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

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


Hello Again!
Welcome to an Automation Adventure in the World of Zoho Desk
Join us on a journey to explore how custom functions can enhance and extend the capabilities of Zoho Desk.
Automation is everywhere. From robotic arms assembling products on factory floors to automating tasks in the software world, automation has revolutionized how we work out stuff. But what does this have to do with Zoho Desk? 
Anline, a curious resident in the Zoho Desk world, is exploring how automation can transform her workflow.

Anline’s Quest in the Zoho Desk World  

Anline is building her own world within Zoho Desk, but she’s hit a few roadblocks. She wants to perform specific operations; like updating ticket statuses, fetching data from external services, and automate repetitive tasks. She knows Zoho Desk has the tools she needs, but where does she start?
DeskAutomate Services is here as a guide to the Automation City. The citizens of Zoho Desk World operate based on their licenses. Each license unlocks different levels of automation capabilities.
Anline has the Enterprise edition, which grants her the access to the most powerful tools: Custom Functions. How can this empower Anline?

The Power of Custom Functions  

Custom Functions are like magic spells in the Zoho Desk world. They give users flexibility to tailor automation to their exact needs. While basic automation features are available to all license holders, Custom Functions are exclusive to Enterprise users. These functions let Anline go beyond the basics and create automations that meet her unique requirements. What makes them even more accessible is Deluge, Zoho’s in-house scripting language.
But there’s a catch: Anline isn’t a coding expert in Deluge. How can she harness the power of Custom Functions without getting lost in complex scripts? DeskAutomate guides Anline to the prebuilt functions and a user-friendly framework, simplifying the coding process.
Whether you’re new to coding or an experienced developer, Deluge simplifies the process of creating Custom Functions with its intuitive interface and drag-and-drop functionality.

The Deluge Script Editor: Your Coding Playground  

To access the Custom Function window, go to Setup (S) >> Developer Space >> Functions >> New Function.
When you open the Custom Function window in Zoho Desk, you’ll find a user-friendly interface designed to help you build scripts using drag-and-drop options. Here’s what you’ll discover: Each section has predefined variables which you can drag and use based on your requirements.
1. Basic Commands
The Basic section includes essential commands like setting variables, adding comments, and inserting informational text into your script. These foundational elements help you structure your Custom Function logically.
          Example: businessDaysCount = 5; //<variable> = <expression>;
2. Conditional Logic
The Condition section allows you to add conditional operators such as if, else if, and else. These operators let you program decision-making logic into your Custom Function.
Example:
  1. if (TicketStatus == "Open")
  2. {
  3.     info "This ticket is still open.";
  4. }
3. Notifications
The notifications section lets you enter values to send emails or post messages via Cliq.
Example:
  1. sendmail
  2. [
  3. from : zoho.userid
  4. to   : support@zylker.com
  5. subject : "Ticket is created"
  6. message : "Thank you for your enquiry. A ticket has been created and our experts will respond to you."
  7. ]; 
4. Integrations
Zoho Desk makes coding easy for integrations. With drag-and-drop options, you can create webhook integrations and API calls without writing complex code from scratch. The Custom Function window provides all the necessary code snippets, so you can customize them to fit your requirements.
Example: contactRecord = zoho.crm.getRecordbyId("Contacts",9876787);
5. Collections
The Collections feature lets you gather and manage strings of data or specific information within your Custom Function. This is particularly useful when you need to process or analyze multiple data points.
Example:
  1. myList = Collect();
  2. myList.insert("ID1");
  3. myList.insert("ID2");
  4. myList.insert("ID3");
  5. for each ID in myList
  6. {
  7.    info ID;
  8. }
You can also enable the Syntax Builder within your Coding playground. Enabling this option will help you choose variables from the drop-down windows having prebuilt variables/Fields.

Mapping Parameters and Testing Your Script  

Once you’ve built your Custom Function, the next step is to map it to your Zoho Desk environment:
1. Edit Arguments
The Edit Arguments option lets you map params within your Custom Function to fields in your tickets. For example, you can link the Ticket ID, Ticket Owner, or Case ID to the corresponding fields in your Zoho Desk setup. This ensures that your Custom Function interacts seamlessly with your data.
2. Authentication and Connections
Zoho Desk uses OAuth tokens to establish secure connections for Custom Functions. Commonly, this involves using Zoho OAuth to make API calls within Zoho's scope. You can choose the appropriate scopes during authorization to ensure your Custom Function has access to the necessary data and functionalities.
Note: If you choose third-party applications, please create a connection using the required default or custom services.
3. Save and Test
After saving your script, use Save & Execute Script to test it with sample inputs. This lets you test the function, ensuring functionality, debug, and refine your code before deployment.
In the upcoming episodes, we'll dive into how Custom Functions work and contribute to expanding the capabilities within Zoho Desk.
See you in the next episode,
Regards,
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

    • Syncing Zoho Forms with Bigin - Embedding issue?

