Kaizen #190 - Queries in Custom Related Lists

Kaizen #190 - Queries in Custom Related Lists


Hello everyone!

Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! 

This week, we will discuss yet another interesting enhancement to Queries.

As you all know, Queries allow you to dynamically retrieve data from CRM as well as third-party services directly within our CRM platform. 

Remember how we discussed the use case of displaying the nearby post offices based on the shipping code? We used query variables and associated this query with the Decision component of Kiosk in Kaizen #166.

In Kaizen #169, we used serialization to fine-tune the same query to display only those post offices that delivered to a particular shipping code.

Falling in love with contextual data? This post will make sure you do!

Custom Related Lists are now powered by Queries!

Custom related lists have long been a powerful way to present relevant and contextual information right alongside the CRM records.

They allow you to display additional, context-specific information whether it’s from another module, a third-party service, or a custom integration. 

We’re now taking that power to the next level. You can now create related lists that are powered by Queries, meaning they can dynamically fetch data from other modules, external services, or custom integrations, at runtime!

Let's see this in action, as always!

Use case: Show deliverable post offices based on Shipping Code in a Related List

Imagine you’ve built a custom module called Orders to track all product shipments. Now, you'd like to display a list of nearby post offices that can deliver to the order’s Shipping Code, and you want this list to update automatically for each record.

You can create a query that pulls in post office data from an external API, with the Shipping Code passed as a variable at runtime. 

Since we're using an external source, you must add this source to Trusted Domain and Sources. This enables the query to make the external API call and fetch the required details.

Trusted Domain


Add Source


The Query


Serializer and Query's Response


You can see that the query fetches all the post offices in that PIN code and the serializer displays only those with the delivery status 'Delivery'. 

Let us use this query in a related list to display contextual data alongside the record itself.

Create a custom Related List

  1. Open a record in your Orders module and click the three-dot menu at the top right.


  2. Select Add Related List.
  3. In the dialog, choose Queries and pick your query from the list.

  4. Give your related list a name.
  5. For variable mapping, use merge fields to assign value to the variable dynamically. In our example, we are assigning the Shipping Code value to the query variable(Mailing_Zip).

  6. Click Done and Save.
  7. Your new related list will appear on the left panel, and you can reorder it as needed. The list will now update automatically based on the Shipping Code for each order, pulling fresh data every time you view a record.


Each time you view an order, the related list will fetch real-time post office data using the shipping code for that specific record; no manual updates are needed.



Using Queries in Related Lists opens up endless possibilities. With the power of Queries in related lists, you can: 
  • Avoid static data as related lists become truly dynamic.
  • Display contextual data - data that is relevant to the record.
  • Negate the need for lookup fields as queries can fetch data from external services and CRM modules seamlessly.


We hope you liked this post. Let us know what you think in the comments or write to us at support@zohocrm.com.

If you have any interesting use cases of your own, please do share them with us and the community.

Cheers!

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




    • Sticky Posts

    • Kaizen #197: Frequently Asked Questions on GraphQL APIs

      🎊 Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – We want to hear from you! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.

    • Kaizen #198: Using Client Script for Custom Validation in Blueprint

      Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – 1 More to the Big Two-Oh-Oh! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.

    • Celebrating 200 posts of Kaizen! Share your ideas for the milestone post

      Hello Developers, We launched the Kaizen series in 2019 to share helpful content to support your Zoho CRM development journey. Staying true to its spirit—Kaizen Series: Continuous Improvement for Developer Experience—we've shared everything from FAQs

    • Kaizen #193: Creating different fields in Zoho CRM through API

      🎊 Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – We want to hear from you! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.

    • Client Script | Update - Introducing Commands in Client Script!

      Have you ever wished you could trigger Client Script from contexts other than just the supported pages and events? Have you ever wanted to leverage the advantage of Client Script at your finger tip? Discover the power of Client Script - Commands! Commands

    • Recent Topics

    • Please review and re-enable outgoing emails for my domain

      Hello Zoho Support, I have recently purchased a new domain and set up email hosting with Zoho. However, my account shows "Outgoing Email Blocked". I am a genuine user and not sending bulk/spam emails. Please review and re-enable outgoing emails for my

    • Payroll without tax integrations (i.e. payroll for international)

      It seems as though Zoho waits to develop integrations with local tax authorities before offering Zoho Payroll to Zoho customers in a country. Please reconsider this approach. We are happy Zoho Books customers, but unhappy that we have to run payroll in

    • goingout e mail block

      info@ozanrade.com.tr

    • Incoming mails blocked

      Zoho User ID : 60005368884 My mail Id is marketing#axisformingtechnology.com .I am getting following message "Your Incoming has been blocked and the emails will not be fetched in your Zoho account and POP Accounts. Click here to get unblocked." Please

