Kaizen 126 Circuits in Zoho CRM

Kaizen 126 Circuits in Zoho CRM

Hello everyone!
Welcome back to another week of Kaizen!
Today, we will discuss an exciting topic—Circuits in Zoho CRM.

For starters, we will discuss what Circuits are, how beneficial they are for businesses, different views of a Circuit, and the different states and flow controls.

In the next post, we will discuss associating a Circuit to a blueprint, workflow, and a button, testing and execution, and see a Circuit in action with an interesting use case.

What are Circuits in Zoho CRM?

We use different microservices to accomplish our business needs, but most of the time, we are forced to switch over to multiple places.

With Circuits in Zoho CRM, you can integrate multiple microservices in a single platform and create automated workflows, all within your CRM!

For example, consider that you have an e-commerce application that involves multiple processes like tracking inventory, payment processing, fulfilling and tracking orders, generating receipts and reports, etc.
Typically, you would code this entire logic and use it to fulfill your business needs. But, with Functions in Zoho CRM, you can write the logic for each of these individual processes and simply orchestrate them using Circuits.

So, for the above example, you can simply create an automated workflow using Circuits and use the functions in the right order. That's not just it! You can re-use these functions elsewhere, too.

Another simple example of a Circuit is when you want to automating sending SMS alerts to users when an event occurs. How this is different from a workflow is that in this circuit, you can have a function that triggers an SMS alert, and also a function that sends an email to the user when the SMS alert ails. This involves circuit's functional states and a decision making state.
Like this, the use cases of circuits are endless.

Advantages of Circuits

  • Automate your routines
    Convert all your manual routines to automated workflows to save time. Avoid the need to trigger or interrupt applications to control the system flow, as you can create smooth-sailing, smart workflows that control themselves.
  • Scale fast
    Handle any number of requests hassle free as your workflows get executed on cloud. While Zoho Circuit dynamically allocates resources on need, you can focus more on building your applications rather than managing them.
  • Update in minutes
    Building the business logic of your applications in workflows empowers you to update the applications quickly. Swap or reorganize the components easily and build the modified applications in minutes.
  • Low-code
    Create a circuit effortlessly with the visual drag-and-drop interface, which makes it easier for the users with minimum coding knowledge.
  • Developer-friendly
    Circuits help you manage parallel processes, service integrations, spot failures, retry, and view logs, within minutes. Developers can focus on the business logic and not worry about these factors.
  • Orchestrate CRM Functions
    Use various CRM functions on your circuit to integrate multiple third-party apps and Zoho CRM seamlessly. Write functions once, and orchestrate them in circuits to solve different business needs.
  • Automate IT and business processes within CRM
    Create a circuit, associate it with a workflow, blueprint, or button, and automate your entire business process. With high availability, scalability, and fault tolerance, circuits ensure the performance of your workflow remains consistent even with changing states and an increase in frequency.
  • Diagnose errors and view audit logs
    A detailed log of each execution provides the status of each state's task execution, the payload and parameters passed, and the responses and exceptions generated.
  • Use Existing Functions
    From picking functions you've already tried, tested, and are up and running in your CRM account, to using a circuit within another circuit, this flexibility opens up possibilities of handling so much of your out-of-the-box requirements in a single space.

How are Circuits different from Workflow Rules and Blueprints?

Circuits is simply an orchestration of functions with powerful state management capabilities, along with in-built flow controls to automate the business process.

Workflow rules help us automate repetitive tasks and standardize business processes within the CRM system.
Workflow rules are useful in simple automations that the sales person does on a regular basis, like sending an email after record creation.

Builder View and Code View of a Circuit

Builder View


This view offers an easy drag-and-drop interface to build your circuit. The left pane in this view comprises all the states that can be added to a circuit.
The right pane comprises Configuration and Input/Output.

The Configuration tab lets you give a name to the state, choose its type, and select its next state.



The Input/Output tab allows you to control how JSON data must flow from one state to another through Paths.
Paths are strings beginning with $ that identify the components within the JSON. Specific parts of a JSON can be accessed by denoting their attributes in Input Path, Result Path, and Output Path.


This tab contains the following.

1. Input Path
Input path selects parts of the input JSON to pass to the state. You can also pass parameters to the input as a collection of key-value pairs. The values of Parameters can either be static or parts of the input JSON selected as a Path. For example, if your state's input is
{
"Entry1": {...},
"Entry2": {...}
}
then, you can apply the input path as $.Entry2 within the state definition. So, only the data inside the "Entry2" object will be passed as input to the state.

