Automation#33: Automate Splitting Names for Existing Contact Records

Automation#33: Automate Splitting Names for Existing Contact Records



An organized directory – who doesn't love one?
Previously, we explored how to split contact names into First Name and Last Name for new contacts in Zoho Desk. But what about existing contacts already in your database? This week, we bring you a custom function that automates this process, ensuring a well-structured and easily searchable contact list.
​
Handling Existing Contacts
  • On ticket creation for an existing contact, this custom function will scan the email and split the name stored in the "Last Name" field into "First Name" and "Last Name."
  • To avoid unnecessary modifications, we introduce a checkbox in the contact layout. This allows you to mark contacts that have already been split, preventing duplicate actions.
Let's walk through the steps needed to ensure a smooth and error-free execution. 

I. Create a Checkbox Field in the Contacts Layout

a. Go to Setup >> Customization >> Layouts and Fields >> Select the Contacts module >> Select the layout >> Drag the checkbox field >> Give a desired name for the checkbox (e.g., Name Split).
b. Click on the gear icon of the checkbox field, select Edit Properties, and note the API name. This API name must be pasted into the custom function on line 4.
c. Uncheck the Enable by Default checkbox if it is marked.

II. Configure Custom Function within the Workflow Rule

Prerequisites
1. Create a connection
  1.1 Go to Setup(S) and choose Connections under Developer Space.
  1.2 Click Create Connection.
  1.3 Select Zoho OAuth under Default Connection.
  1.4 Set the connection name as deskcontact.
  1.5 Under Scope, choose the below scope values:
Desk.contacts.UPDATE
Desk.contacts.READ
  1.6 Click Create and Connect.
  1.7 Click Connect and click Accept.
Connection is created successfully.

2. Create a Workflow Rule
 2.1. Go to Setup, choose Workflows under Automation. 
 2.2 Under Workflows, click Rules >> Create Rule.

In the Basic Information section,
2.3. Select Tickets from the drop-down menu under Module.
2.4. Enter a Rule Name and Description for the rule.
2.5. If you want to activate the rule right away, select the Active checkbox. Else, create the rule and activate it later.
2.6. Click Next.
 
In the Execute on section, follow these steps:
2.7. Select Create.   
2.8. Click Next.
 
2.9. In the Criteria section, add criteria if required. click Next. 
2.10. In the Actions section, click the + icon and select New next to Custom Functions.
2.11. Enter a Name and Description for the custom function. Choose Tickets under Module.
2.12 Under Argument Mapping, give a desired Method Name. Map the arguments as below:       
         2.12.1 In the Argument Name field, type contactId and select Contact ID under the Contacts Section.                                     
2.13. In the script window, insert the Custom Function given below:
  1. //------------- User Input ----------
  2. orgId = "60xxxxxxxx0"; //replace with your Org ID
  3. operator = "."; 
  4. checkBoxFieldAPIName = "enter_the_field_api_name"; //Enter API name of the checkbox
  5. //---------------------------------
  6. logs = Map();
  7. try {
  8. contacts = zoho.desk.getRecordById(orgId,"contacts",contactId, "deskcontact");
  9. firstName = contacts.get("firstName");
  10. lastName = contacts.get("lastName");
  11. if(lastName.contains(operator))
  12. {
  13.        if(operator.contains(".")){
  14.          lastName = lastName.subString(0,lastName.indexOf("@"));
  15.        }
  16.        firstName = lastName.subString(0,lastName.indexOf(operator)).trim();
  17.        lastName = lastName.subString(lastName.indexOf(operator) + 1);
  18.        updateContact = zoho.desk.update(orgId,"contacts",contactId,{"firstName":firstName,"lastName":lastName,"cf":{checkBoxFieldAPIName:true}},"deskcontact");
  19.    }
  20. }
  21. catch (errorInfo)
  22. {
  23. logs.insert("errorInfo":errorInfo);
  24. }
  25. info "logs: \n" + logs;

