Posted by Andy Inman on October 19, 2010 at 10:03am
I'm currently involved in a project that captures webform data and posts it into zoho as a "lead". In an earlier version, we had PHP in the webform itself, but now I'm upgrading it to a standalone module which hooks into relevant webforms via hook_form_alter. Currently it's not generalised enough to become a general-purpose module, but it could be. Is anybody else doing anything like this, or need to?
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Looking for information about Zoho+Drupal
I'm at the beginning of project and our customer is looking into using Zoho CRM to manage a flow of actions taking place partly in a Drupal 6.x installation, meaning a two way communication solution. So for now I'm looking into the Zoho API and even looking for code examples in Drupal. So if you would like to share some code or thoughts about it, it would be great.
//Örjan
Subscribe. I'm interested on
Subscribe. I'm interested on this functionality
Webform to Zoho
@orjantorang - I've done nothing with the Zoho API - all my work was based on posting to Zoho via simple http form post.
@jmesam - I can tell you it's possible using PHP in the webform "extra processing" section. The plan was to produce a more general-purpose module rather than use PHP in the webform itself, but for the moment my client has postponed this part of the project. There were several problems with the approach of using PHP in "extra processing":
So, the module was going to address these issues. If you are a developer, I can give you pointers and code samples on how to go about this. If you need a developer, I'd be happy to bid!
Currently part of the team at https://lastcallmedia.com in a senior Drupal specialist role.
OK, we are at the moment
OK, we are at the moment having a module, tailor made for our client.
This module get Tasks from Zoho with a certain status on cron, creates a node of a certain node type for each Task, sets the status to another value in Zoho. When the user is done in the Drupal installation the module sets the status of the Task in Zoho to a new value.
Our client likes the idea to share with Drupal, but we are not there yet, but maybe later we can give away some example module.
I'd love to see code samples
I'd love to see code samples and any pointers!
Just some thoughts about using Zoho API
Just briefly I can inform that we have a working system between Zoho and a Drupal 6 installation (D6) via Zoho API. The D6 gets new Tasks in Zoho with a certain status and with its Campaign and other referenced objects in Zoho. When this Task is done in D6 it will be reported back to Zoho and based on this information new Products are added in Zoho. Then there is two maintenance scripts in D6 that fetches old and never updated Products and other objects and then D6 runs some other API calls and update the objects in Zoho.
As mentioned before our modules are tailor made for our customer, so at this time I don't have time share so much more then some thoughts.
When building this kind of system the API can be a bottleneck. Zoho has some limitations in the API, making it quite hard to not run in to those limitations. You can't at this time search with more than one variable at a time. You have to make a workaround searching for one variable and sort the result based on the second variable and hope that that will do the trick. You can't afford to get all and you don't want to store redundant data in your system.
The API has limitations in searches and how many result records they deliver, making it hard to calculate if the system will work or not. In our case we have made up some rules and are counting all calls, making user actions prioritized and if we have space during the night the maintenance calls are made.
The documentation is not the best. Just one example, they changed a limitation in how many Lookup fields you can have, from 10 to 5. At that point we had a problem with a missing Lookup field. We thought it was due to that limitation first. But in a online session with Zoho support team we figured out that it was a conflict with FF4 that we recently had started using. The fields just don't show up in FF4. (Use Chrome for Zoho) But when I asked them about the limitation for Lookup fields it was not for the whole system, it was per module...and that is something completely different, they admitted that should be mentioned in the text. ;)
Make a careful weighing of the desirable features in Zoho:s ready to go components, if they not with simplicity can be built with CCK and Views in Drupal instead. Examine what features are really needed. In our case, the email feature weighed heavily at the beginning of the project. But there are some mail modules for Drupal, which directly or with some modification can be used instead. I think of Suppport ticket and Mail comment. Then there is a CRM system in Drupal called CiviCRM that maybe for someone could work very well.
But in some cases you have to go with using the API into Zoho. They have many users and have quite active support forum. When we finally have everything in place the API works as it should, so in that case it's stable.
Hope this will help you in some way.
/Örjan
Interested
I'm interested in this project as well. I'm currently trying to decide what CRM to use with drupal. CiviCRM has great integration with Drupal but I'm building a website for a business so I like Zoho's functionality and workflows for that reason... Let me know any progress on this!
Very Interested
I am very interested in this. Especially using drupal 7 and webforms. I know salesforce had a pretty nifty drupal 6/webform module. Back then webforms had the extra php/validation modules... Any ideas how to simply use/integrate webforms with zoho lead forms? API needed? Any pointers please.
Thanks alot.
Hi All, I have small issue
Hi All,
I have small issue the Zoho api is working fine in localhost and not working in production, am working with drupal 7 and hook_webform_submission_insert().
Please advice.