Activities in CRM: Overview of Methods

In CRM, activities are used for any tasks related to customers: calls, meetings, or document approvals.

Activities are divided into incoming and scheduled:

• Incoming — activities that come from the customer, such as an e-mail, call, or chat. For these activities, it is important to correctly specify the parameter DIRECTION = 1 so that the incoming activities counter in CRM works.
• Scheduled — activities created by employees, such as tasks or universal activities. They can have a deadline, add links to CRM entities, integrate with the calendar, invite colleagues, and attach files.

Quick navigation: All Methods and Events

User documentation: Activities in CRM

Which Kind of Activity to UseWhich Kind of Activity to Use

There are four kinds of activities in CRM. They differ in who creates the activity and how far its detail form can be customized.

Kind of Activity	Created By	When to Use
System Activity	Telephony, e-mail, chat, or an application via the crm.activity.add method	You need a call, e-mail, meeting, or an activity with a standard detail form
Universal Activity	An employee in the entity detail form or an application via the crm.activity.todo.add method	You need a deadline, color, participants, a meeting room, and calendar synchronization
Configurable Activity	Only an application via the crm.activity.configurable.add method	You need a custom appearance of the activity detail form with application blocks and buttons
Activity of a Custom Type	An application via the crm.activity.add method once the type is registered	You need your own icon and activity type name in the interface

Activity Type IdentifiersActivity Type Identifiers

The TYPE_ID parameter defines the type of a system activity.

TYPE_ID	Activity Type
1	Meeting
2	Call
3	Task
4	E-mail
5	General activity, used when importing calendar events
6	Provider activity: universal and configurable activities, and application activities

The DIRECTION parameter defines the direction of the activity: 1 — incoming, 2 — outgoing. Direction is relevant for calls and e-mails; it is not used for meetings.

How to Get StartedHow to Get Started

1. Identify the CRM entity whose timeline will store the activity: the object type is passed in OWNER_TYPE_ID, and the identifier in OWNER_ID. You can find the type values in the CRM Object Types reference.
2. Retrieve the list of available fields using the crm.activity.fields method.
3. Create the activity with the method for the kind you need: crm.activity.add, crm.activity.todo.add, or crm.activity.configurable.add.
4. Retrieve the activity using the crm.activity.get method, or the list of activities of the entity using the crm.activity.list method.
5. Delete an activity you no longer need using the crm.activity.delete method.
6. Subscribe to activity events to track changes in real time.

Links of Activities with Other CRM EntitiesLinks of Activities with Other CRM Entities

Activities linked to CRM entities are stored in the timeline of the entity's card. If an activity is linked to multiple entities — for example, an e-mail can be linked to both a deal and a contact — it will be stored in the timelines of all related entities.

Links between activities and CRM entities can be added and removed using the methods from the crm.activity.binding.* group.

System ActivitiesSystem Activities

System activities in CRM are created automatically:

• A call activity is created by the telephony connected in Bitrix24. To finish a call, use the method telephony.externalcall.finish. This method ends the call, creates an activity in the entity's card, and returns the identifier of the created activity in the parameter CRM_ACTIVITY_ID.
• An e-mail activity is created by the e-mail system. When an e-mail from a customer arrives at the connected Bitrix24 address, CRM checks if there is a customer in the database with the e-mail from the message. Based on the results of the check, an activity will be created in the card of the found entity or a new customer, where the activity will appear.

To create, modify, or delete a system activity, use the methods from the crm.activity.* group. When creating a system activity, specify TYPE_ID, for example, TYPE_ID = 4 for an e-mail activity. The values of the other types are listed in the Activity Type Identifiers section.

Activities of Custom TypesActivities of Custom Types

Applications can register custom activity types: upload a custom icon and specify the type name. For example, you can create your own activity type with an icon and name of your application.

• To register an activity type — use the methods from the crm.activity.type.* group. When creating a type, you need to specify its code designation in the parameter TYPE_ID.
• To create an activity with the application type — use the group of system activity methods crm.activity.add. When creating an activity, specify the code designation of the custom type TYPE_ID, registered for the activity type, in the parameter PROVIDER_TYPE_ID.

Universal ActivitiesUniversal Activities

Universal activities are a type of activity with extended settings: a deadline, color, participants, a meeting room, and calendar synchronization.

The crm.activity.todo.add method creates such an activity, and crm.activity.todo.update updates it. Separate methods change a single property of the activity: the deadline, description, color, or responsible user. How to choose the right method is described in the Universal CRM Activities section.

Configurable ActivitiesConfigurable Activities

Configurable activities are a type of activity that can only be created from an application. For this type, you can customize the appearance of the activity card and its functionality:

• Structure of Configurable Activity
• Badges of Configurable Activity

To create or modify a configurable activity, use the methods from the crm.activity.configurable.* group.

WidgetsWidgets

Applications can be embedded into activities. For embedding, special locations are used, and one is available in activities — Context Menu Item of the Activity in the Entity Card CRM_XXX_ACTIVITY_TIMELINE_MENU.

Thanks to embedding, you can use the application without leaving the entity card. The application will open on the page you specify during the registration of the embedding.

Additional FeaturesAdditional Features

Text notes can be added to activities and deleted. Use the methods from the crm.timeline.note.* group.

Content blocks can be added to activities and deleted. Use the methods from the crm.activity.layout.blocks.*.

• Available Content Blocks

Overview of Methods and EventsOverview of Methods and Events

Scope: crm

Who can execute the methods: depends on the method

General Methods and EventsGeneral Methods and Events

Managing Activity LinksManaging Activity Links

Method	Description
crm.activity.binding.add	Adds a link between an activity and a CRM entity
crm.activity.binding.list	Returns a list of links of an activity
crm.activity.binding.move	Moves a link of an activity to another CRM entity
crm.activity.binding.delete	Deletes a link between an activity and a CRM entity

Custom Activity TypesCustom Activity Types

Method	Description
crm.activity.type.add	Registers a custom activity type with a name and icon
crm.activity.type.list	Retrieves a list of custom activity types
crm.activity.type.delete	Deletes a custom activity type

Universal ActivityUniversal Activity

Method	Description
crm.activity.todo.add	Creates a universal activity
crm.activity.todo.update	Updates a universal activity
crm.activity.todo.updateColor	Changes the color
crm.activity.todo.updateDeadline	Changes the deadline
crm.activity.todo.updateDescription	Changes the description
crm.activity.todo.updateResponsibleUser	Changes the responsible user

Configurable ActivityConfigurable Activity

Method	Description
crm.activity.configurable.add	Adds a new configurable activity to the timeline
crm.activity.configurable.update	Updates a configurable activity
crm.activity.configurable.get	Retrieves information about an activity by ID

Badges of Configurable ActivityBadges of Configurable Activity

Method	Description
crm.activity.badge.add	Adds a new badge
crm.activity.badge.get	Retrieves information about a badge
crm.activity.badge.list	Retrieves a list of badges
crm.activity.badge.delete	Deletes a badge by code

Additional Content BlocksAdditional Content Blocks

Method	Description
crm.activity.layout.blocks.set	Sets a set of additional content blocks in the activity
crm.activity.layout.blocks.get	Retrieves the set of additional content blocks in the activity set by the application
crm.activity.layout.blocks.delete	Deletes the set of additional content blocks for the activity set by the application