Automation#31: Automate Splitting Names for New Contact Records
Hello Everyone,
This week, we present to you a custom function, which allows you to split the first and last names from the user's email ID based on the separator used in the ID.
Having grown into a large firm, Zylker Techfix aims to optimize its processes, data management, and organization. By default, contacts are created by extracting the customers' names from the email addresses and saving them in the "Last Name" field in the Customers' module.
To create an organized directory, Zylker Techfix wanted to separate the first and last names from the email address using the (.) separator in the email ID.
This custom function allowed them to achieve this with their contacts. Now, you can organize your contacts within Zoho Desk too.
This custom function allowed them to achieve this with their contacts. Now, you can organize your contacts within Zoho Desk too.
Follow the steps below to configure the 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 Disable the toggle for User Credentials of Login User.
1.6 Under Scope, choose the below scope values:
Desk.contacts.UPDATEDesk.contacts.READ
1.7 Click Create and Connect.
1.8 Click Connect and click Accept.
Connection is created successfully.
Create a Workflow Rule
1. Go to Setup(S), choose Workflows under Automation.
2. Under Workflows, click Create Rule.
In the Basic Information section,
3. Select Contacts from the drop-down menu under Module.
4. Enter a Rule Name and Description for the rule.
5. If you want to activate the rule right away, select the Active checkbox. Else, create the rule and activate it later.
6. Click Next.
In the Execute on section, follow these steps:
7. Select Create.
8. Click Next.
9. In the Criteria section, add criteria if required. click Next.
10. In the Actions section, click the + icon and select New next to Custom Functions.
11. Under Basic Information, enter Name and Description for the custom function. Choose Contacts under Module.
12. Under Argument Mapping, give a desired Method Name. Map the arguments as below:
12.1 In the Argument Name field, type contactId and select Contact ID under the Contacts Section.
12. Under Argument Mapping, give a desired Method Name. Map the arguments as below:
12.1 In the Argument Name field, type contactId and select Contact ID under the Contacts Section.
13. In the script window, insert the Custom Function given below:
- //------------- User Inputs ----------
- orgId = "60xxxxxxxx0"; //replace with your Org ID
- operator = ".";
- //---------------------------------
- logs = Map();
- try {
- contacts = zoho.desk.getRecordById(orgId,"contacts",contactId, "deskcontact");
- firstName = contacts.get("firstName");
- lastName = contacts.get("lastName");
- if(lastName.contains(operator))
- {
- if(operator.contains(".")){
- lastName = lastName.subString(0,lastName.indexOf("@"));
- }
- firstName = lastName.subString(0,lastName.indexOf(operator)).trim();
- lastName = lastName.subString(lastName.indexOf(operator) + 1);
- updateContact = zoho.desk.update(orgId,"contacts",contactId,{"firstName":firstName,"lastName":lastName},"deskcontact");
- }
- }
- catch (errorInfo)
- {
- logs.insert("errorInfo":errorInfo);
- }
- info "logs: \n" + logs;
- if(logs.containKey("errorInfo"))
- {
- throws "Error happen in the CF execution";
- }
NOTE
a. In Line 2, Enter your OrgId with " ".
To access OrgId, go to Setup (S) >> Developer Space >> APIs >> API Authentication.
14. Click Save to save the custom function.
15. Click Save again to save the workflow.
Context
Once configured, this function splits the first and last names for incoming new contacts. This custom function applies to new contacts and new incoming tickets.
We hope this custom function helps you manage your contacts efficiently. Share your feedback and connect with us for more tips and insights.
See you next week!
Regards,
Lydia | Zoho Desk
Access your files securely from anywhere
New to Zoho Recruit?
Zoho Developer Community
New to Zoho LandingPage?
Zoho LandingPage Resources
New to Zoho Survey?
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Bigin?
Topic Participants
Lydia | Zoho Desk
info
Shivani | 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 featuresShare 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 hereWebinar 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
New to Zoho TeamInbox?
Zoho TeamInbox Resources
Zoho CRM Plus Resources
Zoho Books Resources
Zoho Subscriptions Resources
Zoho Projects Resources
Zoho Sprints Resources
Qntrl Resources
Zoho Creator Resources
Zoho CRM Resources
Design. Discuss. Deliver.
Zoho Show Resources
Get Started. Write Away!
Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.
