Kaizen #200 - Answering Your Questions | Authentication using Zoho CRM Python SDK

Kaizen #200 - Answering Your Questions | Authentication using Zoho CRM Python SDK



We’re incredibly excited to bring you the 200th post in our Kaizen series!

Idea
This journey has been as much about listening as it has been about sharing. And today, we’re making both count. Over the past few weeks, we’ve collected your feedback through the Kaizen feedback form added in our earlier posts. Thank you for the time and thought you’ve put into it.

Starting today, we’ll be actively addressing your most requested topics. 

Overview – OAuth 2.0 and Zoho CRM SDKs

In this Kaizen, we’ll walk you through how OAuth 2.0 authentication is handled using the Zoho CRM Python SDK, and how the SDK simplifies token refresh, storage, and management for multiple users and organizations across multiple data centers.

Introduction:


OAuth2.0 Recap:



Token Management using Zoho CRM SDKs:


Sample Project Overview

We’ve used a fully working sample project to demonstrate the OAuth flow in action.

Frontend

A static interface built using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Files include:
  • index.html – login and data input page
  • script.js – client-side login and record handling
  • redirect.html – used to capture the grant token from Zoho

Backend

A Python server using Zoho CRM SDK to:
  • Authenticate users using OAuth 2.0
  • Store and manage tokens
  • Fetch and manipulate CRM records

Note:

Before running the project, you’ll need to register your client in the Zoho API Console. Once registered, use the generated Client ID and Client Secret in your server code.
If you're planning to support users across multiple Zoho Data Centers (DCs):
  • Be sure to enable Multi-DC for your client.
  • Use the same client credentials (Client ID and Secret) for all the DCs during authentication.

Implementation Demo:

How the SDK Maps Tokens to Users

One of the key challenges in multi-user apps is ensuring that each user's tokens are stored and retrieved correctly. The Zoho CRM Python SDK handles this automatically.
As part of the OAuth flow, the SDK retrieves the user's email and organization info in the background using the scopes ZohoCRM.users.READ and ZohoCRM.org.READ. It then uses this unique user–org combination to:
  • Store access and refresh tokens separately for each user
  • Automatically update tokens when a user logs in again
  • Ensure that all API calls are authorized with the correct tokens
If you're implementing Login with Zoho using the standard OAuth redirect flow, all of this is handled internally by the SDK using the user and org information retrieved during login. There’s no need to manually pass a UserSignature in the token object.
 
If you're not implementing Login with Zoho, or if you’d prefer to explicitly associate a token with a known user, you can pass a UserSignature object during initialization:
  1. from zohocrmsdk.src.com.zoho.api.authenticator import UserSignature

    user = UserSignature(email)
    token = OAuthToken(..., user_signature=user)
    Initializer.initialize(..., user=user)
This ensures the SDK can correctly identify the token's owner and separate tokens for different users or orgs in a multi-user application.

Multi-User & Multi-DC Token Management


Authentication can often be one of the trickiest parts of any integration, especially when you're dealing with multiple users, environments, and token refresh cycles. With the Zoho CRM SDKs, much of that complexity is handled for you, from generating and persisting tokens, to refreshing them silently when they expire, and managing user-org mappings behind the scenes.

We hope this Kaizen gave you a clearer picture of how to use our SDKs confidently in your apps. Try out the project, play around, and see how it all works in real time. 

If you have any queries, let us know the comments below, or send an email to support@zohocrm.com. We'd love to hear from you.


    • Sticky Posts

    • 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

    • Kaizen #152 - Client Script Support for the new Canvas Record Forms

      Hello everyone! Have you ever wanted to trigger actions on click of a canvas button, icon, or text mandatory forms in Create/Edit and Clone Pages? Have you ever wanted to control how elements behave on the new Canvas Record Forms? This can be achieved

    • Recent Topics

    • WebDAV / FTP / SFTP protocols for syncing

      I believe the Zoho for Desktop app is built using a proprietary protocol. For the growing number of people using services such as odrive to sync multiple accounts from various providers (Google, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, etc.) it would be really helpful

    • Consolidated report for multi-organisation

      I'm hoping to see this feature to be available but couldn't locate in anywhere in the trial version. Is this supported? The main aim to go to ERP is to have visibility of the multi-organisation in once place. I'm hopeful for this.

