Email as the Source Record Field and Contact > Email as the Query Response Path. The Query Response Path is populated from the schema of the query.
  7. Click Done to associate the query with the canvas.

  8. You can see all the fields of the query on the left. Drag and drop the required fields on the canvas.

  9. Save the canvas.

Time for the big reveal!
The following GIF shows how the ticket details from Zoho Desk are populated on the Canvas List View of the Contacts module.
Info
Note that every time you reload the canvas, the query underneath makes an API call to the source provider to fetch data for the contacts in Zoho CRM. Ensure your API calls are monitored to avoid exhasuting your credits.


We hope you liked this post.
​
Let us know your thoughts in the comments or write to us at support@zohocrm.com.
Topic suggestions are welcome! See you all next week!


Cheers!


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------










    • Sticky Posts

    • 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

    • Kaizen #142: How to Navigate to Another Page in Zoho CRM using Client Script

      Hello everyone! Welcome back to another exciting Kaizen post. In this post, let us see how you can you navigate to different Pages using Client Script. In this Kaizen post, Need to Navigate to different Pages Client Script ZDKs related to navigation A.

    • Kaizen #210 - Answering your Questions | Event Management System using ZDK CLI

      Hello Everyone, Welcome back to yet another post in the Kaizen Series! As you already may know, for the Kaizen #200 milestone, we asked for your feedback and many of you suggested topics for us to discuss. We have been writing on these topics over the

    • Recent Topics

    • #BiginnersTips | How to bulk update closing dates for multiple deals in Bigin

      Hello Biginners! Keeping your CRM data accurate is crucial for any business- big or small. One key aspect is ensuring that closing dates for deals are always up to date. Why? Because if a deal is closed but not updated, your dashboards and reports would

    • 采购里出现付款通知 的错误

      采购里面出现付款通知错误，怎么调整，我找不到路径，好像是ZOHO 自动生成的，请问怎么调整

    • {"code":1002,"message":"Statement of Accounts does not exist."}

      Hello Zoho team, I faced an issue while trying to POST a sales order from sap to zoho books, using the below data packet: {   "customer_id": "4322967000027451968",   "line_items": [     {       "item_id": "2154170000010847685",       "rate": "752.00",

    • Add Custom Fields only in Customer module and not on supplier module!? Is not there a way to do that!?

      I am trying to create custom fields on clients module but it also gets created on suppliers module; which of course does not make sense at all as a lot of custom fields are client or supplier specific but never both. I am missing something? This seems

    • Logging website service fees

      Hello, I do a lot of freelance work on sites like Upwork and Wyzant and others and those companies take a small cut from what I pay or what I earn and I am wondering what is the correct way to log this in my books. For example if I charge $55 per hour

    • How do i clear a liability account without making a payment?

      I have a liability account with a provision for an expected bill from previous years. However the bill never arrived and the provision/liability account with Cr balance has been carried forward for many years now. How do i know clear the provision made

    • 2 Transactions for single Expense

      I have make 2 payments and have 1 Invoice containing both the items. My Bank Feeds show 2 Transactions, How can i associate them with Single Expense? I tried adding them to Advance Payment, but advance payment I can only apply to Bills It seems. Why cant

    • Everything AI in Zoho Recruit – Webinar Recording Available!

      AI is transforming the way recruiters find, engage, and hire top talent. In our latest webinar, we explored how Zoho Recruit’s AI-powered features can help streamline hiring, automate workflows, and improve decision-making. Missed the session? No worries

    • Introducing the FTP task in Deluge

      Hello everyone, We're excited to announce the launch of the FTP task, a powerful addition to Deluge that enables you to effortlessly transfer files between various Zoho apps and your own servers. Unlike the invokeUrl task, which supports various HTTP

    • Custom widgets on Zoho one dashboard

      Is it possible to create custom widgets on the Zoho One dashboard? I see there is a widget name My Open Tickets to display open tickets in my view, but I would also like to have a widget to display unassigned tickets. A widget to display unfinished projects

    • Data privacy concerns

      Does Zoho team have access to my data in the database e.g. Balance Sheet, Bank account transactions, Profit & Loss statement etc.

    • Ability to Remove/Change Zoho Creator Admins via Zoho One Interface

      Dear Zoho One Team, Greetings, We would like to request a feature enhancement in Zoho One. Currently, it is not possible to remove or downgrade a user with the Admin role in Zoho Creator from the Zoho One admin interface. Unlike other Zoho apps where

    • Zoho Sheets

      Are they ever going to set up the feature "where I left off" just as you can do in Microsoft Excel online ? For me that is the only feature missing from Zoho sheets other than that I think they are terrific and use them every day. I only occasionally

    • Canvas Detail View Related List Sorting

      Hello, I am having an issue finding a way to sort a related list within a canvas detail view. I have sorted the related list on the page layout associated with the canvas view, but that does not transfer to the canvas view. What am I missing?

    • Mass Update in Zoho CRM

      Hello, I want to update my past update records by using deluge on some conditions. anyone can please tell me how can I do it.

    • Action requested: Retain your sales journey configuration in Path Finder

      Dear Customers, We hope you're well! As you might know, we're completely overhauling our journey management suite, CommandCenter, and are in the last leg of it. As a means of getting ready to go live, we will be announcing a series of requests and updates

    • search layout in new version

      Hello where is the menu for customizing search fields (module search layout) in the new zoho version (2016) ?? thanks nono

    • Zoho Marketplace Analytcis

      Hi Team, Our Zoho Marketplace Dashboard is not showing any data. What do you think we could do?

