Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest - January 2024

Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest - January 2024



Hello everyone!

Welcome to the latest edition of the Zoho Developer Community Digest. As we begin the year with renewed vigor, we're thrilled to present a roundup of engaging discussions, valuable resources, and noteworthy community highlights from January. Dive in to stay updated on the latest developments in Zoho and join us in fostering collaboration within the developer community.

Upcoming Events

  1. Zoho Developer Hangout 13: Zoho CRM offers flexibility for businesses to tailor it precisely according to their unique requirements. However, even the best suits may need a few extra accessories. That's where Zoho Creator steps in. When integrated with Zoho CRM, it extends the platform's capabilities, allowing you to build custom applications, forms, and views, transforming them into custom tabs within the CRM interface. Think of it as the stylish pocket square that completes the look. In this session, our MVP @Anonymous User, will provide an introduction to Deluge scripting and its role in creating integrations between Zoho Creator and Zoho CRM. He will delve into the intricacies of fetching records from Creator within CRM and vice versa, as well as creating and updating records in both platforms. Click here for registration.

  2. Zoho Developer Community Bootcamp (In-Person): This has been long overdue! We're hosting our first-ever in-person developer meetup, and we're doing it right here in our home base. If you're in Chennai, you're in for a special treat. The bootcamp is designed to empower developers of all skill levels, guiding them to learn and create extensions for Zoho products. Participants also have the opportunity to potentially monetize their creations by listing them on the Zoho Marketplace. Registration and more details here.

  3. Creator Learning Table Series: We designed this series to provide users with valuable insights and knowledge about Creator's capabilities in various business use cases and applications. This year, we have adopted the 12 Months 12 Industries concept. Every month, we will focus on a specific industry, illustrating its unique processes with real-time business scenarios and how to make best use of Creator for that industry. Our recent webinar on Creator for the Agriculture Industry was a success, and during the upcoming session, we'll be exploring Creator for the Real Estate Industry.

    Title: Creator For Real Estate Industry
    Date: March 7, 2024
    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

  4. Creator Tech Connect: Creator's tech connect series would comprise 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. We are planning to conduct a three-month series on Custom widgets: Extension in Zoho Creator and its development process. While the first session of the series focused on developing widgets with JS API in Zoho Creator, the upcoming session will be about using Widgets from Zoho Marketplace as Extensions in Zoho Creator.

    Title: Developing Widgets in Zoho Creator
    Date: February 15, 2024
    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

  5. Application Development Bootcamp: Application Development Bootcamp is a three-day webinar on Zoho Creator features and the application-building process. During these sessions, users get to learn how to turn their ideas into fully functional applications through live sessions and exercises. The webinars, each lasting an hour, cover sessions on ideating, structuring, developing, and managing solutions in Zoho Creator.

    Title: Application Development Bootcamp 1.0
    Date:  March 19, 20, and 21, 2024
    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

  6. Catalyst Webinar: Turn Ideas into Modern Apps with Ease using Catalyst AppSail
    Catalyst AppSail is a highly scalable platform that allows you to quickly build apps using popular programming languages such as Java, Node.js, or Python, and your favorite frameworks like Spring, SpringBoot, Flutter, Angular, Django, Flask, and many more. Tune into our webinar to gain insights on using AppSail from our in-house industry experts. Registration and more details yet.
Having hosted many meetups and events in the past, we've witnessed the value of networking, shared learning, and collaboration among the developer community members. As we look forward to 2024, an exclusive series of events is on the horizon, and we invite developers from all corners to join us. Embrace the community experience with Zoho, and let's make the most of these opportunities together. Take a moment to review the details of each event listed in this forum post and complete the form by indicating your preferred events. Feel free to select all that pique your interest – there's no need to hold back; we'll ensure you receive the invitations accordingly.

