Kaizen #199: FAQs on Multi-Select Lookup (MxN) Field in Zoho CRM

Kaizen #199: FAQs on Multi-Select Lookup (MxN) Field in Zoho CRM

 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. 

Hey everybody!!!
Welcome back to another post in the Kaizen series!
In this post, we will address some of the most frequently asked questions about the Multi-Select Lookup(MxN) field from the Zoho CRM developer community forum.

1. What is a Multi-select lookup field?

A multi-select lookup field in Zoho CRM lets you create a many-to-many relationship between two modules. This means a record in one module can be linked to multiple records in another module and vice versa.
For example, using an multi-select lookup field, you can associate multiple skills with an employee.

2. How does the Mutli-Select Lookup relationship work?

When you create a Multi-Select Lookup between two modules, for example, Employees and Skills, Zoho CRM automatically creates a hidden linking module, which is also known as an MxN module. This module stores the associations between records in the two modules, enabling you to track and manage many-to-many relationships.

For instance, if you link Employees and Skills, a linking module named EmpXSkills will be created.

This linking module is accessible only via API.

Backend Flow of multi-select lookup Relationship



In the linking module, two lookup fields (lookup fields with api names - Employees and Skills) will be created. The lookup fields, one pointing to Employees and the other pointing to Skills from the linking module, establish a connection between the linking module and its associated module.

Why you cannot use a lookup field for this use case? 
In Zoho CRM, a lookup field creates a one-to-many relationship between two modules i.e. one record in the source module can be linked to only one record in the target module.

Example :
If you create a lookup field for Skills in the Employees module, each employee can be linked to only one skill. So, use a multi-select lookup field instead of a lookup field when you need to represent complex relationships like one employee - many skills and one skill - many employees.

3. How to create a multi-select Lookup field using Zoho CRM APIs?

To create a Multi-Select lookup field between two modules using Zoho CRM APIs, follow these steps:

Step 1: Identify the Module API Name
Before creating the field, you should know the API names of the Employees and Skills modules. For that, use the Get Module Metadata API.  

Request URL  : {{api-domain}}/crm/v8/settings/modules
Request method : GET



Now, search for the Employees module in the response and note its API name.

Step 2: Use the Create Custom Fields API

To establish a many-to-many relationship between two modules, in our case, Employees and Skills, you need to create a custom field of type multi-select lookup in the Employees module (parent module).  Here, we will associate multiple skills to an employee.

This custom field requires:
  • The related module you want to link to - Skills.
  • A display field from the related module
  • The linking module (EmpXSkills), which stores the actual associations.
Use the Create Custom Fields API to create custom fields.

Request URL : {{api_domain}}/crm/v8/settings/fields?module=Employees
Request method : POST

Sample input :



{
    "fields": [
        {
            "field_label": "Skills", //Name of the field in your module
            "data_type": "multiselectlookup", //Type of the field
            "multiselectlookup": { //This JSON object contains the multi-select lookup relationship details

                "connected_details": { //Details about the module and field you want to link
                    "module": {
                        "api_name": "Skills" //API name of the related module
                    },
                    "field": {
                        "field_label": "Skills" //The field in the related module to display
                    }
                },
                "linking_details": { //Details about the junction or linking module that manages the many-to-many relationship
                    "module": {
                        "plural_label": "EmpXSkills" //Plural label of the junction module
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}

4. How Do You Find the Linking Module and Field API Names?

To know the API name of the linking module:
Use the Get Modules API and search for "generated_type" : "linking" in the response to identify MxN modules. In our case, EmpXSkills.

Request URL : {{api_domain}}/crm/v8/settings/modules
Request method : GET



To know the field API names in the linking module:
Use the Get Fields Metadata API to retrieve the API names of lookup fields within the linking module.

Request URL : {{api_domain}}/crm/v8/settings/fields?module=EmpXSkills
Request method : GET

5. How do I associate records via a multi-select lookup field using the Insert Records API in Zoho CRM?

To associate records using a multi-select lookup field, you must provide the record IDs from the related module. The association is made through the linking module.

Example :
Associating multiple skills with an employee using the multi-select lookup field.

