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  • Is there a filter to check if information still exists before taking next steps?
Question

Is there a filter to check if information still exists before taking next steps?

  • 13 June 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 32 views
sonido

I wonder if any of you Zapier experts out there can help me? :) I am trying to determine if a certain filter exists within Zapier, or how we can get create. 

I have a specific scenario where the Trigger is a Calendar Event is created. Then, we have a filter to wait for X Hours prior to the calendar event date/time to send an SMS/Text message as a reminder to the associated contact. This generally works well, except when a Calendar Event has been Modified or Cancelled; what’s happening today is that the contact STILL receives the SMS/Text communication, even if the Calendar Event has been changed. As you can imagine, this can be very confusing. 

Do any of you know if there’s a filter in place that would check to see if the Calendar Event is still the same date/time before sending the SMS/Text notification? My gut tells me that Zapier couldn’t handle this, as it wouldn’t have access to the Calendar to see events. Any ideas out there of how we can make this happen? 

This post has been closed for comments. Please create a new post if you need help or have a question about this topic.

3 replies

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @sonido 

Good question.

Which calendar app are you using?

If you’re using GCal, then you can use this Zap trigger: GCal - Event Start

 

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

Hey Troy, thanks for sharing your comments here.

Not GCal. It’s a specialty software (Project Management, Scheduling, CRM, etc.) for a specific industry. This trigger doesn’t exist for their Zapier integration today, but I can look into this further. 

So this is a Trigger? It wouldn’t need to be a delay (filter) or something of that sort; it could be its own Zap? 
From what it looks like, this is essentially the trigger that kicks in at a specified time interval before an existing event on the calendar that would lead to a desired action (in our case, send the SMS/Text message). Is that right? 

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@sonido 

If you are using GCal, then you can use this Zap trigger: GCal - Event Start

 

Otherwise, you’d need to log and update (cancelled, rescheduled) calendar events somewhere to check as part of the Zaps.

 

I’d recommend using Airtable.

Airtable has Views. (segments of data)

Views can have Filters. (e.g. Date = Today)

Views can be used to trigger Zaps.

 

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