  27. if(logs.containKey("errorInfo"))
  28. {
  29. throws "Error happen in the CF execution";
  30. }
NOTE
a. In Line 2, Enter your OrgId with  "  ". To access OrgId, go to Setup (S) >> Developer Space >> APIs >> API Authentication.
b. In Line 4, enter the API name of the check box created within the Contacts layout.  
Information
This custom function will split the contact name as First Name and Last Name based on the "." operator between the names in the email. 
2.14. Click Save to save the custom function.
2.15. Click Save again to save the workflow.
By implementing this custom function and workflow rule, you can automate the process of splitting contact names within Zoho Desk, ensuring a clean and organized database, which will enhance searchability. 
We hope this guide helps streamline your contact management! If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to share in the comments. Happy Organizing!
Best regards, 
Lydia |Zoho Desk

    • Sticky Posts

    • Register for Zoho Desk Beta Community

      With the start of the year, we have decided to take a small step in making the life of our customers a little easier. We now have easy access to all our upcoming features and a faster way to request for beta access. We open betas for some of our features

    • Share your Zoho Desk story with us!

      Tell us how you use Zoho Desk for your business and inspire others with your story. Be it a simple workflow rule that helps you navigate complex processes or a macro that saves your team a lot of time; share it here and help the community learn and grow with shared knowledge. 

    • Tip #1: Learn to pick the right channels

      Mail, live chat, telephony, social media, web forms—there are so many support channels out there. Trying to pick the right channels to offer your customers can get pretty confusing. Emails are most useful when the customer wants to put things on record. However, escalated or complicated issues should not be resolved over email because it's slow and impersonal.  When you need immediate responses, live chat is more suitable. It's also quick and convenient, so it's the go-to channel for small issues. 

    • Welcome to Zoho Desk Community - Say hello here!

      Hello everyone! Though we have been here for a while, it’s time to formally establish the Zoho Desk Community; we’re really happy to have you all here! This can be the place where you take a moment to introduce yourself to the rest of the community. We’d love to hear all about you, what you do, what company or industry you work for, how you use Zoho Desk and anything else that you will like to share! Here’s a little about me. I am Chinmayee. I have been associated with Zoho since 2014. I joined here

    • Webinar 1: Blueprint for Customer Service

      With the launch of a host of new features in Zoho Desk, we thought it’ll be great to have a few webinars to help our customers make the most of them. We’re starting off with our most talked about feature, Blueprint in Zoho Desk. You can register for the Blueprint webinar here: The webinar will be delivered by our in-house product experts. This is a good opportunity to ask questions to our experts and understand how Blueprint can help you automate your service processes. We look forward to seeing

    • Recent Topics

    • Territories : Deluge and APIs

      I am trying to work out how to filter a deluge query by territory eg "SELECT Total_Amount, Stage, Closing_Date, Created_Time, Deal_Name FROM Deals WHERE Stage in (" + varBaseCriteria + ") AND Territory = 'Territory1'" The problem being that Territory

    • Tidying up messes file system on Site

      I'm been given access to a new site that's been managed by several different people over the years, each with different ways of managing images and files. If I move an image from one folder to another, it shows a missing image icon on the site's page.

    • Move Archive Button in Zoho Mail to Main Toolbar?

      Is there a way to add the Archive Button to this tool bar so I don't have to click the three dots every time?

    • Introducing Bigin 360: Our new pricing edition with increased feature limits and pre-installed toppings

      Dear Biginners Club, Today, we're pleased to launch a brand-new pricing edition called Bigin 360, our highest pricing edition that will sit on top of Express and Premier editions. It's been over four years since our launch, and we're receiving some great

    • URL field display value

      Is it possible to give a URL stored in a project a display value, rather than showing the whole url? I have a lot of projects connected to issues filed on a separate site, each with a distinct URL. For example: https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=40000

    • need payment link excl. TDS Amount.

      Dear Team Zoho, Kindly generate a payment link excluding TDS amount. So that TDS can be submitted through portal. Thanks & Regards, Arijit S.

    • CRM is very slow now

      CRM is very slow now. Plz check ASAP

    • Access error when running invokeurl

      Hi, I'm running the following code: string standalone.test_api() { LoroToken=zoho.crm.getOrgVariable("LoroToken"); info "LoroToken:"+ LoroToken; headersMap = Map(); headersMap.put("Authorization", "Bearer "+LoroToken ); headersMap.put("Content-Type",

    • Disable Column Freeze in PWA View but Keep It on Desktop — Zoho Creator Reports

      Zoho Creator offers a useful feature to freeze up to two columns in a report view, which works well on desktops. However, our users access the app on both laptops and mobile devices, and freezing columns makes reports nearly unusable on smaller screens.

