Building extensions #2: Publishing an extension

Building extensions #2: Publishing an extension

Hello developers,

Welcome to our next post about building extensions for Zoho Finance Suite applications.

In our previous post, we looked at extensions, their purpose, and how to create and test them. To recap, extensions are installable plugins or add-ons that include customizations to improve the existing functionality of a Zoho product. They can be shared with other users, allowing them to install the plugin and have the customizations reflected in their account as well.

If you wish to customize any Zoho product on your account alone, you can use in-product customizations. Extensions, on the other hand, are created as custom, installable bundles that can be shared and used by multiple users.

In this post, we'll be discussing how to publish extensions both privately and publicly.

Why publish an extension?

The ultimate goal of creating extensions for Zoho products is to share them with users so they can install them and use their features in their own Zoho products.

In order to make the extension available as an installable component, it must first be published.

Private and public extensions

Extensions can be developed for internal organizational purposes or for a larger audience, and they can be published either privately or publicly.
  1. Private: Published to be shared privately with other users or within an organization.
Example: An organization uses Zoho Books to manage its financial activities, and its employees need customizations to meet their specific demands. In this scenario, extensions would be useful so the customizations could be shared with other users in the organization.
  1. Public: Published in Zoho Marketplace and made accessible to Zoho users.
Example: A developer creates an extension with some common or general use cases that would help most business categories, e.g., a payment gateway integration, a message integration app, or an extended feature for a Zoho Finance application. In this scenario, the developer could list the extension publicly for a larger audience.

How to publish an extension
  1. Enter the developer portal of the Zoho Finance extension you want to publish. For our demo, we're using a Zoho Books extension.
  1. Navigate to the Publish section and click Publish.

  1. A pop-up displays the list of components you've added to your extension. Check and validate these components.

  1. Choose either major or minor versioning. Major rounds off and increments your version number to the next integer (version 1, version 2, etc.), while minor increments the version by 0.1 (version 1.1, version 1.2, etc.).
  1. Enter the release notes in the Release Notes section. Click Publish.

  1. The extension is successfully published, and a private installation URL is created.

  1. As a developer, you can use the private installation URL to test the extension in your Zoho Books organization.
Note: In order to install and test the extension privately in Zoho Books, your Zoho Books account should be the same as the one you used to develop the extension.

  1. In order to share the extension with other users, it will have to be reviewed internally by the Zoho Finance team. To do this, click the Submit for Private Review button that appears after publishing the extension. Read the Zoho Finance extension review guidelines for more information.

  1. A pop-up displays the auto-populated details on a mail that will be sent to the Zoho Finance review team. Verify the details and click the Send Mail button.
  3. The extension is successfully submitted for private review and is under the status "Submitted For Review."
Note: If you want to make changes to the submitted version, you have to deprecate the version submitted for review. Once deprecated, the Finance team can't approve the version you originally submitted.

  1. As the developer, you'll also receive a copy of your submission email.
  1. The Zoho Finance team will review the extension and, once successfully validated, approve it, changing the private review status from "Submitted For Review" to "Approved."

  1. Now that the extension has been privately approved, you can share it with other users. Go to the Shared List option in the left panel, and click the Share Privately button.

  1. Enter the organization ID and email ID of the user you want to share the private extension with. Click Share.

  1. The extension is successfully shared.

  1. The user will get an email about the shared extension, along with the installation URL. They can simply click the link to install the extension.
  2. To publish and list the extension publicly in Zoho Marketplace, it'll have to be reviewed and approved by the Zoho Marketplace team as well.
  3. To publish publicly, follow the above steps, then submit your extension for Zoho Marketplace review using the Submit for Marketplace Review button.

  1. You'll be redirected to the extension details page, where you can view a Submit to Marketplace button beside the extension version. Click Submit to Marketplace.

  1. A pop-up appears with extension details that will be listed in Zoho Marketplace. Fill in the details to complete the submission process.


Extension compatibility across Zoho Finance Suite applications

Once you've developed the extension and submitted it for private review, check to see if it has any common use cases that would work with another Zoho Finance application. If it does, you can reach out to extension-submission@zohofinance.com and say you would like to have your extension reviewed for whichever other Finance applications you think it would suit. The Finance review team will evaluate your suggestion and guide you accordingly.

Once these reviews are validated, you can publicly list the extension for the other apps with ease. Using the available Marketplace installation URL, you can directly submit another application through the Zoho Marketplace Partner console.



When providing details in the Zoho Marketplace Partner console for the compatible application, make sure to change the product name in the Marketplace installation URL. Once submitted, the Zoho Marketplace approval team will internally validate it with the Zoho Finance team, review it themselves, and list the extension if it's verified.

Example

Zoho Books includes modules that are present in other Zoho Finance apps. Assume you've created a Zoho Books extension and shared it with the Finance team for private review. You can also contact the Finance team and request a review for Zoho Inventory because the extension's use case is compatible.

If the Finance team approves the review for both applications, and you want to publicly list the extension on both counts, instead of creating and publishing an extension for Zoho Inventory from scratch, simply change the product name from Books to Inventory in the Marketplace installation URL when submitting the application in the Zoho Marketplace Partner console.



