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[New Integration] Advanced Utilities

ikbelkirasan
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Hey everyone,

I would like to share a custom Zapier integration I built to solve a few problems. The integration provides the following action steps. I hope you find it helpful. :)

---

Run JavaScript Code: This is kind of a clone of the regular Code Step. Nothing fancy, it just comes with some useful tools available in the global scope. It also supports modern JavaScript async/await.

The global scope includes the following utilities:

  • moment: The well-known moment.js library that helps when dealing with date/time.
  • _: Lodash library that makes it easier to work with objects and arrays.
  • JSON: this replaces the built-in JSON.parse function with the more advanced JSON5 library.
  • toCSV: A function that converts an object to CSV.

 

---

Export to CSV: This action makes it easy to convert JSON data or line items to a CSV string or file.

 

---

If you’re interested in trying it, here’s the invite link: https://zapier.com/developer/public-invite/112461/039174f595539444ce5c14e114c1dc1e/

 

Known issues:

  • The code field in Run JavaScript Code action doesn’t highlight code.

Feel free to report any other issues and let me know if you there’s any other library that you wish you could use in a Code Step.

Ikbel | Building custom Zapier Apps | Want to build a custom Zapier app for an API? Visit our website: https://norapps.com Or email us at info@norapps.net

37 replies

AJM
Userlevel 2

@guillermo I know I’m about 2 years late but I found a solution to my own issue with the MalformedPOSTRequest error when trying to convert a JSON string to CSV here

In a Javascript code step you need to take your JSON string and run a gnarly replace() function on it to get rid of bad characters. As soon as I did this, the CSV converter happily accepted my JSON.

jsonString.replace(/[\x80-\uffff]/g, (m) => `%${m.charCodeAt(0).toString(16).padStart(2, '0')}`)
D

I’m a bit confused on the CSV file output. I’m trying to save line items as a csv.
When I run the test, it generates:

hydrate|||.eJwtjcuSgjAURP8la3nGB7gaZKTEEYtSUXRjRYiAJoRKgqCW_z444-7Wud19niBhpcSlPMp7hcEY-KAHilJIVCb4WKQdcarKMMz-0HAXvhP6X6YKVaNLJbWQjNYC87-cZY8GlmX1AEoSVneDH2ha5rAHzgUm6bFE9O1I8e14LgjuRq4N4pkA4yf4-D-cYpmztz2_pxxJxoWaYemKm_f_P9Vl2h1dr-bkHZOyEmNNe6CqwFzpDMp7SagCqoiiBytRI9SEUS0hhVIRJM-MU82wR9DQ9NB9RE14qnkQjnB4WFSrYDYTMr80a_8S5di5BBYMo7O70zetsoXtNLcNQvtti2uow_uVzkoUy8XcimU0LWoyiSFeOmb_EHr6Nt6Im2O1VRNv-6jj0_1gnXIf_Uy3p3a5vyiBiE5ePHfnq-WsmBCTHla-t8-UzN5Nblgm3zYZHEwnh-wKXq_XL-kkkHY:1rNGhW:-u8PEAyW0sOKuT6tSinhsb5JkrQ|||hydrate

I’ve no idea what this is/means/does. I’m just looking for a simple way to save some data into a csv file.

R

Thanks @ikbelkirasan this is soooo useful!

I think the CSV export utility skips over empty line items in the input which is sub-optimal because it leads to variability in the number of columns, and the column order. Is there any way you could add an option to preserve empty columns?

JBrennan

Hi, @ikbelkirasan!   I am new to Zapier and trying to convert a JSON file on my google drive to a CSV file and found your integration.  Yet when I select the file name [File: (exists but not shown)] for the ‘*JSON data’ field from the previous google drive step and test it, I keep getting:  JSON5: invalid character 'h' at 1:1.  Am I not able to pull a file in from my google drive or do I need a URL of where the file is?  Thanks for any guidance.

christina.d
Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Hey there, I gave this a shot and the invite it still live, @Yago Almeida!

You’ll need to accept the invite and perhaps give it a minute and/or do a hard refresh of the editor. It’s worth mentioning this app will only be visible as an action step.

I hope some of this helps! 🧡

Yago Almeida

Hi @qbftech - The link still works. Maybe you need to refresh your zap editor page to access the integration. Make sure to select it in an action step.

I with the same Problem, maybe something is wrong

ikbelkirasan
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Hi @qbftech - The link still works. Maybe you need to refresh your zap editor page to access the integration. Make sure to select it in an action step.

