Automation#31: Automate Splitting Names for New Contact Records

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.
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.UPDATE
Desk.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.                                
13. In the script window, insert the Custom Function given below:
  1. //------------- User Inputs ----------
  2. orgId = "60xxxxxxxx0"; //replace with your Org ID
  3. operator = "."; 
  4. //---------------------------------
  5. logs = Map();
  6. try {
  7. contacts = zoho.desk.getRecordById(orgId,"contacts",contactId, "deskcontact");
  8. firstName = contacts.get("firstName");
  9. lastName = contacts.get("lastName");
  10. if(lastName.contains(operator))
  11. {
  12.        if(operator.contains(".")){
  13.          lastName = lastName.subString(0,lastName.indexOf("@"));
  14.        }
  15.        firstName = lastName.subString(0,lastName.indexOf(operator)).trim();
  16.        lastName = lastName.subString(lastName.indexOf(operator) + 1);
  17.        updateContact = zoho.desk.update(orgId,"contacts",contactId,{"firstName":firstName,"lastName":lastName},"deskcontact");
  18.    }
  19. }
  20. catch (errorInfo)
  21. {
  22. logs.insert("errorInfo":errorInfo);
  23. }
  24. info "logs: \n" + logs;

  25. if(logs.containKey("errorInfo"))
  26. {
  27. throws "Error happen in the CF execution";
  28. }
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


      Zoho Campaigns Resources


        • Desk Community Learning Series


        • Digest


        • Functions


        • Meetups


        • Kbase


        • Resources


        • Glossary


        • Desk Marketplace


        • MVP Corner


        • Word of the Day


        • Ask the Experts


          • 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

          Zoho CRM Plus Resources

            Zoho Books Resources


              Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                Zoho Projects Resources


                  Zoho Sprints Resources


                    Zoho Orchestly Resources


                      Zoho Creator Resources


                        Zoho WorkDrive Resources



                          Zoho CRM Resources

                          • CRM Community Learning Series

                            CRM Community Learning Series


                          • Tips

                            Tips

                          • Functions

                            Functions

                          • Meetups

                            Meetups

                          • Kbase

                            Kbase

                          • Resources

                            Resources

                          • Digest

                            Digest

                          • CRM Marketplace

                            CRM Marketplace

                          • MVP Corner

                            MVP Corner




                            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




                                ご検討中の方

                                  • Recent Topics

                                  • 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.
                                  • Website show Blank white screen

                                    Customer called me to tell me my website is currently down upon review it shows a white screen however I can access everything via editor. JITCADCAM.com
                                  • How manufacturing analytics can transform your enterprise with Zoho Projects Plus

                                    Did you know that every single car is made up of 30,000 to 40,000 individual parts? All of these are manufactured meticulously in various facilities before being assembled into one. The global manufacturing industry spans a wide range from delivering
                                  • Projects custom colors replaced by default orange

                                    Since yesterday, projects uploaded to Zoho, to which I had assigned a custom color, have lost the customization and reverted to the default color (orange). Has anyone else had the same problem? If so, how did you resolve it?
                                  • Customize your SalesIQ live chat with Custom CSS and blend it with your website design

                                    Hi everyone. Hope you all are having a great day! SalesIQ offers various inbuilt customization choices for your chat widget and window like changes in colour, theme, font etc. Although these choices are many, sometimes they may not match with the design
                                  • From Email Address When Replaying to Missed Chats

                                    One of the most common things we do is follow up on every missed chat.  Missed chats are like money in the bank, people just waiting for your response and to start a relationship with our companies. However, SalesIQ only lets you respond from 1 email address from your entire account?! We have happily paid for 4 subscriptions, but our users cannot reply from their own email address?  How are we supposed to build customer relationships? The fix to this issue is so simple, just load in the logged in
                                  • how to treat a same person as customer and vendor in zoho

                                    hi team, in my company, few persons acting as creditors as well as debtors (which means sometimes we pay them... some times we paid by them). in that case i would like to maintain a same ledger for that person.in zoho books it is treating creditor and
                                  • Narrative 6 - The impact of rebranding