    • How do I add more space to a note in ‘draw’?

      I’m taking handwritten notes using the draw note, but I don’t seem to be able to scroll down to get more room on the page. How do I make more room to take notes?

    • Overtime per week vs. per day

      In the United States 90% of the states calculate overtime as working more than 40 hours per week. It appears that Zoho People can only calculate overtime per day.  How do we fix this? Here is an example: Mon      8 hours Tues      7 hours Wed      9 hours Thur      8 hours Fri            8 hours -----       Total      40 hours (no overtime) However, Zoho people says 1 hours of overtime because the employee worked 9 hours on Wednesday. Maybe I have something setup wrong in Zoho People?  

    • Add Hebrew Language Support in SalesIQ Idle Chat Handling and Reminders

      Dear Zoho SalesIQ Team, Greetings. We would like to request the addition of Hebrew language support in the Idle Chat Handling and Reminders functionality within Zoho SalesIQ. 🗣️ Background & Use Case Currently, we have successfully configured our Zobot

    • notebook synchronization - problem

      Good afternoon, Since yesterday when trying to create a new notebook, it does not let me and when creating the notes they are not synchronized with the cloud, I think the error may be with the encryption of images because in the pages appears the image

    • Notebook 3.5.0 -- Sort order Name A-Z not working

      Just updated to Notebook 3.5.0 on Windows 10. Sort order by Name, A to Z is backwards, like Z to A. Selecting Z to A still works as expected.

    • Stay organized with chat-to-ticket timers

      Hi there! Ever lost track of a customer’s message? Or found yourself scrolling through long chat threads trying to figure out what’s what? Setting up a chat-to-ticket timer can help. It decides when a reply should stay in the old ticket or create a new

    • New notecards not syncing across devices

      Hi, I'm having the same problem where my notes are not syncing from my Android to my laptop. Please help

    • Please add custom sort in Windows ver. of Notebook!

      Dear Zoho, I love the custom sort (drag and order notes) in the Android version of Notebook, but when I sync onto the Notebook on Windows, the note orders all get messed up because it doesn't support custom sorting yet. This makes it impossible to do

    • Formula to return string "WK 26 - 6.2.25 - 6.8.25

      Here's what I've got but syntatic failure: if(not(isnull(${Deals.GS_Due})), "Week " + Tostring(ceil(dayofyear(${Deals.GS_Due}) / 7)) + " - " + Tostring(month(${Deals.GS_Due})) + "." + Tostring(day(${Deals.GS_Due})) + "." + Tostring(year(${Deals.GS_Due}))

    • Introducing LeadChain in Bigin to sync leads from Social Ads easily

      We're excited to introduce a new topping in Bigin called LeadChain by Zoho Social. LeadChain instantly syncs lead information from social media lead ads to Bigin, making it easier to turn them into customers. It also helps you send conversion data back

    • Templates Access

      There should be an option to grant users access to templates but not allow them to edit/delete templates. In setup there is only one tick option for templates. This will give any user access to view as well as delete/edit. This doesnt make sense as they

    • Generate a Zoho Sign link

      From time to time I get a response "I never received your you e-document for electronic signature" is there a way to generate a Zoho Sign link to share.

    • Power of Automation :: Autocomplete the Project upon Task closure.