Request URL : {{api-domain}}/crm/v8/Employees
Request method : POST

Sample input :


{
  "data": [
    {
      "Name": "Patricia",
      "Email": "patricia@mail.com",
      "Position": "Marketing Specialist",
      "Year_of_Experience": 5,
      "Skills": [   // API name of the multi-select lookup field in the Employees module
        {
          "Skills": { // API name of the lookup field in the linking module pointing to the Skills module
            "name": "Marketing",
            "id": "5725767000002149427"  //ID from the Skills module are mandatory to establish the link
          }
        },
        {
          "Skills": {
            "name": "Social Media Marketing",
            "id": "5725767000002149476"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}


6. How do I associate an Employee's skills using the linking module in Zoho CRM?

To establish a relationship between the Employees and Skills modules through the linking module, use the Insert Records API to create a record in the linking module, EmpXSkills.

To do this,
  • Use the appropriate lookup field API names to reference the parent module.
  • You must need the record IDs from both the Employees and Skills modules to create the associations.
Request URL : {{api-domain}}/crm/v8/EmpXSkills
Request method : POST

Sample input :


{
  "data": [
    {
      "Name": "Patricia",
      "Employees": {
        "id": "5725767000002161001"  // Record ID from the Employees module
      },
      "Skills": {
        "id": "5725767000002149476"  // Record ID from the Skills module
      }
    }
  ]
}


7. When should I use create/update operations in the Employees module vs the EmpXSkills module?

                Employees Module

               EmpXSkills (linking) Module

Use when you want to create or update an Employee and associate Skills using the Multi-select Lookup field.

Use when you want to create or remove associations between existing Employee and Skill records without modifying the actual Employee or Skill data.

Creating a new employee and assigning their skills at once.

Managing relationships between existing records i.e., linking and unlinking skills to employees.


8. How to update a record in the linking module?

To update a record in the linking module, use the Update Records API.
Request URL : {{api-domain}}/crm/v8/EmpXSkills/5725767000006269044
Request method : PUT

Sample input :


{
    "data": [
        {
            "Skills": {
                "name": "Marketing",
                "id": "5725767000002170035" //Associating another skill with the employee 
            }
        }
    ]
}
In the above sample, we have replaced an existing skill associated with an employee with another Skill in the linking module.This is done by updating the Skills lookup field in the EmpXSkills record.

Please note that in the linking module, Skills is a lookup field, so you can associate only one skill per linking record. But in the Employees module, Skills is a multi-select lookup field, so an employee can be associated with multiple skills.

9. How to unlink records from the parent module as well as the linking module?

Unlink the associated records from the parent module:

Using the Update records API, you can remove an associated skill from an employee, use the "_delete": null key within the multi-select lookup field in the Employee record update.

Request URL : {{api-domain}}/crm/v8/Employees/5725767000006269044
Request method : PUT

Sample input :

{
"data": [
        {
            "Skills": [
               {
                    "Skills": {
                        "name": "Marketing", 
                        "id": "5725767000002170035" // The Skill record you want to unlink
                    },
                    "id": "5725767000007228047", //record ID - The record created in the linking module for the employee with the Marketing skill
                    "_delete" : null 
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Replace an associated record from the linking module:

Use the Update Records API to replace an existing association in the linking module.

Request URL : {{api-domain}}/crm/v8/EmpXSkills/5725767000007228035
Request method : PUT

Sample input :


{
    "data": [
        {
            "Skills": {
                "name": "Java",
                "id": "5725767000005259075" //replacing a new skill 
            }
        }
    ]
}
In the above sample, we have replaced the existing skill with Java.

10. Why am I seeing the error "DUPLICATE_LINKING_DATA"  in the Update Records API? 

This error occurs when you try to associate records with the parent record that are already linked with the Multi-select lookup field. To resolve this, check the records you are trying to link and make sure your association is only with records that are not already linked.

Know your existing linked records:

Before the Update Records API, use the Get Related Records Data API and search for the multi-select lookup field. In our case, Skills is the multi-select lookup field created in the Employees module. This will return all records already associated.

Example :


The response returns all Skills already linked with that Employee.

Using this way, compare the IDs from the API response with the new records you are about to link, and only proceed with non-duplicate IDs. This avoids duplicate entries and prevents the "DUPLICATE_LINKING_DATA" error.

11. What happens if I delete a record in the linking module?

When you delete a record in the linking module, it only removes the association between the related records in the Employees and Skills modules.

Note :
  • Deleting a linking module record removes only the relationship between two records from the Employees and Skills modules.
  • Deleting an Employee or Skill record deletes all corresponding entries in the linking module as well.

12. How do I query linked records?

Use the COQL API to query multi-select lookup data by specifying the corresponding linking module's API name directly in your query. The linking module is treated as a separate module in Zoho CRM, so you can retrieve associated records by querying it like any other module.

