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Best answer

Best Method for Troubleshooting Multiple Sub-Path Zap?

  • 13 November 2019
  • 11 replies
  • 787 views
PaulKortman
Userlevel 7
Badge +10

This may end up being a feature request. But let me explain.

Screenshot 2019-11-13 13.59.20.pngAs you see above I have a complicated Zap with what I thought was error handling as best I could with multiple sub-paths. You can also see that there are a lot of errors. Most of these are handled by the sub-paths but I have one that is truly failing. Here's an example of one that is catching the error correctly:

Screenshot 2019-11-13 14.01.02.pngIn the screenshot above step 22 failed, but the path "G" ran successfully reporting it to the right people I did not get a failed zap notification on the above task.

So essentially when I'm looking at the first screenshot it shows all these failures but doesn't tell me which step(s) had the failure and so I cannot tell the differences in the failures to be able to find patterns or to be able to know which I need to open/investigate and which were false-negatives and the error handling took care of it... Any idea what I can do here until Zapier adds another column to taks history showing with steps errored/didn't run?




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Best answer by jesse 15 November 2019, 15:25

View original
Need Additional help? Feel free to reach out here: https://zapier.com/experts/connex-digital/

11 replies

Malcolm Colman-Shearer
Userlevel 4

Wow. I'm interested in a solution to that too!


ChrisP
Userlevel 7
Badge

I have a similar situation for Stopped - Halted (as opposed to Stopped- Errored).

I have a zap that looks up a row in a sheet and, by design, sometimes doesnt find a row in which case I dont expect the zap to continue. But with the current system I get flooded with Stopped Halted notifications.

I use Zapier manager to notify me of all Stopped zaps. Eventually I put a filter into Zapier Manager to only proceed if the Stopped Zap WASNT the problematic one (I ID'd this zap by URL). However this leaves me with the issue that if this zap is halted for another reason, other than row-not found, I will never know.

We definitely need more granular error notifications.





Danvers
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

That's a good idea @ChrisP!

I can definitely understand the frustration with this one, @Paul, and I know that it's something that has come up for other users too. I've passed on your feedback to let the team know how it's affecting you with this use case, thanks for sharing it with us.


ChrisP
Userlevel 7
Badge

@Danvers Probably the easiest way to handle halted issues is to introduce a "post-filter" in addition to a pre-filter. In the post filter one could simply say only proceed if row search result = "found".

However the ultimate solution would be to have more granular info in the Zapier Manager data like an ID of which Step/Path failed. This would sort both @PaulKortman issue and mine, and any future permutations.


jesse
Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Hey @ChrisP just stepping in here and great points. For your first suggestion, I actually find myself in similar situations and have added a filter step after with the exact logic you mentioned. Usually it's "If Row ID > Exists". Would that be a good interim solution?

As for the Zapier Manager improvements, it looks like we've had a few other folks suggest adding the step ID to the "Halted Task" trigger, so I've gone ahead and added your vote for that as well. :)


ChrisP
Userlevel 7
Badge

Thanks @jesse I'm pretty sure that the halting occurs at the time that the row is not found. So it can't get to the next filter step?


PaulKortman
Userlevel 7
Badge +10

I want so many more things in Zap manager, and I wish that Zapier would produce an API, Just today I exported a zap, tweaked the JSON and reimported it to essentially function as a copy-paste and moving steps around without having to re-create everything.

However, It seems to me that a more simple quick fix, would be to add a column to task history view spelling out the step that errored, and perhaps the first 20 characters of the error (or a hover:tool-tip with the whole error message)

This wouldn't involve tweaking Zapier Manager or doing the impossible of having an API, but would simply change the display of the task history to include more data so we can see which task failed for which step/reason.


That being said, if Zapier would provide more granular error reporting and reporting control it would be awesome, GUI, Zapier Manager, or API... I care not, just give me a way to be able to troublshoot easier.


Oh and better access to the log files that support has access to, I'd dare say that over 50% of my support requests are essentially asking what the log files give for the error message from a webhook etc.


Need Additional help? Feel free to reach out here: https://zapier.com/experts/connex-digital/
Danvers
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

@PaulKortman, interesting - I like your idea of adding more information to the task history page. I wonder if it might get a bit crowded though, it can be hard to balance a clean user interface and getting the right amount of information across.

I completely understand why you'd like more information on that page though, and have passed on your feedback :)


ChrisP
Userlevel 7
Badge

@Danvers Task History page - Toggle: Short version | Long Version


PaulKortman
Userlevel 7
Badge +10

What @ChrisP said!!! ^^^^^


Need Additional help? Feel free to reach out here: https://zapier.com/experts/connex-digital/
W
Userlevel 1

To create this workflow you may want to add a step to add the photograph and then use a custom fee at the create publish step, the use of the ID from the add step.

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