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Find and share Zapier tips and tricks, and learn how other people are using Zapier.

3 ways to extract/scrape data from websites

Mod Edit: 03-22-2023Before I start, I first want to say that there are LOTS of ways to scrape data from websites. The options I’m discussing below are the ones that make it the easiest to do (in my opinion), and relatively affordably for the average person.Let’s jump in!Browse AIAccording to them: The easiest way to extract and monitor data from any website. Train a robot in 2 minutes. No coding required.Zapier integration? Yes, see it here.Send to webhook URL? Yes, but it’s raw data and isn’t super easy to work with in Zapier.Free plan? YesSchedule data extraction? Yes. You can choose minutes, hours, days, weeks, months.Direct integrations? You can sync the extracted data to Google Sheets (and you can trigger a Zap on those newly added rows, if you’d like). Airtable is coming soon, according to their website. SimplescraperAccording to them: Extract data from any website in seconds. Download instantly, scrape in the cloud, or create an APIZapier integration? As of the writing of this a

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13 days ago

nicksimardZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

Formatter Features: Line Itemizer Overview

What It Looks Like What It Can (and Can't) Do Some Ways to Use It 1. Add line items to existing data 2. Create line items from scratch, to use in later steps 3. Add another line item property Anything Tricky About It? That’s a Wrap (for now at least)What's up Zap crafters? Welcome to another installment of Formatter Features, where we highlight individual functions with our Formatter app. This week we're looking at the Line Itemizer, in more of an overview. Next week we'll dive in a bit deeper.We've looked at the Text to Line Item feature already, and though you *can* use that in some cases, there are times when you need something a bit more robust. Enter the Line Itemizer!This option can be found at:Formatter by Zapier — Utilities — Line Itemizer (Create/Append/Prepend)What It Looks LikeThere are significantly more fields here than we saw with Text to Line-Item and Line-Item to Text: But don't be intimidated! We're going to go through what all of it does :)What It Can (and Can't)

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1 month ago

Janine_AndersonZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

Take our quiz and get a personalized recommendation for your next Zap

Sometimes you know exactly what you need to automate—like sending Facebook Lead Ads to Google Sheets or creating contacts in Pipedrive when someone fills out your Typeform. But figuring out your next Zap can be a challenge, especially if you've only ever used Zapier to solve a very specific problem. Automation is powerful, and with so many possibilities, it can be tough to decide what else to do with Zapier. So we put together a quiz to help you find a Zap that will help you work better. It takes a few minutes to complete, and when you're finished, you'll get a personalized recommendation for what to automate—saving you time and giving you the satisfaction of a job well done.Take the quiz

550

2 years ago

MichelleSZapier Staff

posted in Show & Tell

Use Google Sheets to import existing data from your apps

NOTE: We recommend checking out Zapier Transfer before proceeding with the instructions below. It’s our tool for bulk-moving data from one app to another. Here’s more information: A regular question we get at Zapier is: Can Zapier import/export my data from App A to App B?Zapier is not designed to mass import/export your data between two apps. We can only trigger from new data added to App A and send it over to App B only after creating and turning on a Zap.While Zapier can’t natively import/export existing data from one app to another, we do have methods you can use to get around this limitation.If you’re able to get your data into a spreadsheet format like an Excel or CSV file, you can use Google Sheets as an intermediary app to create a Zap that mimics an import/export function of data from one app to another.1. Set up your Google Sheets spreadsheetFirst, export your data from your first app into a format like a CSV file. In Row 1, copy in the column headers from your imported sprea

1 year ago

TimSZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

How to format currency numbers with consistent padding for decimal places

IntroHi folks, Tim here again from the Zapier Team with another workflow idea! Today we’ll look at a small code snippet to help with a common use case that is typically trickier than most users expect: padding currency numbers correctly.For example, have you ever had a number in your Zaps like 300 or 300.1 that you wanted to display as 300.00 or 300.10 respectively?Although this is sometimes possible using multiple Formatter Steps or writing a formula to a Google Sheet to get a result, these ways either use a lot of Steps, are convoluted, or require an external resource like a Google Sheet to be maintained. I wanted to see if we could achieve a more streamlined approach.WorkflowThe workflow in terms of number of Steps is fairly simple: we just want to add a single “Code by Zapier” Step: “Run Javascript”: First let’s add all the field that the Code Step will use. You’ll be able to customize everything with these fields so you don’t need to change anything in the Code itself:amountThis f