Sample query :


{
  "select_query": "select Skills.Name as skill, Employees.Name as employee from EmpXSkills where Skills.Name like '%Marketing%'"
}

Use the Get Module Metadata API to know the linking module's API name.

13. How do I export multi-select lookup records using the Bulk Read API?

To export multi-select lookup data, linking module records efficiently, use the Bulk Read API with the linking module’s API name.

Request method : POST

Sample Request :


{
    "callback": {
        "method": "post"
    },
    "query": {
        "module": {
            "api_name": "EmpXSkills" //API name of the linking module
        },
        "fields": [
            "Employees.Name",
            "Employees.Year_of_Experience",
            "Skills.Name"
        ],
        "criteria": {
            "group": [
                {
                    "field": {
                        "api_name": "Employees.Year_of_Experience" 
                    },
                    "comparator": "greater_than",
                    "value": "4"
                },
                {
                    "field": {
                        "api_name": "Skills.Name"
                    },
                    "comparator": "contains",
                    "value": "Social"
                }
            ],
            "group_operator": "AND"
        }
    }
}

14. Can I import my linking module's data using the Bulk Write API?

Yes. Like the Leads and Contacts modules, you can also import linking module's data into Zoho CRM using the Bulk Write API by directly specifying the linking module’s API name.

If you are importing data that involves both a parent module, Employees and its associated MxN linking module, follow these steps:

1. Create separate CSV files:
  • One for the parent module - Employees
  • One for the linking module - EmpXSkills
2. Zip the files into a single ZIP file.
3. Upload the ZIP in a single Bulk Write API request.
4. Ensure accurate field mappings are provided in the API request body.

Refer to Kaizen #131 - Bulk Write for parent-child records using Scala SDK for more details on handling parent-child records.


15. Can I receive notifications if a multi-select lookup field in a module is modified or updated?

Yes, you can receive notifications when a MxN field is updated using the Notification API. To enable instant notifications for actions performed in a module, use the respective API names of the linking module in the input body.

Request method : POST

Sample input :


{
    "watch": [
        {
            "channel_id": "10000",
            "events": [
                "EmpXSkills.all"  //EmpXSkills represents the API name of the linking module
            ],
            "return_affected_field_values": true  
        }
    ]
}

16. Can I use criteria-based filtering when accessing multi-select lookup data using the Search API?

Yes, you can filter multi-select lookup data using the criteria parameter in the Search API's URL.

Here is an example that fetches records from the EmpXSkills linking module.

Request URL : {{api-name}}/crm/v8/EmpXSkills/search?criteria=((Secondary_Email:equals:patricia@mail.com)and(Skills:equals:Content_Marketing))
Request method : GET

Sample response :



                                                                                                                               x-----------------------------x


We trust that this post meets your needs and is helpful. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section or reach out to us at support@zohocrm.com 

Stay tuned for more insights in our upcoming Kaizen posts!


Other FAQs in the Kaizen series :


    • Sticky Posts

    • 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.

    • Kaizen #226: Using ZRC in Client Script

      Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. In today's post, lets see what is ZRC (Zoho Request Client) and how we can use ZRC methods in Client Script to get inputs from a Salesperson and update the Lead status with a single button click. In this

    • Kaizen #222 - Client Script Support for Notes Related List

      Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. The final Kaizen post of the year 2025 is here! With the new Client Script support for the Notes Related List, you can validate, enrich, and manage notes across modules. In this post, we’ll explore how

    • 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

    Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


      • Recent Topics

      • Automatically Update Form Attachment Service with Newly added Fields

        Hi, When I have a Form Setup and connected to a 3rd Party Service such as OneDrive for Form Attachments, when I later add a new Upload Field I have to remove and redo the entire 3rd Party Setup from scratch. This needs to be improved, such as when new

      • Facing Issues with Sites Mobile font sizes

        my page renediaz.com is facing issues mobile view, when i try to lower font sizes in home page, instead of changing the size, it changes the line space

      • Analytics : How to share to an external client ?

        We have a use case where a client wants a portal so that several of his users can view dashboards that we have created for them in Zoho Analytics. They are not part of our company or Zoho One account. The clients want the ability to have user specific,

      • Payroll and BAS ( Australian tax report format )

        Hello , I am evaluating Zoho Books and I find the interface very intuitive and straight forward. My company is currently using Quickbooks Premier the Australian version. Before we can consider moving the service we would need to have the following addressed : 1.Payroll 2.BAS ( business activity statement ) for tax purposes 3.Some form of local backup and possible export of data to a widely accepted format. Regards Codrin Mitin

      • Zoho Desk API - Send Reply to CUSTOMERPORTAL

        Hello! I'll try to send a reply to Customer Portal, But the response is 500 (INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR in service response). {"Error":"{\"errorCode\":\"INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR\",\"message\":\"An internal server error occurred while performing this operation.\"}"}

      • 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

      • Dheeraj Sudan and Meenu Hinduja-How do I customize Zoho apps to suit my needs?

