Hey Biginners!
We're excited to kick off our Developer Community series on building toppings for Bigin, and our goal is to provide an accessible, beginner-friendly, and relevant path for every developer.
Imagine creating tiny pieces of software that unlock enhanced functionalities and seamlessly integrate Bigin with other applications. Those pieces of software are Bigin's "toppings."
Let's dive in!
What are toppings?
Toppings are add-ons that help you to integrate Bigin with other third-party applications or extend existing functionalities, eliminating the need for Bigin users to switch between multiple service-providing applications. With Bigin's Developer Center, developers can build toppings and bundle them into all the features necessary to manage the businesses they serve. Users can install them in their Bigin accounts to enhance their user experiences with custom features and integrations.
How are toppings useful?
Imagine using Bigin and managing your business via different pipelines that cater to different business departments, like sales and support. On a daily basis, the customer support team may receive multiple emails related to these different departments; manually checking each email and saving them as records in the appropriate pipelines would be a time-consuming process and might lead to errors. Bigin's
Email-In topping serves to address this functional inefficiency. By creating unique email aliases for different departments, Email-In ensures that any emails sent to these aliases are automatically converted into records in the related Bigin pipeline, eliminating manual intervention, saving time, and reducing the risk of errors. Teams can focus on responding to customers quickly rather than spending hours sorting and categorizing emails.
Or consider another scenario: A business is juggling multiple client meetings, managing several projects, and finding it difficult to track contracts and renewal dates. Without a system in place to manage these contracts, they run the risk of missing renewals, disrupting client relationships, and losing revenue. What they'd need is a topping that helps them organize their contracts in Bigin, set automated reminders for renewals or expirations, and seize every opportunity. Then, the team can focus more on nurturing customer relationships instead of worrying about missing crucial deadlines.
These scenarios highlight the important role toppings can play in business processes.
Now, let's explore where you can build toppings and the features available there.
Bigin Developer Center
To develop a topping for Bigin, make sure you have access to the Bigin Developer Center. You also need to have a clear picture of the functionalities and features you want to include in your topping.
The Bigin Developer Center is a cloud platform that provides developers with ready-to-use tools to create and publish toppings. In the Developer Center, each developer has a designated developer workspace where they can create and manage toppings. From the workspace screen, you can create a topping and enter the Bigin Developer Console, which serves as the space wherein you'll build, test, and publish your toppings, and offers various components to create, customize, and automate them. Read more about the platform's functionalities
here.
Once you've developed a topping, the next step is to decide how you want to distribute it. For that, let's look into the types of toppings available.
Types of toppings you can build
Toppings can be either public or private, depending on the distribution method you choose, which in turn defines its visibility to users.
Public toppings
Public toppings are accessible to all users and listed in the
Bigin Marketplace, an online store where users can find and install toppings. Users can also search for specific toppings or filter them from the available list.
This enables topping developers to generate revenue based on the number of times their toppings are installed. Based on user ratings and reviews, developers can periodically improve and enhance their toppings. The Bigin Marketplace team has provided guidelines for creating public toppings. Once a developer submits the topping, the Marketplace team will review and approve it, provided that it complies with the established approval policies.
Private toppings
You can create or use private toppings for specific users or organizations. The Developer Console generates a hashed URL that allows access to these toppings and enables you to control how your toppings are distributed.
Private toppings don't require approval from the Bigin Marketplace team and receive validation automatically. Once published, these toppings are immediately available for use. You can publish toppings privately if you want to provide an organization or client with customized features.
How to build a topping
Let's dive into the step-by-step process of creating a topping.
Accessing the Bigin Developer Center
1. Log in to or sign up for Bigin's Developer Center.
Note: The Bigin Developer Center is currently available in the US Data Center (DC). If your existing Bigin account is in another DC, you can still develop toppings by creating a free account in the US DC. To create a developer account, please contact our
support team, and they'll assist you in setting it up.
2. After logging in successfully, access the Bigin Developer Center and enter a name for your workspace.
3. Click the Create Workspace button to set it up.
4. Once you create your workspace, you'll land on the Developer Center screen, where you can build your toppings.
Creating a topping
1. On the Developer Workspace screen, find and click the Create Topping button in the top-right corner.
2. Provide details for your new topping.
Enter the desired name for your topping in the Name field. The Unique Namespace is automatically created using the name you provide. Remember, you cannot change the namespace after you create the topping.
- Provide a brief overview of what your topping does in the Description field.
- Select the Terms and Conditions checkbox and click Save.
Now that your new topping has been created, it's ready to be customized. In the next post, we'll dive into the components and features available in the Bigin Developer Console to build your topping.
Stay tuned for more!
