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Storage by Zapier - TRIGGER, please!


Userlevel 3
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Storage by Zapier is a very handy tool for me, especially when used in conjunction with zaps that involve automatic loops that result from arrays returned from webhooks.

But it would really be great if you’d add to Storage by Zapier one of the functions you have for Sheets, the ability to trigger on a storage update.

Could I have a show of hands from anyone who would find this a helpful trigger? Imagine a gmail trigger that sets a storage value, and setting that value launches one or more zaps? This would be a handy workaround for the new gmail data restrictions, and a lot simpler than setting up sheets which could be inadvertently changed/damaged by anyone with access to a shared google drive.

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Best answer by SamB 2 October 2023, 15:07

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Userlevel 7
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@RisoSystems 

Yeh, that’s a great idea! It would be very useful in so many situations.

I’ll flag this to the Zapier community team so they can add your vote to a feature request.

Userlevel 7
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Hi @RisoSystems, thanks for the suggestion!

 

We have a feature request for a trigger that would run if a new value was added onto a list. The ‘push value onto list’ supports line items, so I feel like that’s the one that you’d need if you want to use storage instead of Google Sheets for that line items to single item trigger workaround. Is that what you’re looking for here, or were you thinking more along the lines of using the ‘value set’ trigger as opposed to ‘value added to list’? 

Userlevel 3
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Danvers,

I believe you misunderstand both my request and the potential benefits.

What I’m looking for is a set of triggers for Storage that are similar to those you currently support for Sheets. 

Sheets can trigger on:

  1. New Spreadsheet Row
  2. New or Updated Row
  3. New Spreadsheet
  4. New Worksheet

I’m looking for Storage to trigger on

  1. New Key
  2. New or Updated Value or Child Value
  3. Value Push / Pop

Because storage is a local function - that is, it’s presumably on Zapier’s servers, triggers should be far faster than an API call to Google. Also, the overhead of dealing with Sheets, which are also subject to change outside of Zapier, is tedious and risky.

As far as the need I mentioned is concerned, my interest in triggers would open up options for at least 3 of my production zaps. Now that webhooks have become so slow to fire in some environments, and now that Google doesn’t allow gmail data to be used in many non-Google situations, sending values to storage which would then trigger zaps would be of great assistance.

Userlevel 7
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Thanks for the clarification @RisoSystems 🙂

 

I've created a feature request asking for these triggers to be added to the Storage app. This will:

  1. ​Let the team know that this addition will be helpful for you
  2. ​Track interest in the addition - if other users request the same thing, we'll add their vote to the request
  3. ​Remind us to send you an email if/when we have an update on this
     
Userlevel 2

Totally agree these triggers would be super helpful within the Zapier Storage integration!

 

If you’re interested, here’s a workaround/alternative option - use the Webhook polling trigger to watch for a specific key/value to change.

 

For example, in Zapier Storage, I have an object, which contains a field called lastUpdate which I update whenever my external code/system/Zap writes new data into Zapier Storage, like this:  {"foo":"bar","lastUpdate":"2020-06-24T14:28:00.000Z"}'

 

I setup a Webhook polling Zap that watches for that key/value:

 

In that trigger setup, it also needs to set the header X-Secret  to specify my super confidential storage key:

 

When that Zap is turned on, it will trigger every time it sees a new value for the  lastUpdate key. In the Zap, the second step uses another Webhook step (or code step), to retrieve the current value/object/data from Zapier Storage.

 

One (possibly huge) limitation is that multiple updates/changes to the object (within Zapier Storage) during the Zap’s polling cycle results in only the last (most recent) change being noticed by the Zap. In these situations, a better approach is adding (pushing/appending) values to an array/list within the Zapier Storage key, then having the Zap read (and clear-out) that list of accumulated data from Storage (or using a code-step to perform all that work).

 

 

Userlevel 7
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Thanks for the tip @BenPeter!

Userlevel 7
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@RisoSystems - You might want to try this out!

 

Userlevel 3
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It looks very interesting. My environment is such that I cannot employ Zaps which are not yet approved by Zapier. But the functionality you have added looks like it would work nicely for us as soon as they do approve it. Thanks.

Userlevel 7
Badge +12

@RisoSystems - Thanks for the feedback! Unfortunately, this is an invite-only integration and will not go public.

Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Hi folks! 👋

Just popping by with a quick update to share that the team have decided not to pursue this feature request at this time.

For anyone who comes across this thread and also wants to a “New or Updated Value or Child Value” trigger to be added to the Storage by Zapier app, I’d recommend trying out either of the workarounds suggested here previously, that I’ll list details of below:

Workaround from BenPeter:

 

If you’re interested, here’s a workaround/alternative option - use the Webhook polling trigger to watch for a specific key/value to change.

 

For example, in Zapier Storage, I have an object, which contains a field called lastUpdate which I update whenever my external code/system/Zap writes new data into Zapier Storage, like this:  {"foo":"bar","lastUpdate":"2020-06-24T14:28:00.000Z"}'

 

I setup a Webhook polling Zap that watches for that key/value:

 

In that trigger setup, it also needs to set the header X-Secret  to specify my super confidential storage key:

 

When that Zap is turned on, it will trigger every time it sees a new value for the  lastUpdate key. In the Zap, the second step uses another Webhook step (or code step), to retrieve the current value/object/data from Zapier Storage.

 

One (possibly huge) limitation is that multiple updates/changes to the object (within Zapier Storage) during the Zap’s polling cycle results in only the last (most recent) change being noticed by the Zap. In these situations, a better approach is adding (pushing/appending) values to an array/list within the Zapier Storage key, then having the Zap read (and clear-out) that list of accumulated data from Storage (or using a code-step to perform all that work).

Workaround from ikbelkirasan:

You might want to try this out!

 


Thanks for your patience and please do reach out in Community again if you have any other questions at all! 🙂