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

    • API Pagination Error: 'from' Parameter Limit

      Hello, I am encountering an error while paging through the Zoho Desk API results: Status code: 422 - {"errorCode":"UNPROCESSABLE_ENTITY","message":"The value passed for field 'from' exceeds the range of '0-4999'."} Is 5000 the maximum number of records

    • How to go to the next open ticket in the queue when agents closes ticket

      Zoho Desk When agent closes a ticket - eg when they choose 'Send and Close" - where is the setting that automatically redirects them to the next open ticket in the queue?

    • CRM verify details pop-up

      Was there a UI change recently that involves the Verify Details pop-up when changing the Stage of a Deal to certain things? I can't for the life of me find a workflow or function, blueprint, validation rule, layout rule ect that would randomly make it

    • Custom templates for calendar report

      What about being able to design custom templates for the calendar report, as well as for other types of reports? I think more users are waiting for this.

    • Print a price list or price book

      Hi Community. Am I right in concluding that Zoho has no functionality to print a price list from either Zoho CRM, Zoho Inventory or Zoho Books? I won't get stuck on the fact that Zoho doesn't sync price books between Zoho CRM and Books/Inventory (more

    • Disable payment thank-you emails

      Hello, can someone please tell me how to disable sending of the "Payment Thank-You" emails? 

    • Maximum tags possible in Contacts Records

      I read in some documentation that Zoho allows a total of 200 tags across all records. Is this correct? So is it not possible to have one tag per record for 500 records?

    • Any way to "Pay with Check" or "Refund with Check" for Credit Notes?

      When we have a Bill in Zoho Books, we can select the "Pay with Check" option which then allows us to print/cut the check directly out of Zoho Books. When we created a Credit Note and want to refund the customer, is there any way to Refund with Check,

    • CRM Mobile reports

      When our engineers finish a job they like to email the customer a job report. This is best done todate as an email template but we can find no way to include an image field from that module. Is there any other options?

    • When Zoho Tables Beta will be open to EU data center

      Hello all, We in EU are looking at you all using and testing and are getting jealous :) When we will be able to get into the beta also? We don't mind testing and playing with beta software. Thank you!

    • Start Form on a different page (i.e., hide form pages)?

      I have a Zoho form that uses the `Field Alias - Prefill URL` feature. My goal is to have a pre-filled field that directs the user to a specific starting page in the form. For example: The URL will have a field alias that will auto-populate a field with

    • How can we disable "My Requests"?

      We are not using this functionality in our system at all and our users get confused.

    • PayPal payment received recording problem

      Hi, A little while back one of our customers used the PayPal payment option to pay an invoice For some reason though the payment is showing up twice within the Payments section of the invoice! Instead of setting the invoice value to ZERO, it now shows a negative value Anyone else face this problem? I've checked PayPal and there is only 1 payment in reality... A bug? Actonia ps: for anyone from Zoho Customer Service or tech team,  its Invoice 785 in our account

    • server response: 451.4.7.1

      Good day.  Some email clients of our domain receive an error about sending and receiving letters. while for the rest everything works fine. access to the mail made by pop protocol. Bless the mistakes: "server response: 451.4.7.1 System error". 

    • string(87) "{"code":"INVALID_TOKEN","details":{},"message":"invalid oauth token","status":"error"} " grtting this error

      Using access token i am trying to add sales orders through api but it is throwing errors like the above i have mentioned. Please help me for that

    • How to mute chat notification sound by default in Zoho SalesIQ?

      We’ve recently embedded the Zoho SalesIQ chatbot on our website, and we’ve noticed that notification sounds sometimes play even when the visitor hasn’t interacted with the chat widget yet. We’re trying to understand two things: Why do these sounds occur

    • Kanban View for Projects.

      At our organization, we describe active projects with various statuses like "In Proofing" or "Printing" or "Mailing". In the Projects view, one can set these project statuses by selecting from the appropriate drop-down. While this works, it's difficult to view and comprehend the progress of all of your projects relative to each other in a table. Creating a Kanban view for projects where I can move them from one status to another allows me to see where each project is in the order of our workflow.

    • How to Hide Article Links in SalesIQ Answer Bot Responses

      I have published an article in SalesIQ, and the Answer Bot is fetching the data and responding correctly. However, it is also displaying the article link, which I don’t want. How can I remove the link so that only the message is shown?

    • Add RECURRING option when adding email to calendar events

      When you add an email to a calendar event, there is no option to make that new calendar event into a recurring event.  It is counterproductive to make an event from your email to then have to go to your calendar, find the event, and make it recurring. 

