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How to silence a zap for certain time while resuming actions?

  • 16 March 2023
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Userlevel 1
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Here my zap needs to be silenced for lets say 15mins
The action trigger is “new post in a private channel” for slack.
After the trigger gets initiated, the tricky part is not to get triggered for any messages in slack for the next 15 minutes while at the same time need to run my action steps without any hindrance.
Any possible workaround on this? please let me know

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Best answer by SamB 20 March 2023, 14:44

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8 replies

Userlevel 7
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Hey @Jojin! 🙂

Hmm, perhaps you could create a record of the message in a spreadsheet, using an app like Google Sheets for example. In the row for it you could put details for the message and add the words “on hold” in a column called “status” on the spreadsheet for that row. Then you’d use a Filter by Zapier action to check whether the Zap should continue to run or halt any subsequent actions. And you’d have a separate Zap that runs when a new row is added, waits for 15 mins then removes the “on hold” status.

 Zap 1 - creates a record of the message in a new row and marks it as “on hold”

  • Trigger: New Message Posted to Private Channel (Slack)
  • Action: Lookup Spreadsheet Row (Google Sheets) - looks to see if any row has the value of “on hold” in the “status” column. Has the option to create a row for it if it doesn’t find one which is where you’d set the status column for the row to have a value of “on hold”.
  • Action: Only continue if (Filter by Zapier) - checks that the zap_search_was_found_status field is false (meaning that there’s a new row was just added so it should allow the Zap to carry out subsequent actions)
  • Action(s): Add any further necessary actions to the Zap after the Filter.


Zap 2 - removes the “on hold” status from the row after 15 mins

  • Trigger: New Spreadsheet Row (Google Sheets) - triggers when a new row is added.
  • Action: Delay For (Delay by Zapier) - set to wait for 15 mins.
  • Action: Update Spreadsheet Row (Google Sheets) - set to update the row that triggered the Zap and change the value in the status column.


Do you think that approach could work?

Userlevel 1
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Hey @SamB 
The method you described is good though. However the tricky part is that it only applies on message from the past as when a message comes up, we set new record if it doesn’t exist and updates on hold in the next row and filters out with if zap search is false, then continue( which means if the message is already sent before, it stops the zap from running any following subsequent actions).


How to make it work so that any newly added message shouldn’t be triggered into the zap1?

 Hope you got my idea!

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hey @Jojin,

Thanks for letting us know!

Have you tried using Delay by Zapier (Delay after queue) after the trigger step? Please let us know if this works for you! 😊

More about Delay after queue here: https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496288754829-Add-delays-to-Zaps#delay-after-queue-0-2

 

Userlevel 1
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@SamB Please look into the above note

@ken.a Could be please share the steps on where should I use the delay after queue?

Userlevel 7
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Hi @Jojin 

You may want to consider using the Zapier Manager app with the Turn Zap On/Off action.

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Hi there, @Jojin

Ah I see! Apologies, I thought you were wanting the Zap to trigger for a new message, and have it carry out certain actions but not carry out those same actions for any new messages that then trigger the Zap within the next 15 mins (I was thinking that the subsequent messages would be in relation to the one that triggered the Zap).

You wouldn’t be able to completely stop a new message from triggering the Zap unless the Zap was off. You could use the Zapier Manager app, as Troy suggested, with a Delay action to temporally turn off the Zap for 15 mins then turn it back on again. While the Zap is off though it wouldn’t see any of the new messages that would have triggered the Zap during the time that it was off.

With the Delay after queue action the Zap would trigger for each new message but would delay the actions from running until 15 minutes later. You can find out more about using it in our guide here: Delay after queue 

That said, to stop the messages from triggering the Zap maybe we should be looking more at which type of messages should be triggering the Zap. For example could you use a specific phrase or emoji in messages that you want to trigger the Zap? Which would then allow you to use a Filter to check for it (Add conditions to Zaps with filters). That way, only messages that contain that phrase/emoji will allow the Zap to carry out subsequent actions. I’m suggesting a specific phrase or emoji within the content of the message, rather than to use the New Reaction Added trigger as it would only see reactions to messages within public not private channels.

Do you think using a Filter would work here? 

Userlevel 1
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@Troy Tessalone  @SamB Thanks, Zapier manager helped to achieve not to trigger any new messages.🙂

Userlevel 3
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Hi @Jojin 

Thanks for letting us know what worked for you!

If you need further assistance in the future, feel free to post and we’ll do our best to assist you! 😊