Episode II: Begin Your Automation Journey in Zoho Desk with Deluge

Episode II: Begin Your Automation Journey in Zoho Desk with Deluge



To travel to another country, you need a passport. But that's not enough, you also need a visa, flight tickets, and, most importantly, a mode of transportation. Without these, your journey cannot begin.
Similarly, custom functions in Zoho Desk are essential but what are they without an understanding of Deluge?

So, have you met Deluge yet?

Remember Chef Gusteau's famous motto from the movie Ratatouille, "Anyone can cook." Zoho's Deluge is for anyone, from anywhere, who wants to code.

Anyone can code with Deluge   

Deluge is accessible for beginners and advanced coders. With Deluge, you can easily create custom functions to automate ticketing operations, integrate external services, or perform actions on records within Zoho Desk.

What is Deluge?

Deluge is Zoho's native scripting language. If you would like to try Deluge, play here.

How does Deluge simplify Custom Functions?
Deluge aims to make coding approachable for everyone.
The simple Drag-and-Drop Simplicity helps you use prebuilt code snippets, eliminating the need for extensive coding knowledge.
Deluge has broad scalability, allowing you to configure from basic automation to complex workflows, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes.

Zoho Desk's API documentation

To perform different operations, one has to know the different APIs and methods used within Zoho Desk. Zoho Desk offers comprehensive API documentation, like an open book, to guide curious developers and users across modules, customization, functions, and operations.
Even if you’re new to Deluge, Zoho Deluge provides prebuilt commands to help you perform tasks within Zoho Desk.  The prebuilt commands are a step-by-step guide to help you execute integration tasks efficiently.
Deluge is the core component for formulating custom functions in Zoho Desk. It helps turn ideas into reality and enables automation by empowering users without deep programming expertise. The integration capabilities, scalability, and user-friendly design make it an essential tool for users looking to maximize the power of Zoho Desk. From ticketing to complex workflows, Deluge helps in bringing a smooth automation flow.

What’s next?

Similar to a passport, the functions are valuable documents stored in the Customs Functions gallery. To make a custom function work, it must be integrated with Automation.
Just like different flight services manage routes across various locations, the Automation features help in executing these custom functions:
  1. Workflows
  2. Macros
  3. Schedules
  4. Blueprint
  5. Guided Conversation
NotesNOTE: One automation cannot override another, just as two flights cannot share airspace at the same altitude and time.
In the upcoming episodes, we shall explore integrating custom functions with each Automation. We will dive into practical use cases, configurations, and real-time execution to help you understand how Deluge complements each automation type in delivering seamless business processes.

Previous episode : 
Episode I : Exploring the World of Custom Functions in Zoho Desk

Until the next episode drops, 

Cheers, 
Lydia | Zoho Desk


    • Sticky Posts

    • Register for Zoho Desk Beta Community

      With the start of the year, we have decided to take a small step in making the life of our customers a little easier. We now have easy access to all our upcoming features and a faster way to request for beta access. We open betas for some of our 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

    Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


      • Recent Topics

      • What’s New in Zoho Inventory | April 2025

        Hello users, April has been a big month in Zoho Inventory! We’ve rolled out powerful new features to help you streamline production, optimise stock management, and tailor your workflows. While several updates bring helpful enhancements, three major additions
      • When Zoho Tables Beta will be open to EU data center

        Hello all, We in EU are looking at you all using and testing and are getting jealous :) When we will be able to get into the beta also? We don't mind testing and playing with beta software. Thank you!
      • Pass current date to a field using Zoho Flow

        I am trying to generate an invoice automatically once somebody submits a record in Zoho CRM. I get an error in the invoice date. I have entered {{zoho.currentdate}} in the Date field. When I test the flow, I get "Zoho Books says "Invalid value passed
      • API: Mark Sales Order as Open + Custom Status

        Hi, it's possible to create Custom Status (sub-status actually) states for the Sales Order. So you have Open, Void. Then under Open you can have Open, and create one called Order Paid, Order Shipped, etc etc...which is grouped under Open. I can use the
      • Multi-Unit Inventory with Flexible Unit Selection (Purchase in One Unit, Sell in Another)

        We need multi-unit inventory management in Zoho Books with the flexibility to choose units (e.g., Box or Piece) at the time of purchase or sale. For example, if 1 Box = 10 Pieces, we should be able to record purchases in Boxes but sell either in Boxes
      • Zoho Quartz Screen Recording

        Hello, can we get access to Quartz, please, as a standalone solution? It would be great for creating training videos for current and future staff on how to use Zoho software according to our company requirements. Thank you
      • This domain is not allowed to add in Zoho. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details

