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Question

Using Checkboxes in Sheets to trigger Slack Messages

  • 3 November 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 273 views
A

Hello folks, I have a ZAP that I want to trigger when a checkbox is ticked in a column.

I currently have it set up to trigger when a column is updated, and all the cells in that column (where there are rows that contain data) have an empty checkbox in them by default.
 

The problem is, it appears never to actually trigger this first step. I do have a filter set up for step 2 as shown here:

But the ZAP never gets started. When I tick the checkbox in the spreadsheet, I expect Zapier to understand that as an Updated Row from Sheets. But it is not even starting the first step, so there’s no history to investigate.

Why wouldn’t ticking the checkbox in the assigned column result in a trigger?

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

2 replies

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @AutomatonMarshall 

Good question.

 

Triggering on new/updated rows in a sheet on another Team Drive

Zapier relies on Google Drive's notification system to identify when there are changes in a spreadsheet.
This currently works well for Google Sheets in your own Google Drive, but can be a problem for spreadsheets within a Team Drive.

In order to help Google prioritize that issue, please visit Google’s issue tracker, and click on the "star" at the top, to indicate that you would like the problem to be fixed.

In the meantime, Zapier has created separate triggers that work with Team Drives.
These are marked with (Team Drive) in the Event dropdown menu, in the Choose App & Event part of your trigger step.

 

The Google Sheets trigger is marked "instant" but it still takes a few minutes to trigger

The triggers for Google Sheets are unique among Zapier triggers.
When there is a trigger event in the spreadsheet,
Zapier gets a notification webhook from Google about this.
After that, Zapier sends Google Sheets a request for new data, so it uses both the polling and instant trigger methods.
This process takes about 3 minutes overall.

While not being "instant", these triggers are faster than regular polling ones, as they don't depend on the polling interval of the plan your account uses.

⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
jesse
Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Hey @AutomatonMarshall! Just checking in here to see if either of Troy’s suggestions ended up being the issue and where you’re at now. I see you “liked” his post and wanted to make sure you got the answers you were after!

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