      Hello everyone, I created a Zoho Form for a page on my GoDaddy website to collect leads, which then transfers the data to Bigin. However, I'm facing an issue where it doesn't seem to work properly. I've integrated Zoho Forms with Bigin and tried embedding

    • Can not add fields to a Section

      I feel like I'm missing something obvious: I can add new Sections to my form but I can not add fields to the Sections. I've tried fields already on the form as well as dragging and dropping new fields into the Section but nothing will go into it. What

    • Record Logged in User while using CRM lookup field

      Is it possible, while using the Zoho CRM lookup field, to automatically use the user account logged into Zoho CRM in a hidden field? I was hoping to add employee accounts to my current plan. But would like a record on the Form submission of who submitted

    • Form Rules for Suburb Categories to alternate landing pages or Making a Fields Contents ALL CAPS

      I need to send differentform submissions to two to three different thank-you URLs (for Meta/Google pixels) depending on which suburb a user selects in a form. I have ~400 suburbs split into two categories (A and B, based on business value). Current challenges:

    • Collaps Notes

      There are times when long/large notes are added to a record i.e. Accounts or Deals etc. Currently, the full note is displayed in the notes related list section. It would be great if by default only 5 to 10 rows of the note are displayed when the note

    • Zoho Down

      I have a drop in my Zoho One services.

    • Runing RPA Agents on Headless Windows 11 Machines

      Has anyone tried this? Anything to be aware of regarding screen resolution?

    • Problem for EU users connecting Zoho CRM through Google Ads for Enhanced conversions

      Has anyone else experienced this problem when trying to connect Zoho CRM through Google Ads interface to setup enhanced conversions? Did you guys get it fixed somehow? The Problem: The current Google Ads integration is hardcoded to use Zoho's US authentication

    • Why am I getting event Pop-up Notification for events that have been cancelled?

      Why is Calendar Notification still popping up for events that have been cancelled or changed? Each time events are cancelled or changed, I have observed that I am still getting notifications for them. Below is a sample pop-up notification for one of the

    • 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.

    • India Tech Support

      Is there no phone tech support number for India? And no chat facility either?

    • Billing Management: #1 Billing a Universal Business Routine

      Hello, As the saying goes, "Do the hardest job first." We started with the complex subject of finance and revenue management, which is considered the backbone of any business. Now, let's shift our focus and take a deep dive into this Billing Management,

    • What is a a valid JavaScript Domain URI when creating a client-based application using the Zoho API console?

      No idea what this is. Can't see what it is explained anywhere.

    • 5名限定 課題解決型ワークショップイベント Zoho ワークアウト開催のお知らせ (9/25)

      ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。Zoho ユーザーコミュニティチームの藤澤です。 9月開催のZoho ワークアウトについてお知らせします。 今回はZoomにて、オンライン開催します。 諸事情につき、今月の開催回は中止となりました。 次回は10/31（金）14時からの開催を予定しています。 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Zoho ワークアウトとは？ Zoho ユーザー同士で交流しながら、サービスに関する疑問や不明点の解消を目的とした「Zoho ワークアウト」を開催します。 Zoho

    • Workdrive 5.0 / API Documentation Workflows

      Hi Zoho, When will the API documentation of the workflows be published? We are interested in using it to trigger manual workflows from an external application. Greetings, Justin

    • How many ZOHO-Sites does the ZOHO-One Suite allow for?

      The free version of ZOHO-Sites allows for two sites, but it seems that the professional version (which is included in the ZOHO-One Suite) only allows for two websites. Is that correct? How many sites can I have within one ZOHO-One account?

    • Webhook from Zobot to Zoho Flow fails

      I'm trying to connect from zobot to zoho flow. When testing in zflow, I am receiving all entered data from the connector correctly. The SalesIQ connector's "outputreaction" is {} (is this normal or is there a problem?). But as soon as I try my chat bot

    • Transition from Sole Proprietorship to GmbH (Limited Liability Company) – Best Approach in Zoho Books / Zoho One

      Hello everyone, I am currently operating under a Zoho One plan with a sole proprietorship in Switzerland. As of January 1st, 2026, I will be incorporating a new legal entity – a GmbH (Swiss equivalent of a Limited Liability Company). While the business

    • Issue Connecting My Domain to Zoho Sites Despite Purchasing It from Zoho

      Hello, I am facing an issue connecting my domain to my website on Zoho Sites. Details of the issue: I purchased the domain directly from Zoho. I am already using the same domain successfully with Zoho Mail. However, when I try to assign this domain to

    • Insert auto number from main form into subform rows

      Hello. I'm trying to take from my main form "order number" which i have setup as an auto generated number into every line created in my subform. So when a row is created in my subform i want the "order number " from the main form to be inserted automatically.