Ikbel | Building custom Zapier Apps | Want to build a custom Zapier app for an API? Visit our website: https://norapps.com Or email us at info@norapps.net
Q
Userlevel 1

Hi @ikbelkirasan -  I accepted in the invite using the link (https://zapier.com/developer/public-invite/112461/039174f595539444ce5c14e114c1dc1e/), but I’m still not able to build the zap / access the “Advanced Utilities” options. Is there maybe a new(er) invite link I should be using? Thank you so much! 😀

plyco
Userlevel 1

Thanks for creating this brilliant tool @ikbelkirasan!

kris.howard

This tool is great, thank you so much!


Is it possible to rename the file being generated?  Currently it’s coming through as “output.csv” but ideally, I’d like this filename to be unique and contain the current day’s date.

N
Userlevel 1
Badge

Hi @ikbelkirasan!

Got a question, maybe you can help.

I use “Export to CSV” and “Input Type: Line Items”. I have around 50 line items and get a 400 error when testing with data that contains danish characters (æ,ø,å) in keys and values. Can you imagine a way I can get through with this? 

Weirdly, if I test with just a few line items containing danish characters, I get no errors. 

 

Jayden - Polygon Web Solutions
Userlevel 1
Badge

Awesome work @ikbelkirasan! 

Jayden | Polygon Web Solutions
L

Could you possibly provide a bit more guidance around the second step of converting to a CSV?

Sorry am very new to this so wondering where your line items have come from in the example and how the previous step fits into this one?

Thank you

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@ikbelkirasan 

Thought: Include the links to the reference articles for Moment.js, etc. as part of the Zap steps for easier access and reference.

⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@ikbelkirasan 

Just found this!

Zapier needs more of these handy type of utilities as apps.

Thanks a bunch!

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

Hi @ikbelkirasan 

 

Thanks for this awesome add-on.

However, I’m getting an error when exporting to CSV File using a specific JSON input:

 

Got 400 - <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><Error><Code>MalformedPOSTRequest</Code><Message>The body of your POST request is not well-formed multipart/form-data.</Message><RequestId>9A94538C0DA3B304</RequestId><HostId>7+t+SBjyWOQcFRbibJsu50paYNl6ajNu30KMcNquQ55VW+y9uVYewwcZLMC4Ckpyg1hNuEenym0=</HostId></Error>

 

My first suspicion was whether the JSON string was broken or had special characters, but I confirmed it’s valid and your add-on actually is able to generate a CSV string as output using that same JSON input. It’s only when I select the File output that I get the above error.

 

Another specific detail about this JSON payload is that it’s considerably bigger than the rest of the payloads I tried so far. If I generate a CSV string output and I save it as txt, the file is around 450KB.

 

Any help would be really appreciated.

 

Thanks again!

 

 

 

ikbelkirasan
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Hi @gootecks@crosscounter.tv - Can you show me a screenshot of what you’re seeing? Advanced Utilities is currently a private app so you’ll need to open the invite link to have access to it. Once done, refresh the page and you’ll be able to select it in your zap. Make sure you don’t use it as the first step because it doesn’t have any triggers.

Ikbel | Building custom Zapier Apps | Want to build a custom Zapier app for an API? Visit our website: https://norapps.com Or email us at info@norapps.net
G
Userlevel 1

Thanks for the effort!  Advanced Utilities is exciting to me because of the CSV functionality!  However, the invite link seems to be broken and although it shows up in Zapier, it still says Invite Only .  Any ideas?

jphorn
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

Thanks for the great add-on!

E
Userlevel 1

@ikbelkirasan  I’m trying to create multiple subtasks in Asana from a google sheet which will list the subtasks and submit them via an Asana Batch API Request 

Thanks!

ikbelkirasan
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

@eden - Could you show me an example CSV and the expected JSON output so I can be sure we’re on the same page? Thanks!

Ikbel | Building custom Zapier Apps | Want to build a custom Zapier app for an API? Visit our website: https://norapps.com Or email us at info@norapps.net
E
Userlevel 1

@ikbelkirasan  Awesome!

I’m a bit of a newb - I’m wondering how it would work with Nested JSON to execute nested JSON requests

ikbelkirasan
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Hi @chrisboat and @eden - I’m going to add a CSV to JSON feature in the next few days. 

Ikbel | Building custom Zapier Apps | Want to build a custom Zapier app for an API? Visit our website: https://norapps.com Or email us at info@norapps.net
E
Userlevel 1

It did this very well. I just need it the other way around.

 

@ikbelkirasan I second this… I’m looking for something to Convert CSV to JSON (need it to Execute JSON API Requests - Typically I can use Webhooks by zapier ‘Form’, but not when it’s a nested request)

C
Userlevel 1
Badge

It did this very well. I just need it the other way around.

 

Reply


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