2. Result Path
After the input is processed by the state, Result Path selects what combination of the state result and the actual state input has to be passed to the output.

3. Output Path
Output Path further filters the data from the Result Path to pass it as state output.

Code View of a Circuit


In Code View, you can define your state machine in a simple JSON-based, structured language. Once a circuit is created, a sample workflow with the pass state as 'State 1' is created by default.

States of a Circuit and Flow Controls

Circuits offer a cascading structure to different states in a business process, allowing you to write functions that each feed their output into the next one, or any other one you pre-define, individually. You can also reroute, pause for a certain period, or feed it in batches to enable just about any sort of action.
Simply put, Circuits have different 'functional states' and 'flow controls' that allow you to automate execute your business process.

Flow Controls

Flow Controls let you control the flow of your circuit. To achieve this, Circuits make use of different states that allow you to make the execution, 'Wait' for another state, 'Pass' the input of a state to another, use 'Success' and 'Failure' to stop the execution of the Circuit.



The different states available are:
  • Pass: Transfers the input from one state to another.
  • Branch: Decides between branches of execution based on input.
  • Parallel: Performs simultaneous executions.
  • Wait: Inserts a delay for a specific time. The maximum wait time is 30 days.
  • Batch: Implements multiple group executions. You can have a maximum of 10 jobs per batch.
  • Success: Terminates an execution, returning 'Success'.
  • Failure: Terminates an execution, returning 'Failure'.
For more details on states, refer to this article.

Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM states help you execute business logic in circuits with respect to the data available in CRM.



You can write functions in the built-in editor or orchestrate existing ones, get the details of a record as an input to other the states, get the details of your org, user, CRM variables and use them in your Circuit.
You can also trigger another Circuit within a Circuit using the 'Circuit' flow control.

'Function' State
Use this state in your Circuit to use an existing function in CRM. Depending on your need, you can configure the input and output, and control data flow in your circuit. Only the functions that are REST API-enabled are shown here.



'Circuit' State
You can use another Circuit in one of the states and configure the flow accordingly.



'Record' State
This state fetches the details of a particular record in a module in CRM. You can choose to pass a portion or all of this state's result as an input to the next state in the circuit. Note that the information displayed will be based on the scope provided to the user.
Depending on where the Circuit is associated(Blueprint, Workflow, Button - Create/Clone/Details/Edit View pages, individual record, mass action), the response of the Record State differs.

'Org' State
This state gives you the details of your CRM org that you can use in your circuit.

'User' State
Use this state in your circuit to get the details of the current user in your org and process this information in other states.

'Org Variable'
This state gives you the details of all CRM Variables in your org.

Error Handling

When you use any of the Zoho CRM states, you can also perform error handling as these functional states tend to have runtime errors.

On TimeOut

When a functional state runs longer than the expected time, timeout errors occur. For handling timeout errors in code view, the field value "errorType": "Error.TimeOut" will be added.

On Execution Failure

When a state's execution fails due to some exception that cannot be processed, it can be handled using execution failure. In code view, key-value "errorType": "Error.ExecutionFailure" is appended.

Custom Error

You can also have custom error handling for your states.
Configure Exception Type and Exception Value to set the error handling options based on the error code or error message delivered by the state's output.
Retry the function in case of failure or timeout, set the Attempt (number of retries) and Delay (wait time after failure for every retry attempt).
In case of failure, if the retries fail to fix the error, the State will Fallback the error output to the Next state in the Result field.

We hope you found this post useful. Stay tuned for part 2!
Let us know if you have any questions or suggestions.


Cheers!
Shylaja S



    • Recent Topics

    • I'm getting an "Invalid_scope" error, even though I used an access token generated with the correct scope.