    • Dark Mode - Font Colors Don't Work

      When editing a document in Dark Mode and selecting font colors, they don't show up on screen.  Viewing/editing the same document in Light Mode shows them just fine.

    • Integrate Bunq with ZOHO Bookes

      We are new users of ZOHO Books, and our bank (BUNQ, in the Netherlands) isn't listed on the bank integrations. Is there a way to handle this?

    • Access Denied

      I am iOS Developer and updating our clients project and shifted ZohoDeskPortalCore SDKs from cocoapods to SPM and changed few lines of code but now i am get access denied, the help center app is unavailable. please contact administrator.

    • Using Zoho Desk to support ISMS process

      Hi, I am evaluating using Zoho Desk for security incident management. This seems to be aligned with Zoho Desk purpose as its just another type of incident. However in security incident management, ideally I can link incidents (tickets) with a risk from

    • TaxJar vs Avalara

      Hi, I'm evaluating adoption of a sales-tax service for US based business. Anyone else have experience with TaxJar and Zoho Books? I am a Zoho One subscriber so anticipate needing to use Flow to make this work. It seems like Avalara are simply too expensive

    • How to check Leads with no Task (open activity)

      Hi everyone, I was wondering if there’s a way to view leads that don’t have any tasks assigned or open activities linked to them.

    • What can we do on our end to improve the Answer bot answers?

      Hi, I'm using the Answer bot card in the Codeless bot builder. I've input several questions and their answers in the FAQ section to feed the Answer bot. The text is all in French, as this is the language our customers communicate in. I've tried testing

    • How to upload file to Connect using API?

      Hi there. I looked at the API documentation and nowhere did it mention how to use the API method to upload a file even though it is mentioned that it is possible to be done so. Please help.

    • Group Tax in Service Line Items

      Hi FSM Team! I noticed that when you update a tax in the service line item the group tax is not showing up as an option. Let me know what can be done thank you!

    • OAUTH_SCOPE_MISMATCH Error for Marketing Automation APIs with CRM Plus Account

      I'm trying to integrate Marketing Automation journey triggering via API but getting OAUTH_SCOPE_MISMATCH errors. I need clarification on API access for CRM Plus users.

    • Function #4: Schedule Customer Statements

      Regularly sending statements to customers is an imperative part of many business processes as it helps foster strong customer relationships and provides timely guidance on payments. While you can generate the statement of accounts and have it sent over

    • Limiting search or dependencies with an asterisk "*".

      I have a form with several dependency fields with options still developing for each field. Since these options were developing and not yet ready to be a selection in the field, I placed a filter for the dropdown field. In this filter, I selected fields

    • Cross Data Center Support for 1:1 Chats with External Users

      Hello Zoho Cliq Team, We hope you're doing well. We appreciate the recent enhancement that enables cross data center collaboration in external channels, which has already improved communication across distributed teams. However, we’ve noticed that this

    • Handling Greetings/Small Talk at the Beginning of a Zobot Conversation

      Hello everyone, I’m currently configuring a **Zobot** in Zoho SalesIQ and everything is working as expected, except for one specific scenario at the very beginning of the conversation. My target audience has the habit of starting with a **greeting or

    • Regex in Zoho Mail custom filters is not supported - but it works!

      I recently asked Zoho for help using regex in Zoho Mail custom filters and was told it was NOT supported. This was surprising (and frustrating) as regex in Zoho Mail certainly works, although it does have some quirks* To encourage others, here are 3 regex

    • Importing a new list into campaigns

      I'm in the middle of switching my email platform to campaigns. I have a list that I want to import, and it overlaps with my existing Zoho CRM list. The fields in my Zoho CTM are more robust. Will this new list that I upload into my campaigns overwrite

    • when I email a invoice how can i see it was sent and also were i can go to see all emails sent

      when I email a invoice how can i see it was sent and also were i can go to see all emails sent?

    • How can I see content of system generated mails from zBooks?

      System generated mails for offers or invices appear in the mail tab of the designated customer. How can I view the content? It also doesn't appear in zMail sent folder.

    • CRM Blueprint Notification by Cliq

      Dear Zoho team, In Workflow, there is nofication by cliq, but in blueprint, there is no option as cliq notification. I think it is very convenient to get notified by Cliq , as there are multi modules in apps, but we will always check Cliqs

    • Sync Contacts in iOS

      What does the "Sync Contacts" feature in the iOS Zoho Mail app do?

    • Next Page