    • if i have zoho one can i upgrade some of my staff from crm to crm plus within my organisation?

      if i have zoho one can i upgrade some of my staff from crm to crm plus within my organisation? Or because I have many licenses of ZOHO ONE , IF I upgrade some staff to ZOGO CRUM PLUS. they will not be on the same organisat

    • The problem with Commerce ownership changing

      Hi, I am changing the ownership of the company and trying to delete the previous user-owner. I changed the owner of the company from user Tatiana to user Eugene. Eugene is the owner of the organization. It's OK. I am now trying to remove the user Tatiana.

    • Secondary Emails

      I am having issues deleting a secondary email address from a couple of our users and need help. When in Directory, manage email addresses, I click the trash icon by the email address and confirm I am trying to delete the email. I click continue and I

    • Zoho Books | Product updates | June 2025

      Hello Users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books, from the option to record advances for purchase orders to dynamic lookup fields, all designed to help you stay on top of your finances with ease. Introducing Change Comparators

    • Widget Upload to CRM Fails with “Page Not Found” – Even with Correct Index Path

      I'm building a simple widget to export Contact data to CSV in Zoho CRM, triggered via a custom button. The widget uploads cleanly, appears in the widget list, and is successfully assigned to a Contact detail view via a custom button. But when clicked,

    • How can we manage the tags in ticket

      Allowing agents to use Tags indiscriminately can cause havoc. We could not find tag management where 1. The admin can create Tags beforehand for use by Agents 2. Permission can be allocated which roles/profiles can use existing tags or add new tags 3.

    • Feed Notifications filter?

      I'd like to have filter settings for Feed Notifications just like we have for Personal Email. If someone dumps a bunch of files into a project, we get a notification for every file!

    • Custom fields and filters for Timesheet

      HI Zoho Projects team. IT would be great and useful if we can add custom fields to the Timesheet design And is needed more options for filtering the timesheet dashboard, like "Milestones" and task list asociated to the record. Thank you

    • How do I rename the dropdown that contains a form and a report?

      I want to rename this, but I can't find how

    • Filtering two fields

      Hoping somone can assist, i am trying to create a report to show values from two different fields. e.g I have Field 1 Field 2 In some records, fields 1 and 2 are both "yes"; in other records, only one of the fields has the value "yes". Can we generate

    • Unable to Convert Quote to Invoice – Integration Active but User Not Recognized

      I’m having trouble converting a Quote into an Invoice inside Zoho CRM, even though the Zoho Finance Suite integration is enabled (Invoices, Quotes, Products, and Customers are all checked), and my user is an Admin in both Zoho CRM and Zoho Books, using

    • Owner drawings

      I entered an owner’s drawing transaction in 2023 but it’s still appearing on 2024 books. Is that supposed to happen? Or should Is there an additional step? I prefer for this transaction not to appear.

    • Running Balance in Account Statement.

      Running balance should come by default in the accounting statements but in ZOHO we need to customize every time to get the running balance in accounting statement. I did not understand, when the bank account statement opened from Bank Menu can show the

    • Importing Invoices

      Dear Team I used the enclosed csv file to import some invoices and it worked fine. I had to delete the file and when I am trying to re-upload it, I am getting the error for invoice number and branch "Resource does not exit." I tried a number of different

    • Enhance "Send Cliq Notification" Action in Zoho Desk Workflows (and also add Happiness Rating Support)

      ello Zoho Desk Team, We hope you're doing well. We’d like to submit a feature request regarding the “Send Cliq Notification” action available in Zoho Desk workflows — specifically in workflows triggered by Happiness Ratings, but also relevant to all workflows

    • Treatment of Non-Refundable Income after cancelling an Invoice

      A customer made part payments of 30,000 for an invoice 0f 100,000, and then he is unable to pay up the remaining and has asked for a refund. As per company policy, he can only get 75% of the amount paid, which is 22,500. The remaining 7,500 is non-refundable

    • I need refund

      I have purchased the Zoho Book standard plan; I had the impression that I would get the purchase > Bill feature. After purchasing, I found that billing is not included in the Zoho standard plan. I immediately canceled the subscription. I love the product,

    • Handling identifiers during an import

      Importing your data When importing data into an application, it is crucial to prevent data loss or duplication. These types of errors can hinder the development of a clean and well-organised database, which is essential for effective data management and

    • Creating Deposit Invoices

      Hi, we are a company that does project based work with a request at the begining of each project for a deposit payment. At the moment we are creating invoices for the deposit and an invoice for the completion of the project, however they are completely

    • Marketer’s Space - WhatsApp Pricing Update: What Marketers Need to Know and Do

      Hello Marketers, Welcome back to Marketer’s Space! WhatsApp made changes to their pricing model on July 1, 2025, moving from conversation-based pricing to a per-message pricing model. This week’s post focuses on what these changes mean for your WhatsApp

    • It's time to say goodbye to Zoho Recruit for me.

      Hello, I have been a Zoho Recruit user since 2013. The tool has evolved, with a better UI, new features and so on. The pricing is still a great asset too. BUT, that being said, important features are not coming fast enough. I tried to share my point of

    • change subscription within customer portal

      Would be great for the customer to be able to change their own subscription (or restart existing one) within the customer portal. Also, would like to be able to have early termination fee on subscriptions if canceled early.

    • Next Page