How can I automate a workflow for organizing online video resources?

Hi ​@jennystudenroth 

TIP: Try asking AI (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) for help determining the feasibility and outlining the Zap steps.

Try these Zap steps:

1. Trigger: Google Forms - New Form Response
2. Action: Google Sheets - Create Spreadsheet Row
3. Action: Slack - Send Channel Message

If you are looking to hire help, there is a directory of Zapier Partners: https://zapier.com/partnerdirectory

hi ​@jennystudenroth 

Troy's three-step Zap is a good base. Here's how to cover the "organize by topic, source and date" part.

Base Zap: (1) Trigger: your form app's New Form Response, (2) Action: Google Sheets – Create Spreadsheet Row, (3) Action: Slack (or Gmail) – Send Message for the notification.

To organize the links:

• Topic and source: the simplest way is to ask for them in the form (a Topic dropdown and a Source field), then map each to its own sheet column. Zapier can't read a topic from a link by itself.
• Date: use the form's submission timestamp. Add a Formatter date step if you need a different format.
• Source from the link: if you'd rather not ask, a Formatter Split Text step can pull the domain out of the URL: Use Formatter to split text. It needs a paid plan.
• Topic automatically: an AI by Zapier step can classify from a title or description you collect in the form. It can't open the link itself, and publishing a Zap with this step needs a paid plan.
• Avoid duplicates (optional): add a Lookup Spreadsheet Row step before creating the row.

Good to know: set up your sheet's header row first and map each form field to a column (working with Google Sheets in Zaps). Test with a real submission. Each run uses tasks, so check your plan's limit.

Let us know which form app and plan you're using, and we can help refine it from there.

Thanks 

Use a form submission trigger, Google Sheets to store and categorize links, and Gmail or Slack to send notifications whenever a new video is added.

Troy and Gaurav nailed the basic setup.

One quick trick that saved me a ton of headache: add a Topic dropdown right in your form, plus a "Reviewed" checkbox column in the sheet. Makes it super easy to sort by topic and check links off as you go.

Also, run a test with one real link before you send the form to anyone. Trust me, it beats cleaning up a mess of broken rows later.

One thing to build in early: stop duplicates and messy links. Before the “Create Spreadsheet Row” step, add a Google Sheets lookup on the video URL and only create a row if nothing is found. Use a Formatter step first to trim the link and strip tracking parameters (everything after “?” for most sites), so the same video shared twice matches. 

For date and source, add columns filled by Zapier’s submission timestamp and a Formatter text step that extracts the domain, so you can filter by source later. For topic, either use a dropdown on the form (most reliable) or an AI step with a fixed list of allowed topics plus “other”.