    • Assistance Needed: Ticket Status Not Updating and Sorting by Last Customer Reply in Zoho Desk

      Hello, I’m facing two issues in Zoho Desk that I’d like your guidance on: Ticket Status Not Updating: When a customer replies to a ticket, the status does not change to Reopened. Instead, it remains in Waiting on Customer, even after the customer’s response

    • Configuring Email Notifications with Tautulli for Plex

      Hi I'm new to Zoho. I am from Canada and I have a I use a web based application called Tautulli for Plex that monitors my Plex media server. It also sends a newsletter to my followers. To set this up they require a "From" email address., a smtp server

    • Is there a way to automatically add Secondary Contacts (CCs) when creating a new ticket for specific customers?

      Some of our customers want multiple contacts to receive all notifications from our support team. Is there a way to automatically add secondary contacts to a ticket when our support team opens a new ticket and associates it with an account? This would

    • How to Set Up Zoho Mail Without Cloudflare on My Website

      I'm having some trouble with Cloudflare here in Pakistan. I want to configure Zoho Mail for my domain, but I'm not sure how to set it up without going through Cloudflare. My website, https://getcrunchyrollapk.com/ , is currently using CF, but I'd like

    • Spam is Being Forwarded

      I am filtering a certain sender directly to the Trash folder. Those messages are still being forwarded. Is this supposed to happen?

    • IMAP Block

      My two accounts have been blocked and I am not able to unblocked them myself. Please respond to email, I am traveling and this is urgent.

    • "DKIM not configured"

      Hello. I have been attempting get the DKIM verified but Toolkit keeps sending the message that it is not configured, but both Namecheap and Zoho show it as configured properly. What am I missing?

    • Zoho mail with custom domain not receiving email

      i registered zoho mail with my own domain. I can login and access the mail app. I tried to send email from an outlook email account and an icloud email account. Both emails were not received. My plan is free. I also tried to send email from this zoho

    • Set connection link name from variable in invokeurl

      Hi, guys. How to set in parameter "connection" a variable, instead of a string. connectionLinkName = manager.get('connectionLinkName').toString(); response = invokeurl [ url :"https://www.googleapis.com/calendar/v3/freeBusy" type :POST parameters:requestParams.toString()

    • Waterfall Chart

      Hello, I would like to create a waterfall chart on Zoho analytics which shows the movement in changes of budget throughout a few months, on a weekly basis. Should look something like the picture below. Does anyone know how to?

    • Help Center and SEO: Any Benefit to My Domain-Mapped Website Ranking?

      First of, I love the Help Center which I've just decided to integrate into my website to replace its old-fashioned FAQs. So much more to achieve there now! Lots of new benefits to the site visitors and to me in terms of organizing and delivering all the

    • Issue with Importing Notes against Leads

      Hi, I am attempting to import some Notes into Zoho CRM which need to be assigned to various Leads. I have created a csv file which I am testing that contains just one record. This csv file contains the following columns: Note Id Parent Id       (I have

    • Trigger a Workflow Function if an Attachment (Related List) has been added

      Hello, I have a Case Module with a related list which is Attachment. I want to trigger a workflow if I added an attachment. I've seen some topics about this in zoho community that was posted few months ago and based on the answers, there is no trigger

    • Option to Hide Project Overview for Client Profiles

      In Zoho Projects, the Project Overview section is currently visible to client profiles by default. While user profiles already have the option to restrict or hide access to the project overview, the same flexibility isn’t available for client profiles.

    • Creator Add Records through API - Workflows not triggered ?

      Hi Everyone, I am trying to add records to my Creator application through a third party app that I am developing. Currently, I am testing this through Postman. The records I need to add have a lot of workflows to run to populate dropdowns, fields, use

    • Important Update: Changes to Google Translate Support in Zoho SalesIQ

      We’re updating our default chat translation options across all Zoho SalesIQ data centres to offer a more secure, in-house solution for your translation needs. What’s changing? We will be offering Zoho Translate (our in-house tool) as the default translation

    • Zoho CRM Community Digest - July P1 | 2025

      Hey everyone, The start of July 2025 marked a special milestone: 200 posts in our Kaizen series! For those new here, Kaizen is a go-to series for Zoho CRM developers, where we regularly share best practices, tips, and expert insights to help you build

    • What’s New in Zoho Expense (April – July 2025)

      Hello users, We're happy to bring you the latest updates and enhancements we've made to Zoho Expense over the past three months, which include introducing the Trip Expense Summary report in Analytics, extending Chatbot support to more editions, rolling

    • Weekly Tips: Insert frequently used phrases in a jiffy using Hotkeys

      You often find yourself using similar phrases in an email —like confirming appointments or providing standard information. Constantly switching between the mouse and keyboard interrupts your flow and slows you down.Instead of typing the same phrases over

    • Undo Command in Notebook

      It would be handy to have an Undo in the row of icons at the bottom of the notes.

