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

      • Find and Merge Duplicates to trigger webhook

        My sales team uses the Find and Merge Duplicates feature often to cleanup records in the CRM. We use webhooks to signal to our internal tools database when new Contacts are created, updated, or deleted, in order to keep our DB in sync with Zoho CRM. However,

      • Introducing WhatsApp integration and quick editing capabilities in Zoho Sign

        Hi there, Zoho Sign already helps users collect signatures via email and SMS, and we're happy to announce that you can now send documents and authenticate recipients right through WhatsApp. Some of the key benefits include: Communication with recipients

      • Dynamic Field Folders in OneDrive

        Hi, With the 2 options today we have either a Dynamic Parent Folder and lots of attachments all in that one folder with only the ability to set the file name (Which is also not incremented so if I upload 5 photos to one field they are all named the same

      • Logging Out of FSM

        I have tried to log out of FSM app of the last person and it will not let me do so. I need to log in to my account.

      • Manage Every Customer Conversation from Every Channel inside Zoho SalesIQ

        Your customers message you from everywhere. But are you really able to track, manage, and follow through on every conversation, without missing anything? With interactions coming in from websites, mobile apps, and messaging platforms like WhatsApp and

      • Super Admin Logging in as another User

        How can a Super Admin login as another user. For example, I have a sales rep that is having issues with their Accounts and I want to view their Zoho Account with out having to do a GTM and sharing screens. Moderation Update (8th Aug 2025): We are working

      • Enhancement in Zoho CRM: Control who gets to participate in a forecast by customizing the user hierarchy

        Include only users from the sales function; exclude the rest Dear Customers, We hope you're well! We started this year with a series of exciting enhancements to Zoho CRM and to this list, we are thrilled to add an enhancement to forecasting. Let's talk

      • Multiple Zoho One accounts

        Hello. I'm searching for a solution to run multiple organizations under 1 Zoho One account or have a different Zoho One account for each organization and still be able to easily login to each. Currently Zoho One doesn't allow the same email address to

      • Tips and tricks #63: Hold and Drag to select elements in the Show app for iOS

        Hello everyone! Welcome to another tips and tricks article. In today's article, we will learn about the Hold and Drag function in the Show app for iOS. The Hold and Drag option lets you select multiple elements on a slide quickly. Once they are selected,

      • Organize and manage PDFs with Zoho PDF Editor's dashboard

        Hello users, Zoho PDF Editor's dashboard is a one-stop place to upload, sort, share PDF files, and more. This article will explore the various capabilities that Zoho PDF Editor's dashboard offers. A few highlights of Zoho PDF Editor's dashboard: Upload

      • Possible to generate/download Quote PDF using REST API?

        See title. Is there any way after a quote has been created to export to a PDF using a specified template and then download it? Seems like something that should be doable. Is this not supported in the API v2.0?

      • Free Webinar - AI for email: Helpful or Hype?

        Hello, Zoho Mail community! 👋 We're kicking things off with a webinar you won't want to miss—and yes, we're going there: Is AI in email actually useful, or is it all hype? In this session, two of our experts will have an open, no-fluff conversation about

      • Balancing access, security, and productivity with Email Policy

        An organization typically includes multiple user groups, such as leadership, sales, and support, each with different email usage patterns and security needs. Administrators must balance flexibility and control, thereby ensuring email usage aligns with

      • Is it possible to update multiple work items at once?

        Hi, Is it possible to update the statuses/release tags of multiple work items at once? I came across this thread that says it's not possible at the moment, but it was related to the Sprints mobile app. Does this feature not exist in the website as well?

      • See Every IM Conversation as It Happens

        Instant messaging moves fast. Customers expect quick replies and smooth conversations across WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and live chat. But without real-time visibility, small issues become big problems. A session stays open longer than expected. A

      • Release Notes | January 2026

        We have rolled out a set of powerful new enhancements across Zoho Vertical Studio that bring several long-awaited capabilities to your applications. These updates focus on deeper customization, smarter automation, better reporting, and improved usability

      • Product Request: Send email to Secondary email

        Guys, we should be able to send the campaign to the secondary email too.  Is this on the plans for Zoho Campaign? It looks like I can map the secondary email from the CRM to the Campaigs, but can not send the message.  

      • Franchise

        Is there a solution of how to organize global franchise organisations?

      • Recording overpayment?

        So a customer just overpaid me and how do I record this? I can't enter an amount that is higher than the invoice amount. Eg. Invoice is $195 and he sent $200. He's a reccuring customer so is there a way to record so that he has a $5 advance for future invoice?