Resource Spotlight

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

Community Discussions

Zoho Developer Forum

  • When @Federico needed help with dynamically adjusting a webhook to distinguish calls from production and sandbox environments, @Hugh Marshall and @Ishwarya SG offered three methods to accomplish this task in this discussion. 
  • When @Scholfield's code logic didn't meet his requirements of identifying accounts in Zoho CRM without any scheduled calls or calls altogether, @Ishwarya SG stepped in with a solution, offering advice on scaling it and providing a code snippet for implementation.
  • @Federico sought help in the community forum to add a "Ask for a quote" button to the Deals Detail page that opens a form to collect data. @Haiku technical support stepped in and suggested the best ways to implement this scenario effectively. Check out the conversation here.
  • Check out the code snippet shared by @Pheranda Nongpiur to fetch values from a Subform in one module and display those values for comparison in another module in Zoho CRM. 
  • Do you want to get the ID of a CRM record created using Client Script? Then this post is for you. When @Serge Piskarev was finding it difficult, @Maadhari M provided guidance with creating a record successfully and getting the ID. She also went the extra mile and suggested @Serge to use ZDK.Apps.CRM.Contacts.Models.Contacts() model, as it has more extensive features.

Developers ZUG Cliq Channel

Note: These conversations are confined to the Developers ZUG Cliq channel members. If you're keen on becoming a part of this space, please fill in this onboarding form to receive your invitation to join the channel.

Community Spotlight

ZDH Speakers

The contributions of our ZDH presenters have been instrumental in the success of the this segment. We extend our heartfelt appreciation for their efforts.

As a continuation of featuring a ZDH presenter each month, this time, we would like to introduce our sixth ZDH presenter, @Anonymous User. Explore this post to discover the knowledge and insights he shared with the community.

Cliq Contributors

The Developers ZUG Cliq channel has consistently served as the primary hub for community members seeking technical assistance and engaging in savvy discussions. Here are our top contributors who have gone the extra mile to support and assist the Zoho Developer Community:



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. 

We appreciate you dedicating your time to peruse this month's digest. Make sure to follow the digest each month for the most recent updates and conversations. Stay connected and participate in the forums to be features in the upcoming month's digest. Wishing you an amazing month ahead!

SEE ALSO

    • Recent Topics

    • Cannot reject empty expense report

      Hello, We are currently having issues with two empty expense reports where if we try to reject them, either manually or through the REST API, we get error 114016, which says some of the expenses have already been billed and must be removed. I'd appreciate

    • Having Trouble Opening The Candidate Portal

      Recently am having trouble opening the Candidate Portal. It keeps loading but cannot display any widgets. Tried Safari, Chrome and Edge. Non of them work. Please solve the problem ASAP.

    • Checkboxes not adhering to any policy in mail merge - data from CRM

      I want checkboxes to appear depending on whether the checkbox in the CRM module is ticked or not. However, the tickboxes that appear are either ticked or not, but don't correlate to the actual selections in the CRM module. This is is despite updating

    • 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

    • CC and/or BCC users in email templates

      I would like the ability to automatically assign a CC and BCC "User (company employee)" into email templates. Specifically, I would like to be able to add the "User who owns the client" as a CC automatically on any interview scheduled or candidate submitted

    • 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. Managing addresses

    • Create Contract API Endpoint Unclear "inputfields" Requirements

      Hello, I'm trying to create a Deluge function that accepts inputs from a form in Zoho Creator and creates a barebones contract of a given type. See below for the current code, cleaned of authentication information. // Fetch form data // Hidden field client_name

    • Kaizen #46 - Handling Notes through Zoho CRM API (Part 1/2)

      Hello everyone! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! This week, we will discuss Handling Notes through Zoho CRM API. What will you learn from this post? Notes in Zoho CRM Working with Notes through Notes APIs 1. Notes in Zoho CRM 1a. Why add Notes to records? Notes are a great way to summarize your observations on customer and prospect interactions and outcomes. By saving notes as CRM data, a sales rep will always be able to keep track of how a sale is progressing. To know more about notes in

    • Marketer's Space - Why email marketing matters in ecommerce (and how to get started with Zoho Campaigns)

      Hello Marketers, Welcome to this week's Marketer's space post. Today, we'll discus why email marketing matters in ecommerce businesses. Running an online store is exciting but challenging. If you're running an online store, you've probably experienced

