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  • How can I get a notification in Slack when a particular value appears in Google Sheets?
Best answer

How can I get a notification in Slack when a particular value appears in Google Sheets?

P

I am trying to make Zap every time when one
certain value appears in google sheets, to send a slack message. For example I have number
of devices and when that number falls below certain point, new value
in other cell changes, like this:

Number of devices: 50
Condition: Safe

and when number of devices falls below 50:
Number of devices: 45
Condition: Order Device 

and then we order devices so i update number of devices to 50 again
Number of devices: 50
Condition: Safe

and when we again fall below 50
Number of devices: 40
Condition: Order Device 

I want zapier to send every time when this happens (Odred Device)
slack message, but he only sent slack message the first time it
happened.

icon

Best answer by Danvers 26 May 2022, 13:04

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

5 replies

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @pinc 

Good question.

GSheets has limitations to be aware of that won’t work for our use case:

The "Updated Spreadsheet Row" trigger stopped triggering

If you're watching for changes to a column, we only see new values in that column.
If you update the column of an existing row to a value that Zapier previously saw in that column, in that row, we won't see the new value.
You will need to either choose a column that will only have unique values, or make a new one which will.

For example, if you had X in the Trigger column, then changed it to Y, the Zap would trigger.
If you then changed it back to X it would not trigger again, because the Zap has already seen X in that column.

 

You’d be better served by using Airtable instead of GSheets: https://zapier.com/apps/airtable/integrations#triggers-and-actions

⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
T
Userlevel 3
Badge +4

Hey @pinc! I just wanted to pop in here and see if you were able to find a solution to your issue or if you ended up switching to Airtable as Troy suggested? 🤔I am sure there are others in our community who wonder the same thing about updating the same piece of data in Google Sheets. Just thinking out loud here but I wonder if there is either a way to compare that data against a lookup table to identify when there is a change/update OR if there is a way to use filters to compare the data against itself and only pass through to sending a slack message if there is an update? Please check back if you end up trying these out, I’m curious to see if there is a solution here 🙂

P

Hey @pinc! I just wanted to pop in here and see if you were able to find a solution to your issue or if you ended up switching to Airtable as Troy suggested? 🤔I am sure there are others in our community who wonder the same thing about updating the same piece of data in Google Sheets. Just thinking out loud here but I wonder if there is either a way to compare that data against a lookup table to identify when there is a change/update OR if there is a way to use filters to compare the data against itself and only pass through to sending a slack message if there is an update? Please check back if you end up trying these out, I’m curious to see if there is a solution here 🙂

Hey @TamRazzleDazzle I tried this with comparing also, but the issue is the same, it will evaluate only the first time and when he compares and finds what i set up as condition it will stop doing it.

sardamit
Userlevel 1
Badge

Hey!

I think you can set up a separate tab in Google Sheets that you can monitor 24x7.

You can define the configuration for this tab to be based on QUERY() formula, with the right conditions.

Anytime the data changes, you have a list of understocked items always available in the tab.

Best,

Amit S.

 

Amit S.
Danvers
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Hi @pinc!

One way to work around this is to add an extra column to your Google Sheet that contains the date and time that a cell was last updated. You then set your Zap to trigger from the ‘last updated’ column and it will trigger any time a change is made. Then add a filter to your Zap so that it only continues to the Slack step if the value in a cell matches what you need (ie you could do if the number of devices is less than 50, or if the value in the ‘condition’ field is ‘need ordering’). 

I know it’s a bit of a pain having to type in the date and time manually, so I found a keyboard shortcut for you! If you click into a cell and use the following, it will automatically add the current date and time into the cell:

Windows

Ctrl+ Alt + Shift + :

Mac

Cmd+ Option + Shift + :

 

That should do the trick, but do let me know if you have any questions!

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