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How can I throttle / filter a trigger that creates multiple items simultaneously?

  • 23 June 2022
  • 7 replies
  • 93 views

Here’s the scenario:

Trigger sends a Slack message whenever a new item is created.

However, this trigger is tied to an app that generates 3-4 items simultaneously (even though they’re essentially the same item). 

How can I have Zapier ONLY send me the last item triggered?

I’ve tried to find some sort of throttling workflow and none of the answers I found seemed applicable (or they were written by much smarter people than me and I just didn’t understand what they were saying 😂). 

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7 replies

christina.d
Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Hey there, @DustinWStout! Thanks for reaching out! You and me both, friend. 😂
Interesting! Do you mind if I ask what app the items are populating from and what the trigger is?

I wonder if this help article might be useful? Let us know!

 

DustinWStout

@christina.d the trigger is from the Bannerbear app. It only offers triggers when an image is generated, but we use their “Collections” feature which generates multiple images at a time. So that means each time we generate a collection, it triggers the Zapier integration 3-4 times.

And since each image generation comes in as its own unique trigger, I just need to find a way to only receive the last item in the sequence. I was trying to find a way to add all generated image URLs to a google sheet and then have zapier wait 30 seconds and send me the last item in the sheet. I couldn’t find a way to do that though.

I read the article but it doesn’t seem to fit my situation.

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@DustinWStout

Can you post screenshots with all the data points returned from the Bannerbear Zap trigger?

⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
DustinWStout

@Troy Tessalone there is not much data returned. And each one is unique, so there’s no way to identify each one as part of a collection.

 Those 6 are the only data points returned.

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@DustinWStout 

This may be unconventional advice and may not lead to an immediate solution, but probably worth a shot…

Reach out to Bannerbear directly: https://www.bannerbear.com/support/

The Founder is “building in public” and is active/accessible on Twitter: https://twitter.com/yongfook

Try requesting more data points to indicate the collection and sequence in the collection.

e.g. Collection ID and Collection Sequence ID

⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
DustinWStout

@Troy Tessalone haha, yea… Jon has heard from me plenty. He’s also often built things within hours of me suggesting it.

christina.d
Userlevel 7
Badge +9

That’s awesome to know they’re so responsive, @DustinWStout! 

Troy’s recommendations are pretty spot on too since this particular app is managed by a team of their developers. Of course, you’re welcome to reach out to my friends in support to submit a feature request asking for Collection ID’s and Collection Sequence ID’s to be supported fields in the app! We’re always happy to submit and track user interest on our end.

You may get more traction going directly to them, especially since they’re so receptive to feedback! 🙂

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