Client Script in Zoho CRM

A seamless platform for achieving and extending your business cases.

1. What is a Client Script?

Client Script is a piece of JavaScript code that runs on your web browser instead of the server. The Client Script feature gives you a seamless platform for achieving and extending your business cases by allowing users to customize Zoho CRM with your own business logic. It enables you to configure events for the UI components and define the actions once those events are triggered.  It enables you to create custom actions that are not otherwise part of the Zoho CRM’s native features.  For example, when a user fills the email address of a Lead/Contact, you can perform email discovery and automatically populate relevant data in the form. 

2. Pre-requisites   

  • The Client Script feature is available in Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Zoho CRM.
  • Refer to this page for the supported browser versions.
  • You should enable the Developer Permissions for the profile using which you want to access the Client Script feature. To enable the Developer Permissions, Go to Setup > Users and Control  > Security Control > select the Profile and enable Developer Permissions.

3. Developer-friendly Client Script IDE

Client Script IDE offers you a flawless experience during your development process by providing a cohesive solution with useful features.

4. Available for multiple pages

Client Script allows you to accomplish custom actions for different pages in Zoho CRM. This includes the below pages of all standard and custom modules in Zoho CRM.

  • Create page
  • Edit page
  • Clone page
  • List Page (Standard)
  • Detail Page (Standard) 
  • Detail Page (Canvas)  
  • Create Page (Wizard)
  • Edit Page (Wizard)

You need to create a separate Client Script for every layout of a module.

5. Executes Script based on Events

Client Script allows you to configure events which will trigger your script whenever those events occur. For example, you can configure your script to execute whenever the user hits the Save button or when the user adds value to a particular field. Click here to know the events available for different pages.

Note: 

The execution timeout for Client Script is 10 seconds.

6. Code re-usability using Static Resources

Client Script provides the convenience to import existing code files in the form of static resources and use them in your script. You can upload a Javascript file as a static resource, include the uploaded file in your script using the Add button on the right pane of the Code Editor, and call the method in the static resource file from your script. Refer to Static Resources in Client Script for more information.

7. Extensive ZDK

Client Script provides us its collection of ZDK Client APIs and ZDK CRM APIs. The ZDK CRM APIs invoke the Zoho CRM APIs internally and so it accounts for API credits every time a ZDK Web API call is invoked. Below are some of the typical use cases of Client Script that can be accomplished using the ZDKs.

A. Instant form field validation

Client Script is a boon when you want your script to run as soon as the user updates the value of a field. For example, to show an error or an alert message based on any condition as soon as the user enters data on a field. For example, if you want the minimum Quantity of products to be 100, you can show an error whenever the user enters a value less than 100.

B. Auto-populate data based on your requirement or calculation

You can auto-populate data for fields whenever an event is triggered based on any criteria or populate data based on calculations. For example: Auto populate the field Request Name whenever a new record is created in the module Request.

C. Display custom messages

Using Client Script, you can display custom messages and alerts in Zoho CRM. For instance, if you want to display an alert when the user enters an age less than 18 or more than 80, you can create a Client Script on Create Page with onChange event type and use the  ZDK Client API, ZDK.Client.showAlert() in your script.

For more examples on displaying custom messages click here.

D. Accomplish data auto-correction

Using Client Script you can correct, update or modify data instantly after the user enters a value in a field. For example, consider that your organisation wants the name of the user to be entered in capital letters, you can create a Client Script on Create Page with onChange Field event type on the field First Name and write a script to auto-convert the name to Capital letters.