Connections

Connections is a Catalyst Cloud Scale component that allows you to seamlessly authenticate and integrate with Zoho services and third-party applications. It eliminates the need to write complex authentication logic or handle credential management manually. By leveraging the robust infrastructure powered by Catalyst, Connections ensures that integrations and secure data exchanges happen reliably and efficiently. This simplifies the entire process of establishing secure connections between your application and external services.

Connections will handle the entire authentication requirement that is mandatory for a successful integration. For example, consider a business platform that manages its leads using Zoho CRM and manages its archival requirements with a third-party cloud storage provider. To achieve this requirement with Connections, you only have to establish and define an API. You do not have to code any additional logic you would otherwise use to handle authentication tokens; Connections will do that for you. Connections will also allow you to manage this entire integration directly in the console.

The Connections component offers you pre-configured connections for 25+ (Zoho and third-party) services in the form of Default Services. Furthermore, you can also configure any other service using the Custom Service feature.

Default Services: These are services that offer Connections where the API is already defined. However, you would still need to enable relevant scopes and log in through the required service to establish the Connection.

Custom Services: These services can be any other Zoho or third-party service that is not a Default Service. Custom service provides you with the option to choose your authentication protocol (API Key, Basic Authentication, or OAuth2) based on which your Connection to the service will be authenticated. You will also have to provide scope details and define the API per your requirements.

The following is a list of Zoho and other Third-party services that are offered as Default Services by Connections: