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
    • Recent Topics

    • Filter Page Elements By Selectable Date Range

      I have created a basic Page that will serve as a client dashboard with elements that will provide simple counts & sums of data in reports. There are no reports or forms added to the page, just elements. It currently functions as needed, but shows the
    • Can’t Enter my Notebook is Locked

      I’ve been using Notebook for taking notes at my college for a month and I never signed in and I never established a password. Today I tried to enter the app after the update and it asked me for a password. I need to access to my notes urgently and I can’t
    • Send Email Directly to Channel

      Hi, We are coming from Slack. In Slack each channel has a unique Email address that you can send emails too. I currently forward a specific type of email from my Gmail InBox directly do this channel for Verification Codes so my team doesn't have to ask
    • Secure your external sharing process with OTP Authentication

      For any business, it's crucial to share files externally in a way that is both secure and controlled. Let's say you want to share confidential data with your partners and vendors. You must ensure that only your intended recipients can access the shared
    • Items attribute questions

      Many of my items have attributes, such as size and color. How can I add new fields to the "New Items" screen to capture that in my Purchase Orders, Items, and Sales Order pages? I only see these attribute fields when adding an Item Group. Also, on the
    • Is there a way to search mail for items you haven't yet responded to?

      I'm trying to create a search to show emails that haven't been responded to and that have also been assigned a tag or label. Is there a way to search for the inverse of replied?
    • Zobot and Sales IQ

      What will happen to the Zoho Sales IQ being integrated to the website after creating the Zobot on the website too
    • Subtotals per Header

      Hey, we would like to display subtotals per header in our invoices:
    • upgrade storage

      how to upgrade my storage
    • Linking items from books and subscription

      Linking books and subscription It is a pity that it is not possible to associate with a product an article present in ZohoBooks This would make it possible to manage products composed of a nomenclature of articles of books
    • Add the ability to view number of hours planned for a workorder while in the Dispatch Console

      Hi Zoho, When dispatching a work order through the Dispatch Console, there's currently no way to view the number of planned hours for the service tasks associated with that specific work order. Having to click into the details each time to check planned
    • Uploading Files from uploads api

      I tried uploading the image from the API call but its giving me unauthorized error even i have given valid token in header. After uploading i need that id to pass in create ticket api uploads but its not uploading that file. Please help me out in th
    • Categorize Items with Item Headers

      Hello customers, Did you ever want to classify items based on specific categories to help your customers understand your invoice better? With the new Item Header feature, you can easily categorize items in your invoices and estimates and give them a common title.  Item Headers are available in the Invoices, the Recurring Invoices and the Estimates module. It can be carried forward from estimates to invoices at the time of converting the estimates.  To add an item header: Go to the Estimates, Invoices
    • URLs being masked despite disabling tracking

      Hey, We had disabled click tracking from an email update we are sharing with our users. Despite this, the URL the end user is receiving is masked, and looks like "https://qksyl-cmpzourl.maillist-manage.net/click/1d8e72714515cda6/1d8e72714515ca70" instead
    • Change format of quantity format

      Hi,  I would like to change the qunatity format from 1,00 to 1.  Is this possible?   thanks!
    • square up and Zoho books

      Since we set up the app connection between square up and Zoho books we have realised that when the amounts are getting transferred Zoho is adding VAT again making the numbers 20% more than they should be. We have checked our settings and they VAT/ Tax
    • How to provide Access rights to specific Bank accounts

      We have several bank accounts. I want to provide certain members access to only 2-3 accounts. It appears that when I give permissions, they are for ALL bank accounts. How do I do that?
    • Errors Getting a Bank Transaction

      Using Postman(for testing), I am receiving errors when attempting to get a single bank transaction. I am able to receive the list of bank transactions with https://www.zohoapis.com/books/v3/banktransactions/?organization_id={org_id} but when I try to
    • Subscriptions Plans and CRM Products Integration?

      Is there any way to set up plans and pricing in Zoho Subscriptions and have those available as Products in the CRM? We are trying to set up the CRM and the Products seem to be more geared toward selling products that are not subscription based.  So if we sell annual or monthly contracts which are $10/seat/month, I can set this up as a plan in Subscriptions, but how can I set the same thing up in the CRM for the salespeople to sell/quote? What is the best practice for setting up the CRM Products to
    • Mapping Zoho Subscription Plans and Products to CRM and Books

      We have products that are one time products and subscription products.   1) We would like to have the ability to create an opportunity in CRM that includes both one-time charge products and subscription products.  Currently the only way of creating a subscription product is by defining a "Product->Plan" hierarchy in Zoho Subscription.  It appears that the only SYNC between Subscription and CRM is around contacts and the Product->Plan hierarchy doesn't sync to CRM, thus, you would need a duplicate
    • Zoho People Attendance Module - Split Shifts

      Hello, Our business employs a number of college students who often split their workdays between work hours and class schedules, resulting in split shifts. For example: Employee 1 works 9am to 11:30am and then leaves for class, returning to work at 3pm
    • Bulk update fields based on date

      Hi! I need all the quotes with "Quote Stage" set to "Next Year" to update to "Draft" every January 8 (every year). Can you help?
    • Target for a campaign

      Hi, Hope you can help me. I need to create a report (for a marketing campaign) that combines Deals and Contacts to export all the contacts with closed deals. I can easily do that, what I cannot do is to remove from the target the contacts that have more
    • Zoho Desk + Jira integration - Email notifications and comments posted by administrator instead of real user

      Dear All, I set up the integration under my admin account, and now when users leave comments in Jira (to created tickets in Zoho Desk), the email notifications show that the ‘Administrator’ left a comment, not a real user. The same happens in the ticket
    • Celebrating the power of visuals

      On World Photography Day, we would like to highlight the power of visuals in customer service. Visuals promote learning and understanding in less time. A photograph can rekindle a memory, convey more than words, and give a fresh perspective. How does
    • Customer address in Zoho Bookings

      Hello,  Is it possible to add customer address information to the Zoho bookings appointment screen? Or have it pull that information automatically from the CRM? We are wanting to use this as a field management software but it is difficult to pull the address from multiple sources when it would be ideal to have a clickable address on the appointment screen that opens up the user's maps.  It would also be advantageous for the "list view" to show appointment times instead of just duration and booking
    • Blocking / black listing customers

      Hi, We have a situation, we observed that certain customers are blocking multiple appointments with our advsiors but not showing up. Some of these are repeat offenders. This leads to those service hours getting blocked and not available for genuine customers.
    • Option to block bookings from specific email address or ip adresss in zoho booking

      Sometime few of our client keep booking irrelevant booking service just to resolve their queries and they keep booking it again and again whenever they have queries. Currently its disturbing our current communication process and hierarchy which we have
    • Feature Request: Email Templates for notifications accross all services

      Currently in Zoho Bookings, email notifications (such as booking confirmations, reminders, and cancellations) must be customized individually for each service. This becomes time-consuming and error-prone when managing multiple services that require consistent
    • Allow customers to choose meeting venue and meeting duration on booking page

      My business primarily involves one-to-one meetings with my clients. Given the hybrid-work world we now find ourselves in, these meetings can take several forms (which I think of as the meeting "venue"): In-person Zoom Phone call I currently handle these
    • Approval-based booking with Zoho Creator and Zoho Bookings

      Hi community members, We have developed a workaround for approval-based booking using Zoho Creator and Zoho Bookings! This provides a temporary solution as we work on the native feature, and it's useful for anyone needing an approval workflow when confirming
    • Member Accounts in Related List

      Hi Team, Currently, when a parent account is associated with an account in FSM, there is no related list displaying the associated member accounts under the parent account’s related list section. To view member accounts, I have to manually search using
    • how do i remove a specific Zoho Service from my account

      I no longer need Zoho CRM, ZRM Assist nor ZRM BugTracker. How do I remove them from the list of apps for my account?
    • I Want migarte all invoice details to zoho sheets

      I want to migrate all existing invoice details to Zoho Sheet, and automatically update the sheet whenever a new invoice is created.
    • were can i find my invoices i need this for my accountant

      were can i find my invoices i need this for my accountant, how can i get id direct to my email?
    • ONLY email field not populating Writer fillable document (randomly)

      I have a Zoho Writer fillable document that has pulled all my data from my Zoho Sheets file, EXCEPT the email column. It pulled every data before and after that column with no issues. Screenshots attached. It's not my first time using the app or the feature,
    • My number is marked as spam

      Hello Zoho Mail Support, My phone number was incorrectly flagged as “spam” during sign-up. This is my personal number, and I have not engaged in any spam activities. Kindly review and verify my account so I can proceed with my email setup. Thanks.
    • Personnalisation des paramètres dans Zoho Mail

      Pourquoi cela compte-t-il ? La personnalisation des paramètres dans Zoho Mail permet aux administrateurs de configurer l’environnement de messagerie en fonction des besoins spécifiques de leur organisation. Que ce soit pour alléger l’interface pour certaines
    • How To Save Data Into Zoho CRM Sandbox

      Hi Community, I want to save data into my zoho sandbox , for this I am using this api endpoint - https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v8/Patients but I am getting this error - { "success": false, "message": "Zoho API request failed", "error": { "code": "INVALID_MODULE",
    • Automate pushing Zoho CRM backups into Zoho WorkDrive

      Through our Zoho One subscription we have both Zoho CRM and Zoho WorkDrive. We have regular backups setup in Zoho CRM. Once the backup is created, we are notified. Since we want to keep these backups for more than 7 days, we manually download them. They
    • Next Page