                                    Behind the scenes of a successful ticketing system - BTS Series Narrative 6 - The impact of rebranding Every organization has invested in branding to set itself apart, and that should be reflected in the help desk. Zoho Desk enables organizations to apply
                                  • custom color palette for picklist in Sheet

                                    Migrating over from Google Sheets and missing the ability to customize the individual item colors of my picklist/dropdown menus. Is this something that is possible? A search showed me creating a custom color palette in Analytics is possible but I am not
                                  • What's New - July 2025 | Zoho Backstage

                                    Start smart, end strong. From knowing who’s coming to celebrating who showed up, July’s updates help you run events that feel organized from the first invite to the final thank you. Planning an event used to be like writing a choose-your-own-adventure
                                  • Image Upload Field API get encrypted ID and sequence number

                                    Hello is there a way to extract the encrypted id and sequence number from image upload fields through the Zoho CRM API? I created a custom script with javascript within Zoho CRM, but I want to extract the encrypted id and sequence number for all my images
                                  • Attention: Changes to 10DLC TCR pricing and new authentication requirements

                                    Hi everyone, Starting August 1, 2025, The Campaign Registry (TCR) is introducing new pricing changes and a mandatory brand verification process called Authentication+ 2.0, which will affect how you register and manage your 10DLC messaging services. These
                                  • Better Time Tracking

                                    We need better time tracking customization for IT MSPs. We also need reporting that is built in, rather than having to try and fumble with creating custom reports. We also need to be able to mark whether a ticket has been billed or not, I don't think
                                  • Scheduled Tickets Need Updated

                                    There is a very clunky manual way to create reoccurring scheduled tickets. This should be created to be easy for the administrator to create. We create several (10 to 12) reoccurring tickets per account for biweekly and monthly auditing purposes.. The
                                  • Team Feeds Improvements

                                    Team Feeds needs to show a feed of every action within the department. Currently it seems that the feed will only show a ticket that I've personally commented on or interacted with/followed. A feed should be that, a feed. As a manager I would like to
                                  • Better Security, Better User Experience | Help Center Update | June'25

                                    As part of our commitment to enhancing user experience and security, we are happy to announce updates to our authentication mechanism. This update introduces several key enhancements designed to improve the password recovery process and streamline the
                                  • Upload Logo to Account Page

                                    It would be nice to set a logo for an Account
                                  • View Agent Collision on Ticket List Page

                                    It would be nice from the ticket listing page (views) to see what agents are working on what tickets rather than having to click into each ticket throughout the day to see what agents are working on what tickets. This functionality would also be desired
                                  • Restrict user from viewing the detail standard view

                                    Is there any way to restrict a user(it can be user-field-based) from viewing the detail standard view? Basically, I have created a canvas detailed view so that on some conditions I can hide some data from the users but the standard view client script
                                  • Upload Picture to Contact

                                    It would be nice to upload a profile picture to a contact.
                                  • Ticket Status Colors

                                    Can i change the colors of Ticket Status in the admin panel? Or even change the background of the entire cell of a Critical ticket? This way its easy for my agents to see a urgent ticket when it comes in. Right now everything is black text. Here Right
                                  • Allowing Pictures for Client Contacts

                                    Do you have any plans to allow us to add pictures of our client contacts? There is a silhouette of a person there now, but no way that I can see where I can actually add a picture of the individual.
                                  • Paid Support Plans with Automated Billing

                                    We (like many others, I'm sure) are designing or have paid support plans. Our design involves a given number of support hours in each plan. Here are my questions: 1) Are there any plans to add time-based plans in the Zoho Desk Support Plans feature? The
                                  • Agent name Alias

                                    I am seeing that Full name of my staffs are written on every ticket response which is not good for some reasons. It is possible to user like this: Manny P. (First Name with Last Name's First Letter) or  Manny (First Name) This is want we want to show
                                  • Unable to add attachments to tickets through Desk API

                                    I able to use the Desk API to generate tickets. However when I try to use the tickets/{ticketId}/attachments endpoint, I always get an Unauthorized error. My app has Desk.Tickets.ALL included in its scope so this should not be an issue
                                  • What's wrong with this COQL?

