Deluge in Zoho Services #4: Zoho Sheet

Deluge in Zoho Services #4: Zoho Sheet

Hello everyone,

Greetings from Deluge! It's been a while since we connected, but now we're back in action, continuing our series of posts on Zoho services that support Deluge. We hope you found the previous post in this series useful. In today's post, let's explore the ways in which you can use Deluge to achieve more with Zoho Sheet.

Custom functions is the Zoho Sheet feature that uses Deluge. These functions are written using the Deluge scripting language to manipulate data more effectively, communicate with third-party applications, and fetch/update values based on your requirements. Custom functions enable you to program your own functions and add different types of business logic. Apart from creating and running custom functions using Deluge, Zoho Sheet also allows bringing in data from other Zoho or third-party services using connections. Integrating with other services requires you to create a connection, thereby ensuring data transfer between the connected services. 

Many organizations have their own business logic that requires personalized functions. For example:
  • Let's say you've maintained inventory stock details in the Item Details report inside your Zoho Books account. As prices keep fluctuating everyday, it could become frustrating and tedious to individually edit and update each record in your report. To resolve this, you can maintain the required data in your Zoho Sheet. You can achieve data synchronization between both the services by configuring a custom function that performs the following actions via API calls.
    • Pulls the required data from the Item Details report in your Books account and populates the same in your sheet.
    • Pushes data to the Item Details report in Books as and when data is created/edited in your sheet.
      This way the data in your Books report will be automatically updated each time you add new data to your sheet.  
  • Let's say you've collected and stored the feedback comments of your customers in your sheet. You need to analyze the sentiments of these comments, categorize them as — Positive, Negative, and Neutral and submit the final sheet to the appropriate authority. To achieve this, you can create a custom function using zoho.ai.analyseSentiment task. The function checks a comment, analyzes its emotion and returns the detected emotion along with its probability percentage.

Example

Let's say you own a business named Zylker Corp. Your business has clinched a good number of sales-ready deals in the current year. But handling a large number of deals every day makes it difficult to determine which ones to focus on.

You're in charge of tracking and maintaining these deals, and you need to fetch all of them, along with their relevant details, such as Deal Name, Amount, and Closing Date for a certain period, and then populate that data inside your sheet.

This data is useful in generating real revenue for your business. However, this is time-consuming if done manually, and can also lead to errors. To overcome this, Deluge can be used to create custom functions that can actually pull data from your Deals module inside Zoho CRM.

Note: To use custom functions that require fetching data from other services (in this case, we're fetching data from Zoho CRM and populating them in Zoho Sheet), the ow​​​​ner of the spreadsheet must hold an account in Zoho CRM.

These custom functions are similar to the macros in an Excel sheet. A macro is an action or set of actions that you can run as many times as you want. If you have tasks in Microsoft Excel that you repeatedly perform, you can create a macro to automate those tasks. 

Similarly, you can create a custom function by specifying set criteria and running it repeatedly whenever required. In other words, you can automate repetitive tasks using custom functions to save time and manual effort. 

How it works



Steps to create a custom function

1. Create connection 

  1. Navigate to Tools > Custom Functions and click Manage Connections.
  2. Click Create Connection. Select the Default Services tab under Pick Your Service.
  3. Select the Zoho OAuth service from the list of services. 
  4. Enter a suitable Connection Name. Here, we named it crm_oauth_connection. The Connection Link Name will be auto-filled accordingly.
  5. Choose scopes ZohoCRM.coql.READ and ZohoCRM.modules.deals.ALL.
    Note:
    • This connection is used to authorize Zoho CRM to fetch records from all its modules through a COQL query.
    • We're using the COQL API here, since selecting a date range in  the function's criteria isn't supported in the Get Records API.
    • Refer to the API page to learn how to get records through a COQL query.
  6. Click Create and Connect. You'll be redirected to the service authentication page.
  7. Click Connect, then click Accept to allow DRE to access data in your Zoho account. The required connection is now created.
  8. The CONNECTION SUMMARY page will display your connection details.

2. Create custom function

  1. Navigate to Tools > Custom Functions and click Create Custom Function.
  2. Enter a valid function name.
  3. Select the data type of the return value for the specific function to be created from the Result Type dropdown. Here, you need to choose list as the return data type, since we need the output to be displayed as a list of values (vertically).
  4. You can also add the required arguments and their types for the function in the Create Custom Function popup. Here, you must add the following arguments—StartDate and EndDate—with their data types as date. This is because we're going to fetch the deal details between the specified start and end dates.