        Hi Everyone, I'm Meenu Hinduja and my husband Dheeraj Sudan, run a business. I’m looking to tweak a few things to fit my needs, and I’d love to hear what customizations others have done. Any tips or examples would be super helpful! Regards Dheeraj Sudan

      • From Zoho CRM to Paper : Design & Print Data Directly using Canvas Print View

        Hello Everyone, We are excited to announce a new addition to your Canvas in Zoho CRM - Print View. Canvas print view helps you transform your custom CRM layouts into print-ready documents, so you can bring your digital data to the physical world with

      • Zoho Books Payroll

        How am I supposed to do payroll and pay my employees with Zoho Books? I think it's pretty strange that an accounting software doesn't have the ability to perform one of the most common functions in business; paying your employees. Am I missing something,

      • Layout Rules Don't Apply To Blueprints

        Hi Zoho the conditional layout rules for fields and making fields required don't work well with with Blueprints if those same fields are called DURING a Blueprint. Example. I have field A that is used in layout rule. If value of field A is "1" it is supposed to show and make required field B. If the value to field A is "2" it is supposed to show and make required field C. Now I have a Blueprint that says when last stage moves to "Closed," during the transition, the agent must fill out field A. Now

      • validation rules doesn't work in Blueprint when it is validated using function?

        I have tried to create a validation rule in the deal module. it works if I try to create a deal manually or if I try to update the empty field inside a deal. but when I try to update the field via the blueprint mandatory field, it seems the validation

      • Sort Legend & stacked bar chart by value

        I'd love to see an option added to sort the legend of graphs by the value that is being represented. This way the items with the largest value in the graph are displayed top down in the legend. For example, let's say I have a large sales team and I create

      • Is It Possible to Convert a Custom Module to a Quote?

        I recently created a custom module in our CRM environment for RFQs so that our sales team can submit quote requests directly in Zoho rather than by email/phone. This allows for a cleaner overall process, minimizing potential errors and potentially encouraging

      • All new Address Field in Zoho CRM: maintain structured and accurate address inputs

        The address field will be available exclusively for IN DC users. We'll keep you updated on the DC-specific rollout soon. It's currently available for all new sign-ups and for existing Zoho CRM orgs which are in the Professional edition. Latest update

      • How can Data Enrichment be automatically triggered when a new Lead is created in Zoho CRM?

        Hi, I have a pipeline where a Lead is created automatically through the Zoho API and I've been trying to look for a way to automatically apply Data Enrichment on this created lead. 1) I did not find any way to do this through the Zoho API; it seems like

      • Client Side Scripts for Meetings Module

        Will zoho please add client side scripting support to the meetings module? Our workflow requires most meeting details have a specific format to work with other software we have. So we rely on a custom function to auto fill certain things. We currently

      • Proposal: Actionable API Error Messages to Reduce Support Ticket Volume

        I've encountered a long-standing frustration with how Zoho Creator's API communicates errors to developers, and I'm hoping the Zoho team can address this in a future update. This issue has persisted for over 9 years based on community discussions, and

      • Zoho CRM - Option to create Follow-Up Task

        When completing a Zoho CRM Task, it would be very helpful if there was an option to "Complete and Create Follow-Up Task" in the pop-up which appears. It could clone the task you are closing and then show it on the screen in edit mode, all the user would

      • Dynamic Field Folders in OneDrive

        Hi, With the 2 options today we have either a Dynamic Parent Folder and lots of attachments all in that one folder with only the ability to set the file name (Which is also not incremented so if I upload 5 photos to one field they are all named the same

      • Drag 'n' Drop Fields to a Sub-Form and "Move Field To" Option

        Hi, I would like to be able to move fields from the Main Page to a Sub-Form or from a Sub-Form to either the Main Page or another Sub-Form. Today if you change the design you have to delete and recreate every field, not just move them. Would be nice to

      • File Conversion from PDF to JPG/PNG

        Hi, I have a question did  anyone every tried using custom function to convert a PDF file to JPG/PNG format? Any possibility by using the custom function to achieve this within zoho apps.  I do know there are many third parties API provide this with