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1 year ago

nicksimardZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

Formatter Features: Line-Item to Text

How goes it, fine Zappers! Nick from the Community team here, back with another Formatter Features article. Last week we explored the Text to Line-Item feature. [insert that post]Today, I’ll be taking a look at the Formatter's Line-Item to Text feature.Not sure what line items are?You're in luck because Tyler Robertson of Zapier recently published a comprehensive guide to line items that explains it much better than I can in this article. Please refer to that if you need some clarification :) This option can be found at:Formatter by Zapier — Utilities — Line-Item to TextWhat It Looks LikeWhile the Text to Line-Item does not let you specify a separator, Line-Item to Text does: What It Can (and Can't) DoThings you can do with it:1) Convert a single mapped field from line items to text2) Convert multiple mapped fields from line items into text. (See example #1 below)3) Combine mapped fields with typed textHere I've added a label before each line item property:Things you can not do with it

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3 years ago

debZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

Take your WFH lessons back to the office

Hi, everyone! Deb here, from the Zapier blog. We write a lot about remote work on the blog, and now that the world is opening up a bit, we want to talk about how the lessons you learned while working remotely can follow you back into the office.Recently, our staff writer Justin wrote an article about how you shouldn't abandon video meeting etiquette when you start back up with in-person meetings.4 video meeting rules that should follow us back to the officeBut it's not just the etiquette that should stick around—all the asynchronous prep and automation can still happen even when the meeting is face-to-face. For client meetings, you can use scheduling automation to do things like send booking reminders or automatically follow up after appointments. To be sure you never lose a meeting action item, you can automatically create shared meeting docs, add action items to your to-do list whenever there's a new event on your calendar, or get reminders to document action items whenever a meeti

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3 years ago

ClintEmsleyZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

Creating a monthly updates newsletter using Digest

Hi, I’m Clint, a Customer Champion at Zapier! I’m obsessed with Google Sheets, Zap loops, and automating all the boring parts of life. This Wednesday, I’d like to discuss using Digest to save small updates, and then releasing them once per month as a larger newsletter.The ChallengeThis was actually a personal goal - I have a lot of silly little creative projects, and most of them are in totally different places. What I would like to do is to save all of these small things into one spot, then let folks know about all of them at the beginning of the next month.The problem is that I am very forgetful! So instead of trying to remember everything I did in a month, I would like to be able to save all of these as little bullet points as soon as I am done with them. Then I can use a Zap to put it all together into a single newsletter.The SolutionIt’s Digest! Digest is one of our internal apps, and a very interesting one indeed. It lets you save multiple pieces of information over time, then re

3542

2 years ago

GiacNew

posted in Show & Tell

Cool initiative on no-code & Zapier

Hey everyone 👋Just wanted to share an exciting opportunity I got to know about last week and think you may be interested in.100DaysOfNoCode is running a cohort to teach the fundamentals of no-code to build your MVP in 6 weeks and I saw there will be a session focused on Zapier automations - I saw that applications are closing this Friday, so just wanted to flag in case anyone wanted to get involved.You can find out more via this link: https://www.100daysofnocode.com/no-code-beginners-cohort/Full-transparency: I’m not affiliated to 100DaysOfNoCode and won’t get anything in return if you join the cohort 😢😂 Genuinely just thought this may valuable to some of you 😉

3 years ago

nicksimardZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

Formatter Features: Text to Line-Item

Hey there, Zappers! Nick here, from the Community team. Today, I’ll be taking a look at the Formatter's Text to Line-Item feature.You may think that you don't have a need for line items, and maybe you don't...yet. There's likely a day in the future where it will come up. Maybe you'll remember this article (or at least that it exists).Wait, Nick! What are line items?Oh yeah, sorry. As luck would have it, Tyler Robertson of Zapier recently published a comprehensive guide to line items that can explain it much better than I can in this article. Please refer to that if you need some clarification :) This option can be found at:Formatter by Zapier — Utilities — Text to Line-ItemWhat It Looks LikeThere is only one field to fill out: What It Can (and Can't) DoWays you can create line items from text:1) Map 1 single field that contains comma-separated text2) Map multiple fields, that are separated by commas3) Manually type text into the field, meaning that it's not dynamic4) Map line items in

