Question

How do I handle multiple properties in a loop process?

  • 20 March 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 19 views

Task Assignment Misalignments in Automated Slack Notifications from Notion via Zapier
We typically manage tasks using Notion. In Notion's Task DB, assignees and deadlines are set, and we've built a reminder system to prevent oversights through Slack notifications.


Structure:

We sync Notion's Task DB with a spreadsheet, and tasks due that day are notified on Slack every morning at 8:00, referencing the deadline property in the spreadsheet. Since there are usually multiple tasks each day, we use 'Create Loop From Text in Looping by Zapier' for repeated processing to ensure all overdue tasks are notified.

During this process, the multiple tasks that come into 'Create Loop From Text in Looping by Zapier' are comma-separated (due to Zapier's specifications), so we specify a comma as the separator to split and repeatedly output them.


Issue:

There's a problem when a task has more than two assignees, causing a misalignment during the looping process.

For instance, even if both Tom and Ken are assigned to 'Respond to emails,' the Slack notification is only sent to Tom, and Ken gets mistakenly assigned to the next unrelated task.

Upon closer inspection, it appears that Notion's specification treats multiple entries in a single property as comma-separated, i.e., 'Tom,Ken.' Since we also specify a comma for the loop process, this misalignment occurs.

 

Below is an example of the output. Is there no way to specify multiple entries?"

 

As is

Email Tom,Ken
meeting A Stella

 

To be

Email Tom
meeting A Ken

 

Data

 


3 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @mikan 

You may have to first prep the data returned using a Formatter > Utilities > option to delimit the array items with a different character such as a pipe. |

https://zapier.com/apps/formatter/help

Thank you @Troy Tessalone !

What options should I use?

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@mikan 

We would need to see screenshots with how the Zap steps are outlined and configured along with the DATA OUT from the step that you are trying to use.

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