  5. Click Create and your custom function will be created.

3. Script using Deluge

  1. Navigate to Tools > Custom functions > View Deluge Editor.
  2. Select the added custom function (DEALS_BETWEEN), write the following script in the editor, and click Save.
  1. //List is the return data type. StartDate and EndDate are the parameters, whose values will, in turn, be supplied as params while making the CRM API call.
  2. list DEALS_BETWEEN(date StartDate, date EndDate)
  3. {
  4. //Use toString to convert the input dates to accepted date formats in Sheet.
  5. start_date = StartDate.toString("yyyy-MM-dd");
  6. end_date = EndDate.toString("yyyy-MM-dd");
  7. //Construct a map with the required deal details in the defined map variable using a select query. The deal details include field names from the Deals module in CRM.
  8. query_map = Map();
  9. query_map.put("select_query","select Deal_Name, Amount, Closing_Date from Deals where Closing_Date between '" + start_date + "' and '" + end_date + "'");
  10. //Invoke the Zoho CRM API to fetch the records from the Deals module through a COQL query. The connection you created earlier will be used here.
  11. response = invokeurl
  12. [
  13. url: "https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v3/coql"
  14.  type: POST
  15. parameters:query_map.toString()
  16. connection:"crm_oauth_connection"
  17. ];
  18. //resultList is the variable to declare a list.
  19. resultList = List();
  20. response_data = response.get("data");
  21. //The below "for" statement parses the records inside the Deals module and fetches the specified details
  22. for each record in response_data
  23. {
  24. resultMap = Map();
  25. resultMap.put("Deal Name",record.get("Deal_Name"));
  26. resultMap.put("Amount",record.get("Amount"));
  27. resultMap.put("Closing Date",record.get("Closing_Date"));
  28. resultList.add(resultMap);
  29. }
  30. //Returns the response in the format expected by Zoho Sheet.
  31. return resultList;
  32. }
Note: 
  • In the above script, Deal_Name, Amount, and Closing_Date are API names of fields in the Zoho CRM Deals module.
  • You can test your custom function by clicking Run and entering sample values.
If you want to get the required API names for other CRM fields:
Log in to your CRM account.
Navigate to Settings > APIs (under Developer Space) > CRM API > API names.
Click the Deals module. The API names page will list the API names of all the fields in the Deals module. 
You can then use the required API names in your script.

4. Execute function

Enter the function in the below format. Your sheet will be populated with the deal details (Deal Name, Amount, and Closing Date) between the specified time period.

Input format:

=DEALS_BETWEEN("2022-01-01";"2022-11-11")

where,

DEALS_BETWEEN
name of your custom function
2022-01-01 
start_date value
2022-11-11
end_date value

You can refer to help page to learn in-depth about how to achieve the above custom functions using Deluge in Zoho Sheets. 
We hope you found this post useful—we'll be exploring Deluge in Zoho Connect in our next post. Please let us know if you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions in the comments, or write to us at support@zohodeluge.com.

Thank you!

You can also check out our preview posts in this series!


      Zoho Campaigns Resources


        • Desk Community Learning Series


        • Digest


        • Functions


        • Meetups


        • Kbase


        • Resources


        • Glossary


        • Desk Marketplace


        • MVP Corner


        • Word of the Day


        • Ask the Experts


          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

                                  • # 2 Why do we need a billing system when accounting covers billing?

                                    In today's evolving financial tech stack, businesses use a mix of tools to manage their day-to-day operations, from invoicing to full-fledged accounting. While accounting platforms typically come with built-in invoicing features, specialized billing systems

                                  • How to insert an Excel/Zoho Sheet table in a chat?

                                    Hello, is there a way to paste an excel/zoho sheet table to a conversation without loosing table lines. I tried to paste a piece of a table and all the columns and rows were gone. How to easily paste a table without a need of sending a file? Katarzy

                                  • Mass Update Application Status

                                    How to update application statuses of Multiple Applications at once? Is that possible? If not then why please consider adding it It can save hours of manual work Thats the only Option I see

                                  • Free webinar: Streamlining customer service paperwork with the Zoho Sign extension for Zoho Desk

                                    Hi there! Wondering how to bridge the gap between digitized customer service and business paperwork? Attend our free webinar to learn how you can do this by connecting Zoho Sign, our digital signature app, with Zoho Desk, our online customer service help

