Best answer

How to add an article image url for Pintrest?

  • 19 January 2020
  • 10 replies
  • 523 views

Userlevel 1
Badge

Hi all,

I'm trying to connect my Pintrest account with an RSS feed, but I can't seem to figure out how to add the article image url.

Any suggestion?

Many thanks in advance,

Balazs


icon

Best answer by PaulKortman 20 January 2020, 15:58

View original

This post has been closed for comments. Please create a new post if you need help or have a question about this topic.

10 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +10

@BalazsKovacs - You mean you want new posts in Pinterest to go to RSS, or the other way around?


Userlevel 1
Badge

@AndrewJDavison_Luhhu - Hi! Other way around. I want an RSS feed to go to my Pinterest, but the built in RSS by Zapier app doesn't give me an option to an image url, which is mandatory. Pining the same image with different articles it's pointless. I hope this makes sense.


Userlevel 7
Badge +10

@BalazsKovacs -

It's not up to Zapier whether an image URL is included in the data it gets back when it triggers on a new RSS items - it's dependent on whether your RSS feed includes an image URL.

I'm assuming it probably does, but it might well be buried along with other data.

Could you give a sample of the data you get back when you pull in a test RSS item in the zap editor.


Userlevel 1
Badge

AndrewJDavison_Luhhu

See attached:

Screenshot 2020-01-19 at 18.45.15.pngScreenshot 2020-01-19 at 18.45.26.png


Userlevel 1
Badge

@AndrewJDavison_Luhhu


Userlevel 7
Badge +10

So, yes @BalazsKovacs, the issue here is not that Zapier isn't pulling through and image URL, it's just that RSS feed doesn't include one.

I've had this issue before with another client, so solve it we had to to use another API where Zapier sent it the article URL (which you do get from the RSS feed, and it sends back the image URL) - you'd achieve it via a webhook step in your zap.

This is the API we used:

https://aylien.com/text-api/article-extraction/


Userlevel 1
Badge

@AndrewJDavison_Luhhu Thank you! I'll try to make it work.


Userlevel 7
Badge +10

@BalazsKovacs There is another way to do this within Zapier, but it takes some HTML and a couple of Zap steps.

Basically if the image is in the RSS feed it would be linked to in the Raw Encoded variable. You'd need to find it (I recommend adding a step for Sheets by Google and creating a new row in a spreadsheet with the Raw Encoded as the contents of the row. -- this will allow you to see the full HTML of the Raw Encoded)

Typically you'll find the image like this: if you can find that HTML which starts with <img has the URL of the image and has a class or an id that is unique (or is inside a <div> or a <span> with a unique class or id then you can capture the URL of the image to be used in pinterest etc.

There's multiple steps within formatter that you can use to make this happen. It all depends on the HTML and what you can split on/key off from etc. If the HTML of the <img> tag for pinterest were similar to the above here's the formatter steps I would use:

Formatter : Text : Split Text And choose the class="pinterest or whatever matches right in front of the src= where it's just the image you're wanting in the second value

Screenshot 2020-01-20 09.54.23.pngAnd you'll see that I grab the "Second" as the Segment Index. I want everything in the Raw Encoded after my "Separator" This produces:

Screenshot 2020-01-20 09.54.35.pngFormatter : Text : Extract URL Use the output from the previous step and it will grab only the URL of the Image for Pinterest.

Screenshot 2020-01-20 09.56.28.pngYou now have the URL of the pinterest image (depending on what you split the Raw Encoded on) and you can use it in other steps.

Screenshot 2020-01-20 09.57.02.pngHopefully that is clear enough to follow.



Userlevel 1
Badge

Many thanks @PaulKortman!


Userlevel 1
Badge

@PaulKortman Hi! I really appreciate the detailed explanation, however, I'm having trouble decoding it into my needs. Would it be possible to explain to me in detail using this example?

Modern House – HomeAdore Please let me know. I really appreciate your time.