In this post, we've given you a detailed outline of the steps involved in publishing an extension for a Zoho Finance application, both privately and publicly.

Going forward, we'll look at Zoho Books extension creation since Zoho Books includes features and functions that are found in the other Zoho Finance Suite products. We hope you found this information useful. Keep following this space for more useful guides!

SEE ALSO

    • Recent Topics

    • Advanced Customization of the Help Center using JavaScript

      Hello everyone, The Help Center in Zoho Desk can be customized by using HTML and CSS to provide structure and enhance the page's appearance—but what if you want to add interactive and dynamic elements? You can add these effects with JavaScript, a programming

    • Exciting Updates to the Kiosk Studio Feature in Zoho CRM!

      Hello Everyone, We are here again with a series of new enhancements to Kiosk Studio, designed to elevate your experience and bring even greater efficiency to your business processes. These updates build upon our ongoing commitment to making Kiosk a powerful

    • Edit default "We are here to help you" text in chat SalesIQ widget

      Does anyone know how this text can be edited? I can't find it anywhere in settings. Thanks!

    • PO Based Advance payment to Vendor

      We recommend to introduce a provision at PO to make advance payment to vendors and auto apply that advance paid later at the time of Vendor Bill submission for that PO. This will help us track PO-wise Total Payments.

    • Converting Customer Invoice to Purchase Bill

      Hi, In my service-based business, I sometimes create the customer invoice first, and later I receive the purchase bill from the vendor for the same job. Is there any option in Zoho Books to: Convert a customer invoice into a purchase bill, or Link/associate

    • Getting Project Template List using the REST API

      I am trying to confirm that I can use the REST API to create a project using a project template. The API documentation indicates this is possible by providing the Template ID, but it is not clear at all how to get a list of available Project Templates

    • How to get Quickbooks Desktop Info into Zoho?

      Our team has used Quickbooks desktop for years and is looking at switching to Zoho books in 2026. I want to bring all old sales history over since we use Zoho CRM. I can export Item sales history and generic sales orders from Quickbooks desktop. How do

    • ZeptoMail API Request

      We tried to send mail using ZeptoMail using Django. Following is my payload {'from': {'address': 'abc@abc.com'}, 'to': [{'email_address': {'address': 'xyz@xyz.in', 'name': 'Bhavik'}}], 'subject': 'Report Name', 'htmlbody': '<p>Test</p>'} Following is

    • Zoho Inventory - Allow Update of Marketplace Generated Sales Orders via API

      Hi Inventory Team, I was recently asked by a client to create an automation which updated a Zoho Inventory Sales Order if a Shopify Order was updated. I have created the script but I found that the request is blocked as the Sales Order was generated by

    • Admin asked me for Backend Details when I wanted to verify my ZeptoMail Account

      Please provide the backend details where you will be adding the SMTP/API information of ZeptoMail Who knows what this means?

    • Mass import of documents into Zoho Writer

      I'm using Google's word processor at the moment but feel that Zoho does a better job (on the online apps market). Iwant to move my documents (about 50-70) to Zoho but it seems to me that I have to import them seperately. Is it already possible to upload several documents at a time or is this a forthcoming feature? Cheers Rolli :?:

    • Add home page or dashboard in CRM customer portal

      is it possible to add home page or dashboard in CRM customer portal?

    • User Tips: How to change the the label display name of a system defined field

      Most users know how to change field label names via Settings > Modules & Fields but if you want to change the name of a system defined field you can’t as there is no “edit properties” option.  However with a simple hack you can edit any system defined

    • Search not working!

      I have items in my notebook tagged but when I search for a tag nothing comes up! Any fix for this?

    • Zoho CRM Community Digest - October 2025 | Part 1

      Hello Everyone! Here's a quick recap of first two weeks of October! Product Updates: Zoho CRM Android App Update: Surveys, Blueprints, and Smarter Mobile Features! Zoho CRM’s Android app just got a useful upgrade. You can now share records, upload your

    • Automate onboarding emails with CRM Workflow and Accounts module

      We’re a B2B SaaS company selling to public-sector organisations. Each organisation is stored as an Account in Zoho CRM, and each organisation typically has multiple associated Contacts. Our backend syncs product-usage data (setup status, user activity,

    • Using a CRM Client Script Button to create a Books Invoice

      Hello, I need help handling error messages returned to my client script from a function. The scenario I have setup a client script button which is available from each Deal. This CS executes a crm function, which in turn creates an invoice based on the

    • Important update: Enhanced security measures for account operations in Zoho Cliq

      Greetings from the Zoho Cliq team! We’d like to share an important security update that has an influence on some admin actions such as password reset, MFA reset, and MFA backup code generation. What’s changing? With our latest security enhancements, these

    • Sales Receipts Duplicating when I run reports why and how do we rectify this and any other report if this happens

      find attached extract of my report

    • No Functional Autosave or Manual Save Button

      Application : Zoho Notebook So I wanted to try Zoho Notebook(On Ubuntu) as an application, I installed the application and went solving my LeetCode problems visually(Drawing mode), at one point the app just stopped saving anything... Every time I tried

