Prerequisite

Before activating, please make sure that you meet the required criteria mentioned below:

• You should be an Administrator in the Zoho CRM account.
• You should have a Zoho Creator account with any edition.
  If you do not have a Zoho Creator account, click Create Account. An account with the Free Edition will be automatically created.

 Activate Custom Apps for your CRM Account

Activation is the first step towards using this feature. As an administrator you can activate or deactivate the Custom Apps feature at anytime.

1. Log in to Zoho CRM with administrative privileges.
2. Go to Setup> Marketplace > Zoho  > Build Custom Apps.
3. In the Build Custom Apps page, click Create your First Application.
   If you do not have a Zoho Creator account, click Create Account. An account with Free Edition will be automatically created.
   Your Zoho Creator account will be associated to the Zoho CRM account. See Also Roles of Users in Building Custom Apps

 After Activation

Once the activation is complete all the users with administrator profile will receive a notification email. You can do the following set of actions:

• Create/Import an application: While creating/importing the application you will also be able to create forms and views. The form that you create will be linked to the tab and the view will be visible when you access the tab. The option to import the apps will be available only if there are applications in the associated Zoho Creator account.
• Update Developers: For the application created within Zoho CRM, you can add or remove developers. Only one developer can be added to an application.
• Provide custom tab accessibility: You can provide access to the tabs for the various profiles in your CRM account.
• Customize the applications, form and views: You can modify the app, forms and views as per your needs from within CRM.

 Deactivate Custom Apps

As an administrator of Zoho CRM, you can deactivate this feature after which users in your organization will not be able to create custom apps using Zoho Creator from within Zoho CRM.

Note

• On deactivating, all the custom tabs along with the applications, forms and views created fro within Zoho CRM will be deleted only from CRM.
• The applications, forms or views will still be accessible in the associated Zoho Creator account.
  

To deactivate Custom Apps

1. Log in to Zoho CRM with administrative privileges.
2. Click Settings > Setup > Marketplace > Zoho  > Build Custom Apps.
3. In the Build Custom Apps page, click Deactivate Custom Apps.

Automatic Downgrade

When your Enterprise Edition gets automatically downgraded to the Free Edition due to various reasons, all the Zoho Creator data associated to the Zoho CRM account will be temporarily saved for 15 days.

• Within those 15 days if you upgrade to the Enterprise Edition, your data will NOT be lost.
• Within those 15 days if you DO NOT upgrade to the Enterprise Edition, your Creator data associated to CRM will be deleted in your Zoho CRM account. However, the applications, forms and views will not be deleted from your Creator account. Please note that the CRM users who had been given access to the Creator apps will still be able to use the app from the Creator account.

Manual Downgrade

When you manually downgrade the Enterprise Edition to any other Edition, then all the Zoho Creator data associated to the Zoho CRM account will be permanently deleted in Zoho CRM. However, the applications, forms and views will not be deleted from your Creator account. Please note that the CRM users who had been given access to the Creator apps will still be able to use the app from the Creator account.

Roles for Different Users in Building Custom Apps

For building Custom Apps, here is a list of actions that can be performed by the users with different profiles.

Administrator in Zoho CRM

• Activate/Deactivate Custom Apps
• Delete custom tabs

Owner of the Zoho Creator Account that is associated to the CRM account

• Create custom tabs by creating/importing apps, forms, views.
• Customize forms and create views
• Share custom tabs with users of other profiles in CRM
• Provide accessibility of the views to specific users
• Add or remove developer of the application
• Activate/Deactivate Build Custom Apps feature (only if the user is an Administrator in CRM)
• Add, edit or delete the records of the view in the custom tab
• Delete custom tabs

Developer of an application

• Create custom tabs by creating/importing apps, forms, views
• Customize forms and create views
• Share custom tabs with users of other profiles in CRM
• Provide accessibility of the views to specific users

Other profile users

• Access the custom tab and view based on the permissions.
• Add, edit or delete the records of the view in the custom tab, based on the permissions defined in Zoho Creator.