Question

How do I get Zapier's Gmail integration to read all rows from a Google Sheets?

  • 31 August 2023
  • 8 replies
  • 94 views

Hello! I’m creating a Zap using a software called pockets. Every time I save an article in pockets (initial trigger), it creates a row in google spreadsheets with the article title, author, publisher, URL, and date. From there, the next action is to create a gmail draft using the following html code to automatically hyperlink the article title with the link from my spreadsheet: 

 

These steps all work seamlessly, and the draft in gmail shows up exactly like I want it to. However, I’d like zapier to read the data from all rows in my google sheets, rather than just the most recently updated row so that all of the rows from my spreadsheet are in a single email draft with each other, and under the same formatting from above. How can I do this? This is for a weekly email that I send out so I’d love to set up a filter to not read info before/after a certain date. Any help on either of these things would be great. Thanks! 


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8 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @Mmassey 

Good question.

If there is a common value in a column that indicates the week, then you can use these GSheet Zap actions.

 

Otherwise, to query dynamic dates, you’d likely have to use the GSheets API: https://developers.google.com/sheets/api/guides/values

Zap action: GSheets - API Request

 

You can then use a Formatter > Utilities > Line Items to Text to format the data for use in the email.

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@Mmassey 

Another approach is to use Airtable instead of GSheets.

Airtable has Formula Fields, which can be configured to determine the week for a date.

Airtable has Views, which are segments of data. (sort, filter, group, show/hide fields, reorder fields)

Airtable has an API, which can return up to 100 records per page: https://airtable.com/developers/web

Hi Tony, 

Thanks for the response. For the time being I need more help getting gmail to read any new rows added to my spreadsheet and put them into the same email draft using this formatting: 

Is there a solution to this? I don’t think either of the solutions you provided above are helpful for this aspect of my problem. Thanks! 

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@Mmassey 

We would need to see detailed screenshots with how your Zap steps are configured to have context about the issue you are facing.

Here are the steps I have set up so far! I just want gmail to update a single email draft when this sequence is completed. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@Mmassey 

Step 3 will only create 1 new row, because the Zap trigger is for 1 new item in Pocket.

The Zap action for Gmail Create Draft will create a new email draft each time the Zap runs.

 

One option is to use a Digest: https://zapier.com/apps/digest/help

 

If you want to get the existing GSheet Rows, then you use this Zap action.

You’ll need to follow that with a step: Formatter > Utilities > Line Item to Text

 

@Troy Tessalone 

Thanks! I think the digest feature is going to best suit this Zap. Do you know if the digest will regurgitate the same information weekly plus newly digested stuff, or if it will only be the most recently digested content since the previous release? 

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@Mmassey 

Help article about Digest: https://zapier.com/apps/digest/help

Each time a Digest is released, the Digest content resets to empty.