Upcoming Updates - February-March 2022

Upcoming Updates - February-March 2022

Hi all,

Greetings from the Zoho Creator team!

A new year is here and we're looking forward to bringing in new features, improving performance, and delivering on all the exciting updates we previously announced.

In this update, we'll go over the:
  • 30 new ready-to-use functions including randomNumber, encoding, and AI
  • Try-Catch, Break, and Continue statements
  • Sorting ability in subform fields
  • Advanced search option in lookup fields
  • Security check for unpublished components
  • Code sign mobile apps in AAB format
  • Enhanced report exporting on mobile
  • Field permissions in pivot reports
  • Invalid parameter validation
  • Enhancements and changes in Deluge
30 new ready-to-use functions including randomNumber, encoding, and AI

One powerful aspect of Deluge is its minimalistic approach to the number of statements required per execution. Some of the features we have in the pipeline are going to help further optimize your Deluge coding experience. We have also supported additional ready-to-use built-in functions and tasks.

randomNumber & other new built-in functions

To the long list of our available built-in functions, we'll be adding the following new functions:

i. Common

Function

Description

Generates a random number from the specified range.


ii. Text functions



Converts hexadecimal to text value.


Converts text to hexadecimal value.


Returns all the characters which precede the first occurrence of the search text in the input text. The search text is not case-sensitive.


Returns all the characters which follow the first occurrence of the search text in the input text. The search text is not case-sensitive.


Replaces all occurrences of the search text with the replacement text. The search text is not case-sensitive.


Replaces the first occurrence of the search text with the replacement text. The search text is not case-sensitive.


Returns a text with the input text repeated for the specified number of times.


Returns the input text with its characters in reverse order.


Checks if all characters in the input text are ASCII.


Removes all the extra white spaces (if any) inserted after the input text.


Removes all the extra white spaces (if any) inserted before the input text.



iii. Number functions



Returns the number equivalent to the hyperbolic tangent of the input angle.


Returns the hyperbolic arccosine or inverse hyperbolic cosine of the input number.


Returns the hyperbolic arcsine or inverse hyperbolic sine of the input number.


Returns the hyperbolic cosine of the input angle.


Returns the angle of the input number.


Returns the number equivalent to the hyperbolic tangent of the input angle.


Returns the angle between the positive x-axis and the ray from (0,0) to the input point (x,y).


Returns the degree equivalent to the input angle in radians.


Returns the radian equivalent to the input angle in degrees.


Extracts the sign of the given input values.



iv. Date-time functions



Returns the number of months between the given input date-time values.


Returns the number of years between the given input date-time values.


Returns the next immediate date that falls on the specified input day.


Returns the previous week's date that falls on the specified input day.


Returns the date-time values after subtracting the specified number of business days from it.


Encoding functions

We've expanded Deluge's set of encoding functions by supporting the following new functions:
  • htmlEncode: Transform all special HTML characters in the input text into HTML entities.
  • htmlDecode: Render all the HTML entities in the input string.

Artificial intelligence functions

Deluge's ready-to-use AI feature will include a couple more tasks:
  • zoho.ai.detectObject: Detects objects (example: person, laptop, car, traffic lights, etc) and their position in the input image.
  • zoho.ai.extractKeywords: Extracts keywords or tags from the input text.

Try-Catch, break, and continue statements

Deluge will be empowered with flexible error management and improved loop handling features. We're excited to add the following capabilities in Deluge:

Try-Catch: Exception handlers that can test Deluge scripts for run-time errors, and perform required actions if any errors are found.
Break: Terminates the execution of the current loop when encountered.
Continue: Terminates the execution of the current iteration of loop when encountered.

Sorting subform fields

Currently, the fields in subforms are sorted based on the added time. Soon, the subform field will include the capability to sort the fields listed within the subform. This feature will be made available in the field properties of the form. The admin will be able to navigate to the form builder, select the subform field, and specify the sorting preference.



This sorting capability is aimed at requirements that need the fields in the subform to be sorted in a specific order.

For instance, a Customer form might require its subform to list the recent orders of a customer. Here, the admin can sort the subform by navigating to the form builder, selecting the date field of the subform, and specifying the sorting preference as descending. Let's say a customer record is added with the orders of that particular customer in the subform.The sorted orders of that customer will be available while trying to edit the customer's record and also while viewing the record in report.

Note: Sorting cannot be done based on the following: Encrypted fields, URL, Audio,Video, multi-selection fields, integration fields, and user field.

Advanced search option in lookup fields

The advanced search option will equip you with an enhanced search mechanism to drill down to records or field values when you have a large volume of data. This feature is available only for lookup fields with the display type set as dropdown or multi select.

