Working with Widgets

Working with Widgets

Widgets are components that bring additional functionality to your CRM. Set up widgets in your CRM to incorporate various external services and make them work in CRM.

Currently Zoho CRM supports 4 types of Widgets. They are the ones which are added to: Custom Buttons, Related Lists, WebTabs and Home Page Dashboards.

Using the Zoho CLI, you can create, run, test and package your widgets. Following up after packaging, you would have to host the widget application on a server to make it run. There are two ways in which the application can be hosted - Internal and External. Zoho CLI is the command line interface which uses Zoho's servers to host the App internally. Similarly, the app can be hosted externally using any other web hosting site and made ready for production.

Internal Hosting

Your application's static contents can be hosted using Zoho. With the help of Zoho's CLI, you can create, develop, test and package your widgets. Furthermore, running the widgets through internal hosting doesn't require you to have your application elsewhere.

It requires uploading the files of the application in zip format. In general, for applications that are created personally by the User can be added as a widget using Internal hosting.

External Hosting

Some services are available from other sources as they allow you to use their softwares from their websites. You can make the applications from there be available in your CRM by calling the website link.

Adding a Widget

To add a widget

  1. Click Setup > Developer Space > Widgets.
  2. Click Create your First Widget.
  3. In the following pop-up,
    1. Give the widget a Name (mandatory.)
    2. Provide a description about the widget (optional).
    3. Select the preferred Widget type.
    4. Select the preferred Hosting type.
  4. To host the application internally:
    1. Select Zoho from the Hosting drop-down.
    2. Click Upload.
    3. Select the compressed(ZIP) file of your application.
    4. Provide the Index URL of your application in the CRM.



  5. To host the application from external sources:
    1. Select External from the Hosting drop-down.
    2. Enter the URL of the website to which the application is hosted.



  6. Click Save.

Note

The maximum size limit for the ZIP file is 25MB.

Using a Widget

Once the widget is added to your CRM, it can be used from the component to which it was associated to.

Widget in a Dashboard

Dashboard is a pictorial representation of your custom reports, which gives a real-time snapshot of your organization's key metrics. Using dashboards, you can easily visualize the patterns and trends in sales, marketing, support, and inventory related data. Adding a Widget to your dashboard allows you to access key data for your business readily.

Widget in a Web tab

Web tabs help you to open web pages like company-wide announcements, web applications, etc. inside Zoho CRM. All the Zoho CRM users across the organization can view these web tabs. You can also add a widget to a web tab by calling them through Deluge, within Zoho CRM.

Widget in a Custom Button

Custom Buttons is a feature in Zoho CRM where you can invoke certain actions to be performed upon click. That includes functions, webhooks and more. Since a widget can be incorporated into a function, it can be triggered using a custom button.

Widget in a Custom Related List

Related Lists helps the user to view information about a particular record that is available in a different module. However, you can also set up widgets in a related list, such that information about the record from a third-party service or application can also be made available within the said record.



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