Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest - December 2024

Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest - December 2024



Hello everyone!

As we step into the new year, let’s reflect on the strides we’ve made together and gear up for the exciting opportunities 2025 holds. This month’s digest highlights key updates, engaging discussions, and upcoming events designed to keep you informed and empowered in your development journey. Let's dive right in!

Upcoming Events

ZDK CLI (Zoho Development Kit Command Line Interface)

Date: Jan 16 | Feb 6 | Feb 27 | Mar 20 | Apr 10
Time: 10:00 AM IST & 8:00 PM IST (GMT+5:30)

Managing metadata in Zoho CRM shouldn’t feel like navigating a maze. Yet, the endless clicks to modify profiles, roles, modules, or layouts—and the challenges of version control—can quickly become overwhelming. What if you could skip the hassle and manage your metadata effortlessly? Introducing ZDK CLI—your one-stop solution for streamlining metadata modifications, pushing changes directly from the command line, and tracking updates seamlessly with your preferred Version Control System (VCS). Register now and join this five-session virtual learning series to discover how to take control of your CRM workflow with ZDK CLI.

Creator Tech Connect

Title: Building Intuitive UI/UX with HTML & ZML in Zoho Creator
Date: January 16, 2025
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

Creator's tech connect series comprises 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. In our previous session, we discussed the most recent improvements and updates in the Zoho Creator product release. In the upcoming session, we will explore how to leverage HTML and ZML to build custom and dynamic UI/UX in Zoho Creator.

Get to know Zoho Deluge:

Title: Get to know Zoho Deluge series
Dates: January 28–30, 2025
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

To help users unlock the potential of Deluge, we’ve launched the Get to Know Deluge series. This program serves as an introduction to Deluge's foundational concepts while offering a glimpse into its advanced capabilities. This three-day series is designed to help participants understand the capabilities of Deluge and learn how to apply them effectively in their operations. By the end of the series, we believe participants will gain a strong understanding of Deluge’s purpose, its role across Zoho products, and its basic concepts, setting the stage for mastering its advanced features.

Resource Spotlight

Info
We've consolidated all the resources from the developer community learning series into a centralized hub for your convenient access. Consider bookmarking our Zoho Developer Community website to stay informed about the latest updates in the developer community.

Community Discussions

Zoho Developer Forum

  • We all have things we prefer to do in our own unique way, even in the way a business is run. When @Ben needed to modify the default design of Zoho CRM to suit his unique preference of displaying data, @Hugh steps in with his suggestion. Check out this post which also links to @Hugh's article AND his video that walks us through the process.
  • They say two heads are better than one. That sure is the case with a seemingly simple issue @George faced. A couple of our community members step in with solutions of their own to try and help solve the problem. 
  • Updating data accurately in a CRM has to be one of the cornerstones of a good business. The possibility of errors grows exponentially, especially when data is spread across multiple modules. @Jean needed help with the same, to save time and to reduce the risk of human error as well. Check out the solution that was suggested to him by @Pheranda.
  • Two-way communication is critical for any relationship. It's no different between two servers. In these days demanding data security and privacy, certain IP restrictions need to be implemented. If your business server has such limitations, take a look at this post which specifies the public IP addresses used by some Zoho DCs. 
  • Setting up APIs using different languages too can be a hassle at times. If, like @Dimitri, you too are facing issues with API calls working in one coding language but not in another, the suggestions offered by our specialist could help you out. Check it out here!

  • The way different coding languages work doesn't stop with just API calls. @Dmitri faced another issue with accessing data stored in his CRM when using two different languages. Check out the solution that fixed his issue in this post.

