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Question

Google Sheet values all fill when testing, but not in practice.

  • 29 September 2023
  • 5 replies
  • 28 views
P

Hi everybody!

 

I made a Zap to take details from specific emails received and import those details as data on a Google Sheet. When I test it, everything fills properly. When the Zap actually runs, however, it only fills out the first column and last two columns. The rest are blank.

I’m no expert, so my path is somewhat lengthy perhaps, but I haven’t yet found a faster way to make this all happen so maybe theres an issue in one of the steps? That being said, when I run the test, everything still looks A-Ok on Google Sheets. Every field has the proper details, formatting is exactly how I want it, but as soon as a trigger email comes in, half the data gets omitted. In the Zap Run report, it says the inputs were empty for those fields, even though the code says it’s not. 

I tried turning the Zap on and off, but no luck there.

Thanks in advance.

5 replies

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @partsexpress64 

Good question.

To help us have more context, please post screenshots of these:

  • Zap steps configuration
  • Zap Runs DATA IN/OUT
⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
P

Since yesterday, I found a couple of spots where I can shorten the process, so I got that fixed up. Beyond that, I also found a couple of spots where it wasn’t pulling from the right email, which was quickly fixed by testing each step individually for it to sync up the path.

 

Here’s the layout for the sheet. I’ve redacted the results for privacy, but they all show the output I’m looking for. Below that is the sheet as it turns out when I test it, and the last image is what comes out when it runs.

Here is the output when it actually runs. I receive the last column of information but not the first. 

As far as the test version goes, everything is filled in.

 

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@partsexpress64 

We would need to see screenshots with how your Zap steps are configured to have full context.

 

NOTES:

  • You can likely use 1 Code step to replace multiple Formatter steps.
  • You might also be able to use AI to extract structured data and/or format data.
⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
P

Are the screenshots in my previous post not visible? The path I have is too long to post in a picture, as it is about 20 zaps. It takes my email, puts it in html format, takes out the whitespace that Google makes (Outlook made it much smoother but then it never actually worked, so I used Gmail after looking through some of these other forums), and then finds the data for each cell in my Google sheet.

They are as follows: Location, Point of Contact, Phone Number, Email, Address, LOI, RO, and Notes, 8 in total. The abbreviations I believe are irrelevant, but there are 8 fields in total. Again, they all fill in properly when I run the test, just not when an actual trigger occurs. Then, it is only partly filled in.

It may be of note that I have everything going to the sheet from the outputs of split text operations as I was unable to get the extract operations to work with the emails.

In step 22, it fills out the cells using the outputs from steps 4, 6, 9, 11, 13, 16, 19, and 21

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@partsexpress64

To optimize your Zap and avoid heavy Task usage from all the Formatter steps, you’ll want to explore proper email parsing using these options:

  1. Action: Mailparser - New Email Parsed
    1. You would configure the parsing rules in Mailparser
  2. Action: ChatGPT - Extract Structured Data
    1. Requires a billing payment method be connected to OpenAI
  3. Action: Code - Run JavaScript / Python
    1. Custom logic would be configured to parse the email contents
⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor

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