                                  • Mail Search Not Working

                                    Hello, Mail search is not working at all. I've tried Chrome and Mozilla. I can try and search for an exact term, or even an email that is 1st in my email list. All search does is sit and spin, or it comes up with no results. I've also tried it on my android

                                  • Cannot Send Email to a Gmail Account

                                    Hello, I have a zoho-hosted email account, alex@chirochannelnetwork.com that has trouble sending to gmail accounts.  But not all gmail accounts, only some of them. I've tried to figure this out with clients, and they don't appear to be going into their

                                  • Unblock ME

                                    info@pentekykloi.gr Unable to send message;Reason:554 5.1.8 Email Outgoing Blocked. Learn more. I purchase additional storage

                                  • The Social Wall: July 2025

                                    Hello everyone! July has brought some exciting new updates to Zoho Social. From powerful enhancements in the Social Toolkit to new capabilities in the mobile app, we’ve packed this month with features designed to help you level up your social media presence.

                                  • Cannot Print Landscape with Zoho Sheet

                                    I am noticing that when using the Zoho Sheet desktop for Mac, that even when selecting landscape as the print option, once you choose "Print", a second system dialog opens that automatically makes the view portrait again, and does not allow printing in

                                  • Power of Automation : Enhancing custom date field calculations by excluding Weekends and Holidays

                                    Hello Everyone, A Custom function is a user-written set of code to achieve a specific requirement. Set the required conditions needed as when to trigger using the Workflow rules (be it Tasks / Project) and associate the custom function to it. Requirement:

                                  • Stock count by bin location

                                    Is there a configuration to make a stock count by bin or area and not by product. these is useful to manage count by area Regards

                                  • Temporary Outage in Zoho Cliq Affecting US Users – July 23, 2025

                                    We experienced a service disruption in Zoho Cliq that impacted core functionality for users in the US region. The issue occurred between Jul 23, 2025, 06:54:00 PM IST and 07:13:13 PM IST, lasting approximately 19 minutes. To restore service stability,

                                  • portal.assignUserInProfile - Não esta adicionando

                                    Estou encontrando problema com este comando portal.assignUserInProfile Não esta incluindo o usuário no portal Alguém pode me dizer o que pode ser thisapp.portal.assignUserInProfile("teste@gmail.com","Customer");

                                  • CRM emails vs Campaigns

                                    Please help me understand this. I am having a difficult understanding of "Campaigns" sent through CRM (real emails) or Zoho One (blast "potentially junk" emails) This is what I currently think emails sent via CRM are "real" emails sent through linked real personal email accounts and therefore are more likely to get delivered.  We use this for critical updates for our "Approved " accounts and certain other preferred statuses emails via Campaigns are sent through the Zoho server (like MailChimp, Campaign

                                  • Setting up property management in Zoho Books

                                    Hi, I run a property management business that manages property complexes. There are multiple owners, some owning more than one property on the same complex. My role is to manage the fees they pay for maintenance of common areas, such as the swimming pool

                                  • Reverse proxy

                                    We have a web application in the creator platform. When I launch a particular DNS, I would like that DNS to redirect to the web page of the application in creator app. Has anyone achieved it and if yes, please share how to do it.

                                  • Still client need to download .exe?

                                    Hello, the client for use zoho assist need everytime download .exe file and launch it?

                                  • Splitting a ticket's entire thread

                                    Hi, When you split a ticket it only splits the individual reply that you clicked "Split as new ticket" on. Is it not possible to split the entire ticket thread from that point into the new ticket (every reply from the split point forward)? Or is there

                                  • Editing the text on the Help Center home page

                                    Is it possible to edit the "Welcome to Help Center" message anywhere? This one: We'd like to be able to tailor it a little more ourselves.

                                  • WHMCS for Zoho Flow

                                    Can we use WHMCS for Zoho flow?

                                  • Online meetings through Calendar Booking form with options

                                    This is great to see and particularly for those users who don't have Zoho BOOKINGS. The shame of it all though is that it could have been better. Why do we have to set up separate booking forms for each type of meeting and for each online conferencing

                                  • Agents permission per department

                                    Hi Team, can I setup permission for each agent what they can do in each department, for example I want account department agents to only have view access to support department tickets and not allowed to assign or reply to clients. I am sure this would

                                  • CRM notes

                                    I want to be able to add notes to a task that do not necessarily get rolled up into an account or contact.   For example, I tasks to work on a Court Order for John Doe divorce account.  There might be lots of updates (in the form of notes) that employees

                                  • Introducing parent-child ticketing in Zoho Desk [Early access]

                                    Hello Zoho Desk users! We have introduced the parent-child ticketing system to help customer service teams ensure efficient resolution of issues involving multiple, related tickets. You can now combine repetitive and interconnected tickets into parent-child

                                  • Function #8: Add additional charges to invoices

                                    Here goes one of the highly sought-after custom functions in Zoho Books. If you find yourself needing to apply additional charges to customers on their invoices (say credit card surcharges, or fuel charges applicable to customers from a certain region,

                                  • Alternative / optional Position

                                    How do you create an alternative position or an optional position (article) in offers?