    • Zoho Campaigns Event timestamps do not propagate to Zoho CRM

      We have integrated Zoho CRM and Zoho Campaigns. But when looking at Contact records, the Campaign event data is missing the actual timestamps: especially when a particular email was sent. They're not in the Campaigns related list, and the cannot be found

    • Kaizen #121 : Customize List Views using Client Script

      Hello everyone! Welcome back to another interesting Kaizen post. In this post, we can discuss how to customize List Views using Client Script. This post will answer the questions Ability to remove public views by the super admin in the Zoho CRM and Is

    • Setting default From address when replying to request

      At the moment, if I want to reply to a request, the From field has three options, company@zohosupport.com, support@company.zohosupport.com, and support@company.com.  The first two are really internal address that should never be seen by the customer and

    • Explore Your Support Reach with Zoho Assist’s Geo Insights

      Understanding where your remote support sessions are happening can help you make smarter decisions, allocate resources effectively, and improve overall customer satisfaction. In this week's Zoho Assist's community post we will be exploring Geo Insights

    • Error when sending emails from Zoho

      Hello, When trying to send an email from Zoho CRM I keep getting the below error: javax.mail.AuthenticationFailedException: 535 5.7.139 Authentication unsuccessful, the user credentials were incorrect. Any support on this will be much appreciated. Thanks,

    • Formatting of text pasted into Zoho documents

      Howdy, I'm a newbie and finding Zoho an improvement to MS Word. Consider yourself hugged. High on my wish list would be plain text cut-and-paste. When pasting text from the web to Zoho, presently Zoho imports the formatting along with the text. This means that every cut-and-paste operation brings in text in a different font, size, or style. Can we have at least the option of importing plain text without formatting (or better yet, is this option already out there?) ... Thanks Helen

    • Add additional features to Zoho Tables

      Zoho Tables is a really great tool, why not add features like diagramming capability into the tool from applications like Draw.io which I believe is open source, you should be able to do wireframes, process flow diagrams, network design, etc. Please note

    • The Social Wall: August 2025

      Hello everyone, As summer ends, Zoho Social is gearing up for some exciting, bigger updates lined up for the months ahead. While those are in the works, we rolled out a few handy feature updates in August to keep your social media management running smoothly.

    • The Social Wall: July 2025

      Hello everyone! July has brought some exciting new updates to Zoho Social. From powerful enhancements in the Social Toolkit to new capabilities in the mobile app, we’ve packed this month with features designed to help you level up your social media presence.

    • Use Zoho Creator as a source for merge templates in Zoho Writer

      Hello all! We're excited to share that we've enhanced Zoho Creator's integration with Zoho Writer to make this combination even more powerful. You can now use Zoho Creator as a data source for mail merge templates in Zoho Writer. Making more data from

    • Tagged problem !!!

      Damn it, we're one of dozens of construction companies in Africa, but we can't link purchasing invoices to projects. Why isn't this feature available?

    • Limited review (/questions) for Bookings 2.0

      Hi all, I'm writing this review of Bookings 2.0 for two reasons: 1) it may be of interest to others, and 2) I'd like to be corrected if I'm wrong on any points. It's a very limited review, i.e. the things that have stood out as relevant, and particularly

    • Syntax for URLs in HTML Snippets

      What are some best practices for inserting a URL in an HTML snippet? I've looked at Zoho Help articles on navigation-based and functional-based URLs, but I'm still unclear on how to incorporate them in an HTML snippet. For example, 1. How do I link to

    • The Social Wall: June 2025

      Hello everyone, We’re back with June Zoho Social highlights. This month brought some exciting feature updates—especially within the Social Toolkit—to enhance your social media presence. We engaged with several MSME companies through community meet-ups

    • Make panel configuration interface wider

      Hi there, The same way you changed the custom function editor's interface wider, it would be nice to be able to edit panels in pages using the full width of the screen rather than the currently max-width: 1368px. Is there a reason for having the configuration panel not taking the full width? Its impossible at this width to edit panels that have a lot of elements. Please change it to 100% so we can better edit the layouts. Thanks! B.

    • Tip 7: How to fetch data from another application?