    • LINE Auto Message Connect to Zoho

      When I integrated LINE into the CRM, I was prompted to disable “Chat,” “Auto Response,” and “Greeting Messages,” and to enable the webhook. However, since I have already set up some auto-reply features in LINE, including Rich Messages and greeting automation,

    • Option to block bookings from specific email address or ip adresss in zoho booking

      Sometime few of our client keep booking irrelevant booking service just to resolve their queries and they keep booking it again and again whenever they have queries. Currently its disturbing our current communication process and hierarchy which we have

    • Threaded conversations for emails sent via automation

      Hi Guys, I hope you are doing well. Don't you guys think we should have an option in a workflow to notify users either as a new email or the previous email thread. For example, if you have one deal in the process and there are 10 different stages during

    • Create folder is fetch fails

      coming from zapier... zapier has a google drive task that searches for a specific folder in google drive, and if it fails to find the folder it will create a folder based on the search criteria, and contine along the singluar path of the flow. Trying

    • Meetups de Usuarios de Zoho - Noviembre 2025

      ¡Hola, Comunidad! Durante el mes de noviembre celebraremos los Meetups de usuarios de Zoho, encuentros presenciales pensados para quienes queráis mejorar vuestras estrategias de lead nurturing y aprender a sacar el máximo partido a herramientas como Zoho

    • Introducing 8 New Connectors in Zoho DataPrep!

      We’ve just made data management even easier - Zoho DataPrep now supports 8 new external connectors to help you build more robust, scalable ETL pipelines. Why it matters: ✅ Broader data access ✅ More automation, less manual work ✅ Smarter pipelines, better

    • Sales Order, Invoice and Payment numbers

      Hi zoho friends, it is me again, the slow learner. I'm wondering if there is a way to have it so the Sales order, invoice and payment numbers are all the same? It would be easier for me if they were the same number so there is not so many reference numbers

    • First day of trying FSM in the field.

      What we found. 1. with out a network connection we were unable to start a service call? 2. if you go to an appointment and then want to add an asset it does not seem possible. 3. disappointed not to be able to actually take a payment from within the app

    • Zoho Desk app update: AI powered features

      Hello everyone! We’ve introduced various AI-powered services on the Zoho Desk app. Let's take a look at what's new. Generate Content: Generate Content uses AI to formulate responses based on the your query and provides a ready-to-use reply which can be

    • How to Automate Email Sequence

      I'm having trouble trying to set up a workflow to automate an email sequence. Once a group of emails in a Task has been tagged by a certain tag, I want an instant email template to be sent. After 7 days with no response, another email template would be

    • Turning off the new UI

      Tried the new 'enhanced' UI and actively dislike it. Anyone know how to revert back?

    • Zoho Sprints Android v2.0.4 app update: Item reminders, archive Epics, Kanban projects, Epic progress

      Hello everyone! In the latest version(v2.0.4) of the Zoho Sprints Android app update, we have introduced various new features. Let's take a look at what's new! Item Reminder Stay organized and never miss an important date with the all-new Item Reminder

    • Credit Management: #3 Setting Credit Limit for Customers

      Think about that one familiar customer of yours who always buys on credit. They usually pay on time, maybe a little late here and there, but not alarming. So, you are fine saying, "Sure, pay later." Then, one day, they place a significantly bigger order

    • Update on the client portal URL for Guest users

      We’re updating the way Guest users access their Connect network. As part of this change, all client organization portals used by Guest users will now be accessible through a dedicated domain specific to each data center. The access URLs mentioned here

    • Preserve Ticket Issue Mapping When Migrating from Jira to Zoho Projects

      Hello Zoho Projects Team, We hope you are doing well. We are currently exploring a full migration from Jira to Zoho Projects, and we identified a critical limitation during the migration process involving Zoho Desk integration. Current Situation: We use

    • Unable to see Zoho contacts in Zoho app on ios

      Hi Support Team, I am a new user, I have created my account and installed zohomail app on iOS 16 which works. I was also able to import my Gmail contacts into Zoho Contacts, which I can see. The problem is that I can’t see these imported cobalts in Zohomail

    • Task Due Date greater than 10 years.

      We use recurring tasks in Projects where every week, month, year etc Some of our projects are greater than 10 years and we are unable to set a new due date because the difference between start date and due date is greater than 10 years. As an example

    • External User onboarding for zoho connect is not really intuitive.

      So the external user is sent an invite, which has a button that directs them to login to zoho to view the invite, but if they don't have a zoho account, they cannot access that invite, which seems kinda silly, as there is not real way on for them to create

    • Hosting external websites on Zoho?

      How can I host my external website on zoho? Do we have that option? I am currently with hostinger and am looking to switch to zoho. Kindly help. Thanks.

    • How to Add Time Formula Duration (hh:mm)

      Hi everyone — I’m trying to create a formula field in Zoho CRM that calculates the difference between a “Call Start Time” and “Call End Time” and displays the duration in HH:MM format (for example: 1:04 for one hour and four minutes). My current setup

    • How can I calculate the physical stock available for sale?

      Hey Zoho Team,  I've tried to calculate the physical stock on hand in various ways - but always receive a mismatch between what's displayed in Zoho Inventory & analytics.  Can you please let me know how the physical stock available for sale is calculated?

    • Next Page