    • Feature Request - Allow Customers To Pick Meeting Duration

      Hi Bookings Team, It would be great if there was an option to allow customers to pick a duration based on a max and minimum amount of time defined by me and in increments defined by me. For example, I have some slots which are available for customers

    • Error Logs / Failure logs for Client Scripts Functions

      Hi Team, While we are implementing client scripts for the automation, it is working fine in few accounts but not working for others. So, it would be great if we can have error Logs for client scripts also just like custom functions. Is there any way that

    • Welcome to the Zoho ERP Community Forum

      Hello everyone, We are thrilled to launch Zoho ERP (India edition), a software to manage your business operations from end to end. We’ve created this community forum as a space for you to ask questions, comment answers, provide feedback, and share your

    • Support for Custom Fonts in Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal

      Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you're doing well. We would like to request the ability to use custom fonts in the Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal. Currently only the default fonts (Roboto, Lato, and Montserrat) are available. While these

    • YouTube Live streaming? how to? Zoom has this feature, built-in. Can't find it on zoho meetings.

      YouTube Live streaming? how to? Zoom has this feature, built-in. Can't find it on zoho meetings.

    • Feature Request - A Way To Search Item Groups

      Hi Inventory Team, I can't find any way to filter or search by fields of Item Groups. It would be great to see that functionality added. I have a use case where a single product might come from 5 or more suppliers and each supplier's item is an Item in

    • Feature Reqeust - Include MPN In Selectable FIelds

      I have noticed that the MPN is not available to show in the list view of Items. Please consider adding it as EAN, UPC and ISBN are all available, so it doesn't make much sense to exclude this similar option. Thanks for considering my feedback.

    • Feature Request - Option To Hide Default System Fields on Items

      Hi Zoho Inventory Team, As far as I know it is not possible to hid some of the defult system fields on Items, such as UPC, MPN, EAN, ISBN. A good use case is that in many cases ISBN is not relevant and it would be an improved user experience if we could

    • Making an email campaign into a Template

      I used a Zoho Campaign Template to create an email. Now I want to use this email and make it a new template, but this seems to be not possible. Am I missing something?

    • Campaigns does not work!

      I am running into so many problems trying to use Zoho Campaigns, that I am seriously considering dropping the app from my (shrinking) list of Zoho applications I actually use. Apart from having to fight the software trying to create a design and email,

    • Feature Request - Make Available "Alias Name" Field In Item List View

      Hi Zoho Inventory Team, I have noticed that the "Alias Name" field does not appear on the list of selectable columns in the Customise Columns feature in the Items module. This would be very useful to see for businesses who are using the Alias Name field

    • Marketing Automation

      L.S. Marketing Automation is and has always been part of the Zoho One bundle - according to the information provided on the Zoho Website. Why when I open Marketing Automation do I get the following message?: "Your trial has expired. We hope you enjoyed

    • 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

    • Bigin, more powerful than ever on iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe, and watchOS 26.

      Hot on the heels of Apple’s latest OS updates, we’ve rolled out several enhancements and features designed to help you get the most from your Apple devices. Enjoy a refined user experience with smoother navigation and a more content-focused Liquid Glass

    • Notes badge as a quick action in the list view

      Hello all, We are introducing the Notes badge in the list view of all modules as a quick action you can perform for each record, in addition to the existing Activity badge. With this enhancement, users will have quick visibility into the notes associated

    • Claude + MCP Server + Zoho CRM Integration – AI-Powered Sales Automation

      Hello Zoho Community 👋 I’m excited to share a recent integration we’ve worked on at OfficehubTech: ✅ Claude + MCP Server + Zoho CRM This integration connects Zoho CRM with Claude AI through our custom MCP Server, enabling intelligent AI-driven responses

    • Automatic Matching from Bank Statements / Feeds

      Is it possible to have transactions from a feed or bank statement automatically match when certain criteria are met? My use case, which is pretty broadly applicable, is e-commerce transactions for merchant services accounts (clearing accounts). In these

    • How to filter Packages in zoho inventory api

      Hi Team, I want to perform some tasks in a schedular on the packages which are in "Shipped" state. I tried to use filter_by in my api call but in return I get response as {"code":-1,"message":"Given filter is not configured"} My Api request is as follows

    • CRM

      Is anyone else experiencing this issue? Our company is not moving out of using Gmail's web app. It just has more features and is a better email program than Zoho Mail. Gmail has an extension (Zoho CRM for Gmail) that we're using but we've found some serious

    • Automate pushing Zoho CRM backups into Zoho WorkDrive

      Through our Zoho One subscription we have both Zoho CRM and Zoho WorkDrive. We have regular backups setup in Zoho CRM. Once the backup is created, we are notified. Since we want to keep these backups for more than 7 days, we manually download them. They

    • Syncing with Google calendar, Tasks and Events

      Is it possible to sync Zoho CRM calendar, task and events with Google Calendar's tasks and events. With the increasing adoption by many major tool suppliers to sync seamlessly with Google's offerings (for instance I use the excellent Any.do task planning

    • IMAP mail after specify date

      Hi My customer's mail server is on premise and mail storage is very huge. So It never finish sync. and finally stop sync. Cloud CRM have a option like zoho mail sync mail after some date.

