Building extensions #4: Integrating Zoho Books with applications using connections

Building extensions #4: Integrating Zoho Books with applications using connections

In our last post, we looked at an overview of the key features available for creating a Zoho Books extension, including connections. In this post, we'll go over connections in depth, including their types and applications.

What are connections?

"Connections" is a component in the developer console that allows you to establish secure connections between applications. In general, a secure connection is essential for apps to work seamlessly for data transmission and synchronization. The connections functionality in the Zoho Books extension developer portal is ideal for securely connecting Zoho Books to other Zoho products or third-party applications.

Types of connections

The Zoho Books extension developer portal allows you to use both predefined and custom connections.

Predefined connections:
 These are ready-to-use connections that are preconfigured for various applications to connect with Zoho Books. You can simply search for the application you want to connect to from the default list, choose it, enter some basic information (scope), and connect to Zoho Books.

Custom connections:
 These are connections for apps not included in the default list. You can create a custom connection by manually setting up or configuring information about the application you want to connect to Zoho Books with—such as the authentication type and other corresponding details—and then proceeding with the connection.

Notes
Note: You can also create these custom connections for applications in the default list if you want to customize the connection with specific details.

Now, let's explore the steps to create these connections with an example for each.

Steps to create a predefined connection
  • Go to Sigma and access your workspace.
  • Enter the developer portal of the Zoho Books extension you're creating a connection for.
  • Navigate to the Build section and click Connections to view the connection details, types (predefined and custom), and support to create a new connection.

  • Click the New Connection button to create a new connection.
Notes
Note: Alternatively, you can use the View All option under a connection type to see all the services under that particular connection type and begin building connections.

  • You'll be redirected to the connections page of your extension's developer space, where you can select default or custom services to create connections.


In this post, we'll walk you through creating a predefined connection using the default services available.

For our example, let's create a connection for Wrike (a project management service) available in the default services list and integrate it with Zoho Books.
  • Choose Wrike from the default services list.

  • Click the Create Connection button.

  • Provide the connection details.
➤ Enter the connection name.
➤ Toggle and choose whether you want every user to enter their credentials during connection authorization.
➤ Choose the scopes necessary for your purposes for the connection.

  • Click Create And Connect. Proceed with the flow to accept the scopes and authorize the connection.
  • The connection is now authorized, and you'll be directed to the connection details page. This page will also contain sample code in both deluge and JSON formats that can be used to utilize this connection as part of your extension components. Depending on which component you want to invoke the connection in, you can use the appropriate sample code format.
Notes
Note: Giving the connection name in the script is critical to be able to use the connection in the extension.


  • Close the connection's detail page, and you'll be taken back to your extension's developer portal.
  • If needed, you can create multiple connections for your extension. The connections you've created will be visible in the My Connections section of the Connections page.

  • You can click on a connection to view its details or choose to revoke it, if necessary. You can reconnect a revoked connection whenever you need it.
Let's look at a simple scenario for the predefined connection we created. Assume that each time a project is created in Zoho Books, a new project is created in Wrike to handle project management in detail. In addition, if any tasks are available as part of that Zoho Books project, they'll be instantly created in Wrike alongside the project. This can be accomplished easily in an extension using workflows, custom functions, and connections.

Let's check out the steps to make this happen.
  • Create a custom function for the Projects module by selecting Automate, then Workflow Actions, then Custom Functions, then New Custom Function. Include the logic to fetch the details and its tasks from a Zoho Books project and create a matching project in Wrike.
createwrikeproject deluge function - Please find the code snippet as an attachment in the post
  • In the code above, the Zoho Books project's details, such as project name and task details, are fetched from the Project Map parameter in the custom function.
  • The retrieved project details are constructed as a Map and then passed to the invokeURL deluge task to invoke the Wrike API and create a project. Additionally, a check is made to see if the Zoho Books project has tasks associated with it. If it does, then those tasks are added to the project created in Wrike using the Wrike API to create tasks.
  • The Invoke URL task requires some basic parameters to invoke the API and provide a response.
➤ url: This is the URL of the application's API that will be invoked. In our case, it's the Wrike API URL for Create Project and Create Task.
➤ type: This is the method of the HTTP request required for the API. Since we're creating projects and tasks in Wrike, the type is POST in our example.
➤ parameters: These are data that need to be constructed and passed as the body for the API.
➤ connection: The name of the Wrike connection we created has to be supplied as the value for the connection parameter. This ensures that data transfer between Zoho Books and Wrike is authorized and secure.
  • Next, create a workflow rule for the Projects module by selecting Automate, then Workflow Rules, then New Workflow Rule.
  • Set the Action Type as "When project is created."