      Hi everyone, Following our Zoho Creator - Tips and Tricks series every fortnight, we are back today with a tip based on one of the most popular questions asked in our forum. This tip would help you fetch data from another application(App B) and use it

    • The Social Wall: May 2025

      Hey everyone, We're excited to share some powerful updates for the month of May! Let's take a look! Reply to your Instagram and Facebook comments privately through direct messages Are you tired of cluttered comment threads or exposing customer queries

    • Sub-Form Fields as Filters for Reports

      Hi, I would like to use the Sub-Form Fields as Filters in Reports just like we do for Main Page Fields. Thanks Dan

    • Zoho CRM Formula - Current Time minus Date/Time field

      Hello, I am trying to prevent duplicate emails going to clients when more than 1 deal is being updated. To do this, I would like to create a formula to identify if a date/time field is >= 2 hours ago. Can someone please help me write this formula? Example:

    • Per Level Approval for admins

      We need Process admins like Zoho CRM in Zoho Books for per stage approval Currently in books, admins only have the option for Final Approval But for example, in cases like when an employee is on leave, we can't just approval one level we only have option

    • Billing Management: #7 Usage Billing in Telecom & Internet Service Provider

      Telecom and Internet Service Providers operate in markets where usage varies drastically from one customer to another. While flexible, usage-based models align revenue directly with consumption, they also introduce operational challenges like real-time

    • Zoho Sprints - Q3 updates for 2025

      The updates for the third quarter of 2025 are out. A few significant features and enhancements have been rolled out to improve user experience and product capabilities. The following are the updates: Manage tags and cluster tags Record and maintain project

    • Kaizen #208 - Answering your Questions | Functions, AI and Extensions

      Hello Developers! Welcome back to a fresh week of Kaizen! We are grateful for your active participation in sharing feedback and queries for our 200th milestone. This week, we will answer the queries related to Functions and Extensions in Zoho CRM. 1.

    • Zoho CRM still doesn't let you manage timezones (yearly reminder)

      This is something I have asked repeatedly. I'll ask once again. Suppose that you work in France. Next month you have a trip to Guatemala. You call a contact there, close a meeting, record that meeting in CRM. On the phone, your contact said: "meet me

    • Creating Restaurant Inventory Management on Zoho

      Hi,  We run a small cloud kitchen and are interested to use Zoho for Inventory and Composite Item tracking for our food served and supplied procured to make food items.  Our model is basically like subway where the customer can choose breads, veggies,

    • To Zoho customers and partners: how do you use Linked Workspaces?

      Hello, I'm exploring how we can set up and use Linked Workspaces and would like to hear from customers and partners about your use cases and experience with them. I have a Zoho ticket open, because my workspace creation fails. In the meantime, how is

    • Zoho Forms to Zoho CRM : First/Last Name to just Name ?

      When integrating a Zoho Form into the Accounts menu of the CRM I'm having trouble with how names are formatted ; In Forms the data is available as First Name or Last Name In the CRM there is only one field called Name How can I ensure that "John" "Smith"

    • Enhancements to the formula field in Zoho CRM: Auto-refresh formulas with the "Now" function, stop formula executions based on criteria, and include formulas within formulas

      Dear Customers, We hope you're well! By their nature, modern businesses rely every day on computations, whether it's to calculate the price of a product, assess ROI, evaluate the lifetime value of a customer, or even determine the age of a record. With

    • This festive season, offer discounts with coupon code support in Stripe Checkout

      Hello form builders! It’s the festive season, the perfect time to spread joy and great deals! Now, with Zoho Forms’ latest enhancement for Stripe Checkout, you can do exactly that with coupon codes! Your payment forms integrated with Stripe Checkout can

    • Cómo creo una factura negativa o de abono?

      NEcesito anular una factura y crear una nueva igual pero en negativo. El sistema no me lo permite

    • Power of Automation::Streamline log hours to work hours upon task completion.

      Hello Everyone, A Custom Function is a user-written set of code to achieve a specific requirement. Set the required conditions needed as to when to trigger using the Workflow rules (be it Tasks / Project) and associate the custom function to it. Requirement:-

    • Next Page