Establishing a Connection

Configure a Connection Profile

From the CData ribbon, click Get Data and select From Zoho CRM connection/s to launch the CData Query window. To setup a new connection, you will have to click the New Zoho CRM Connection button. Here you can set the connection settings, test the connection, and save the connection profile.

Connecting to Zoho CRM

Set the following connection properties to connect:

Region: the region associated with the domain of your Zoho CRM server URL.
Schema: the Zoho CRM version (v2, v2.1, or v4). Each Zoho CRM version has its own data model.

Authenticating to Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM provides two ways to authenticate to data:

To authenticate to your own local data via the desktop (non-browser connection), use the CData-supplied embedded OAuth application.

The add-in is already registered with Zoho CRM as an OAuth application. As such, it will automatically use the embedded application to connect to local data via a Desktop application.

To avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and eliminate the need to manually set the OAuthAccessToken every time you access local data, set InitiateOAuth to GETANDREFRESH.

Note: The Zoho CRM add-in defaults UseServerSideFiltering to True for higher performance, but this setting might return incorrect results.

To authenticate to shared data over the network (browser connection), use a custom OAuth application. To enable this authentication from all OAuth flows, you must set AuthScheme to OAuth.

The following subsections describe how to authenticate to Zoho CRM from three common authentication flows:

Desktop: a connection to a server on the user's local machine, frequently used for testing and prototyping. Authenticated via either embedded OAuth or custom OAuth.
Web: access to data via a shared website. Authenticated via custom OAuth only.
Headless Server: a dedicated computer that provides services to other computers and their users, which is configured to operate without a monitor and keyboard. Authenticated via embedded OAuth or custom OAuth.

For information about how to create a custom OAuth application, and why you might want to create one even for auth flows that have embedded OAuth credentials, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application.

For a complete list of connection string properties available in Zoho CRM, see Connection.

Desktop Applications

CData provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies authentication at the desktop. You can also authenticate from the desktop via a custom OAuth application, which you configure and register at the Zoho CRM console. For further information, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application.

Before you connect, set the following variables:

InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
Custom OAuth applications only:
- OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
- OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
- CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your custom OAuth application.

When you connect, the add-in opens Zoho CRM's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.

When the access token expires, the add-in refreshes it automatically.

Automatic refresh of the OAuth access token:

To have the add-in automatically refresh the OAuth access token, do the following:

The first time you connect to data, set the following connection parameters:
- InitiateOAuth: REFRESH.
- OAuthClientId: The client Id in your application settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: The client secret in your application settings.
- OAuthAccessToken: The access token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
- OAuthSettingsLocation: The path where you want the add-in to save the OAuth values, which persist across connections.
On subsequent data connections, set the following:
- InitiateOAuth
- OAuthSettingsLocation

Manual refresh of the OAuth access token:

The only value needed to manually refresh the OAUth access token is the OAuth refresh token.

To manually refresh the OAuthAccessToken after the ExpiresIn period (returned by ) has elapsed, call the RefreshOAuthAccessToken stored procedure.
Set the following connection properties:
- OAuthClientId: The Client Id in your application settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: The Client Secret in your application settings.
Call RefreshOAuthAccessToken with OAuthRefreshToken set to the OAuth refresh token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
After the new tokens have been retrieved, set the OAuthAccessToken property to the value returned by RefreshOAuthAccessToken. This opens a new connection.

Store the OAuth refresh token so that you can use it to manually refresh the OAuth access token after it has expired.

Connection Properties

The Connection properties describe the various options that can be used to establish a connection.

Managing Connections

After successfully authenticating to Zoho CRM you will be able to customize the data you are importing. To learn more about this, see Managing Connections.

Excel Add-In for Zoho CRM