  • Now, associate the custom function (createwrikeproject) as a workflow action to this workflow rule. Save the workflow rule.


We've now completed our extension setup for our use case.

After testing and publishing our extension, whenever a new project is created in Zoho Books, a matching project is created in Wrike as well, along with any tasks.


This example demonstrated a seamless transfer of data from Zoho Books to Wrike with connections. This use case can be taken a step further, making sure the project and its tasks maintained in Wrike are also synchronized in Zoho Books.

In this post, we've seen how to set up a predefined connection and use it in a Zoho Books extension. In the next post, we'll look at custom connections and how to create them.

SEE ALSO


    • Recent Topics

    • Zoho Creator - users "Name" Column

      Hi, When you add user to an application inside Zoho Creator, the system generate an account name for it. We don't have the  ability to change this name. According to Zoho creator Support (Case:11523656) : "The values displayed under 'Name' column of 'Users & permissions' section, is actually the respective account's username and not the actual name specified on the account. Usernames are system designated based on the account email address and cannot be modified from your end." We need to have the

    • Zoho Assist Unattended - devices disappearing

      Hello, I've recently introduced a new model of laptops into our environment (Lenovo Legion). We are experiencing an issue where only the latest installed agent - laptop is visible in Assist. This issue does not appear with our Dell inventory. Example:

    • Searchable email tab in Bigin

      Hi team, Could I please request a feature update, to be able to search emails within the email tab of Bigin. We have large correspondence with some agents and it would be very helpful if we are able to search from this section:

    • The silent force behind great customer service

      Customer service is known to be a demanding role. Customer service agents are expected to bring empathy, clarity, and human connection to every voice call, chat, and remote session, even if the situation requires some time for customers facing stressful,

    • New From Email in Zoho Desk

      Dear ZohoSupport, We are trying to establish a new From Address in Zoho Desk but we are facing difficulties. When trying to use the smtp.office365.com SMTP Server, after clicking the Save and Verify button, the Authentication Failed error pops up although,

    • Option in pipeline deal to select which hotel or branch or store if client has more than one local store

      Hi, I would like to know if there is an option in the deal pipeline to select which hotel, branch, or store a deal is related to—if the company has more than one location. For example, I have a client that owns several hotels under the same company, and

    • Aggregate SalesIQ Knowledge Base Interactions into Zoho Desk Knowledge Base Dashboard

      Hello Zoho Desk Team, We hope you're doing well. We’d like to request a feature enhancement related to the Zoho Desk Knowledge Base dashboard and its integration with Zoho SalesIQ. 🎯 Current Limitation When customers interact with knowledge base articles

    • Add Prebuilt "Partner Finder" Template with Native Zoho CRM Integration in Zoho Sites To: Zoho Sites Product Team

      Hi Zoho Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to request a prebuilt "Partner Finder" template for Zoho Sites, modeled after your excellent implementation here: 🔗 https://www.zoho.com/partners/find-partner-results.html ✅ Use Case: Our organization

    • Admin Visibility and Control Over Group Chats in Zoho Cliq

      Hello Zoho Cliq Team, We hope you're doing well. While we appreciate the current capabilities in Zoho Cliq — including the ability to restrict who can create group chats and configure user permissions — we would like to request several enhancements to

    • Update Regarding Zoho Finance Applications' Domains For API Users

      Hi users, Until now, both the Zoho Finance apps and their APIs shared a common domain. We've recently introduced separate domains for APIs. You can now start using the new domains for API calls. The old domains will not work for API users starting April

    • Ability for Agents to Initiate Voice Calls With Site Visitors Without Active Chat Session

      Dear Zoho SalesIQ Team, Greetings, We would like to request a feature enhancement related to the voice call functionality in Zoho SalesIQ. Current Limitation: At the moment, voice calls can only be initiated by agents after a chat session has been started

    • Add new Card

      How do you add a new credit card to a contact with Zoho API as can be done on web.  I am not able to find way to do this with Books API, CRM API or Subscriptions API.  This is an issue for our company as we do migration from a different system.  I can add card to a subscription through Subscriptions API, but some of our customers may not have a subscription, but only invoices set up in Zoho Books.  Is there any way in Zoho API to add new credit card to contact/customer?