Developers ZUG Cliq Channel

Info
These conversations are confined to the Developers ZUG Cliq channel members. If you're keen on becoming a part of this space, visit our website, click BE PART OF COMMUNITY and complete the form to get an invite to the channel.
  • Maintaining redundant code snippets can be a huge pain. Thankfully, Zoho CRM has a feature to reduce unnecessary code redundancy. Check out this conversation where Mike suggests the same to Morgan, which will now save @Morgan from a ton of headaches in the future!
  • Sometimes, the tiniest bugs take the most time to squash. And what can make all the difference is an extra set of eyes, which is the essence of the Developers ZUG Cliq channel. Check out this conversation where @Ryan faced a deal-breaking but microscopic issue, and all it took was for him to post it in the Cliq channel for another community member to fix!
  • So far, we've seen a number of examples how the Developers ZUG Cliq channel enables Zoho developers to squash bugs faced by someone else on the other side of the globe. At times, that's not enough, and we'll have to bring out the big guns. Check out this conversation where @Pablo uses AI to solve @Jason's data-type conversion issue.
  • While the Cliq channel is for Zoho developers, not all issues faced by the community are coding-related. Since Zoho's services can be better than those of its competitors, many like @Shantanu prefer switching ecosystems. But not all such big jobs need to be complicated! Check out this conversation where @Subhash suggests he try one of Zoho's migration tools! You too might need it in the future ;)

Community Spotlight

ZDH Speakers

As a continuation of featuring a ZDH presenter each month, this time, we are delighted to introduce the 17th episode presenter @Olivier Anh. Explore this post to discover the knowledge and insights he shared with the community.

Cliq Contributors

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. 

Make sure to follow the digest every month for the most recent updates and conversations. Stay connected and participate in the forums and the Cliq channel to be featured in the upcoming month's digest. Wishing you all a very happy new year and an amazing month ahead!



SEE ALSO

    • Recent Topics

    • [Webinar] What's new in Zoho Analytics: Q1, 2026

      To all the data enthusiasts out there, we're back again with another power-packed webinar in the What's New series! This last quarter was marked by exciting new features and product updates focused on offering you top-notch solutions. With new data connectors,

    • Ask The Expert: Deep Dive into Zoho CRM, Desk, SalesIQ, and Campaigns!

      Are you using Zoho to power your sales, support, and marketing, and have questions about configuration, automation, or best practices? We have great news: the “Ask The Expert” session is coming to the Zoho Benelux Community! This session is specifically

    • Introducing parent-child ticketing in Zoho Desk [Early access]

      Hello Zoho Desk users! We have introduced the parent-child ticketing system to help customer service teams ensure efficient resolution of issues involving multiple, related tickets. You can now combine repetitive and interconnected tickets into parent-child

    • Workflows being applied and the Large unwanted popup

      When a workflow is being applied do to an action, then the Agent is left with a large Window asking if they would like the see the changes this workflow did. Is there any way to disable this prompt from appearing?

    • Users I've shared the sheet with cannot use the Custom Functions

      Hi, I have a Zoho Sheet worksheet that I shared to 2 colleagues, giving them full access: In that worksheet, I created a button with a custom Deluge function and it works flawlessly for me: For those I shared the worksheet to, when they click the button,

    • Limiting the form - Zoho People

      Hi Team, I would like to limit the number of form/request submissions for employees within a given month. For example, if an employee has already submitted 3 requests in the current month, they should not be allowed to submit any further requests. An

    • Zoho Analytics: Clarification on Email Schedule Limits in Basic Plan

      Hi Team, I have a question regarding the email scheduling limits in the Zoho Analytics Basic Plan. The plan shows that I can create 4 email schedules. However, I understand that schedule consumption is calculated based on recipients (i.e., 1 schedule

    • Zoho Books | Product updates | April 2026

      Hello users, Welcome to our April 2026 product updates roundup! Highlights include profit margin for sales transactions, insights in reports, recording deposits from undeposited funds in banking, and faster production workflows with improved assembly

    • Zoho Form not synching with Zoho CRM in CRM email template

      I have in the past successfully created an email template that has access to a Zoho Form in the url link to Forms in the email template. I am in the Contact Module of the CRM and I have created a Form for contacts and mapped the two. I am using the upsert