Search queries must return the most accurate and useful results possible, Anything beyond 5,000 is not likely to be the result that the user is looking for. So we have limited the search results to 5,000.This also eliminates the need to scroll down endlessly.



To ensure the user makes the most of this option to locate the record or value, user should try to use the parameters provided in the advanced search as efficiently as possible. This allows user to skip scrolling, while narrowing down the search. All that needs to be done is select the correct search operator and enter the appropriate keywords to fetch the relevant records more easily.




The advanced search will be enabled when the admin enables it in the field properties or when there are more than 500,000 records. Similarly, if a user field or date-time field is used as a display field, Advanced Field Search will automatically be enabled.

We're also introducing a restriction on the number of fields that can be included in display fields in lookup. A maximum of four display fields can only be added. If you have a requirement to add more than that, you can use the formula field as a workaround to combine more than four display values and then lookup the formula field




Security check for unpublished sub-components

It's advisable to share all subcomponents that belong to a published component with your users. Let's assume you have a iframe or widget inserted in a Page and if an unpublished form is used within the iframe or widget, said form will be restricted. This restriction is imposed as a security measure to ensure cross domain security policy. To avoid these kinds of anomalies, please ensure all sub-components present inside a published component are also published.

This restriction will be imposed from March 1st, 2022.

Code sign mobile apps in AAB format

Android App Bundle, or AAB, is a new publishing format added for the Zoho Creator's mobile app Codesign process. It includes all your app’s compiled code and resources, and defers APK generation and signing to Google Play.

Google Play will use your app bundle to generate and serve optimized APKs for each device configuration, so only the code and resources that are needed for a specific device are downloaded to run your app. Going forward, there will be no necessity to build, sign, and manage multiple APKs to optimize support for different devices, and users will get smaller, more-optimized downloads. Learn more

Enhanced report export in mobile and tablet

The enhancements in report export settings that were previously introduced for the web are now being extended to mobile and tablet. You can export the records in your report in your preferred file format and then download them. The exported file can then be used outside of your Zoho Creator application. In the new export settings, you'll be able to provide a file name, select the file format, select the columns to be included in the file, and make the file password-protected. Learn more 



Field permissions in pivot report

Previously, the field permissions feature was not applicable to pivot reports. As a step towards security enhancement, we are now rolling out the capability to control field permissions of View Underlying Data, Drill Down, and Export Underlying Data options in pivot. So the fields that are listed in the above options will be according to the field permissions set up in the permissions set under Users and permissions.

However, the permissions will not be applied when the fields are added as the axes of the charts or as the row/column of the table, because the construction of the chart or table will be impacted.

Invalid parameter validation

We are rolling out a minor change in handling API requests that have invalid or unsupported parameters. Currently, if there are API requests with invalid parameters, our API servers will ignore them and provide the appropriate responses to those requests.

As a step towards data security, we are implementing a change wherein API calls with invalid parameters will be rejected. An error response with the reason for the error will be provided. This validation is scheduled to go live this week or coming week. To avoid such validation errors, we recommend that you remove unsupported parameters before the stipulated date.

Enhancements and changes in Deluge

With the intention of also improving and evolving our existing Deluge features, we've planned a few updates. Ultimately, our aim is to boost Deluge's overall performance, so we've also prepared to lay out a few regulations that will streamline the way Deluge is used. We humbly ask your support in carrying out this plan.

Modified time of main form will be updated when subform rows are updated using Deluge

When rows are inserted into a subform, cleared from a subform, or particular fields of a subform are updated using Deluge, the modified time of the corresponding main form's record will be updated.

Map's key order will be retained in toXml() function's conversion

When using toXml function, the xml string will be generated in the input map's order. In the current behavior, it is generated irrespective of the order of the input map.

Multiselect fields in criteria and sort operations

Note: The following changes will be applicable to all customers.
i. <multi_choice_field>.<multi_choice_field> cannot be used in all filter criteria (report criteria, report filter criteria, conditional filter criteria, conditional formatting criteria, lookup filter criteria, all page builder criteria) and Deluge's fetch record task criteria.

Multi-choice fields are Multiselect, Checkbox, Subform, Multiselect Lookup and Multiselect Users fields.

ii. The values returned by the fetch records task cannot be sorted based on multi-choice fields and composite fields.

File size
i. Uploading files stored in file attachment fields to invokeURL or integration tasks will continue with the current ceiling of 50 MB, whereas downloading the content using invokeURL or extracting file content using <field_link_name>.content is capped at 5MB.
File attachment fields are File Upload, Image, Audio, and Video.

