Deluge Tips & Tricks: Mastering dates and times

Deluge Tips & Tricks: Mastering dates and times

Hello everyone!

We're bringing back our Deluge Tips & Tricks series, where we show you how to make the most of Deluge for achieving a wide range of use cases.

Working with dates and times is a fundamental part of almost any business application. Whether you're timestamping entries, scheduling tasks, or sending notifications, knowing how to manipulate date and time values in Deluge is a crucial skill.
 
Deluge provides simple yet powerful functions to help you fetch the current time, reformat values, and perform time zone conversions. This post highlights how Deluge can become your go-to for handling many different use cases.
 
Zoho variables 
Let's begin with the basics. Zoho variables are special predefined variables in Deluge that can be used across different Zoho services. Currently, Deluge offers two such variables related to dates and times: zoho.currentdate and zoho.currenttime. These return the current date, and the current date and time respectively, based on the format you've configured in the settings of the respective Zoho service. For more information, visit the Zoho Variables help doc.

While the aforementioned Zoho variables are your go-to for fetching the current date and time, their default format is primarily useful for basic logging. But, in many scenarios, you may need to display this information in a different format or even convert it to another time zone. Fortunately, Deluge has you covered. Let's take a look at how:

Customizing date and time formats   

Converting date formats
Different users often prefer different date formats when entering data, and Deluge makes it easy to handle these variations. For example, if you have a date stored as a string and need to convert it into a date variable, either to perform calculations or reformat it, you can use the toDate() and toString() built-in functions.

Here's a sample script which converts date from the dd/mm/yyyy format to the dd-mm-yyyy:
// Convert a string to a date variable
dateAsString = "03/12/2024 03:15:35";
dateObject = totime(dateAsString, "dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss");
info dateObject;
// Convert the date object back to a string in a new format
info dateObject.toString("dd-MM-yyyy hh:mm:ss");

 

Converting time formats (24 hours to 12 hours)

You may sometimes need to switch between a 24-hour format and a 12-hour format when using zoho.currenttime. Thankfully, Deluge makes this simple. Here’s how you can do it:

currentTime = zoho.currenttime;
info currentTime.toString("dd-MM-YYYY hh:mm:ss a"); 
// Example output: 25-09-2025 11:11:11 AM

Handling time zone conversions  

In today's globalized world, your customers may be spread across different time zones, and to add to the complexity, large countries like the USA or Russia have multiple time zones even within their own borders. This can easily lead to head scratching scenarios when working with time-based data. Fortunately, Deluge has got your back here too.

The trick is to first convert the date-time string into a unixEpoch timestamp and then use toDateTimeString() to display it in the target time zone.

Converting your account's time to a user's time zone 

The zoho.currenttime variable returns the time based on the setting you've chosen. Let's assume that your account is set for IST (Indian Standard Time) and you want to display it for a user in Los Angeles. Here's how to do it:

// zoho.currenttime returns an IST time
datetimeString = "21-Aug-2025 15:50:13"; 
 
// Convert the string to a Unix timestamp
unixValue = datetimeString.unixEpoch();  
// Convert the Unix timestamp to a datetime string in the target timezone
info toDateTimeString(unixValue, "dd-MMM-yyyy hh:mm:ss", "America/Los_Angeles");
// Output: 21-Aug-2025 03:20:13
 

 

Converting between two specific time zones 

What's more, the same approach can also be applied to convert between two time zones. You can specify the source time zone during the Unix conversion to do this. This is particularly useful when your input string is from a known time zone that isn't your server's default.

 

The below script demonstrates time conversion from IST to Sydney time:

// Specify the source timezone (IST) when converting to Unix epoch
unixValue = "25-Aug-2025 14:28:53".unixEpoch("IST");
 
// Convert to the target timezone (Australia/Sydney)
info toDateTimeString(unixValue,"dd-MMM-yyyy HH:mm:ss","Australia/Sydney");
// Output: 25-Aug-2025 18:58:53

 

You can learn more about toTime and toDateTimeString functions at these help links.

 

We hope these tips help you handle date and time operations in your Deluge scripts more effectively—they can be used across all Zoho services that support Deluge.

 

Deluge is a vast and powerful language and we aim to help you master it to make your life easier. We'll be back with more tips and tricks soon, so stay tuned!

 

And if you have any questions or other cool tricks, please share them below!

 

Until next time,

The Deluge Team

    • Recent Topics

    • Confluence export to zoho learn

      Hello Is there any known way to export Confluence spaces to zoho learn ?

    • Zoho People API, Inactive users

      Hi, I would like to export using the Zoho People API using Fetch Leave Records API V2 | Zoho People API. However it only pulls active user's leaves. I want all users, active and former employees records.