    • Benchmark for Using Mail Merge in Service Order Scopes

      Hello, I was wondering if Zoho CRM has a benchmark or best practices for utilizing Mail Merge in service order scopes. Specifically, I'm looking for guidance on how to effectively integrate this feature for creating and managing service orders, especially

    • This user is not allowed to add in Zoho. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details

      Hello, Just signed up to ZOHO on a friend's recommendation. Got the TXT part (verified my domain), but whenever I try to add ANY user, I get the error: This user is not allowed to add in Zoho. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details I have emailed as well and writing here as well because when I searched, I saw many people faced the same issue and instead of email, they got a faster response here. My domain is: raisingreaderspk . com Hope this can be resolved.  Thank you

    • Why don't we have better integration with Mercado Pago or Pagseguro?

      Currently, the integration between Zoho Commerce and Mercado Pago for Brazil is very poor... Since it is old, it does not include the main payment method in Brazil today, which is PIX. Is there a date for this to finally be launched? There are numerous

    • two columns layout

      it's actually frustrating to not have this feature, I actually had to convince my employer to subscribe to zoho forms and integrate it with zoho crm, but because of this feature not beeing provided, our forms looks unnecessarly long and hideous. 

    • Sync Zoho Desk Help Center Category Icons to SalesIQ Articles

      Dear Zoho SalesIQ Team, Greetings, We are using the integration between Zoho SalesIQ and Zoho Desk to sync articles from our Zoho Desk Knowledge Base into SalesIQ. While this integration works well for syncing article content, we’ve noticed a visual inconsistency:

    • Company Name not pre-populating when using Quick Create: Contact

      Hi Devs, This has bugged me for a long time, and it's a simple UX design change to solve it. Problem: Users creating Contacts not linked to Companies/Accounts Cause: When a user creates an Opportunity where after browsing the Contacts they realise they

    • Spell Checker in Zoho desk

      Is there a way to set always check spelling before sending? Outlook does this and it is a handy tool to avoid typos

    • Enable Sync of SalesIQ Article Interactions to Zoho Analytics for Unified Knowledge Base Reporting

      Dear Zoho SalesIQ and Zoho Analytics Teams, Greetings, We’d like to formally request an enhancement to enable SalesIQ article interaction data to be synced with Zoho Analytics, so that we can obtain a unified view of our knowledge base performance metrics

    • How to enter membership share, sold or reimburse

      Hello, First, I am just begining taking care of the accounting of my organisation, and new also to Books. In Books, our accounting plan has an account #3900 - Share capital, that cumulates the share our member pay. How do I write a sale or a reimbursement

    • Ability for me to take the issued PDF certification on successful completion of a course then push to zoho sign in order that it is digitally certified

      How can I take the issued PDF certification on successful completion of a Zoho Learn course then trigger a workflow to push to Zoho Sign in order that it is digitally certified, hosted on the blockchain and then push to Zoho Workdrive to be hosted off

    • Candidates rejection process

      Is there a way to get ZOHORecruit to automatically send out an email to candidates that are rejected?

    • Multi file upload

      Hi, I just wonder if one could upload multiple files in one shot, say between one and three files, without adding multiple File Upload fields? Thanks, Alalbany

    • Passing the image/file uploaded in form to openai api

      I'm trying to use the OpenAI's new vision feature where we can send image through Api. What I want is the user to upload an image in the form and send this image to OpenAI. But I can't access this image properly in deluge script. There are also some constraints

    • Calendar Year View?

      Is there a way I can view the calendar in year view? Maybe create a page with a view like this?