      • Holidays

        Hi; For defining Holidays, you need to add logic to handle the year as well as the month & day. We need to be able to enter Holidays for the next year. I need to add a holiday for January 2, 2017, but I can't until January 1st, which is a Sunday and we

      • Composite Product (kit) - Dynamic Pricing

        I am setting up Composite Products for item kits that I sell. I also sell the items from the kit individually. Problem is when pricing changes on an individual part, the Composite Product price does not change meaning when the cost of item # 2 in the

      • Urgent: Slow Loading Issue on Zoho Commerce Website

        Dear Zoho Support Team, I am experiencing slow loading times on my Zoho Commerce website, which is affecting its performance and user experience. The issue persists across different devices and networks. Could you please investigate this matter and provide

      • Need help with importing expenses

        I'm using the template downloaded from the application. When I try to import my expenses, I get the message: Duplicate entry in the Expense Date column. Ensure it contains unique values. None of the rows will import. There are duplicate dates, but they

      • Search not working!

        I have items in my notebook tagged but when I search for a tag nothing comes up! Any fix for this?

      • ERROR CODE :550 - 550 5.1.1 Invalid email recipients

        This message was created automatically by mail delivery software. A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its recipients. This is a permanent error. mustafa.ashraf@techlink-eg.net, ERROR CODE :550 - 550 5.1.1 Invalid email recipients

      • What's New in Zoho POS - February 2026

        Hello everyone, Welcome to Zoho POS’s monthly updates, where we share our latest feature updates, enhancements, events, and more. Let’s take a look at how February went. Purchase and sell items on different units We have introduced a unit conversion functionality

      • Can i integrate bigin with google voice?

         I make all my calling through google voice to seprate my personal line from business. I want to log my calls with customers automatically but i domt see anywhere where i can do that. Any help? Im pretty sure i wont be able to. Sad

      • POP/SMTP access authentication failed

        I am unable to log setup outlook for my zoho mail account. I am using these settings poppro.zoho.com port 995 SSL smtp.zoho.com port 587(tls)/465(ssl) username/password works on mail.zoho.com but not with POP access. Can you help?

      • Our Review Of Zoho CRM after 60 Days

        The purpose of this is to just share with Zoho why I love their product, but ultimately why I could not choose Zoho CRM for our next CRM. About two months ago we begun a CRM exploration process for our financial planning firm, based in Texas. We already

      • Error AS101 when adding new email alias

        Hi, I am trying to add apple@(mydomain).com The error AS101 is shown while I try to add the alias.

      • This domain is not allowed to add. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details

        I am trying to setup the free version of Zoho Mail. When I tried to add my domain, theselfreunion.com I got the error message that is the subject of this Topic. I've read your other community forum topics, and this is NOT a free domain. So what is the

      • Allow Admin to Configure Report > More Options Button

        As an Admin, I want to configure the options of the Report > More Options button to improve UX and reduce Developer overhead. See attached screenshot. Original question posted here: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/modify-standard-rep

      • Generate a link for Zoho Sign we can copy and use in a separate email

        Please consider adding functionality that would all a user to copy a reminder link so that we can include it in a personalized email instead of sending a Zoho reminder. Or, allow us to customize the reminder email. Use Case: We have clients we need to

      • You cannot send this campaign as there is no contact in the selected mailing list.

        We have synced contact lists and sent campaigns just fine prior to today.  Now no matter what list I upload when I go to send the campaign it gives an error "You cannot send this campaign as there is no contact in the selected mailing list." And now it

      • Pivot Report Formula - using a today() variable

        Is it possible for me to use a value of today() in a formula on a pivot table? I'm trying to identify where the end date of a project is greater than the current date if("10. Projects (Zoho Projects).End Date" > today(), 'Yes', 'No') I get the error that

      • Cannot connect IMAP to outlook

        Hello I have followed the instructions to connect my zoho account to Outlook IMAP but get this message: Session Id: bba118fb-151c-824f-9512-3ad1e91b109d Timestamp: 1708976566964 Error code: INVALIDCREDENTIALS INTERACTIONREQUIRED I'm using the exact configeration

      • Department Overview by Modified Time

        We are trying to create visuals to show the work our agents do in Zoho Desk. Using Zoho Analytics how can we create a Department Overview per modified time and not ticket created time? In order for us to get an accurate view of the work our agents are

      • Enhance Sign CRM integration

        Hello all, I'm working on a custom Deluge script to enhance the integration between Zoho CRM and Sign by using a writer merge template for additional flexibility. I want to replicate the post-sign document integration that exists between CRM and Sign

      • Zoho Workdrive download was block by security software

        Hi Team, Recently workdrive download was blocked by huorong security. Could you please advise how to put zoho workdrive as white list? every time we put "*.zohoexternal.com" or "workdrive.zohoexternal.com", the warning msg will still pop in next dow

      • Choosing a portal option and the "Unified customer portal"?

        I am trialling Zoho to replace various existing systems, one of which is a customer portal. Our portal allows clients to add and edit bookings, complete forms, manage their subscriptions and edit some CRM info. I am trying to understand how I might best

      • Next Page