      I'm getting an "Invalid_scope" error, even though I used an access token generated with the correct scope. Here’s what I did in Postman: Generated the code to create an access token using the following URL: https://accounts.zoho.eu/oauth/v2/auth?scope=ZohoCampaigns.contact.UPDATE&client_id=<client_id>&response_type=code&access_type=offline&redirect_uri=https://1882-2-26-193-161.ngrok-free.app

    • Separate One-Time Mentions from Ongoing Ticket Following in Zoho Desk

      Dear Zoho Desk Support Team, We are writing to request an enhancement to the mention functionality within Zoho Desk. Currently, when an agent is mentioned in a ticket, they receive notifications for all subsequent activity on that ticket, similar to being

    • Mass update Accounts in Zoho Desk

      We used the integration feature to bring in all of our accounts from Zoho CRM. While all of the names and links are in place, on the Zoho Desk side the email, phone, website, and address fields are blank. By going into each account I can select "Update

    • Vivaldi will not open the Zoho Mail app when I click a email link in the browser

      I'm running Vivaldi on Arch with the Plasma desktop and have under default applications Zoho Mail set as my default email client. Whenever I click a email link in Vivaldi I get the below when it should be launching Zoho. Any ideas on rectifying this issue?

    • Digital publisher

      Kinetic Digital Publisher provides comprehensive digital publishing services, including eBook creation, formatting, cover design, and marketing. We help authors publish and promote their work across online platforms with ease.

    • Time Zone Correction with Daylight Savings Time

      Hey, I'm writing a series of reports where the source data is synced from an external source which stores the date/time information in GMT, but I want the reports to be in local time. Now, I understand there is the CONVERT_TZ function which allows me

    • Load form in iframe without header

      I am trying to load a form into an iframe without the header, but I am not having any luck. I am using openUrl() to load the iframe with the form URL and zc_Header set to false, e.g. #Form:Add_Case?zc_Header=false but it is still loading the header. Any

    • Filter embedded report

      How to filter embedded report in a page, below code is not working. dateField => startDate & dateField=< endDate The report should print on page containing records from startDate to endDate. params='zc_Header=true&amp;Service_Date__gte=<%=startDate%>&amp;Service_Date__lte=<%=endDate%>'

    • Creator Simplified #5: Set file upload restrictions in Zoho Creator

      Hey Creators, Welcome to the next post in the Creator Simplified series. Today, we’ll explore how to implement file upload restrictions to limit user submissions to specific file types. By implementing an allowed list for file uploads, you can optimize

    • Field Type: Address, Change District/State to Dropdown with picklist??

      Using the Address Field type, is there a way to make the District/State field be a dropdown with a picklist so the users can select rather than type the state name every time? I know this can be done if I use a drowdown field for the State (or entire address information), but that isn't as tidy as using the address field type. I apologize if this is a duplicate. I posted this question the other day, or so I though. Can't find that post.

    • cutomized fields are not showing up in zoho creator from zoho crm

      We have customized fields in zoho crm under accounts module like "Last production upgrade" --> This field is a date. When created a solution in zoho creator i couldn't find any of the customized fields. Would you please help me on this matter? Thanks

    • How to Add Bulk Data in Zoho Creator Forms Using Deluge Without Exceeding Execution Time Limit

      I have a database form with a column named 'Product Name' containing 8000 values in a Zoho Creator form. In another form named 'Returns Data,' I have a column with the same name, 'Product Name.' How do I add these 8000 values to the 'Returns Data' form

    • Open New Free Zoho Account

      Hi Team, Do you guys offer a free email hosting? I do have a domain already. If yes, what is the process to open the new account? Thanks,

    • 554 5.7.1 : Recipient address rejected: user info@intimspace.de does not exist

      554 5.7.1 : Адрес получателя отклонен: пользователь info@intimspace.de не существует I can't send an email to Google at info@intimspace.de. An error comes. I entered everything correctly in DNS https://zohomail.tools/#domainDetails/intimspace.de/ALL

    • Emails going back unread

      Hi all, When in Zoho mail - when I recieve a new mail it puts back all emails read that day back to unread - I then have to go back through and open all emails I have already read! Gets very annoying... Any idea on the bug fix?

    • Been getting this error, every now and then "Get count limit exceeded, please try again after 3 mins"

      it is really annoying.

    • Automatically updating field(s) of lookup module

      I have a lookup field, which also pulls through the Status field from the linked record. When the lookup is first done, the Status is pulled through - this works perfectly. If that Status is later updated, the lookup field does not update as well. As

    • Constraints on Tasks

      We have a use case where we have certain fixed date tasks and need to schedule predecessor tasks around these. Predecessor tasks need to be completed with a lag before the fixed date. We should be able to schedule the start and end date for predecessor

    • Moving Project Dependencies Not Moving Precedessors

      Most of the time we want to base our start dates around an event that is in the middle of the project template. If I set a bar up at the date we want it, it doesn't move the predecessors up. Is there a way to change this? eg. there is no point starting

    • Can you set task due dates to be "x" days before the milestone?