                                    What's wrong with this COQL? Code returns "invalid operator found". SELECT id, Name, Stage, Account, Created_Time, Tag FROM Production_Orders WHERE (Account = '4356038000072566002' AND Stage NOT LIKE '%customer%') ORDER BY Created_Time DESC LIMIT 200
                                  • [Feature Request] Add support for internationalized top-level domains mail hosting

                                    This is an important request to add support for internationalized domains mail hosting to https://www.zoho.com/mail/ In this case, that is only limited to domain name/mail address however currently it's already possible for us send mails etc using below
                                  • Add Enable/Disable to Field Rules and other Rules

                                    Hi, Sometimes I have rules setup for fields, and until I want to enable them for use, I can set the fields to Hidden but rules still show them, today you have to delete rules and then recreate them again, would be nice to have a toggle for Enabled/Disabled
                                  • Syncing stuck for days

                                    Hello when I made an account a few days ago and synced all my notes to it, it is still syncing. My app is only 400mb so I do not know why it is taking so long. Please help
                                  • Workflow runs on every edit despite not ticking the field repeat this workflow whenever a parent is edited.....

                                    Hi, It is my understanding that this workflow should only trigger once. Why is this triggering on every edit of the field? Based on another support query - directly from Zoho, If i tick the box 'repeat this workflow whenever a parent is edited' it should
                                  • How do you add or update tags on Zoho CRM records via n8n? (Workarounds or best practices?)

                                    Hi all, I’m running into some limitations with the Zoho CRM node in n8n and was wondering how others have handled this: From what I see, the standard Zoho CRM node in n8n doesn’t allow you to add or update tags when creating or updating contacts/leads.
                                  • API PARAMETER FOR TICKET CLOSED TIME

                                    Hi, Is there a parameter for filtering tickets by closed time in zoho api, i can see closed time in the API response i get, but can't get tickets by that field while calling. Regards, Anvin Alias
                                  • Reply to email addresses wrong.

                                    I have setup my Zoho mail account using my main domain and I also have an Alias setup from a different domain. In Settings - Mail - Compose I have selected to the option "For replies, send using The same email address to which the email was sent to".
                                  • Audio/video quality issues with Zoho Meeting – Any roadmap for improvement?

                                    Hi Zoho Team, We’ve been using Zoho Meeting for both internal and external meetings, and unfortunately, the experience has been consistently poor. The video and audio quality are so unreliable that it often renders meetings ineffective—especially with
                                  • Meeting integration with Otter.ai

                                    Would love for an integration with an AI transcription service like Otter.ai to be integrated with Zoho Meeting. Thanks
                                  • How to close/delete a free creator account?

                                    I have a free zoho creator account associated with my email address that is not being used.  I want to become a user of another paid zoho creator account but I can not associate with the paid account with the same email.  I assume if I can close or delete the free account I will be able to use the paid account. I have emailed support but no response. Suggestions?
                                  • Zoho books and zapier causes Invalid data provided

                                    I have been using zoho books with zapier for over 2 years now, everything was working fine. On September 13th my zaps stopped working. Now on step create sales invoice in zoho books i get an error: Failed to create a create_invoice_v2 in Zoho Books The
                                  • CRM report

                                    Is it possible to pull a contacts report that also includes the company industry, as well as the company name? I’m having trouble combining company and contact fields – any help is appreciated. Thank you, Sam
                                  • Early Payment Discount customize Text

                                    Hi, I’m currently using Zoho Books and am trying to customize the standard “Early Payment Discount” message that appears in the PDF invoice template. I’ve reviewed the documentation here: https://www.zoho.com/books/help/invoice/early-payment-discount.html
                                  • Enhancements to Client script?

                                    Hi Zoho CRM, I've been extensively using Client Scripts to enhance our Deal form experience, particularly for real time validations and auto updating fields based on specific logic. However, I've encountered a challenge regarding permission boundaries.
                                  • Next Page