    • Standardize your booking forms with Centralized Customer Form

      We’re excited to introduce Centralized Customer Form, a new way to manage and standardize how customer information is collected across your event types. With this feature, you can define a common set of booking form fields once and apply them across your

    • Zoho Creator In-App Notification

      Hi Team, I have implemented an in-app notification using code, as it required some customization. I followed the example in the link below: https://www.zoho.com/deluge/help/pushnotify-using-deluge.html#Example I have a couple of questions regarding this

    • Add Flexible Recurrence Options for Meeting Scheduling in Zoho Cliq (e.g., Every 2 Weeks)

      Hello Zoho Cliq Team, We hope you are doing well. Currently, when scheduling a meeting inside Zoho Cliq, the recurrence options are limited to Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly. There is no ability to set a meeting to occur every X weeks — for example,

    • Announcing Zoho Sheet desktop app for macOS and Windows (Beta)

      Hello Sheet users, We know you’ve been waiting for this one. It has always been the top priority on our roadmap to provide a single native desktop app for macOS and Windows that works both online and offline. Today, we are excited to announce that the

    • In App Auto Refresh/Update Features

      Hi,    I am trying to use Zoho Creator for Restaurant management. While using the android apps, I reliased the apps would not auto refresh if there is new entries i.e new kitchen order ticket (KOT) from other users.   The apps does received notification but would not auto refresh, users required to refresh the apps manually in order to see the new KOT in the apps.    I am wondering why this features is not implemented? Or is this feature being considered to be implemented in the future? With the

    • Unable to Log In to FSM Mobile App

      Hello FSM Team, We are encountering an issue when logging in to the FSM mobile app. When entering the user email, the system shows the error: “This account does not exist.” However, the same user is able to log in successfully via web (fsm.zoho.com).

    • Clarification on “Change Owner” vs Dispatcher Role in Work Orders

      Hi Mr. Abid, Good day! We would like to understand the purpose and correct usage of the “Change Owner” option in the Work Order module. As we noticed, there is an option to Change Owner in the Work Order. At the same time, there is also a separate field/role

    • New Income Tax Act 2025 and Rules 2026 for India (Effective 1 April 2026)

      Hello everyone, The Income Tax Act 2025 came into effect from 1 April 2026. This new law replaces the old Income Tax Act of 1961. Along with the new Act, the Income Tax Rules 2026 have also been released by the government. These updates bring practical

    • Facturation électronique 2026 - obligation dès le 1er septembre 2026

      Bonjour, Je me permets de réagir à divers posts publiés ici et là concernant le projet de E-Invoicing, dans le cadre de la facturation électronique prévue très prochainement. Dans le cadre du passage à la facturation électronique pour les entreprises,

    • How can I delete a user profile created ?

      I can't delete custom profiles created. Why ?

    • Search API filter/sort ignores comment-triggered modifiedTime updates

      Summary When a comment is added to a Call or Account, the parent record's modifiedTime is correctly bumped. This bumped value is visible in: GET /api/v1/calls/{id} ✅ GET /api/v1/calls/search without a filter ✅ — the record's response body shows the new

    • ZOHO Cadence

      Can you edit when a cadence is set to enroll? For instance, I currently have it set up to enroll three days after a new record is created that fits the custom view criteria; however, I would like to change it to enroll immediately. I do not see where

    • Automate the file import step

      Hello everyone, I have a Sales - 'Account' category, and currently import the file to update it as follows: Import Accounts - From File - Update existing Accounts only - select and match the field the CRM. Since we have been using Microsoft 365 SharePoint.

    • Introducing SlyteUI : From Idea to a Working Interface in Minutes

      Hello everyone! Are you spending hours building basic UIs? Does even the smallest customization feel like a major task? CRM customization should feel intuitive and straightforward, not time consuming or exhausting. SlyteUI makes this possible by simplifying

    • What's New in Zoho Billing | March 2026

      March is here with a fresh wave of updates to Zoho Billing. From making compliance easier, reporting more flexible, to making day-to-day workflows smoother across the board. Here's everything that's new this month. Introducing Usage-Based Billing Reports

    • Dynamic Multi-Staff Selection for Ad-Hoc Bookings

      Summary Allow customers or internal schedulers to select specific staff members at the time of booking, with Zoho Bookings automatically surfacing only the time slots where all selected members are simultaneously available. Current Behaviour Zoho Bookings

    • How Can I Clear Deleted Members and Free Up Their Storage?