Note: This change is applicable only to new users and unaffected existing users (to be rolled out in a phased manner). Therefore, existing users who already consume file size more than the new limit will not be affected.
ii. The content function (<field_link_name>.content) cannot be applied on Audio and Video fields.

Regex evaluation

Evaluating regex is usually a performance-intensive operation. Therefore, we've been frequently encountering issues related to regex evaluation using Deluge tasks, such as matches, replaceAll, and replaceFirst. To avoid any more issues in this regard, the number of iterations done in the regex matching process is capped at 100,000.

That's all for now!

Thanks,
Zoho Creator Team


    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 Creator - 2023 Release Projection 1

                                                  Hello everyone! A very Happy New Year to you and your family. Hope you're all good and having a great time using Zoho Creator to make your lives easier and your businesses prosper. 2022 was an action-packed year for us at Creator, and we hope to continue
                                                • Zoho Creator User Group meetups in a city near you! - Oct - Nov, 2023

                                                  Greetings from the Zoho Creator team! We're hosting a series of Zoho Creator meetups in various cities across the globe, and we'd love to meet you there! Our meetups are a great opportunity to network with industry peers, exchange ideas and best practices,
                                                • Zoho Creator - 2023 Release Projection 2

                                                  Hello everyone! Time truly flies when you're having an incredible journey, and today we mark the completion of an eventful and action-packed six months. It feels like just yesterday when we embarked on this adventure together with the launch of our new
                                                • Upcoming Updates - August 2022

                                                  Hi all, Greetings from the Zoho Creator team! Today we've got news for you on some exciting updates. And rest assured— there’s more to come! In this post, we'll be going over the upcoming features and improvements for this month as mentioned below. A
                                                • Introducing Zoho Creator's v2 APIs

                                                  Hello App Creators, Welcome to Zoho Creator's v2 APIs! This post will serve as the central point for migrating implementations of Creator's current APIs (v1) to v2. Improvements that v2 brings OAuth-based authentication, which is more secure than 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


                                                                                  Zoho Show Resources


                                                                                    Zoho Writer Writer

                                                                                    Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                    Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                      Zoho CRM コンテンツ






                                                                                        Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                            ご検討中の方





                                                                                                  • Recent Topics

                                                                                                  • Managing Prepaid Hours for Consulting

                                                                                                    We are a consulting firm that bills clients a flat upfront annual fee plus an hourly rate and offer a discount for pre-paying a block of hours. Hours that surpass the pre-paid block are billed monthly at the normal rate. If there are any pre-paid hours remaining at the end of the project they are banked for future use. I'm not seeing a method of doing this in Projects/Books/CRM... thoughts?
                                                                                                  • ZOHO Widget SDK not loading in html

                                                                                                    I have this code below, I have imported the widgetsdk however I get the error shown in the image, I have tried many different ways of importing and initiating the function ZOHO but nothing is working. can someone explain what I'm doing wrong, if I am
                                                                                                  • Enhancements to Zoho Corp Help Center "Team Requests" View

                                                                                                    Dear Zoho Team, I hope this message finds you well. The ability to view both my tickets and my team’s tickets in the Zoho Corp Help Center is a fantastic feature, especially as the focal point for Zoho in our organization. However, we’ve encountered a
                                                                                                  • Allow Multiple Scheduled Appointments with Zoho Support

                                                                                                    Dear Zoho Team, I hope you're doing well. First, thank you for introducing the option to schedule support calls via the Zoho CRM booking link. This has been a fantastic enhancement, eliminating the need for back-and-forth coordination when scheduling
                                                                                                  • Projectwise budget ---

                                                                                                    Can we have a Project wise subject in addition to the Monthly, and quarterly ACCOUNT LEVEL budget?
                                                                                                  • WorkDrive API Documentation

                                                                                                    WorkDrive provides users and developers an extensive set of APIs to help integrate functionalities of Zoho WorkDrive with other Zoho applications and third-party tools. We have published the official WorkDrive API Documentation page for all external users.
                                                                                                  • Error 403: Forbidden When Updating Email Signature via API

                                                                                                    Hi Zoho Desk team, First, congratulations again on the excellent Zoho API. But, I’m encountering an issue while attempting to update an email signature via the API. Whenever I make a request to update the signature, the response returns an HTTP 403 Forbidden
                                                                                                  • Who can see draft replies on tickets?

                                                                                                    We have noticed that we are able to see draft replies made by other agents. Which settings can limit this visibility? It makes sense to me that admins and the agent who created the draft would be able to see the draft, but no one else. How can we make
                                                                                                  • Serious question: Are there actually "solo-preneurs"/small business owners who made Zoho-one work well for them?