Zoho CRM コンテンツ
-
オンラインヘルプ
-
Webセミナー
-
機能活用動画
-
よくある質問
-
Ebook
-
-
Zoho Campaigns
- Zoho サービスのWebセミナー
その他のサービス コンテンツ
Nederlandse Hulpbronnen
ご検討中の方
Recent Topics
Rich Text For Notes in Zoho CRM
Hello everyone, As you know, notes are essential for recording information and ensuring smooth communication across your records. With our latest update, you can now use Rich Text formatting to organize and structure your notes more efficiently. By usingHidding/excluding specific picklist options from filter
Hi. Is it possible to hide/exclude specific picklist options from this filter? I don't want them to be shown when someone tries to filter in the leads moduleZoho DataPrep switching Date Format
When using a pipeline that is importing Zoho Analytics data into Zoho DataPrep, the month and day of date fields are switched for some columns. For example, a Zoho Analytics record of "Nov. 8, 2025" will appear in Zoho DataPrep as "2025/08/11" in "yyyy/MM/dd"Subforms to Capture Multi-Row Data in Job Sheets
Subforms transform your job sheets from simple checklists to powerful, data-rich forms. In field service work — whether maintenance, inspection, installation, or repair — a single job can involve multiple repeatable entries: readings, parts used, activities年内最後のユーザー向けイベント：5名限定！ 課題解決型ワークショップイベント Zoho ワークアウト開催のお知らせ (12/18)
ANNOUNCEMENT 1 REPLY INSIGHTS ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。Zoho ユーザーコミュニティチームの中野です。 12月開催のZoho ワークアウトについてお知らせします。 今回はZoomにて、オンライン開催します。 参加登録はこちら（無料） https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/QHn6kJAcRs-znJ1l5jk0ww ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Zoho ワークアウトとは？ Zoho ユーザー同士で交流しながら、サービスに関する疑問や不明点の解消を目的とした「ZohoAdd "Fetch Composite Item" Action for Inventory
I want to make a Flow that uses information returned in the GET call for Composite Items, and it's not currently available in Zoho Flow. Please consider adding this functionality.Adress Labels for sending of the oder und barcode
We want to print with my address labels to stick on the order of the ware can. there are these options?printing individual labels - Dymo LabelWriter
I am trying to print individual labels to my Dymo LabelWriter - has anyone done this? Latest Update (December 2025): The Canvas Print View is now available! We encourage you all to try it out and share your feedback with us. Learn more here: Zoho CRMZoho Creator for Agriculture
Greetings, I am starting to work on Zoho Creator specifically for the agricultural field, any recommendations, tips or ideas that might be helpful ? Also, if you are interested by any means in working on such project, kindly contact me. The project isCustom Print Layout
I would like to create a custom print layout of a Lead or Contact. Is there a way to do that? What I mean is that if I'm viewing a specific lead or contact I'd like to be able to print or export that lead/contact and only print and/or export certain information.Print View
Nothing happens when I'm in a module , ie; Contacts, and I hit the Print View Button. Even when it does come up and say "loading", nothing loadsGet Holiday ready with Zoho Mail's Offline mode
With the holiday season right around the corner, this is the perfect time to get ready to unplug, relax, and enjoy a well-deserved break. In addition to preparing yourself, you can also make sure your organization members are set for their time away fromZoho CRM Kiosk issues
Firstly this is for a system on the AU servers if that makes a difference. Issues are as follows (For Kiosk): 1. Re-ordering fields in the screen builder is broken. The fields seem to be re-ordering themselves, unless you order everything by moving theZoho Books emails suddenly going to Spam since 11 Nov 2025 (Gmail + now Outlook) — anyone else?
Hi everyone, We migrated to Zoho Books in July 2025 and everything worked fine until 11 Nov 2025. Since then, Zoho Books system emails are landing in customers’ Spam (first Gmail, and now we’re seeing Outlook/Office 365 also starting to spam them). Impactedhow to Solve Conflict Invoices in Zoho POS
Hello Team, I am facing a repeated issue in Zoho POS while saving a sale that contains service-based items. My products are intentionally created as Service (Non-Inventory) items because I do not want to track stock for them. However, every time I tryEmail Template Edits Not Saving
I can make an edit, click save, and see the blue bar annimation at the top, but the edits don't actually save. Important, because my email templates are now broken and clients are receiving bad emails. Tried on Chrome, Firefox and IE.Default Ticket View - Table?
Guys, We mostly use the table view to queue tickets. Maybe I am missing it - but how can I set that view as 'default" for all our agents? Thanks JVDuplicate customers being created in Desk
Hi I've trying to work out why I've getting duplicated customers being created in my desk. I have an external booking system that generates an email when I get a customer booking a job. A booking email gets sent to Desk where I manage the booking andCan I have different users see different pick list values for Potential Stage?
We have some users focusing on new business and others focusing on existing business, and they follow different sales processes/cycles, so we would like them to see different pick list values for Stage (eventually leading up to Closed Won/Lost in both cases). And just to keep it interesting - some of these users will of course do a combination, so would need to see one pick list for their New business potentials and a different pick list for their Existing business ones. Salesforce does thisLinks in Instagram
Hi there, I have been using Later for a while now but keen to come back to Zoho Social as Later doesn't offer tagging of pages on Facebook but they offer something Zoho doesn't. You can add a link to your bio which opens up your profile feed where imagesTracking Snippet not working in Zoho Marketing Automation!
First off, the fact that you have to wait about 12-24 hours for every response is terrible. How are we supposed to conduct business? Second, we have been trying for several days to get the Tracking Code Snippet in marketing automation to work, to no avail.email moderation issue when email is sent in the name of a mail group
Symptom: an email that is sent by a mail group moderator in the name of a moderated mail group is held back for approval. Reproduction: Create a moderated mail group with members and moderators. Allow that mails can be sent in the name of the group (extendedIs there any way to send an Excel received by email to Dataprep?
