General
Forms
Form Fields
Form Actions
Views
Deluge or Data Enriched Language for the Universal Grid Environment as we call it, is an online scripting language integrated with Zoho Creator. It enables users to add logic to the application, making it more powerful and robust.
With Zoho Creator, you don't have to write code to build a simple data collection and viewing application like a Contacts list. But, for building a full-fledged application, with complex logic, for example, Library Manager, Recruitment application, Inventory Management etc., we provide an inbuilt scripting language called Deluge.
Definitely not. Zoho Creator primarily addresses the needs of a large number of people who have a requirement for a web application but do not know to build it on their own. You just need to have a clear idea about the application you want to build and how you want it to be presented.
Yes, there is a limit on the number of statements that can be executed when a deluge action is invoked and also on the number of mails that can be sent per day. The usage limits for your account can be viewed by selecting the Account Settings -> Usage limit option.
No, the language keywords are not case insensitive but the form names and field names are case sensitive
You can save/backup your application as a .ds file.
To do this,
Form is the structure that contains the data. It can be referred to in two ways:
It is the name by which a form will be referred through out in the GUI mode and also while a user is accessing the application in Live Mode. The display name should be given within double quotes.
It is the actual name of the form. The label name of a form is unique within an application. Only the label name will be referred while scripting. A label name of a form should be alphanumeric and can contain underscore.
form add_employee
{
displayname = "Add Employee"
}
where,
add_employee - label name
"Add Employee" - display name
Renaming a form is a safe operation and would not affect the data in anyway.
Rename display name
Renaming the display name of a form is very straight forward. Just change the display name in the form definition and save the script as shown below.
form add_employee
{
displayname = "Add Employee" "Add New Employee"
}
Rename label name
The label name can be renamed by using the following syntax.
form add_employee as add_new_employee
{
displayname = "Add New Employee"
}
Just replacing add_employee as add_new_employee is equivalent to deleting the form add_employee and creating a new form add_new_employee.
If no data is present, a form can be deleted by just removing the form definition from the text area and saving the page. If data is present, Zoho Creator will issue an error message that it is not possible to delete the form since data is present. To delete the form in such cases, you have to explicitly use the delete keyword, as shown below,
delete form add_employee
or just add a delete keyword before the form definition, as shown below.
delete form add_employee
{
displayname = "display name of the form"
}
Note:
Form have display names and label names. You can have more than one form having the same display name in an application but the label name should be unique within an application.
The fields in a form define the individual properties of the specific kind of information. A form field is referred in two ways.
display name
It is the name by which a field will be referred through out in the GUI mode and also while a user is accessing the application in Live Mode. The display name should be given within double quotes.
label name
It is the actual name of the field. The label name of a field is unique within a form. Only the label name will be referred while scripting. A label name should be alphanumeric and can contain underscore.
Sample code:
form add_employee
{
displayname = "Add Employee"
Name
Age
(
displayname = "Enter Age"
type = number
)
Date_Of_Birth
(
displayname = "Date Of Birth"
type = date
)
Qualification
(
displayname = "Educational Qualification"
type = number
)
}
where,
Name, Age, Qualification- label names
"Enter Age:" , "Educational Qualification" - display names
Note:
A field name should be alphanumeric and can contain underscore.
Refer Form field - Types to learn about the lists all the field types supported by Zoho creator, its description and data type.
Renaming a field is a safe operation and would not affect the data in anyway.
Renaming display name
Renaming the display name of a field is very straight forward. Just change the display name in the field definition and save the script.
form add_employee
{
displayname = "Add Employee"
Name
Age
(
displayname = "Enter Age: " "Enter Employee Age: "
type = number
)
Date_Of_Birth
(
displayname = "Date Of Birth"
type = date
)
Qualification
(
displayname = "Enter Qualification" "Enter Educational Qualification"
type = number
)
}
Renaming label name
The label name can be renamed by using the following syntax.
form add_employee
{
displayname = "Add Employee"
Name as EmpName
Age as EmpAge
(
displayname = "Enter Age:"
type = number
)
Date_Of_Birth
(
displayname = "Date Of Birth"
type = date
)
Qualification as EmpQualification
(
displayname = "Educational Qualification"
type = number
)
}
When you delete a field, all the data corresponding to the field also gets deleted and it cannot be recovered. If no data is present, a field can be deleted by just removing the field definition from the text area and saving the script. If data is present, Zoho Creator will issue a error message that it is not possible to delete the field with the data present. To delete the field in such cases, you have to explicitly use the delete keyword.
form add_employee
{
displayname = "Add Employee"
Name
delete Age
Date_Of_Birth
(
displayname = "Date Of Birth"
type = date
)
Qualification
(
displayname = "Enter Educational Qualification"
type = number
)
}
or just add a delete keyword before the field definition and save the script
form add_employee
{
displayname = "Add Employee"
Name
delete Age
(
displayname = "Enter Employee Age: "
type = number
)
Date_Of_Birth
(
displayname = "Date Of Birth"
type = date
)
Qualification
(
displayname = "Enter Educational Qualification"
type = number
)
}
The script mode does not generate all the properties of a field. Only the properties modified by the user will be generated back and properties having the default values would not get generated. e.g. For a text filed, the maxchar property will not be generated if it has not been modified by the user.
Yes, you can create a hidden field by having the Hide this field to others box checked, as shown in the screen-shot below. Selecting this option will make this field accessible only to the author/owner of the application. To hide/show field based on a condition, refer the topic, Client side functions - Hide and Show for more information.