      Hello Everyone, A Custom function is a user-written set of code to achieve a specific requirement. Set the required conditions needed as when to trigger using the Workflow rules (be it Tasks / Project) and associate the custom function to it. Requirement:

    • Unable to send email through Gmail

      So I had a custom domain email from Zoho and I was able to send emails from this account through my gmail. 2 days ago I added another user. This user is not able to receive any emails, that's the first issue, moreover, even though I haven't changed anything else other than adding this user, now I am unable to send email through my gmail account with the first user either! I have opened a case with priority "I am stuck, need assistance", haven't got a single reply in about 36 hours. I am unable to

    • "Invalid Credentials(Failure)" when configuring IMAP (Outlook)

      Getting the below response when attempting to configure Zoho mail in Outlook 2016: Notes (what I've done so far): Zoho mail on web client is working with no issues. Though I was certain the username & PW were correct (was using same credentials on web client as I was attempting to utilize in Outlook 2016), just in case, I went ahead and changed my password on the web client and re-attempted Outlook configuration; same error response. IMAP for my email account was enabled on the web client (and POP

    • Custom service report or Zoho forms integration

      Hello, So far the experience with Zoho FSM and the integration with Books has been good, however there are limitations with service reports. As with my business, many organisations send technicians to different types of jobs that call for a different

    • Pre-fill Email field on Zoho Forms

      Hello there, How do we automatically pre-fill the email address field of a Zoho Form from the data that is in CRM? Thanks, Joel

    • Webhook Trigger for New Messages in Cliq Channels

      Hello, I would like to request a feature to enable webhook triggers when a new message is added to a Cliq channel. This functionality would allow us to seamlessly send important information from Cliq to other relevant systems. This webhook trigger can

    • Unable to add subdomain email account under the main email account

      Hi, Is it possible to add a subdomain email account, like sky@agent.rebrightrental.com from the Admin Console of admin@rebrightrental.com in Zoho Mail? Or is that not possible? I want to create at least 3, like oak@agent.rebrightrental.com, bliss@agent.rebrightrental.com,

    • How to delete a large number of emails

      Since no one else seems to be asking this, there must be something in the zoho mail interface that I am failing to see. Not looking for an automatic method. Instead, when I sort email by sender, I want to be able to select all emails from a sender and

    • want to renew my account

      I am not getting email - it seems renewal of account is required. pls check and advise how to renew the account and what would be the charges

    • Mail app and desktop on chrome not syncing properly.

      Yesterday I spent a significant amount of time on the computer moving emails to different folders, and deleting several. This morning, I realized on my zoho mail app it still showed all the emails in the inbox. Nothing had synced. I couldn't find a sync

    • Can't connect to Thunderbird

      Setting up Thunderbird I get an error message: "Unable to log in at server. Probably wrong configuration, username or password". The password and email address are definitely correct as I used them to log in to webmail. My settings are definitely correct

    • Can't receive emails, but can send

      I setup a mail using the domain @shopik.io. I set this up using the correct CNAME record on Namecheap. When I tried to send a test mail from my Gmail account it was not able to send and I got the following error; The response from the remote server was:

    • Unable to send message;Reason:550 5.4.6 Unusual sending activity detected. Please try after sometime

      Hello i'm unable to send any email because i keep getting this error Unable to send message;Reason:550 5.4.6 Unusual sending activity detected. Please try after sometime i have literally sent less than 10 emails today i'm not sure why i'm getting this

    • Partial refunds

      I am trying to process refund for a one item invoice, however the refund is partial: i am getting this error while creating credit note, can anyone share some wisdom about this

    • Tickets are enabled but not showing in zoho desk widget

      Hi, I have a Zoho Desk ASAP JWT widget inside my app. I enabled the KB, tickets, and salesIQ chat (screenshot 1), but only the KB and chat are showing on my app widget (screenshot 2). Can you help? Thank you

    • default to display images in mail

      How do I set my mail settings to default to display images, rather than asking me each time I open a message? Thanks, Sup

    • Zoho CRM Theme Color?

      I've read multiple articles stating it's possible to change Zoho CRM theme colour (top menu bar) from personal settings menu, however, my zoho has no options for this at all and I've looked everywhere........has this feature been removed? I'm currently

    • US Zipcode Mapping for Sales Tax areas

      In its current form, Zoho Commerce maps tax percentage to different states. Due to the wide variety of tax areas within each state, it would be much better to map sales tax against each individual zip code. In addition, it would be highly desirable to

    • New Emails not being received in Zoho Email account

      I have built a new website for my client, who has an email address like his_address@zohomail.eu (example). When his customers use the Contact Form on his website, the notification emails are sent to an address as his domain name, and the Webhost automatically

    • Next Page