      We have a milestone set as the date of our first event. All of the tasks need to happen in increments prior to the milestone event. Is there a way to configure this without having to set up each task due date? Thanks!

    • Change script to add fields

      Hi, I have a custom function (writen by a different implementation company in the beginning) which I would like to edit to add a different field as well. Can't get it to work on my own though. - The script now adds the address fields to a new quote (needs

    • Default ticket template in helpcenter

      Hello, I have a web form and a ticket template created. How can I make that my default ticket template? If an user clicks New ticket or create a ticket, I want that template to be the default one. Thank you for the time and info.

    • Expanded data-capturing capabilities with enhanced tabular sections

      We are thrilled to announce an update to Zoho Recruit that brings even more flexibility and customization to your recruiting process. With the addition of 10 new field types to the tabular sections, you now have the power to enhance your tabular sections

    • Integration of Business Hours in Email Templates

      Dear Zoho Desk Team, We would like to propose a feature enhancement to Zoho Desk that would greatly improve the utility of the Business Hours settings and streamline communication with our clients. Feature Request: Integration of Business Hours in Email

    • Add Owner to deluge-created module record note

      Is it possible to include the "owner" aka "creator", of a Note when creating it via delulge? This sets "superadmin" as the Note creator. I need to override it. notemap = Map(); notemap.put("Parent_Id",program_contact_id); notemap.put("Note_Content",program_contact_data.get('Note'));

    • Blueprint - Field Validation Criteria (During)

      When setting validation criteria elsewhere in Zoho, or even workflow criteria etc., there are Is Empty and Isn't Empty options.  Within the Field Validation Criteria within Blueprint, those options aren't available.  Is there a particular reason for this? 

    • Delete Field that is used in a Zoho Flow connection

      I'm trying to delete a Field used in a Webhook created by Zoho Flow with CRM Connection and i get the following alert: When going to the alert i get to the following issue, can't edit it since its been deployed by a pluggin But yes i have here the prompted

    • Use image on img HTML tag

      Hi how could I do to use my image saved in Workdrive to use it in an HTML img tag ? I need to display it on my website without having to use iframes. Regards,

    • ZOHO Compain emails going to spam after authentication is successful

      Hello, I am frustrated right now. I have recently setup the zoho email compaign, The auto responder email went to receipient spam folder. then, I researched a lot and completed authentication (SPF, DKIM) in email deliverability, email relay in zoho crm.

    • Security Policies

      To protect against cyber threats and attacks, organizations need to set up security policies for their employees' accounts. Security policies are rules and regulations for every individual or group using the organization's assets and resources. Enabling

    • Zoho CRM functions editor is not in the programming language deluge

      I am trying to write a function for a button. I helped someone before in deluge and I'm using this new editor I'm not familiar with - I guess it is new. Why is the default code statically typed? The editor will not let me create a variable without a type.

    • Unified customer portal login

      As I'm a Zoho One subscriber I can provide my customers with portal access to many of the Zoho apps. However, the customer must have a separate login for each app, which may be difficult for them to manage and frustrating as all they understand is that

    • "Age in Days" calculation in Advanced Analytics

      Hi Can someone advise how this is calculated? I am getting values on this report which I cannot understand. Thank you

    • Integrate Oracle with ZOHO CRM

                           Please let me know if its possible to Integrate Oracle with ZOHO CRM. If yes then help me in doing it. 

    • Automatically set quotes to "lost" if deal is set to lost

      Hi, Is there a way to automate that if a deal (opportunity) is lost the related quotes are also set to lost? Thanks!

    • Subdomain

      How can i make subdomain in my zoho website

    • A/R Aging Details shows wrong aging days

      In the A/R Summary Report all of the invoices are in the right aging buckets. When I run the A/R Aging Details report I get aged dates of +300 days when they should be in the 0-90 day range.

    • Global Choice List share ownership

      I have created several forms that use one or more Global Choice Lists. These lists have been published to Org. I would like to allow one or more admins to edit the choices in these lists. Any help appreciated. Geoff

    • Domain Transfer

      I have a Godaddy domain, how i can transfer it to Zoha? and how i can move my website to Zoho server? With my best wishes.

    • Project Templates & Reminders

      I am getting projects all set up to work for our company and am running into a problem that I'm hoping is easily fixable. I have created a project template and within that project, there are reminders set on certain tasks. When I create a project from

    • Next Page