      Can we remove these deleted members and free up their storage?

    • Zoho Books Create Invoice API

      I am creating zoho invoices via the API.  Now that zoho has released sub-accounts, i'd like to create invoices and link them to sub-accounts within "sales" account.   For example; my chart of accounts looks like this; Sales ->Website Sales    ->Campaign Sales ->Offline Sales However, when I try to pass these accounts to the API, I receive an error that only Bank accounts can be passed with the create invoice.  

    • Multiselect lookup in subform

      It would be SO SO useful if subforms could support a multiselect look up field! Is this in the works??

    • Ability to Set Text Direction for Individual Cells in Zoho Sheet

      Dear Zoho Sheet Team, We hope you are doing well. We would like to request an enhancement in Zoho Sheet that allows users to set the text direction (right-to-left or left-to-right) for individual cells, similar to what is available in Google Sheets. Use

    • Contact not saved after editing

      Hi. I discovered a couple of problems with Zoho contact. (1) BUG. Contact is not saved after editing. If you edit an existing contact by putting a bracket in one of the fields you get the message "Contact updated successfully" but nothing is saved. All updates (including the other fields) are lost. Steps to reproduce. Go to an existing contact and change the first name to "Robert (Bob)". (2) In the phone number fields you can only save numeric data (0 to 9). This seems an unneccessary restriction.

    • Zoho Mail Android app update: UI revamp

      Hello everyone! We are excited to share that the first phase of the Zoho Mail Android UI revamp is now live. In this update, we have redesigned navigation bar at the bottom to quickly access the Email, Calendar, Contacts, and Settings modules. Also, the

    • Opt-out from mailing list means can't email at all??

      It seems that if a contact unsubscribes from a mailing list the only way to email them is to uncheck the email opt-out box first, then re-check after the email has been sent. I've been through a chat with support and they confirmed this. This seems bizarre.

    • Email Opt Out Question

      Has the problem where if a customer is emailed opt out prevents you sending standard emails? For me this feature is simply to stop any email marketing and should not block people from receiving emails via Zoho mobile, which makes no sense.

    • Items Landed Cost and Profit?

      Hello, we recently went live with Zoho Inventory, and I have a question about the Landed Cost feature. The FAQ reads: "Tracking the landed cost helps determine the overall cost incurred in procuring the product. This, in turn, helps you to decide the

    • Bank Feeds

      Since Friday my bank feeds wont work. I have refreshed feeds, deactivate and reactivate and nothing is working

    • Show backordered items on packing slip

      Is it possible to show a column on the Packing Slip that shows number of backordered items when a PO is only partially filled? I would also like to see the Backordered column appear on POs after you receive items if you didn't get ALL of the items or partial amounts of items. And lastly, it would be nice to have the option of turning on the Backordered column for invoices if you only invoice for a partial order. -Tom

    • Newby Questions

      Q1. The top bar of Zoho Books has a "Search in Banking (/) " field. What is the proper use of this text box? - Searching for Amazon for example has no results but there are transactions. - Is the search case sensitive? - Are regular expressions allowed?

    • 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

    • Inventory "Bulk Actions" button - add more fields to "Bulk Update > Select a field"

      Can we not get a lot more actions that are commonly used by customers into the "More Actions" button on the Inventory list? More fields listed in the Bulk Update > Select A Field? Possible Bulk update Fields Preferred Supplier ( to quickly move items

    • Using Email Triggers on Zoho Flow

      Hello, I'm sending the email to create the variables as this article says: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/flow/user-guide/create-a-flow/articles/email-trigger#How_email_trigger_works But the collection of the variables only seems to work when the

    • Next Page