    • ABN Amro

      Hi, We are trying to add Abn AMRO as a bank in Zoho Books. However we get the following error: Type of Error: User Action Required Description: The request cannot be completed because the site is no longer supported for data updates. Possible workaround: Please deactivate or remove the account. Suggested Action: The site will no longer be supported by Zoho Books and should be removed. Does that mean it's no longer supported? Thanks!

    • Add bank transfers via a webhook or API

      Hello ZOHO Books Community, is there anyway to add single transactions to bank accounts via an API or webhook? I found in docs to upload a bank statement. But i want to add a transaction from an external (unsupported bank) in the moment there is a transaction

    • Books does not allow 19% tax rate for invoice - Please help!

      Hi there, I need to do an import of invoices into Zoho Books. The process worked smoothly before we migrated to the Books Germany Edition in December 2024. It does import 13 out of 14 invoices from my csv-file. For the one it does not import I get the

    • When will Zoho Books offer native NFS-e issuing, now with Brazil's National Standard?

      Hello Zoho Team and Community, I'd like to follow up on my previous suggestion regarding the critical need for Zoho Books to natively issue Brazilian Service Invoices (NFS-e). My original idea was that this could be achieved by extending the same integration

    • Admin Access to Subscriber Information for System/Default Bots in Zoho Cliq

      Dear Zoho Cliq Team, Greetings, We would like to request an enhancement to Zoho Cliq's bot management capabilities. Specifically, we are asking for the ability for organization administrators to view the list of subscribers for system/default bots, such

    • zoho webmail keeps opening an empty tab when on log in/vist webmail

      as the the title says, whenever i log in or visit the page in a new tab, zoho webmail with open a new tab, but it errors out (see attachment). how do you stop it from doing this?

    • FSM work order creation on books quote approval

      I have followed https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/fsm/custom-integrations/zoho-books/articles/perform-actions-in-zoho-fsm-on-estimate-approval-in-zoho-books#Step_1_Create_a_connection_for_Zoho_FSM_in_Zoho_Books in order to create a work order in FSM

    • Tip of the week #46 - Stay more organized by moving threads between inboxes

      Have you ever come across a thread in your inbox that should have been handled by a different team or inbox? Or maybe you've wrapped up your part of the conversation, but another team needs to step in to finish the task or assist further? Keeping such

    • Text summarization and field detection with Zia, Zoho's AI assistant

      Have lengthy documents that take forever to read and sign? Tired of placing fields into hundreds of pages? Here's a single solution to solve both challenges: Zia, Zoho's AI assistant. With Zia's integration with OpenAI, you can summarize long documents

    • Sending Links to Functions in CRM

      Maybe I'm crazy, but currently there's no way to send someone a link to a custom function. The only link you can get is to the myfunctions page, which is very frustrating. This should work like workflow rules where when you click on one, it should have

    • zohoからの自動メールについて

      zohoからの自動メールにおいてちょっと困ったことが起こっており、サポートにも相談中なのですが ほかの方にも同現象が発生していないか相談したい。 ▼事象 zohoからの自動メールにおいて時折「このメールが送信者からのものであると確認できないため、このメールに安全に返信できない可能性があります」とメーラーから警告が出る。 ▼状況 発信元：設定した独自ドメイン SPF/DKIM設定：済 利用メーラー：outlook 発生頻度：稀（連続するときもあるが、パタッとでなくなる時もある） サポートへの連絡：ただいま継続相談中

    • Using Deluge scripting to create/update data in TabularSections

      I am having following Form structure with some other usual fields, and a tabular section which allows putting question, self rating and lead rating. (pic below) I am trying to create a record of this form via Deluge, but can't figure out way to populate

    • Zoho Recruit: How to link lookup fields using record ID instead of name during import?

      Hi, I'm having an issue with lookup fields in Zoho Recruit during data import. When I import records into a module that includes a lookup field (e.g., to an Interview record), Zoho Recruit matches the lookup by the display name (string) instead of the

    • Add a "Success" Route to the "Forward to Operator" Card in Zobot

      Hello Zoho SalesIQ Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to request an enhancement to the "Forward to Operator" card in Zobot. Current Limitation: At present, the "Forward to Operator" card provides the following routes: Operator Not Available

    • Next Page