    • Improved UI for a Seamless User Experience - Calls, Tasks, and Meetings

      Hello all, We are making UI unification across CRM so that the UI experience is seamless across the product. As part of that effort, we have made changes to the details page of activity-based module records—Meetings, Calls, and Tasks. Let's look at these

    • New Customization options in the module builder: Quick Create and Detail view

      Hello everyone, We have introduced two new components to the module builder: Quick create and Detail view. The Quick Create Component It is a mini form used to create a record and associate it to the parent record from a lookup field. For example, if you have a Deals lookup in the Contacts module, then you can associate existing deals or create a deal and associate it with the contact. You can customize this Quick Create form by adding standard as well as custom fields. There is no limit to the number

    • Narrative 9: GC—Meaningful conversations that benefit your customers

      Behind the scenes of a successful ticketing system - BTS Series Narrative 9: GC—Meaningful conversations that benefit your customers Customers often seek immediate solutions, which is why self-service options are essential. Guided Conversations provides

    • FSM App Oddity

      We recently rolled out FSM to our technicians, and only one technician is having an issue. He's using an iPhone with iOS 18.6 installed. When he goes to service appointments using the calendar icon at the bottom of the app, he gets a list view only. Typically,

    • Cliq Not Working !

      Zoho Cliq has been experiencing connectivity issues since this morning. The app is unable to establish a connection with the server.

    • Injecting CSS into ZML pages

      Is there a way to inject CSS into ZML pages? Use case: 1. Dashboard displays 'Recent Activities' card displaying a list of newly added records 2. Each item in list links to the record onClick 3. When a user points the cursor over an item in the list,

    • Power of Automation :: Automated Weekly Notifications for Unapproved Timesheets

      Hello Everyone, A custom function is a software code that can be used to automate a process and this allows you to automate a notification, call a webhook, or perform logic immediately after a workflow rule is triggered. This feature helps to automate

    • Extracting Data from Sitelink APIs

      Hi All, I'm working to pull data on Sitelink using API calls but i can't seem to extract it. If you click expand, you will see it has a lot of data in it. I tried extracting from the map but it's not giving me anything. Is there a workaround on this or

    • Export a list of fields for all modules in a spreadsheet with specific field data

      Many of my clients are using spreadsheets to create lists of fields for all modules when starting a new implementation or when updating an existing setup. This is a useful process but also a very time consuming one. It would be good a list of fields could

    • [Important announcement] Zoho Writer will mandate DKIM configuration for automation users

      Hi all, Effective Dec. 31, 2024, configuring DKIM for From addresses will be mandatory to send emails via Zoho Writer. DKIM configuration allows recipient email servers to identify your emails as valid and not spam. Emails sent from domains without DKIM

    • 【Zoho Backstage】2025年7月のアップデート紹介

      本投稿は、本社のZoho Desk コミュニティに投稿された以下の記事を翻訳し、一部抜粋したものです。 What's New - July 2025 | Zoho Backstage ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの中野です。 本投稿では、Zoho Backstage の直近のアップデートを3点抜粋して、ご紹介します。 目次 1.参加可否の確認：RSVP 2.証明書作成ツール：Certificate Builder 3.登録の承認 ：Registration Approval 1.参加可否の確認：RSVP

    • Option to select location?

      As a business coach, I meet with clients at various public locations. I have two or three pre-determined locations that I meet at. I would like the client to choose the location when booking an appointment. Is there a way to do that with a single service, or is the best way to accomplish this by creating one service for each location offered?

    • Can we have Backorder Management ?

      Can we have Backorder Management ?

    • Display a field of an Account on the Ticket view

      Hi there, We would like to display of the Account of the user submitting a ticket on the ticket view. See for example: How can this be achieved? It doesn't really matter where it will be placed as long as it is shown there. Thanks, Snir

    • Two factor authentication for helpdesk users

      The company i work for wants use the helpdesk site in Zoho desk, as a place for their distribution partners to ask question and look for information about our product. The things there is suppose to go up there is somewhat confidential between my company

    • Remove "Invalid entries found. Rectify and submit again" modal

      Following up on a post from a few years back, but can the Zoho team consider either removing the 'Invalid entries found. Rectify and submit again' modal that displays for empty mandatory fields OR allow an admin to change it? I've built a custom error

    • Next Page