It is possible to do it in script mode using the Hide and Show deluge keywords. Refer the topic, Client side functions - Hide and Show for more information.
It is possible to do it in script mode by writing an on submit script for the form. The "on submit" script gets executed before the data is persisted. In the following code, the "on submit" script is written to find if there are rows that have the same name and data of birth and cancels the submit action if there are any rows matching the criteria.
Whenever a formula is modified, the formula filed value will be recalculated for all the rows. You will not be able to see the view until this recalculation is completed.
No, using one formula field in another formula is currently not supported.
Zoho Creator automatically stores the added time and modified time of each record submitted. Please refer FAQ - Views for more information. The Deluge date variable zoho.currenttime can also be used to record the current time. Here's how you can do it using the Deluge script:
Time_Stamp
(
type = formula
value = zoho.currenttime
)
In the UI mode, create a field with formula as it's type and just type zoho.currenttime as the value for the field in order to enable a timestamp.
You cannot import a picklist field from one form to another form. All other field types can be imported as a picklist in another form. For example, you can import a textfield in Form A as a picklist in Form B.
Yes, you can set a picklist to display only selected values. Refer Criteria in Import Picklist Data, for more information.
Yes, you can dynamically populate single picklist. Refer the topic, Add to picklist dynamically for more information.
Yes, you can do this by adding the following code in the on submit function. In the following code, if Amount is greater than 100 and if Address/City have no values, the entry will not be submitted.
on validate
{
if ((input.Amount > 100) && ((input.Address == "") || (input.City
== "")))
{
alert "enter Address/City";
cancel submit;
}
}
You can manipulate a date field by using the '+' (to add) and '-' (to subtract) operators or by using the Deluge built-in Date functions. Refer Date Calculations and formula for more information and examples.
The validate script performs validation on the form data and is executed when a form is submitted. The data gets persisted only if the validation does not get cancelled. Refer, Form Actions -> Validate for more information and example.
The on success script performs an action after the form data is persisted in the database. Refer, Form Actions -> On success for more information and example.
On User Input and On Update are field actions performed on a specific field. These script will be invoked only when a particular field value changes or is updated. Refer, Field Actions for more information and example.
Yes, you can conditionally fetch a collection of records and iterate over them. Consider the following simple use case. The CEO of a company wants to address all the new employees who have joined after certain date say, '10-jun-2006'. We have to mail all these new employees. Lets see how we can achieve this.
The form 'Employee' has the following fields: Name, Qualification, EmailID, TeamName, JoinDate
1) Fetch the data by applying filter.
emprecords = Employee [JoinDate > '10-Jul-2006'];
2) Now iterate over the records and send the mail. Here 'x' is the instance variable that will represent a single record in each iteration.
for each x in emprecords
{
sendmail
(
To : x.EmailID
From : "yourmail@yourdomain.com"
Subject : "Meeting"
Message : "You are requested to attend the meeting at 6:pm tomorrow"
)
}
You can directly plug in the <br> tag into a message and zoho creator will automatically introduce a line break. For example, when you use sendmail with the message text as shown in the code below,
on success
{
sendmail
(
To : "xxx@adventnet.com"
From : "support@zohocreator.com"
Subject : "Welcome"
Message : "Happy <br>development <br> with Zoho Creator / Deluge"
)
}
the message will be displayed like this:
Happy
development
with Zoho Creator / Deluge
For more tips on customizing email messages, refer the topic Tips & Tricks - Customizing Email Messages.
You can create a date field and set it with the current date, using the zoho.currentdate function inside on load action. The following deluge code will set the date field with the current date whenever the form is loaded.
form CurrentDate
{
date1
(
type = date
)
on load
{
set date1 = zoho.currentdate;
}
}
Yes. There are two Zoho creator constants that you can use in scripting,
- zoho.loginuser
- zoho.loginuserid
It refers to the username and emailid of the currently logged in user. It would be very useful in scripting. Refer Deluge Variables, for more information.
To find the sum of more than one numeric field, you can create a new field of type "formula" as shown in the following sample code. Here, Maths, English and Science are the fields whose sum has to be calculated. The sum value will be displayed in the TotalMarks field.
TotalMarks
(
type = formula
value = (Maths + English + Science)
Scheduling is currently not supported in Zoho Creator.
Variables are local to the "event section" in which they are defined/used. So if you define a variable (called TotalAmount) in the on Load section, you can also define it in the on User Input section of the Price Field of the Form ... and the values assigned in one section will not be available in the other(s).
Also, variables defined inside Functions are local to that instance of the Function only.
List View
In list view, the form data will get displayed as a table. The sample code given below creates a list view, where "View Employee" is the list name and "add_employee" is the form name. This will display all the records in the "add_employee" form in the form of a list.
list "View Employees"
{
add_employee
}
The double quote is not needed if the view name has no special characters other than underscore. A view name need not be unique within an application.
Calendar view
In calendar view, the data will be presented as a calendar. This view is supported only if there is a date column.
calendar "View Employees"
{
add_employee
}
Summary view
A summary view gives more information than a table/list view. But it is not possible to see any pattern in a summary view like in table view. This will display all the records in the "add_employee" form in the form of a summary.
summary "View Employees"
{
add_employee
}
To specify criteria to display only selected records in a view, refer the topic, Criteria/Filters in Views.
To rename the "View Employees" as "View All Employees", just replace the view name in the script and save the entire script.
calendar "View Employees" "View All Employees"
{
show all rows from add_employee
(
Name
Age
Date_Of_Birth
Qualification
)
}
The data remains unaffected if a view is deleted.
A view has only a display name and more than one view can have the same display name in an application.
