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I have a separate excel spreadsheet for every job opening posted on my site — for candidate submissions to be populated into.

The candidate submission form contains all the necessary data to be able to target the specific spreadsheet by its file name (using a “Custom” input versus one of the radio options for existing files under “Spreadsheet”). No matter what I put there for the “Custom” input, the next step (Worksheet) always shows “Unable to load choices. We're having trouble loading 'Worksheet' data. The app returned "Invalid request".” 

...For “Custom” I’ve tried typing in the file name itself, I’ve tried typing in that ID that appears below the file name in the options under “Spreadsheet”. The only way to get the 'Worksheet' data to return Sheet 1 {000-000...etc} is to click the file name under Spreadsheet (vs “Custom”), but I can’t do that because I need the zap to target a worksheet based on the form submission.

Perhaps there is a specific syntax to making a “Custom” input be able to find a spreadsheet? Or maybe I can use some sort of middle Zap I can use to find a spreadsheet? 

Any ideas?

Hi @blp, welcome to the Community!

Hmm, I’ve seen this happen with another spreadsheet app also wasn’t able to load the worksheet and column fields from the spreadsheet when the custom value option is used to select the spreadsheet.

Do the spreadsheets for each job all have exactly the same worksheet and column names?

If so, you might be able to use the following workaround:

  • Select the spreadsheet and worksheet from the list of available options, rather than using the custom value option.
  • Next, select the relevant fields for each of the column fields.
  • Test the action to make sure it works correctly.
  • When you’re happy with it, change the spreadsheet field back to use the custom value option (and select the ID for the spreadsheet) again before turning the Zap on.


That should, then allow the Zap to dynamically select the spreadsheet when it runs. 

Can you give that a try and let us know if that gets it working? I’ve not tested this workaround with Excel myself but it works for the Google Sheets app so I’m hoping it’ll do the trick here too! 🤞

 

Hi SamB, appreciate the answer and suggestion. The name of the workbook file (generated by combining some form data) is perfectly identical to the actual workbook file name, but Zapier doesn’t recognize it — that hasn’t changed.  That being said, I actually realized that I had a typo when I manually entered the workbook ID under Custom (not something you can copy/paste and I thought an uppercase “i” was a lowercase L — serif fonts FTW) After I fixed it, the worksheet showed up in the next step.

So now I just need to retrieve the workbook ID and get it into a hidden field in the form on my site, and should be good to go.

Still wish Zapier had a Create New Worksheet/Tab Action for Excel, like it does for Google Sheets!

Thanks again!

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