Question

Send large amounts of data in large batches hourly


Userlevel 1

I would like a log of calls calls to be automatically uploaded to a google sheet by catching a raw hook from the provider. Is there a way that it could collect all the responses over the course of an hour, and upload them all at once in a single action every hour? The goal is to avoid it using up thousands of tasks a day, since it really doesn’t need to be updated live.


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13 replies

Userlevel 7
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Hi @R.Tripi 

Good question.

You can try using Digest: https://zapier.com/apps/digest/help

NOTE: There may be limits with how many rows can be added at one time to the GSheet using the Add Row(s) action.

 

Userlevel 1

I see, is there any way to make it so that it outputs multiple columns? In my testing, it seems like it’ll just concat everything that’s put into the “Entry” field.

Userlevel 7
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@R.Tripi

A Code step can be used to handle each line to parse the data points.

Userlevel 1

@Troy Tessalone 

Do you have an example of what that might look like? I’m not very familiar with python.

Userlevel 7
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@R.Tripi 

Check out some of these Code Mode topics: https://community.zapier.com/search?q=code%20mode&tags%5B0%5D=Code%20by%20Zapier&tags%5B1%5D=Code%20Mode

Userlevel 1

@Troy Tessalone 

Hmm, none of those are quite what I’m looking for. To be more specific, what I need is to go from this (digest entry field):

To this (google sheets):

In other words, each row in the digest entry field to be arranged into its own column in google sheets. Is this possible?

Userlevel 7
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@R.Tripi 

Did you try this Zap action: GSheets - Add Row(s)

 

Userlevel 1

Yes, but that just puts everything into one cell. It needs to be reorganized so each thing is its own value

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@R.Tripi

You can try Formatter > Utilities > related to Line Items

Otherwise, probably need to use a Code step to handle.

 

Userlevel 1

@Troy Tessalone 

Ah I see, thank you. I also had a question about the way the digest collects info. For example, in the sheet below, where do the second, third, etc entries go? Are they put along side each other, or are they a separate entry entirely?

 

Userlevel 7
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@R.Tripi 

Think of a Digest as an array of line items.

When in doubt, test it out.

https://zapier.com/apps/digest/help

 

 

Userlevel 1

To update:

I was able to use “,” as a delimiter and format it into CSV using the formatting tool. However, upon testing, I discovered that the Digest tool uses a task every time it appends a new piece of data, as you can see below

I’m dealing with potentially thousands of new pieces of data every day, and we currently don’t have the budget to use a task for each of those pieces of data. It also doesn’t need to be live updated, which is where I thought digest would fix it. For an example of what I could use: Over the course of an hour, a webhook receives new call entries from a telecommunication provider. At the end of the hour, it uploads all of the calls onto a google sheet using the “Create Spreadsheet Row(s) in Google Sheets” action. Ideally, this would only use 2 tasks, one to create the rows and one for the middle man I’m looking for. Is there any way to do this?

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@R.Tripi

If the webhook is receiving individual new call entries from the telecom provider, then each of those will have to be handled individually by the Zap.
 

Each successful Zap action step counts as a Task.

 

Data would have to come thru on the webhook in batches in order to more efficiently handle the data in the Zap.