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12 days ago

Janine_AndersonZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

Automate these 5 painful tasks with Zapier workflow automation

Hey, Zapier community! Janine from the blog team here. We talk a lot about how automation can save you time or help you be more efficient, but one of the things I love the most about it is that it also helps me get tasks I hate doing off my plate.David Bell, owner of Diving Bell Creative, wrote about some of the ways he's done just that and has advice for how to get started.Automate these 5 painful tasks with Zapier workflow automationHere's what he recommends: Integrate your CRM with project management tools Monitor SEO Automatically track time Pull marketing campaign information into your CRM Automate social media posts Learn about how this helps him and the team at Diving Bell and see if there's a Zap that could help you out. Do you have a Zap that takes painful tasks off your plate? Let us know in the comments!

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3 years ago

TimSZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

How to send Line-Items/Arrays in Webhooks by Zapier

IntroWhen you send information to custom apps or apps that don’t have the right action for your needs, you may need to use a Webhooks by Zapier step to customize the way the data is sent.If you need to send arrays of data (called Line-Items in Zapier) this can be tricky as the POST and PUT Webhooks actions aren’t able to support line-items. If you try to do this, you’ll see the data flattened to a comma separated string which some APIs will recognize, but if they’re expecting a JSON array you’ll see an error or it won’t work as expected.Let’s take a look at how we can solve this using a “Custom Request” Webhooks Action instead.Webhooks by Zapier Custom RequestsThe description for the Custom Request action reads “fire off a custom request by providing raw details. Very flexible but unforgiving.”What this means is that the Custom Request action will send exactly what we specify without making any changes. The reason that the POST and PUT actions don’t work is that they may alter the data

53621

2 years ago

RALaBargeZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

Formatter Features: Import CSV

Welcome back friends of Zapier! Today, let’s have a look at the Import CSV transform! This function will allow you to pass Zapier either a string in Comma Separated Values (CSV) format or a CSV file coming to you from a prior step in the Zap. For advanced users, Zapier can also offer you line item objects which can unlock advanced functionality in the apps we offer which support them.Add Inbound Emailed Spreadsheet Files to a Google SheetLet’s say you have a Gmail inbox that receives automated emails that have a CSV attached, and you would love to have those added to a Google Sheet automatically for you. Zapier can help with that!If your purpose is to interact with attachments in Gmail, using the “New Attachment” trigger is the best one to use! In some cases, more than a single attachment may be sent in a single email. For example, image footers are separate attachments which can be displayed inline in the email you are viewing. In these cases, if you are NOT using “New Attachment”, Z

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3 years ago

debZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

Automating Google Docs in a way that makes sense

Hi! Deb here from the Zapier blog. Our staff writer Justin recently wrote about Google's Smart Compose feature—namely, how to turn it off.He points out that having Google write your Google Docs for you is...a lot. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't let the robots near your Google Docs. There are a lot of ways you can automate your documents, including actually creating them from scratch.Here are a few of my favorite examples.How to create and autopopulate a Google Docs templateAutomate the template editing process, sending information from the other apps you use most into your Google Docs templates. You'll be able to automatically create new Google Docs from an existing template without lifting a finger.How to create Google Docs templates based on form responsesAny time you find yourself copying a document to reuse over and over again or find yourself filling out blanks in a document, it's time to automate: automatically fill out Google Docs templates based on triggers from other apps

3480

3 years ago

Troy TessaloneZapier Expert

posted in Show & Tell

[GUIDE] How to Trigger Zaps at ANY Time with Slack Reminders

[guide] How to Trigger Zaps at ANY Time with Slack Reminders RemindersReminders are great!Reminders get info out of your head and prompt you when scheduled.If you’re using Slack and not taking advantage of their Reminders feature, then you’re missing out!(Read more about Slack Reminders: https://slack.com/help/articles/208423427-Set-a-reminder) AppsThese apps will be covered in this how to guide for scheduling Zaps to process at set dates and times.Delay by Zapier Schedule by Zapier Google Calendar Webhooks (ADVANCED) Slack Use CaseYou want to trigger a one-off Zap on command at a future time. (Slack) You don’t want to trigger the Zap now. (Webhooks) You don’t want to trigger the Zap on a set schedule. (Schedule by Zapier) You don’t want to clutter your GCal with Events that trigger Zaps. (Google Calendar) You may want to have your Zap triggered +/- 30 days in the future. (Delay by Zapier) SolutionSlack Reminders to the rescue!Plus, Slack is free to use.See options below for the differ

