Rodger's helpful scripting tips #1 - Variable naming convention

Rodger's helpful scripting tips #1 - Variable naming convention

Hi everyone. I see many posts about scripting (deluge) issues and automation issues. At our business, we have developed many simple code snippets which I would like to share with you in the hopes that it helps you automate your businesses more to save you time and money.

But first, a bug bear of mine is variable naming convention. When we started, we struggled with a naming convention in our functions which was based on the horrible Zoho default naming convention.... "response" anyone? We picked up these tips from Joel Lipmann(?) who I have no affiliation with.

We have 5 major categories of variables/objects in Deluge 

Records
Maps
Lists
Collections
Variables

The naming convention we use is "x_name" where "x" is the first letter of the category. i.e

r_contact would be a Contact Record
m_contact would be a Map for a contact record
l_contacts would be a list of contacts
c_contacts would be a collection of contact records (you can also use l_contacts for a collection unless you're using lists and collections in the same function)
v_error would be a variable for an error message

You see the pattern? In this way, if you need to get information from a record, you type "r" and only the record objects come up in the list pop-up

It also makes loops easier to declare and read. i.e instead of 

  1. for each ele in contacts
  2. {
  3. }

it would read

  1. for each contact in l_contacts
  2. {
  3. }

Standard Zoho naming convention would use "contact" as the name for the contact record, so we can't use "contact" in the for each loop. However we can use the above naming convention because our contact record would be named r_contact, so our for each loop reads much more naturally as "For each contact in the list of contacts"

Finally, we don't use "response" in anything really. Give your tasks a descriptive name that allows you to understand what the task is doing. i.e

response = invokeURL tells you nothing unless you read the subsequent code, whereas

renameFile = invokeURL tells you exactly what that code block is doing. It also makes it much easier to use in subsequent code if you need to get information out of the response message for the task. i.e renameFile.get("data").get....etc

Hope this helps! This naming convention only has a minor effect on simple scripts, but when you start dealing with multiple records, multiple lists and when your scripts get up into the hundreds of lines or more, a good naming convention makes it much easier to code and debug.

    Access your files securely from anywhere

        Zoho Developer Community




                                  Zoho Desk Resources

                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                  • Digest


                                  • Functions


                                  • Meetups


                                  • Kbase


                                  • Resources


                                  • Glossary


                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                  • MVP Corner


                                  • Word of the Day



                                      Zoho Marketing Automation
                                              • Sticky Posts

                                              • Zoho CRM Functions 53: Automatically name your Deals during lead conversion.

                                                Welcome back everyone! Last week's function was about automatically updating the recent Event date in the Accounts module. This week, it's going to be about automatically giving a custom Deal name whenever a lead is converted. Business scenario Deals are the most important records in CRM. After successful prospecting, the sales cycle is followed by deal creation, follow-up, and its subsequent closure. Being a critical function of your sales cycle, it's good to follow certain best practices. One such
                                              • Custom Function : Automatically send the Quote to the related contact

                                                Scenario: Automatically send the Quote to the related contact.  We create Quotes for customers regularly and when we want to send the quote to the customer, we have to send it manually. We can automate this, using Custom Functions. Based on a criteria, you can trigger a workflow rule and the custom function associated to the rule and automatically send the quote to customer through an email. Please note that the quote will be sent as an inline email content and not as a PDF attachment. Please follow
                                              • Function #50: Schedule Calls to records

                                                Welcome back everyone! Last week's function was about changing ownership of multiple records concurrently. This week, it's going to be about scheduling calls for records in various modules. Business scenario Calls are an integral part of most sales routines.. Sales, Management, Support, all the branches of the business structure would work in cohesion only through calls. You could say they are akin to engine oil, which is required by the engine to make all of it's components function perfectly. CRM
                                              • Function #37: Create a Purchase Order from a Quote

                                                Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to calculate the total number of activities for a lead and further take note of the activity count for particular dates. For instance, from the period of Demo to Negotiation. This week, let's look at a function that lets you create a Purchase Order instantly from a Quote. Business scenario: In any form of business, one of the most important things to do is to document the transactions. Naturally, negotiation, signing an agreement, placing an order,
                                              • Function-2: Round-Robin assignment of records

                                                Welcome back folks! Last week, we saw how to update sales commission in quotes using a custom function. This week, let's see an interesting use case asked by many of you - auto-assignment records by round-robin method. Business scenario: Right now, the solution allows you to auto-assign leads from web form and imported lists. Let us look at a need where you want to auto-assign leads from in-bound calls in a round-robin method, across modules. Prerequisite: You must create a permanent record in the


                                              Manage your brands on social media



                                                    Zoho TeamInbox Resources

                                                      Zoho DataPrep Resources



                                                        Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                          Zoho Books Resources


                                                            Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                                                              Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                  Qntrl Resources


                                                                    Zoho Creator Resources



                                                                        Zoho Campaigns Resources


                                                                          Zoho CRM Resources

                                                                          • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                            CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                          • Kaizen

                                                                            Kaizen

                                                                          • Functions

                                                                            Functions

                                                                          • Meetups

                                                                            Meetups

                                                                          • Kbase

                                                                            Kbase

                                                                          • Resources

                                                                            Resources

                                                                          • Digest

                                                                            Digest

                                                                          • CRM Marketplace

                                                                            CRM Marketplace

                                                                          • MVP Corner

                                                                            MVP Corner





                                                                              Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                              Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                              Get Started Now