Every day I receive an email alert with an Excel file that I want to process through a Dataprep pipeline. To do this, I need to: -Save the file to disk -Open the pipeline -Run the pipeline -Update the source -Several clicks to select and open the savedRecruit paid support?
Hi all, Could anyone who has paid support package advise if it provides value for money with regards to support response times? Exploring the idea as unfortunately when we have faced issues with Recruit it has been a 7+ day timescale from reporting toUsing IMAP configuration for shared email inboxes
Our customer service team utilizes shared email boxes to allow multiple people to view and handle incoming customer requests. For example, the customer sends an email to info@xxxx.com and multiple people can view it and handle the request. How can I configureHotmail is blocking the zoho mail IP
Greetings, Since last Tuesday (5 days ago today) I wrote to Zoho support and I still haven't received a single response (Ticket ID: 2056917). Is this how you treat people who pay for your email service? I am making this public so that those who want toRead webpage - MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP
I have the following VBA script, put together from various sources (mainly zoho forum/help/support, so it once worked, I guess): private Sub GetListOfSheets() Dim url As String Dim xmlhttp As Object Dim parameters As String Dim html As String range("B1").valueZoho Creator Form Search
I'm new to Zoho Creator and so far i do like it but im shocked there seems to be no easy way to add a search function and/or navigation to there forms as this readily available in every platform i have used in the past. Anyway i have a form which i haveHow to setup DKIM / SPF in Zoho Mail
Hello there! I'm having a hard time understanding how to setup the TXT records for SPF and DKIM with Zoho Mail. I'm following the instructions here: https://www.zoho.com/campaigns/help/setup-spf-dkim.html Specifically, when it comes to the value for theMass update cant trigger a workflow?
Hello there, Is this a normal Creator behaviour? In a report, if I manually edit each data row, it will pass those changes to all other reports. However, if I perform a Mass Update on a few data rows at once, the new data is not pushed to other reports.Exciting Updates to the Kiosk Studio Feature in Zoho CRM!
Hello Everyone, We are here again with a series of new enhancements to Kiosk Studio, designed to elevate your experience and bring even greater efficiency to your business processes. These updates build upon our ongoing commitment to making Kiosk a powerfulsearch and Smart Bar both missing in Mail
One of the users on my account does not have the search bar at the top right or the Smart Bar at the bottom left of the desktop Mail app. Any ideas how to get those back?"Wrong password or login" Problem to configure Zoho on MAIL App on my Macbook
Hi, I'm having problems to configure my e-mail on my MAIL App(Macbook pro). My e-mail is hari@trespontoum.net Actually was working perfectly, and still working on my Iphone. My MAIL App prompt me that my login or password is wrong. I tried to change 3Remote Control Functionality During Screen Sharing in Zoho Cliq
Hello Zoho Cliq Team, We would like to request the addition of remote control functionality during screen sharing sessions in Zoho Cliq. Currently, while screen sharing in Cliq is very useful, it lacks the ability for another participant to take controlLet us add Lookup fields in the Blueprint Transitions
We are unable to add Lookup Fields in the blueprint transitions in Zoho Desk, we wanted to make it a requirement for our workflow but since it's not available in the transition we cannot. The lookup field exists in the Layout: But it cannot be added/selectedZoho Projects API Scope for Issue Attachments
I try to download issue attachments via the API, unfortunately I always get the following error code when trying to download the file from the supplied URL: {"ERROR_MESSAGE":"INVALID_OAUTHSCOPE","ERROR_CODE":401} indicating an auth scope error. I've triedHow to fetch custom fields for time entries in Zoho Project API v3
In the previous Zoho Projects REST API, we were able to retrieve custom field details for time entries, including picklist options, using the endpoint: GET /restapi/portal/[PORTAL_ID]/timesheetcustomfields In the new Zoho Projects API v3, we tried usingZoho Survey Enhancements
We love Survey. We use it a ton. It needs some enhancements. Maybe some of these are already on the roadmap? API - this is crucial. We have some complex surveys that take place and need to update records, trigger other functions/automations, etc. I wouldImages Don't Display on Blog
Hi, I've just posted a new blog entry, but regardless of format (png or jpeg) Images that display in Preview mode do not display on any browser in the published post. I've not done anything different with this post than others regarding images, please advice. Thanks! Edit: I've discovered that moving the image files from a my sub directory folder "Pics for Blog" to the top level of the "Files" folder on my site allows the images to display live. This, even though my other blog posts are correctlyCheckbox Field Mapping Zoho Forms to Zoho Sign
I have an application that will be filled out via Forms that I am mapping into a PDF Filler on Zoho Sign. I need to have a series of checkboxes mapped to the corresponding fields in Sign and I only see single checkboxes available via the mapping, thoughNext Page