How can I use an existing Notion template with variables in a "Create New Database Item" action?

Hi @Blue Horizon 

Good question.

If the ability to select an existing template is not available, then you may have to explore using the Notion API.

Try using this Zap action: Notion - App Extensions

This has an AI assist.

@Blue Horizon @Troy Tessalone i’m trying this and getting defeated. is there any way y’all can share more details on what you were able to build & how? 😅🙏

@m_ocra 

Might be best to post your own topic with screenshots to provide more context about your steps and configuration.

that’s fair thank you! TLDR, i kept getting “invalid JSON” from Notion’s API in my test but finally got it working by adding    

"children": [ preceding the { “object… 

in the body. not very well documented by Notion!

That's an amazing news @m_ocra! Thank you for sharing the solution to the error you were running into. This will be helpful to other members in our community who might encounter a similar issue when using the API Request (Beta) for Notion

Happy Zapping! 

@m_ocra any chance you can share a more complete picture of how you solved this? I cannot figure out how to create a new page in a database and apply a template to it upon creation. I found this in a thread on Reddit from Oct ‘23 and would love to solve this for my own needs.

'The Notion API doesn't support applying database templates to new pages.'

@donovan sensitive info is covered by the obnoxious black shapes in screenshots, sorry

i used a combination of the `content` field in the “Create Database Item in Notion” step, plus 2 custom actions. the custom actions each create one block on the Notion page created in step 4; through this combination i effectively get a templated page.

https://zapier.com/app/extensions as a non-technical person i did have to have an engineer help me get this over the finish line when building custom actions. good luck with notion’s documentation!

Hi @m_ocra, 

Awesome workaround. Thank you for contributing the solution to our Community. We appreciate the step-by-step guide on how you get things done. 

Thanks for the details and screenshots @m_ocra I appreciate it. I’ll be exploring this soon.