                                  • جمود في الصفحة عند حفظ عمل

                                    عندما اقوم باضافة ايقونة الى صفحة النموذج تجمد الصفحة ولا تعمل وتصبح مثل المظلة احدث الصفحة لا تعمل انتظر قليلا لا تعمل اقوم بنسخ رابط الصفحة والصقه في الرابط فيعمل

                                  • ZOHO Books Canadian payroll Integration

                                    Hello, I know ZOHO books doesn't have Canadian payroll and I dont believe its coming anytime soon. My question is there a Canadian payroll software that could be integrated with Zoho Books? Thank you HD

                                  • Create a draft in reply to an email via Emails API

                                    Hi, I’d like to use the outgoing webhook to automatically create a draft reply to incoming mail. How can I use the Emails API to create a draft reply that is linked to an existing email thread? I couldn’t find the relevant method in the documentation.

                                  • Zoho Desk Time Tracking and the Salary Privacy Issue

                                    Hello colleagues, Just wondering if anyone did hit the same wall? In the Desk, when the agent-specific hourly rates are enabled (Zoho Desk → Setup → Time Tracking → Billing Preferences), these Time Entries are being displayed in the Ticket History tab.

                                  • How to Delete, Disable, or Remove Streams from the Mail App?

                                    Is there a way to remove Streams from the mail app sidebar? I get too many notifications, it doesn't add any value to Zoho's functionality (especially since you can just make comments inside an email), and is distracting. I do not want notifications/alerts

                                  • Delay in MX updates

                                    Hi, I set MX Records 12 hours ago, and I am receiving email normally, but I still get notification MX record is not pointing correctly. Error: The MX records of your domain is not yet pointed to Zoho Mail. Why there is a delay in detecting MX records,

                                  • Bigin iOS and macOS app update: Link email messages to pipeline records.

                                    Hello everyone! In the latest version of the Bigin iOS(v1.11.9) and macOS(1.8.9) app, we have brought in support for an option to link email to pipeline records. This helps you to view emails specific to a deal, especially when a contact is associated

                                  • make.com integration

                                    Just wondering if anyone on Zoho One account connecting apps to Make.com We're on Canadian server (.com) and when connecting to Make.com, it keeps having error of Invalid Client ID. I have contacted both Zoho and Make and both sides said it's not an error

                                  • Article Numbers for KB articles

                                    Hello, I was wondering if it's possible to turn on article numbers/ part numbering for KB articles. If this is not already a feature, we'd like to request it. Frequently a solution will require multiple articles so tracking which articles are referenced

                                  • Refund Request ,Zoho Mail Subscription (zoho suport is not replying)

                                    Hi Zoho Team, I recently subscribed to the Zoho Mail yearly plan, but after evaluating it, I found that the interface does not suit my workflow. I’ve already canceled the subscription from my end. As I’m well within your 30-day refund window, I’m requesting

                                  • File Encryption - Zoho Desk iOS app update

                                    Hello, Everyone! We have now introduced the 'File Encryption' option within the Zoho Desk app as part of the HIPAA Compliance. This option allows the user to encrypt the attachments within the Desk mobile app, which acts as an additional layer of security.

                                  • Data encryption - Zoho Desk iOS

                                    Hello, Everyone! In the recent iOS version(v2.8.23) of the Zoho Desk app, we have supported data encryption. As a part of HIPAA Compliance, the Zoho Desk mobile app now allow users to encrypt the Desk mobile database as an additional layer of security.

                                  • Notify Admin when a user forgets to check-in or check-out at the designated time.

                                    Hello, I would like notify the Admin via email when a user forgets to check-in or check-out at the designated time. What is the best way to setup this email notification?

                                  • Assistance Needed with Prospect Conversion Issue

                                    Hi, I attempted to convert a prospect to an account, but received a pop-up notification indicating that the contact information matches an existing contact. I selected the option to add it to the existing contact, but it appears the prospect was not successfully

                                  • Next Page