Zoho Sheet Remote API
The Zoho Sheet Remote web API lets any third-party application to use the feature-rich editor of Zoho Sheet for editing spreadsheets. The API also allows the modified spreadsheets to be pushed back to the third-party's servers for saving (the workbooks will not be persisted in Zoho Sheet's servers).
A sample spreadsheet opened using Zoho Sheet's remote editor
API usage:
- First, the workbook to be edited should be
uploaded into the ZohoSheet server. Once the workbook is uploaded, the Zoho
Sheet editor for editing that workbook can be opened up. The third party
application provider also have the option of doing the above two steps(uploading
and opening the workbook in editor) at one go or they can be done
seperately.
- the third-party server can upload the
workbooks into the Zoho Sheet server using either a multi-part form submit or
normal form submit.
-
The workbook can be modified using the
editor. Once 'Save' button provided in the editor is clicked, the updated
workbook will be pushed back to the third party server (will be reffered as 'remote server'
henceforth).
- the updated versions of the workbook will be
pushed to the remote server using a multi-part form submit.
- On closing the editor,the transient copy of
the workbook maintained in the Zoho Sheet server will be cleaned up. This is the
default behaviour. However, it's also possible to persist that workbook in Zoho
Sheet server itself, for if that workbook needs to be edited again, then there
is no need for uploading the workbook again to the Zoho Sheet
server.
Uploading workbooks
To upload a workbook, the following URL api should be used. Other required details should be sent as a form submit along with this url.
http://sheet.zoho.com/remotedoc.im?apikey=[apikey]&output=editor
Apart from apikey, the above URL api can have
following two query parameters
a. output:
This parameter
decides the format of the output. On passing 'editor' as the output value, Zoho Sheet editor will
be opened up directly for editing.
The possible values for query parameter 'output' are
- editor -- The Zoho Sheet
editor will be opened up directly
- url -- outputs a URL which contains a
unique Id representing the workbook to be edited
by default the
response will be a URL
b. lang:
This parameter decides the
language supported in Zoho Sheet editor.
The possible values for the query
parameter 'lang' are
- bg - Bulgarian
- ca - Catalan
- cs - Czech
- da - Danish
- de - German
- en - English
- eo - Esperanto
- es - Spanish
- fr - French
- it - Italian
- ja - Japanese
- nl - Dutch
- no - Norwegian
- pl - Polish
- pt - Portuguese
- ro - Romanian
- ru - Russian
- sv - Swedish
- tr - Turkish
- zh - Chinese
The default value for this parameter is
'en'. Moving forward other
languages will be
supported.
Response Format for URL request:
URL=[url
value]
WARNING=[warning message, if any]
RESULT=[TRUE/FALSE]
RESULT field indicates the status of the
action
Sample
Response:
RESULT=TRUE
URL=http://sheet.zoho.com/editor.im?doc=3000000012001
Suppose, the workbook to
be uploaded is available in a url accessible to Zoho Sheet server, 'normal form
submit' can be used. In this case, it's sufficient to specify only the url, from
which Zoho Sheet can download the workbook.
Else, 'multi-part form submit' can be used by the remote
server. Here, the file to be uploaded is sent as the POST content.
Both the methodologies
are described below..
Using multi-part form submit:
To upload the workbook to Zoho Sheet
server, submit a multi-part form-data to Zoho Sheet with the following
fields
| Field |
Description |
| content |
actual workbook
content
|
filename
|
filename of the
workbook with extension (supported extensions: xls,
xlsx, ods, sxc, csv, tsv)
|
| id |
unique handback
id that will be handed back by Zoho Sheet server while pushing the updated
versions of the workbook
|
| format |
the format in
which workbooks should be pushed to the remote server (supported formats: xls,
xlsx, ods, sxc, csv, tsv, pdf)
|
| persistence(deprecated) |
persistence = true has been deprecated now and the default value of this parameter is set to false.
The document pushed to Zoho Servers will be editable only once. The
data will automatically be deleted from Zoho Servers when the user
closes the browser's session. |
| saveurl |
[REMOTE SERVER SAVE URL] - The Web URL should be a
service that fetches the content of the updated document and saves it to the
user specified location.
|
* document can be
pushed from remote server to Zoho Sheet in one format and can be saved in
different format also
Sample multipart form:
<form method="POST"
action="http://sheet.zoho.com/remotedoc.im?apikey=<apikey>&output=editor" enctype="multipart/form-data" target="_self">
File : <input type="file" name="content" size="38">
<br>
<input type="hidden" name="saveurl"
value="[REMOTE SERVER SAVE
URL]">
<input type="hidden" name="id"
value="12345678">
<input type="hidden"
name="format" value="xls">
<input type="submit" value="Edit"
class="divbutton" name="submit">
</form>
* In order to edit a workbook in Zoho Sheet, it must be submitted as
multi-part form data either from the client side or it can be done as a emulated
multi-part form submission on the server side of the remote server.
Using normal form submit:
The form data will
have following fields.
| Field |
Description |
| url |
url from which
Zoho Sheet can fetch the document
|
| filename |
filename of the
workbook with extension (supported extensions: xls,
xlsx, ods, sxc, csv, tsv) |
| id |
unique handback
id that will be handed back by Zoho Sheet server while pushing the updated
versions of the workbook
|
| format |
the format in
which workbooks should be pushed to the remote server (supported formats: xls,
xlsx, ods, sxc, csv, tsv, pdf) |
| persistence(deprecated) |
persistence = true has been deprecated now and the default value of this parameter is set to false. The document pushed to Zoho Servers will be editable only once. The data will automatically be deleted from Zoho Servers when the user closes the browser's session. |
saveurl
|
[REMOTE SERVER SAVE URL] - The Web URL should be a
service that fetches the content of the updated document and saves it to the
user specified location.
|
* In order to edit a workbook in Zoho
Sheet, it must be submited as form data either from the client side or it can be
done as a emulated form submission on the server side of the remote
server.
Sample form
<form method="POST"
action="http://sheet.zoho.com/remotedoc.im?apikey=<apikey>&output=editor"
target="_self">
<input type="hidden" name="url" value="[REMOTE DOCUMENT URL]">
<input type="hidden" name="saveurl" value="[REMOTE SERVER SAVE URL]">
<input type="hidden" name="id"
value="12345678">
<input type="hidden"
name="format" value="xls">
<input type="submit" value="Edit"
class="divbutton" name="submit">
</form>
Saving the document in a remote server
The workbook which is
edited in the Zoho Sheet editor will be pushed to the remote server using
multi-part form submission from the Zoho Sheet Server. The URL to which it will
be pushed is specified at the time of uploading the document from remote
server(refer 'saveurl' form field above).
| Field |
Description |
| format |
the format of
the pushed workbook (supported formats: xls,
xlsx, ods, sxc, csv, tsv, pdf) |
content
|
content of the workbook
|
| filename |
filename of the
workbook with extension
|
| id |
unique handback
id that was specified
while uploading the workbook from the remote
server
|
* the remote server
should understand multi-part form submission with the above fields in order to
receive the updated versions of the workbook.
Zoho API is an easy way to integrate Zoho
Services into your application. Do have a go at the APIs by signing up for the
key now. If you have any further questions regarding the Zoho API, write to us
at api-support@zohocorp.com.
Note : It is mandatory to have the remote server address set to port number 80 for all the upload and download operations.