                                                                                                    L.S. After already many years of continued struggle with Zoho-One, I am seriously wondering if there are actually solo-preneurs (one person small business owners - without a large, dedicated IT dept.) who got it (Zoho-One) to work well for their businesses.
                                                                                                  • Major iOS issues when accessing forms via the browser

                                                                                                    Hi, We have been using forms for some time, while the office staff are accessing the forms via the app on Android mobiles, we have a fleet of sub contractors that we would not like them having access to the main app as some of the forms are confidential
                                                                                                  • All notes disappeared

                                                                                                    I've been using the notebook app for over five years on my phone without being logged into an account. A few days ago I opened the app and all my notes had disappeared. Since then I tried restarting my phone, updating the app and logging into my account,
                                                                                                  • How to Iterate a Function in Zoho Desk Workflow with Delay Between Calls?

                                                                                                    Hi everyone, I’m working on a function in Zoho Desk that searches for a specific ticket record. If the ticket is not found, I need to retry the search multiple times with a delay between each attempt until the ticket is located or a maximum number of
                                                                                                  • How to Iterate a Function in Zoho Desk Workflow with Delay Between Calls?

                                                                                                    Hi everyone, I’m working on a function in Zoho Desk that searches for a specific ticket record. If the ticket is not found, I need to retry the search multiple times with a delay between each attempt until the ticket is located or a maximum number of
                                                                                                  • Work Orders / Bundle Requests

                                                                                                    Zoho Inventory needs a work order / bundle request system. This record would be analogous to a purchase order in the purchasing workflow or a sales order in the sales cycle. It would be non-journaling, but it would reserve the appropriate inventory of
                                                                                                  • Zoho Books API Limit Is RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                                                    The 2,500 API call limit in Zoho Books is about as useful as AOL dialup.  Seriously Zoho, not only can I use up 2,500 API calls in no time with my own app but YOUR OWN STUPID IPAD APP blows through them super fast too, so if any one of my clients wants
                                                                                                  • QR codes in templates

                                                                                                    I'm excited about the new QR code generator. I have included a QR code that contains the record ID setting "${ID}" as input data. In the report detail it works perfectly but when printing it in a template the code is not shown.
                                                                                                  • Button Display Conditions

                                                                                                    Hi Guys, Is it at all possible to have extra button conditions? Context: We have data in our deals module which has a custom button which converts the deal into contacts + set up relationships between them. At the end of the conversion we set a field
                                                                                                  • Knowledge base: The nitty-gritty of SEO tags

                                                                                                    A well-optimized knowledge base with great SEO can benefit your company by allowing customers to find help articles and support resources using search engines. This enables customers to quickly and efficiently find the information they need without direct
                                                                                                  • Social Media Simplified with Zoho Social: Make the best out of the publishing calendar

                                                                                                    Are you a marketer who likes visualizing your plan of action before you start social media posting? Are you part of a team that works on social media on a rotational basis, so the most important task is to collaborate to avoid overlap and confusion? Or
                                                                                                  • Custom function daily limit and procedural programming

                                                                                                    Dearest Zoho Today, support confirmed that if I call a custom function from another custom function then I will use up two, with regards to my daily limit. A few times, we have blown our daily limit and that means that ordinary business processes don't run for the rest of the day. I have to mop these up the following day and there is no guarantee that I will get it right. Therefore, I can't afford to waste any. Procedural programming has been around for over 50 years now and it greatly simplifies
                                                                                                  • Unified customer portal login

                                                                                                    As I'm a Zoho One subscriber I can provide my customers with portal access to many of the Zoho apps. However, the customer must have a separate login for each app, which may be difficult for them to manage and frustrating as all they understand is that
                                                                                                  • Welcome Link Expired

                                                                                                    Hi The links sent to the users didn't get clicked on in time and now all the links have expired. Is there a way to send a new link without deleting them and re-adding them>
                                                                                                  • New enhancements: Changing portal users' email addresses and new customization options for templates

                                                                                                    Dear All, Portals have enabled organizations to extend access to various CRM modules to their customers, vendors, partners, and end users, per their business requirements. When a portal is created, an invitation email is sent to portal users with a link
                                                                                                  • Granular Time Frame Settings for Message Deletion and Editing in Zoho Cliq

                                                                                                    Dear Zoho Team, I hope you're doing well. Currently, the settings for message deletion and editing in Zoho Cliq are configured globally under: Admin Panel > Organisation > Configurations > Conversations Delete messages: Time frame to allow message deletion
                                                                                                  • New Built In QR/Barcode Generator Print Settings

