I have created a workflow that currently has about 20 steps that solves a real world problem when integrating a specific front-end with a specific back-end, and this workflow would take care of the missing CRM management and fulfilment pieces.
It works great and I was intending to sell this as a done-for-you solution with the template, plus HOWTO doc, plus video tutorial so that it was as easy as possible for less techy people to implementing and use.
Today I tried to go through the ‘share template’ process and realised my plan was built on sand - you can’t share any workflow that uses the Path action! Really? I tried using the inbuild copilot to come up with alternatives but frankly its knowledge of Zapier is shocking and it didn’t come up with anything useful.
I’m here as a last ditch approach really … is the template system really this limited that there’s no way to share a ready-made complex template? Is it on the roadmap? Are there other approaches that would achieve the same end-result for the customer of “here’s a thing, and there’s minimal messing you need to do to get it to work”?
The alternatives I’ve investigated so far:
- Just provide instructions for the user on how to configure each of the 20+ steps in the workflow. This will be my last resort, and I will explore different tooling (such as Make or even writing my own SaaS) before considering this!
- (following copilot advice) see if there’s a way to rework with ‘filter’ and no ‘path’. There isn’t. Parallelism is not important, but choice of processing path based on some condition of the webhook trigger is.
- (following copilot advice) break into steps where one Zap writes the request to a table and multiple other Zaps are triggered from that, and they each do one ‘path’ of the logic. Seems achievable but the only way I found to handle JSON from a table is to use Text Formatter (!). Is this true? There’s no way I’m using the equivalent of ‘find in string’ to manually parse a complex structure JSON document.
Please help! Any advice or am I really out of luck with Zapier?
Hi
Help links for sharing Zap templates: https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496292155405-Share-a-template-of-your-Zap
Limitations
- Zap templates include all steps and their app and app event selections. They do not include any values you've entered into fields.
- If you turn off sharing for a Zap, anyone who already had the link will see a message informing them that sharing has been disabled for the Zap, with options to browse other Zap ideas or create their own Zap.
- Zaps with paths, code steps, private apps, legacy apps, legacy triggers, or legacy actions cannot be shared as copies.
- Accounts on a Free Legacy plan can’t share Zaps that use Webhooks by Zapier. Review your plan.
- By default, shared Zaps are visible through their sharing link, and will appear on pages related to the apps used in the Zap. Your connected accounts, Zap history and data will not be shared.
Hard for us to advise on alternative approaches without context about how the Zap steps are outlined and configured with the logic for the paths and filters.
Is it on the roadmap?
Zapier does not share their roadmaps for products.
JSON
If you are trying to parse JSON, you can use the Codes Zap app: https://zapier.com/apps/code/integrations#help
Hey
You can also try contacting the Zapier support for feedback or feature request from here- https://zapier.com/app/get-help. Hope it helps!
Hey Troy
Appreciate the response.
> Hard for us to advise on alternative approaches without context about how the Zap steps are outlined and configured with the logic for the paths and filters.
Webhook triggers the workflow, the payload is *not* homomorphic and will vary depending on one of the values in the payload - let’s call it ‘type’.
Essentially the rest of the workflow is about pathing based on the value of type, and then potentially another level of branching within each type branch based on some value that will be the payload for that type.
I log the payload to Zapier Tables (raw JSON) as one of the first steps but storing the payload expanded into all fields is not feasible. My experiments included trying to retrieve this raw JSON in different workflows and rehydrate it into an object but that doesn’t seem to be supported.
> Zapier does not share their roadmaps for products.
Good to know - but a shame!
> If you are trying to parse JSON, you can use the Codes Zap
Yes, but Codes can also not be shared as a template right? This is the ultimate goal - something that can be shared.
Help link that covers the limitations of sharing Zap templates: https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496292155405-Share-a-template-of-your-Zap
Best to show and tell, meaning include screenshots showing how your Zap steps are outlined to give us true context, as automation is all about the details.
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