    • How can i view "Child" Accounts?

      It can be very useful in our field of business to know the parent-child account relationship. However, there seems to be a shortcoming in the parent account view: no child account list. How can we view the child accounts per each account?

    • Ability to assign Invoice Ownership through Deluge in FSM

      Hi, As part of our process, when a service appointment is completed, we automated the creation of the invoice based on a specific business logic using Deluge. When we do that, the "Owner" of the invoice in Zoho FSM is defaulted to the SuperAdmin. This

    • Easily perform calculations using dates with the new DATEDIF function

      Hey Zoho Writer users! We've enhanced Zoho Writer's formula capabilities with the new DATEDIF function. This allows you to calculate the difference between dates in days, months, and years. Function syntax: =DATEDIF(start_date, end_date, unit) Inputs:

    • Adding Comments Using Workflows - How to Change User Attributed

      We have worklflows in Desk where a comment is added to a ticket based on certain criteria. It seems that the comment added is always attributed to the user who last edited the workflow. This does not make sense for us because: - It's misleading to other

    • Add Attachment Support to Zoho Flow Mailhook / Email Trigger Module

      Dear Zoho Support Team, We hope you are well. We would like to kindly request a feature enhancement for the Mailhook module in Zoho Flow. Currently, the email trigger in Zoho Flow provides access to the message body, subject, from address, and to address,

    • Conect chat of salesiq with zoho cliq

      Is there any way to answer from zoho cliq  the chat of salesiq initiated by customers?

    • Les dernières avancées en saisie de données et collaboration

      Après une année dédiée à la recherche et au développement, notre équipe est prête à dévoiler des améliorations majeures pour Zoho Sheet. Ces nouveautés seront lancées par étapes afin d’en assurer une prise en main optimale. Nous commençons avec des fonctionnalités

    • Deluge Learning Series – Client functions in Deluge | January 2026

      We’re excited to kick-start the first session of the 2026 Deluge Learning Series (DLS) with Client functions in Deluge. For those who are new to DLS, here’s a quick overview of what the series is all about: The Deluge Learning Series takes place on the

    • Rich Text For Notes in Zoho CRM

      Hello everyone, As you know, notes are essential for recording information and ensuring smooth communication across your records. With our latest update, you can now use Rich Text formatting to organize and structure your notes more efficiently. By using

    • display call description in the notes section of a contact or add notes field to completed call screen

      When completing a call, we type in the result of the call in the description. However, that does not show up under the notes history on the contact. We want to be able to see all the calls that have taken place for a contact wihtout having to go into each completed call. The other option is to add the notes field to the completed call screen.

    • Implement Meeting Polls in Zoho Bookings

      Dear Zoho Bookings Support Team, We'd like to propose a feature enhancement related to appointment scheduling within Zoho Bookings. Current Functionality: Zoho Bookings excels at streamlining individual appointment scheduling. Users can set availability

    • Zoho Bookings and Survey Integration through Flow

      I am trying to set up flows where once an appointment is marked as completed in Zoho Bookings, the applicable survey form would be sent to the customer. Problem is, I cannot customise flows wherein if Consultation A is completed, Survey Form A would be

    • Service Account Admin for API Calls and System Actions

      Hello, I would like to request the addition of a Service Account Admin option in Zoho product. This feature would allow API calls and system actions to be performed on behalf of the system, rather than an active user. Current Issue: At present, API calls

    • How to apply customized Zoho Crm Home Page to all users?

      I have tried to study manuals and play with Zoho CRM but haven't found a way how to apply customized Zoho CRM Home Page as a (default) home page for other CRM users.. How that can be done, if possible? - kipi Moderation Update: Currently, each user has

    • Please can the open tasks be shown in each customer account at the top.

      Hi there This has happened before, where the open tasks are no longer visible at the top of the page for each customer in the CRM. They have gone missing previously and were reinstated when I asked so I think it's just after an update that this feature

    • How to Customize Task Creation to Send a Custom Alert Using JavaScript in Zoho CRM?

      Hello Zoho CRM Community, I’m looking to customize Zoho CRM to send a custom alert whenever a task is created. I understand that Zoho CRM supports client scripts using JavaScript, and I would like to leverage this feature to implement the alert functionality.

    • Next Page