      • Allocating inventory to specific SO's

        Is there a way that allocate inventory to a specific sales order? For example, let's say we have 90 items in stock. Customer 1 orders 100 items. This allocates all 90 items to their order, and they have a back order for the remaining 10 items which could

      • Cliq iOS can't see shared screen

        Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? Regards

      • Pull cells from one sheet onto another

        Hello all! I have created an ingredients database where i have pricing and information and i want to pull from that database into a recipe calculator. I want it to pull based on what ingredient I choose. The ingredients database has an idea and i want

      • Closing the Loop: Why Lookup Asymmetry is Harming Data Integrity in Creator

        TL;DR: Lookup fields allow users to add new related records inline via the "+" icon, but there's no equivalent ability to edit an existing related record without navigating away and losing form context. Adding a native "Edit" icon—with automatic User

      • Add the ability to Hide Pages in Page Rules

        Hi, We have Field Rules to show and hide fields and we have page Rules, but we can't hide a page in Page Rules so it isn't completed before the previous page (And then have the Deny Rules to prevent submitting without both pages completed), we can only

      • Enable Free External Collaboration on Notecards in Zoho Notebook

        Hi Zoho Notebook Team, I would like to suggest a feature enhancement regarding external collaboration in Zoho Notebook. Currently, we can share notes with external users, and they are able to view the content without any issue. However, when these external

      • using the Client script on the load of the form if service no is empty means then i want to make issue relate to is Service

        using the Client script on the load of the form if service no is empty means then i want to make issue relate to field is Service if Purchae no is empty means then i want to make issue relate to is Purchase

      • Changes to the send mail Deluge task in Zoho CRM

        Hello everyone, At Zoho, we continuously enhance our security measures to ensure a safer experience for all users. As part of our ongoing security enhancements, we're making an important update on using the send mail Deluge task in Zoho CRM. What's changing?

      • Work Order wont mark as Completed

        I have a couple of work orders that won't mark as completed even when I've marked the Service Appointments as completed fully.

      • Item name special charaters <>

        Im trying to input speical characters such as < and > into item name and item description but comes up with following error: Invalid value passed for Item Name and Invalid value passed for Item Description How do i allow speical characters?

      • Zoho Analytics Dashboard - How to hide the user filter

        I am using the same dashboard template across different external clients and applying a user filter to the data by site URL. How can I hide the user filter in View Mode so the external client won't see the list of other clients in the drop-down menu?

      • Customer Parent Account or Sub-Customer Account

        Some of clients as they have 50 to 300 branches, they required separate account statement with outlet name and number; which means we have to open new account for each branch individually. However, the main issue is that, when they make a payment, they

      • Cannot get code to work with v2.mergeAndStore!

        Please can someone help me pass subform items into a repeating mail merge table row using v2.mergeAndStore? I have a mail merge template created in Writer and stored in Workdrive. This template is referenced by a custom CRM function which merges all of

      • Kaizen #229: Email-Deal Associations in Zoho CRM

        Hi All, Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! Emails are a core channel for customer communication in any CRM system. In Zoho CRM, emails can be associated with records across multiple modules. In this post, we will focus on email associations with

      • Deprecation of the Zoho OAuth connector

        Hello everyone, At Zoho, we continuously evaluate our integrations to ensure they meet the highest standards of security, reliability, and compliance. As part of these ongoing efforts, we've made the decision to deprecate the Zoho OAuth default connector

      • Action Required: Update Microsoft SQL Server Security Settings Before February 2026

        Dear Users, We recently deployed security updates in Zoho Analytics that inadvertently caused connection failures for a few customers using Microsoft (MS) SQL Server hosted on older Windows versions (Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2, and 2014). To restore

      • Contacts limit in basic vs standard - what counts? Are customers contacts?

        I’ve been using books for a number years for my small business. I only ever work with 20 clients at any given time. I do purchase services from a number of vendors to run my business, so there are some comtacts there too. I used to use the basic package,

      • Saving issue

        First problem I opened a MS word file in writer. after the work is done, it does not save instantly, I waited for like 10min and it still did not save. second problem When I save a file, then file gets saved as another copy. I just did save, not save

      • Automating Employee Birthday Notifications in Zoho Cliq

        Have you ever missed a birthday and felt like the office Grinch? Fear not, the Cliq Developer Platform has got your back! With Zoho Cliq's Schedulers, you can be the office party-cipant who never forgets a single cake, balloon, or awkward rendition of

      • Next Page