                                                                                                    I'm trying out the new QR/Barcode generator field in Creator. I would think most people will want to print these, like I do. I am not seeing any way to control the height or width of the barcode for printing (inside the print/pdf template builder). The
                                                                                                  • Zoho One. Client Script

                                                                                                    Hi, I would like to know if the Client Script feature is available in Zoho One. If it's, how can I enable it?
                                                                                                  • Calendar View for Zoho Tickets

                                                                                                    Is there a way to view your tickets with due dates on a calendar view? I can not find a way to merge my Zoho Calendar and Tickets. This would be extremely helpful to my team.
                                                                                                  • Delete / Modify Default Career Site - Zoho Recruit

                                                                                                    Hello, It would be very useful if we could delete a default career site or change which of our career site is the default. Our Career site was created when there were issues with Zoho Recruit creating English CTA buttons on French Career sites. The only
                                                                                                  • Workflows for Timesheet

                                                                                                    Good day, Any way to have timesheet as triggers? I looked into Zoho Flow and into Zoho Project automation but no where can I have timesheet as a trigger. Basically, I would like to trigger something upon timesheet approval. Right now, the only way to
                                                                                                  • Is it possible to hide Developer Space for all user in Zoho Projects

                                                                                                    Hello! I am Zoho admin in a company and we want to use Zoho Project to manage projects, but after a few days of testing we are not able to "hide" the Developer Space from all kind of users except the admin. To sum up, I want to hide this for all users.
                                                                                                  • Introducing automation and utility conversations in WhatsApp marketing

                                                                                                    We’re excited to announce the addition of two new features to our WhatsApp integration: Automation and Utility conversations. These enhancements will allow you to streamline your marketing efforts and engage with your customers more effectively by automating
                                                                                                  • Extracting data from cells in zoho sheets for zoho books

                                                                                                    I am currently uploading my bank statment in excel format to zoho workdrive. I would like flow to extract certain data and send it to zoho books. Would scripting in zoho flow be able to help me with this? By this I mean should I attempt this in zoho flow
                                                                                                  • Within the Basic KPI component in Analytics, it is impossible to set "next" day range as a filter

                                                                                                    Hi there, I am currently setting up a deal dashboard for the Sales team. While it is possible to filter deal records to show records that were created LAST X days only, it looks like a NEXT X days Closing date filter is not available. Would it be possible
                                                                                                  • Pulling Specific Products from Sales Orders in Books to a CRM Record

                                                                                                    We currently process orders directly through our website (woocommerce) as well as through manual sales orders in zoho books. When an order comes through the website, all of the individual products from that order show up in the CRM record of that customer.
                                                                                                  • Você já viu os cursos do Zoho Mind?

                                                                                                    Pessoal, Tem uma plataforma da Zoho chamada Zoho Mind, muito interessante os cursos e vídeos tutoriais que lá possui. Para a turma do Zoho Creator, tem uma dica de Buscar dados em Formulário, segue o link e clique em Zoho Creator. https://www.zohomind.com.br/#/videostutoriais
                                                                                                  • Como gerar gatilhos para pagamento de impostos no Zoho Books?

                                                                                                    Olá Pessoal, boa tarde! Gostaria de saber como vocês estão escriturando os impostos a pagar no Zoho Books. Vi que temos a opção de Bills, porém se eu escriturar nesta aba do Zoho Books para gerar lembretes de tempo de vencimento por exemplo vai refletir
                                                                                                  • Subform Time field to string.

                                                                                                    Good afternoon All. I have a Subform 'Delivery_Receiving_Hours' that captures Day (Dropdown), Time_Open (Time), and Time_Close (Time). I need to capture this data and send it to a multiline field in the CRM. The code, posted below, below will capture
                                                                                                  • workflow for bounced email gets triggered, but email is status = opened

                                                                                                    Hello, I have a workflow that sends me an email if outgoing email are bounced. Now I got some kind of this emails, but the corrosponding contacts have status = open at the email. Why this bounce-workflow is triggered? Reports > Email Reports > Bounce
                                                                                                  • Data export

                                                                                                    I need to export our customer's data and projects' data for our purpose but am unable to export full data i only get around 3160 projects and around 2k customer can you please help me to get full data, please
                                                                                                  • Adjusting Physical Inventory

                                                                                                    Not getting very far with support on this one, they say they are going to fix it but nothings happened since November. Please give this a thumbs up if you would like to see this feature or comment if you have some insight. Use Case: Inventory set to be
                                                                                                  • Next Page