        This is the error i keep getting when trying to use my Zoho Domain Mail. This domain is not allowed to add in Zoho. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details Find attached. I hope this can be resolved very quickly so i can go on and make
      • Tip 26: How to hide the "Submit" button from a form

        Hi everyone, Hope you're staying safe and working from home. We are, too. By now, we at Zoho are all very much accustomed to the new normal—working remotely. Today, we're back with yet another simple but interesting tip--how to hide the Submit button from your forms. In certain scenarios, you may want to hide the submit button from a form until all the fields are filled in.  Use case In this tip, we'll show you how to hide the Submit button while the user is entering data into the form, and then
      • filter broke my data

        I uploaded a file recently from Sheets and it has top 2 rows frozen, with table headers in second row and each one is filterable. somehow my first 2 columns became unfiltered and no matter what I do I cannot reapply the filter?? also didn't realize they
      • Email address for forwarding is not saving and there's no confirmation ema

        Steps to reproduce: 1. Enter my forward email in the email forward section of the account 2. Click save 3. See a notification stating saved successfully 4. Refresh the page, no forward email is saved 5. No email confirmation received at the forwarding
      • How do I move Notes around within a Group?

        It says here: " You can now sort notes by title (alphabetically), or by date modified and date created. You can even organize your notes by dragging and dropping them into a particular order. To sort your notes, simply go to Settings and tap “Sort By.” Please note: all sort settings will be saved and synced across devices, except for custom sorting. Custom sorting will be device specific."However, I am unable to 'custom sort' in either Notebook for Mac or on the Web. In addition, I can't find the
      • javax.mail.authenticationfailedexception 535 authentication failed

        Hi, I am facing 535 authentication failed error when trying to send email from zoho desktop as well as in webmail. Can you suggest to fix this issue,. Regards, Rekha
      • Pocket from Mozilla is closing shop. Don’t lose your favorites . Move them to Zoho Mail Bookmarks now! 📥🔖

        The end of Pocket shouldn't mean the end of your important links and content. Easily import them into Zoho Mail's Bookmarks and continue right where you left off. You can bring over your entire Saves, Collections, and tags just the way they are. Bookmarks
      • Zoho Sign: need to leave document pending for up to a year, or maybe there's a better way?

        I have zoho one, maybe there's a better way to do this with another service than sending a zoho sign template from zoho crm. At the end of the day this requirement is due to regulations, no matter how dumb it may seem. I'm just looking for a way of getting
      • 'Add Tax To Amount' not reflected in Invoice

        Hi Zoho Support, I'm experiencing an issue with tax calculation display in my invoice template. Despite having "Add tax to amount" box checked in the template settings, the Amount column is not showing the tax-inclusive total for line items. Current behaviour:
      • To Do: shareable task links without login

        Hi! I’m using Zoho Mail and ToDo in my daily work, and I’ve run into one limitation that’s a real blocker for me. Right now, to share tasks with managers or directors, they need to have a Zoho account and be added to a group. In practice, many of them
      • Separate Items & Services

        Hi, please separate items and services into different categories. Thank you
      • Unable to edit or delete email address

        I signed up for free Zoho today. I usually am pretty good at understanding and configuring things like this, but your interface baffles me, and your online help is cryptic to say the least. I have spent hours just trying to set up a couple of email accounts in Zoho before pointing my domain MX records to Zoho. I solved some other issues on my own, but I can't figure out this latest problem: I have created two email addresses in Zoho. Let's call the first one myname@mydomain.com and the second one
      • Mastering Zia Match Scores | Let's Talk Recruit

        Feeling overwhelmed by hundreds of resumes for every job? You’re not alone! Welcome back to Let’s Talk Recruit, where we break down Zoho Recruit’s features and hiring best practices into simple, actionable insights for recruiters. Imagine having an assistant
      • We are unable to process your request now. Please try again after sometime or contact support@zohoaccounts.com

        I cannot sign up and return the error of we are unable to process your request now. Please try again after sometime or contact support@zohoaccounts.com
      • Multi-currency - What's cooking ?

        Hi,       We have been doing this feature for sometime and we would like to give you some glimpses of it.  Working with Multi Currency :        Multicurrency support gives you the ability to handle business transactions in multiple currencies. You can define a base currency for your organization and add more currencies with exchange rates based on the base currency.  Setup :        From the setup page, you can manage all the currencies supported by your organization.       Currencies page        
      • Integrating Chatbot with Zoho Creator Application

        Is it possible to integrate a chatbot with a Zoho Creator application?
      • How to reduce programmatically the image uploaded by user?