Recent Topics
Convert HTML to PDF & Send as Email Attachments in Zoho Creator (Deluge)
This approach is useful for sending welcome letters, instructions, or promotional offers after order creation. // 1. Define the variables using the submitted input
customerName = input.Customer_Name1;
orderID = input.ID;
customerEmail = input.Email_Address;
//
Redirect after submission is not working after a few submission
I have setup redirect url correctly and everything works as expected. However, it seems that there's a limit to the number of submissions before the redirect stops working. After the "limit" is reached, the page redirects to a seemingly zoho hosted page,
Enhancement Request for Multi-Asset Work Order Feature
Hello Latha, Thank you for your continued support. The multi-asset Work Order feature is extremely helpful. I did some testing based on our requirements, and during the process, I noticed a few areas where we need your team’s support to improve the feature
Marketing Tip #8: Run limited-time offers
Exclusive offers that don't last long make shoppers purchase right away instead of waiting. Run a flash sale or limited-time discount to convert interest into sales. Try this today: Set up a "Buy X Get Y" coupon in Zoho Commerce valid for a limited time
Add Option to Mass Dispatch by User
Hello! We are using the dispatch console to dispatch service appointments to our service ressources. Right now, the process is our dispatcher verifies each ressource's route for the day and dispatches it after validation. Sadly, there doesn't seem to
Zoho Projects - Email notification relabelling of modules not present on default templates
Hi Projects Team, I noticed that in the default email template notification, the word "bug" was not renamed to the lable I am using in my system. As many users may used the Bugs modules for various purposes including Changes, Revisions, Issues, etc...
Include the "Added Email ID" to the Filters of a Report
Hi, With a Report and lots of entries, a normal thing is to filter entries by the submitter, but that is not included in the Auto Filter of Reports and you can't add a custom filter to a Report without specifying the actual value. I would like to be able
Loops in Deluge
Hi, Can someone tell me how I do a simple loop in deluge? For example, if i have a variable "X" containing a number of loops to perform, i would like to perform an action X amount of times. X = 10; do while (Y < X){ // ... do something } to further explain, the equivalent in PHP of what i am trying to acheive would be: $X = 20; for($Y = 1; $Y < $X; $Y++ ){ // ... do something } Thanks
I am facing a problem with an if-else condition
If I use if, else if, and else conditions in Deluge with the same variable name, sometimes the variable causes an error because the same variable name is present in every block
Zoho Projects - Reply by email to @ mentions posted on the Feed.
When mentioning someone on the Feed (Status), it would be great if that mentioned person could reply to the email notification to update the Feed thread.
Product Updates in Zoho Workplace applications | October 2025
Hello Workplace Community, Let’s take a look at the new features and enhancements that went live across all Workplace applications this October. Zoho Mail Create Signature from Compose window You can now effortlessly create a Signature using the Create
Subform data to Sheets
I have been trying to setup a Zoho Flow automation to bring any Subform input to a Zoho Sheets but it seems impossible to post the subform entries to a Zoho Sheet. Is there any way to do it via Zoho Sheet API? https://www.zoho.com/sheet/help/api/v2/#CONTENT-Insert-row-with-JSON-data
Edit Contact Roles in the Potentials Mod
New to ZOHO so I need some help. I work the same people on different projects concurrency. Their contact info remains the same but their role changes from project to project. In the Potential Mod you can pick contacts and assign a Role to them. I know
Is there a way to disable the Activity Reminders Pop-Up Window every time I log in?
Just wondering if there is a setting to disable the window from opening every time I open my CRM? Thanks Chris
Rich-text fields in Zoho CRM
Hello everyone, We're thrilled to announce an important enhancement that will significantly enhance the readability and formatting capabilities of your information: rich text options for multi-line fields. With this update, you can now enjoy a more versatile
Font Size 11 - Zoho CRM Email Templates
Our company communicates with our vendors exclusively using Calibri Font Size 11, as this is the standard formatting for professional emails. Since the CRM only allows for the selection of font sizes 10 & 12, we have been unable to utilize the CRM email
Error 400 Booking
Added a custom domain to Booking. Am Getting a SSL Error that has some other domain on the SSL and giving a 400 error. Followed instructions and it stated it verified our domain.. However it is not working. Please Help!
Zoho Projects - Email Notifications for Feed Updates
Hi Projects Team, I'm working with a client who wants a simple way to communicate with their customers on projects. Getting the customer to add comments to Tasks or Bug records is not ideal, as we need a way which is easy with minimal training, and has
Zoho Analytics Export API
Hi Team, I’m working on some integration tasks and wanted to confirm if it’s possible to retrieve a Zoho Analytics table as JSON data using a Deluge script. I’ve already stored my custom data from multiple sources and combined it into a single source.
Request to Remove LinkedIn Verification from My Emai
I would like to submit a complaint regarding my Zoho Mail account. I previously used this email address to verify a LinkedIn account, but that LinkedIn account has now been closed. I need to remove or cancel the verification associated with the closed
Introducing the all-new email parser!