    • Empty folders are now appearing in the sidebar...

      ...and the folder list is now auto-collapsed by default with no way to change. Neither of these recent updates are useful or user-friendly. ==================== Powered by Haiku https://www.haiku.co.uk ====================

    • Client Script | Update - Client Script Support For Custom Buttons

      Hello everyone! We are excited to announce one of the most requested features - Client Script support for Custom Buttons. This enhancement lets you run custom logic on button actions, giving you greater flexibility and control over your user interactions.

    • Zoho CRM for Everyone's NextGen UI Gets an Upgrade

      Hello Everyone We've made improvements to Zoho CRM for Everyone's Nextgen UI. These changes are the result of valuable feedback from you where we’ve focused on improving usability, providing wider screen space, and making navigation smoother so everything

    • Create custom rollup summary fields in Zoho CRM

      Hello everyone, In Zoho CRM, rollup summary fields have been essential tools for summarizing data across related records and enabling users to gain quick insights without having to jump across modules. Previously, only predefined summary functions were

    • Monthly Webinar - Getting Started with Zoho LandingPage

      Are you building your first landing page and want a little guidance? Join our monthly Getting Started with Zoho LandingPage webinar and learn how landing pages fit into your marketing strategy, drive lead generation, and improve conversions. Here’s what

    • View all email threads directly from record's History and Interactions

      Greetings all, We've introduced the ability to view complete email thread conversations directly from records' History and Interactions sections, along with email delivery status and sentiment insights on the Interactions page—which makes it easier for

    • Marketing Tip #22: Check website and navigation for broken links

      Do you inspect your online store frequently? If not, here's your reminder to do it now. Broken links frustrate customers and make your store feel unreliable. Whether it’s a missing product page, an outdated menu item, social media accounts, or a broken

    • Is there a way to show contact emails in the Account?

      I know I can see the emails I have sent and received on a Contact detail view, but I want to be able to see all the emails that have been sent and received between all an Accounts Contacts on the Account Detail view. That way when I see the Account detail

    • Custom function return type

      Hi, How do I create a custom deluge function in Zoho CRM that returns a string? e.g. Setup->Workflow->Custom Functions->Configure->Write own During create or edit of the function I don't see a way to change the default 'void' to anything else. Adding

    • push notification to Cliq when user is @mentioned in CRM notes

      push notification to Cliq when user is @mentioned in CRM notes. Currently users that is @mentioned gets an email to be notified. User/s that is @mentioned should get a Cliq notification.

    • How to make entries for restaurant sales in Zoho Books?

      Hello, I'm new to Zoho Books. I need to understand how to record our restaurant sales in Zoho Books. We can't raise invoices for each bill from the daily sales report generated by our POS (duplicated effort). We need a means of entering cumulative sales

    • Creating Restaurant Inventory Management on Zoho

      Hi,  We run a small cloud kitchen and are interested to use Zoho for Inventory and Composite Item tracking for our food served and supplied procured to make food items.  Our model is basically like subway where the customer can choose breads, veggies,

    • Sending emails via Books

      Anyone else getting similar problems recently ??..... Hi, Your message to the following recipient was not delivered. Please find the details below.  Bounce Details: Bounced Address : someone@google.com Bounce Reason : other ; Status : 5.0.0 (undefined status) ; Daignostic-Code : smtp;542 someone@google.com Rejected ; Bounced Time : Sep 05, 2017 06:37 PM BST Regards, Zoho Team The email addresses were fine only a few days ago but are now being rejected ?

    • Integrate with WooCommerce using Wordpress Plugin

      We’re thrilled to announce a powerful update to the Zoho Marketing Automation WordPress plugin with WooCommerce integration! This enhancement enables new possibilities for businesses running online stores using WooCommerce, empowering them to merge seamless

    • How do I sync multiple Google calendars?

      I'm brand new to Zoho and I figured out how to sync my business Google calendar but I would also like to sync my personal Google calendar. How can I do this so that, at the very least, when I have personal engagements like doctor's appointments, I can

    • Zoho Subscriptions -- Zoho Commerce integration

      Is there integration between Zoho Subscriptions and Zoho Commerce? I would like to create subscription plans in Zoho Subscritpions and list them for on my Zoho Commerce store.

    • Domain already exists

      Hi, I tried to add my domain creativecolumnist.com but its showing as Domain already exist. Please release if it has already been associated with Zoho, I am the real owner of that domain.

    • Select forwarding

      For Zoho mail online on PC in web browser: I had forwarding enabled in section "Mail accounts / Forwards", and I also have some filters that send emails from some unwanted senders to Archive. But it doesn't work as intended, it forwards everything (obviously

    • Cliq iOS can't see shared screen

      Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? Regards

    • system not picking my default custom service report template

      Can you tell me why when we create a service report always pick the (standard old) template? Even when I have a custom service report selected as Default.