        I need a function that will automatically reduce the pixel dimension to 800 x 600 pixels / 180 resolution or (approx. 1.37MB) of image uploaded by user from digital camera, for example, 2271 x 1704 pixels /180 resolution or approx. 11.1MB. After the user selected the image, the function will able to detect if pixels is above 800x600, process the photo (crop/ reduce) and resume upload. Need help...  
      • Dark mode for Zoho Creator / Zoho CRM Code editor

        Hi Team, Is there any plans for Dark mode in Zoho creator / Zoho Crm code editor and development pages in pipeline?
      • Is there a way to make a button scroll down?

        Looking to have a button on a landing page scroll down to another section on the page. Any recomendations outside of coding?
      • Collective-booking event not added to all staff calendars

        We assign two staff to certain events. When the client books this event, it adds it to one staff calendar (the 'organiser') but not the other. How can I ensure all staff assigned to a collective booking get the event in their calendar? (A side note: it
      • ZOHO Android Client

        Hi, I installed the Android app, but it had an issue, so I reinstalled it. I was able to add multiple accounts, but now when I add the next account, it just duplicates the one I already have and will not even allow me to enter the info for another account.
      • I'd like to suggest a feature enhancement for SalesIQ that would greatly improve the user experience across different channels.

        Hello Zoho Team, Current Limitation: When I enable the pre-chat form under Brands > Flow Controls to collect the visitor’s name and email, it gets applied globally across all channels, including WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. This doesn't quite align
      • Enhance Barcode/QR Code scanner with bulk scanning or continuously scanning

        Dear Zoho Creator, As we all know, after each scan, the scanning frame closes. Imagine having 100 items; we would need to tap 100 times and wait roughly 1 second each time for the scanning frame to reopen on mobile web. It's not just about wasting time;
      • Managing Rental Sales in Zoho Inventory

        I am aware that Zoho Inventory is not yet set up to handle rental sales and invoicing. Is anyone using it for rentals anyway? I'd like to hear about how others have found work arounds to manage inventory of rental equipment, rental payments, etc. Th
      • Megamenu

        Finally! Megamenu's are now available in Zoho-Sites, after waiting for it and requesting it for years! BUT ... why am I asked to upgrade in order to use a megamenu? First: Zoho promised to always provide premium versions and options for all included Zoho-applications
      • Zoho Flow to Creator 3001 Respoonse

        I have updated my Flows with the new V2 connection to Zoho Creator, but now some Flows do not work. They take in data from a Webhook and are supposed to create a record in Creator, however creator returns a 3001 message along with a failure, but I cannot
      • File Upload to Work Drive While Adding Records in Zoho Creator Application

        Hi I am trying to set a file attachment field in zoho creator form, to enable the user to upload a scanned document from their local pc. The file should be uploaded to zoho workdrive and not to the default zoho creator storage. The file link should be
      • Why not possible to generate?

        Using this https://desk.zoho.com/DeskAPIDocument#TicketCount#TicketCount_Getticketcountbyfield on my ZML script url :"https://desk.zoho.com/api/v1/ticketsCountByFieldValues?departmentId=XXXXXXXXXXX&accountId!=XXXXXXXXX&customField1=cf_country_1:XXXXXX&field=overDue"
      • email

        Hi My crm email is not working, can you check, I have zoho one account.
      • Need option to see Mass Emails & Cadences in Gmail Outbox OR a dedicated Zoho Outbox

        Hi everyone, Right now, when we send 1:1 emails from gmail (with gmail API connected to Zoho CRM), those emails appear both in gmail's sent folder and in Zoho CRM. That works well. But when we send Mass Emails or Cadence emails form Zoho CRM, they are
      • I can't found API for Sales Receipts

        Hello May you please help me to find an API document for Sales Receipts to get data and retrive a custom fields like Invoice and credit notes Regards
      • Kaizen #205 - Answering Your Questions | Managing Picklists and Enabling History Tracking via Zoho CRM APIs

        Hello everyone! Welcome back to another post in our Kaizen series. In this post, we will look at how you can manage picklist fields in Zoho CRM using APIs. This topic was raised as feedback to Kaizen #200, so we are taking it up here with more details.
      • Multiple Vendor SKUs

        One of the big concerns we have with ZOHO Inventory is lack of Vendor Skus like many other inventory software packages offer. Being able to have multiple vendor skus for the same product would be HUGE! It would populate the appropriate vendor Sku for
      • Internally created tickets

        Hi there When tickets are created internally on-behalf of customers - there is nothing to show that the ticket was created by an internal agent. This means, that it's easy for our agents to confuse tickets which were created by internal team members and
      • Next Page