    • Enterprise subscription support

      My organization sells subscription services to enterprise customers, which is a different model from the consumer subscription model that Zoho Billing has been designed to support and I beleve this capability should be added. An enterprise subscription

    • Issue with Creator's IF logic

      Hi, I found the following code produces unexpected results: if(-1.0 < 0.0000000) {       info "True"; } else {       info "False"; } if(-1.0 < 0.000000) {       info "True"; } else {       info "False"; } The output returned is: False True However, the

    • Need option to send Package PDF in shipment email (Shipment PDF is missing Lot info)

      Is there any way to automatically attach the Package PDF instead of (or alongside) the Shipment PDF in the notification emails? We really need this feature because the default Shipment PDF creates a blind spot for our customers. It does not display Batch/Lot

    • zoho creator view is not present in the workspace and blank reports

      Hi Support,  Users who have "write" permissions keep getting this error for all of our embedded reports all of a sudden. See screen shot below: Meanwhile, my developer permissions account sees a blank screen in view and edit mode as shown in the screenshots

    • Customize portal email template

      Can i fetch only first name of the user in portal email template instead of the below code Hi ${User.FULL_NAME}

    • Can't we let users decide which options they'd like to add at embed widget?

      It seems embed widget DOES NOT offer a feature, where users can choose options upon subscribing plans. What Zoho has instead, is that admins have to manually create plan with options. How come no one in Zoho dev team never raised issue about usability

    • Reupload and rename from one field to another field (file upload)

      Hi Everyone, Sorry, i have question to use invoke url for rename and reupload attachments file to another field. Tested on development mode. Zoho C6. Refer to https://www.zoho.com/creator/help/api/v2/upload-file.html look my error notification. Does anyone

    • Printing Multi-Page Reports (PDF Export)

      Hi, I am moving a report from Google's Looker Studio to Zoho Analytics and trying to reproduce the Looker page by page dashboard editing experience. With Google, what you see is what you get when you print to PDF. But I can't seem to create the same experience

    • Resume Harvester: New Enhancements for Faster Sourcing

      We’re excited to share a set of enhancements to Resume Harvester that make sourcing faster and more flexible. These updates help you cut down on repetitive steps, manage auto searches more efficiently, and review candidate profiles with ease. Why we built

    • I NEED TO NUMBER TO TEXT NO HERE

      =NUMBERTEXT NEEED

    • Error: View is not present in the workspace

      When saving a dashboard, user receives a popup with the following error. "View is not present in the workspace" What does this mean or refer to? There is no further insight given.

    • Dear Zoho CEO: Business Growth is about how you prioritise!

      All of us in business know that when you get your priorities right, your business grows. Zoho CRM and Zoho Books are excellent products, but sadly, Zoho Inventory continues to lag behind. Just this morning, I received yet another one-sided email about

    • Is there any way to send an Excel received by email to Dataprep?

      Every day I receive an email alert with an Excel file that I want to process through a Dataprep pipeline. To do this, I need to: -Save the file to disk -Open the pipeline -Run the pipeline -Update the source -Several clicks to select and open the saved

    • Bin Locations

      Dear all, I am wondering if someone has the ability to develop the bin locations option for zoho inventory (integrated with zoho books) Regards, Ryan

    • Create and populate a record in an instant: Introducing zero-shot field prompting to Zia's ICR

      A couple of months ago, we upgraded our in-house AI image detection and validation tool, Zia Vision, with intelligent character recognition (ICR). By training Zia with sample images, you could create and enrich CRM records with data extracted from standard

    • How to Prevent Users From Skipping LMS Videos in Zoho People

      How to Prevent Users From Skipping LMS Videos in Zoho People Hello Zoho Developers, In this blog, we will quickly look at how you can stop users from skipping or fast-forwarding videos in Zoho People LMS. Zoho People provides a feature called Disable

    • [Integration Edition] Deluge Learning Series – Custom API with Deluge | November 2025

      We’re excited to conclude this four-month Integration Edition of the Deluge Learning Series: Session 1 – Integrating Zoho Apps with Deluge Using Built-In Integration Tasks Session 2 – Integrating Zoho Apps with Deluge Using invokeURL and invokeAPI Session

    • Automate Backups

      This is a feature request. Consider adding an auto backup feature. Where when you turn it on, it will auto backup on the 15-day schedule. For additional consideration, allow for the export of module data via API calls. Thank you for your consideration.

    • Tips for Organizing Workflows and Improving Team Coordination in Zoho

      Hi everyone, I’m looking for some general advice on how different teams are organizing their daily work within Zoho’s apps. Our team recently expanded, and we’re trying to streamline how tasks, discussions, and documents are shared so everything stays

    • Pre-fill webforms in Recruit

      I don't want to use the career site portal (as I have my own already), but I would like to direct users to the application forms for each role, from my website job pages. Is there a way to pre-fill fields in Recruit application forms, so that I only have

    • Next Page