7 months ago

JaredZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

How to turn a Zap OFF and ON with a schedule

Hey Zapier Community,Jared here from Zapier Support.There can often be business processes or workflow needs that require us to turn a Zap OFF and/or ON on a scheduled basis.Below I cover 2 scenarios where this might be useful.Scenario 1: DeduplicationWith Polling and Hybrid Triggers - Zapier uses a process called Deduplication to isolate new records that will trigger the Zap.Here’s a Quick Summary of how Deduplication works. When we turn the Zap ON - Zapier identifies the existing records and keeps track of them on a Deduplication Table. We don’t trigger the Zap for these existing records - only records that are added after the Zap is turned on. Typically the Deduplication ID that’s used to identify existing records is the Record ID from the App record. Once we’ve seen that ID - we add it to the deduplication table - and won’t trigger on it again. Every time we turn the Zap OFF and then ON again - the deduplication table is rebuilt with the existing records at that time. A Real W

17740

3 years ago

RALaBargeZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

Formatter Features: Pick from List

Zapier friends, it is good to see you once more! The Formatter by Zapier Pick from List transform will allow you to supply a list of items from which we can pick one Randomly or we can also pull a specific numbered item from the list.While there are more than just these options, here are 2 neat things that you can do with it!Lunch Decision Maker ThingySay you have a list of lunch options and you don't care what you order but also don’t care to make a decision. You can use the Pick from List tool to help here: Check out this tasty gif showing the magic in action:Yum!Randomly Assign New Inbound LeadsLet’s say you had a trigger that sends Zapier data containing new inbound Leads. If this was, let's say, a high volume channel, and you just needed to get these leads split up amongst a list of possible owners, Pick from List is an excellent way of doing so.We use Salesforce to track our Leads. Salesforce, and the vast majority of other apps on Zapier, when tracking other objects in their sy

8620

3 years ago

nicksimardZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

By Zapier: Learn About Looping

What's up Zapficionados! In this "By Zapier" article I'm going to take a look at Looping by Zapier. What it is, how it works, and some examples of how to use it in your workflows. Let's dive in!What It Is How It Works Create Loop From Text Create Loop From Line Items Create Loop From Numbers What You Can Build With It Example 1: Looping Through Calendar Attendees to Find and Update Airtable Records Example 2: Updating Something (Maybe an Invoice) With Multiple Items [Workaround] Example 3: Take Action on Each Item of an eCommerce Order Wrapping UpWhat It IsLooping by Zapier is a helper app to repeat action(s) in your Zaps a variable number of times for sets of values.Ok, but what does that mean? Let's use an image to illustrate:Here you can see that the Zap has a step that provides 4 line items. Using Looping by Zapier, each one of those line items can run through that first action step and the second action step. It's as though the Zap was triggered 4 separate times, except that

41668

3 months ago

Janine_AndersonZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

How exit interviews can turn churned customers into advocates

Hey, folks! Janine from the Zapier blog team here with another way automation helps one of our customers succeed.Even the most successful business loses customers. Instead of letting them quietly fade away, the team at Content Snare does something a little different. They actively connect with churned customers to learn from them and often see those accounts turn into advocates.James Rose, co-founder at Content Snare, wrote an article for us about why feedback—especially feedback from churned customers—is so valuable and how to use automation to make it as easy as possible to manage the feedback process.These customers give great feedback, James wrote, and by putting it to use helps them improve the business.How exit interviews can turn churned accounts into advocatesCheck out his post to learn more about: why to talk to churned customers, what to ask them, the best ways to collect feedback, and how Content Snare automates the process. How do you connect with churned customers an

260

3 years ago

erinozZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

How to create a database of Google Drive files in Airtable

Hi there, this is Erin Oz from the Premier Support Team with a workflow idea to share. Background InfoDo you have a lot of files in your Google Drive, but you can never find what you’re looking for? Or have you thought about doing a file reorganization project, and wondered if there’s a way to automate a record of which files have been added to the new folder? Folks with large collections of video files, audio files, or other libraries of information often try to use nesting folders in a Drive to keep things organized, but it can be hard to browse through items that meet certain criteria. For example, my brass quintet has a large library of sheet music. A “work” (a song) consists of parts for each member of the group. So for a standard brass quintet, there will be five “parts” for each work: Trumpet 1, Trumpet 2, Horn, Trombone, and Bass Trombone (Tuba). We keep a folder with the title of the work, and each folder contains five PDF files for each part. Any given work also has a number