    • Restrict Appointment Booking to Approved Clients

      Dear Zoho Bookings Support Team, We'd like to propose a feature enhancement for managing appointments within Zoho Bookings. This feature would ensure only pre-approved clients can schedule meetings. Desired Functionality: We propose the introduction of

    • Automate Credit Card Surcharge

      Is there a way to create an automation that will add a 3.0% credit card surcharge to a subscription whenever a customer pays via credit card?

    • I have the item field and Quantity field in the sub form , on the submit of the form if the quantity is grater than inventory means show alert on submit validation only for item type goods ,

      I have the item field and Quantity field in the sub form , on the submit of the form if the quantity is grater than inventory means show alert on submit validation . Stock Check Validation only for item type goods , not for item type service . For the

    • Disappearance of all articles in the knowledge base

      Hi there! It seems like all of our articles have disappeared from the knowledge base: However, the names still appear in the "sort articles" section:

    • Logic for sending to a non-primary email address

      Hi, I have a scenario where contacts are able to sign up for emails with 2 different email addresses (example: work, personal). I've mapped both to Campaigns from Zoho CRM, but when I go to target an email only the primary email addresses are pulling in. How can I update this to look at both of the email addresses - or specifically the secondary email address in Campaigns? Thanks, Jenny

    • Add "Reset MFA" Option for Zoho Creator Client Portal Users

      Hello Zoho Creator Team, We hope you are doing well. We would like to request an important enhancement related to Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for client portal users in Zoho Creator. Currently, Creator allows us to enforce MFA for portal users,

    • Tables for Europe Datacenter customers?

      It's been over a year now for the launch of Zoho Tables - and still not available für EU DC customers. When will it be available?

    • NOTAS INVISIBLES

      Siempre que abro mis notas salen invisibles, muchas no resaltan las *negritas* en la vista previa hasta que te metes en ellas y modificas algo. Pero omg con el equipo de Zoho. Les dije que las usaba mucho precisamente por la VISTA PREVIA y encontrar las

    • Does Zoho has chatroom/chatbot url feature?

      Hi Zoho community! I’m looking for a quick "Yes/No" answer for my dev team regarding Zoho’s capabilities. We currently use Zoho Desk for our Service Team and Zoho CRM for our Marketing Team to bring both functions under one platform. Our question: Does

    • One Support Email Managed By Multiple Departments

      Hello, We use one support email (support@company.com). Incoming emails come to the "Support Department" and based on what the customer is asking, we route that ticket to different departments (billing, technical support, etc.). When users in these different

    • What's New in Zoho Analytics - February 2026

      Hello Users! We're back with another round of updates for Zoho Analytics. This month's release focuses on giving you greater flexibility in how you visualize, manage, and act on your data - with new features like custom visualizations, remote MCP server,

    • Is it Possible to Modify Standard Report Urls

      Is there a way to permanently modify standard report Urls? Use case: Suppose I have a Products report. Showing list as timeline, calendar, or kanban doesn't make sense. Want to hide that from users by adding #Report:Products?zc_ShowAs=false&zc_Print=false

    • Updated font library: New font styles and custom font options in Zoho Sheet

      Zoho Sheet's font library now supports 500+ font styles in 60+ languages! The updated font library is stacked with new font styles, and some of the previously available font styles have been replaced with equivalent options. There are two ways you can

    • scope for phonebridge in CRM and phonebridge API documentation

      Hi I cannot find the scope to be used for phonebridge in CRM API V2 calls. I am getting OAUTH_SCOPE_MISMATCH for scope group ZohoCRM.modules.ALL,ZohoCRM.setttings.ALL Also I am not able to locate the documentation for the same, All I have is phonebridge

    • Does Zoho Mail Have Popout windows?

      I recently switched my work email over to Zoho and everything I read said that you can popout the draft email as you're writing, however, all the pictures or info I've seen show the typical popout arrow in the top right, which I can not for the life of

    • This domain is not allowed to add in Zoho. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details

    • Job Alerts for Candidates

      hi All, I have 2 questions relating to sharing job details with candidates. 1. is there a way to notify candidates that meet certain criteria of current jobs available? eg. I run a candidate search, and identify 50 candidates that might be suitable. Can

    • Zoho Wiki or new Zoho Learn

      We are currently evaluating if we should move off confluence. At present in Confluence we have multiple levels within our documentation but with learn it looks like you can only have Space       - Manual             - Chapter Is it possible to have levels below Chapter? Also the same question for the existing wiki, can I have more sub-levels?

    • Next Page