Greetings, We are pleased to introduce to you, a brand-new, upgraded version of the Zoho CRM Email Parser, which is packed with fresh features and has been completely redesigned to meet latest customers needs and their business requirements. On that note,
Zoho Projects - Refine Access to Collaboration Menu
Hi Projects Team, I noticed that Calendar, Chat and Meeting menu options in the Collaboration section are visible to client users, even when they don't have access to the features. This could be confusing and frustrating, because if it's there you expect
Extracting Images from a Zoho Creator Report into a Pages
If you’ve uploaded images in a form and can see them in your report, you might also want to display those same images inside a Page (custom HTML page). This is useful for dashboards, profile pages, or any place where images should be visible dynamically
Zoho is blocking emails I subscribe to from one sender
About 4 months ago I stopped receiving newsletters that I subscribe to from @thedispatch.com. They tell me that zoho's server is blocking them. I've added them to my contacts list, but they're not even reaching my inbox. I don't know how to troubleshoot
Inactive Items - Make Less Prominent by Default
Currently, when one marks an Item as "Inactive", it really doesn't do much of anything to hide it or get it out of the way. Search and reporting within Finance should, by default, hide inactive Items from standard reports, searches, etc. If one specifically
How to calculate GST based on "Ship To Address"
We into the interior designing work, providing "Works Contract Services" to our clients across India. We are registered under GST in Maharashtra state. For works contract services as per the GST rule, we need to decide place of supply based on "Ship to
I NEED TO NUMBER TO TEXT NO HERE
=NUMBERTEXT NEEED
Auto-fill New Row with Previous Row Values
rowsize = input.Order_Items.count();
for each row1 in input.Order_Items
{
rowsize = rowsize - 1;
if(rowsize == 1)
{
row.Door_Model = row1.Door_Model;
row.Door_Color = row1.Door_Color;
row.Materials = row1.Materials;
Python - code studio
Hi, I see the code studio is "coming soon". We have some files that will require some more complex transformation, is this feature far off? It appears to have been released in Zoho Analytics already
API question - adding a thread to an existing ticket
Hi Is there an API function for the customer to add to an existing ticket thread? example, customer puts in new support ticket. support replies and ask for more details. customer replies with more details -what api function is used for this (will add record append to same ticket number?) Thanks
Calendar week view: Today + 6
Is there anyway to have the calendar change dynamically based on the date? Due to the amount of events, we only display a week at a time, but towards the end of the week, we can no longer see ahead to next week (without changing it manually every time).
How to restrict user/portal user change canvas view
Hi , I would like to restrict user / portal user change their canvas view because I hide some sensitive field for them. I dont want my user switch the canvas view that do not belong to them But seems Zoho do not provide this setting?
How to add to Subforms via Zapier with Zoho Writer?
I have the following layout for a Zoho Writer Document. As you can see there is a repeating subform taking in "Items". I am trying to make a Zapier integration with it, and I can see there is 1 field saying: "Items", but it does not specify how I'm supposed
Contrôles administratifs granulaires : un atout pour la sécurité des e-mails
La moindre erreur dans votre système de messagerie peut coûter très cher à votre entreprise, tant en argent qu’en conformité et en image de marque. Pour beaucoup d’organisations, ce risque est bien réel. Les e-mails véhiculent quotidiennement des informations
Collections Management: #6 Realign Customers who gets back In-Term
Arun stared at the subscription list on his dashboard. Another account had just been moved to Cancelled status after completing the whole dunning process. Nothing unusual, just that payment failures happen, retries fail, and cancellation is the expected
Zoho Mail IP Blacklist
I need problems with send mails: Error: junk mail rejected - sender4-op-o10.zoho.com 136.143.188.10, is in RBL. Spamcop. Please remove FQDN for blacklist. Regards.
I can receive but not send emails
Hello, I've been not able to send emails for almost a year now. I been using alternate email to do this. I want to know how to fix this so I can use my zoho account normally again.
The challenge of 24/7 connectivity: Being present and meeting customer expectations
Before television entered our homes, radio was our window to the world. We had to tune carefully to catch voices from distant places. When television arrived, the world began to grow smaller. We can watch rocket launches, see the goal that wins our favorite
How to download all attachments from inbox, send, other folders in one go
Hi All, Appreciate if anyone could help me with steps for below requirement. How to download all attachments from inbox, send, other folders in one go. Even mapping to new folder will help me. Thanks in advance.
Cannot connect mail accounts to Thunderbird
Hi Support - I'm attempting to add my mail accounts to Thunderbird but I'm getting an unable to login to server error. I tried to use the password associated with my account I received the unable to login error. So I went into Zoho Accounts and generate
Next Page