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1 year ago

RALaBargeZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

Formatter Features: extracting numbers + phone numbers

Howdy Zapier Friends! We are back with another Formatter by Zapier overview. This time we will talk about Extract Number and Extract Phone Number.Recall that the Formatter by Zapier app is the main tool you can use to edit data sent to Zapier. Almost any basic formatting option is possible, but even saying something as generous as that is selling short all of the possibilities that this app offers users!Keep in mind that when you use the Extract transforms in this app, Zapier will only ever pull the first item we find that matches the Extract you are using. If you need to cut strings in multiple parts and access that data, you may need to use our Split Text transforms.For very advanced users there also exists the Code by Zapier app (which supports Python and Node.js), or the Extract Pattern transform in Formatter by Zapier (which lets you leverage Regular Expressions) but those are different topics for the future!Formatter by Zapier: Extract Phone NumberThis option can be found at:Form

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3 years ago

Janine_AndersonZapier Staff

published in Featured Articles

How to set up an automatic out-of-office notification bot

Hi, folks! Janine from the Zapier blog team with another automation inspiration article for you. This is one of the ways Zapier uses Zapier: Automatically share out-of-office notifications in team Slack channels.This helps make time away more visible (and, for us, since it's posted in a public Slack channel, it's searchable), which cuts down on the awkwardness of potentially waiting for someone to respond who's actually hiking in the woods for a few days.Krystina Martinez recently put together a tutorial that walks you through how to set this up for yourself. How to set up an automatic out-of-office notification bot At Zapier, we use our HR software, BambooHR, and team chat program, Slack, as the trigger and action apps. But as always, there's flexibility in how you set this up: If your HR software doesn't have a Zapier integration, you could use a shared calendar as the trigger instead. And if you don't use Slack, you could instead send messages to another team chat app or as a genera

1990

3 years ago

DanversZapier Staff

published in Getting Started

Frequently asked questionsF.A.Q.

This article covers some of the common questions that we get about the Community. If you have a question about using the Zapier Community that you can’t see below, please feel free to add a comment to this article or drop us an email at community@zapier.com.How can I change my Community username?If you would like to change your Community username, please email community@zapier.com from the email address associated with your Zapier Community account and let us know that you’d like to make the switch. Please tell us what your username currently is and what you would like to change it to. How can I change the email address I use with my Zapier Community account?Your Zapier Community log in is directly tied to your Zapier account, you can only change your community email address by changing the address that you use for your Zapier account. You can do that in the Profile area of the Zapier settings page. How do I delete my Zapier Community account?If you would like to delete your Community

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2 years ago

DanversZapier Staff

published in Getting Started

Finding answers in the CommunityF.A.Q.

When you need help with a question about Zapier, it can be difficult to know where to start. This article explains the best way to find answers in the Zapier Community.Search for existing questionsA good place to start is by searching to see if the answer to your question already exists! There are lots of questions and answers in the Community, so you may find the information you need by searching existing posts. There is a search box Community home page, on the right hand side of posts, or you can go straight to the search page. A post in the community showing the search bar at the right side of the pageWhen you type your question, include the names of the app(s) that you’re using, and any error messages that you can see.In the search results, you’ll see that some posts have a question mark next to them and some have a tick. If a post has a question mark by it, that means it is a question. If it has a tick by it, that means that it’s a question that has a best answer. List of search r

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3 years ago

DanversZapier Staff

published in Getting Started

About the Zapier CommunityF.A.Q.

Welcome to the Zapier Community! Let’s guide you through the basics of what you can expect What to expect in the CommunityThe Zapier Community is a place to share and discover questions, tips and inspiration about everything Zapier related: building workflows, discovering new apps, creating your own integration, getting updates on new features. If you have a question about your Zapier account or Zaps, please remember that the Community is a public forum. If you have a question about any of the following, please contact the Zapier Support Team using the Get Help Form:Account information (changing your email address, notifications, etc) Billing (downgrading, upgrading, refunds) Requesting features or reporting bugs Sales, procurement, security questionnaires, etc.How to behave in the CommunityThe Zapier Community has members as varied as the people that use Zapier; they are from all over the world, a wide range of backgrounds and will have different levels of experience with Zapier and o

110350

3 years ago