Google Form file attachment fails to send to Slack channel

  • 3 October 2023
  • 14 replies
  • 118 views

Userlevel 1

Hello!

I try to link a file from my google form to a slack channel. But the file attached in the google form just ends up in a troubleshoot. Is there anybody with some experience about this?

 

/Linus


14 replies

Userlevel 1

I will add that it does not work with google sheets either

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hi @linus16,

Welcome to the Community! 🎉

Just to get a clearer picture, could you share a bit more about what's happening with the file you attached to the Google Form? Does it show an error when you try sending it to Slack?

And if you don't mind, a screenshot of your Zap setup would be super helpful. It'll give us a better idea of what might be going on.

Please don't include personal information in the screenshot, or be sure blur out any personal information.

Looking forward to hearing from you! 😊

Userlevel 1

Hi,

 

Thanks for that!
 

In my first attempt, it was just an error. I used the troubleshoot AI and it guided me to the problem - everyone else could not get access to the link a there for there was an error. But now, it shows an error without explanation. And when I take file away, it works fine. If I add the fil again, the file shows upp in a mysterious code in slack. It does still error, but works.

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hi there @linus16,

Thanks for the screenshots and update.

I noticed a little hiccup in the “File” field of your “Send Channel Message” step. It's expecting a direct download URL. Does your Google Forms give out this direct URL for the file? If it does, could you try mapping that URL to the "File" field?

More about sending files through Zap here: https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496288813453-Send-files-in-Zaps

Please keep us posted! 😊

Userlevel 1

Hi,

 

Tryed to use a Google Sheet to get the URL, but it did not work. Same result.

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hi @linus16,

I appreciate the update.

It looks like the file link you are using is not a direct download URL. Does your Google Forms/Google Sheets returns the direct download URL of the file? If so, could you please try using the direct download URL instead?

Please let me know if that works.

 

Userlevel 1

Hi @ken.a !

 

The link does work when I convert it to a download file. The issue still remains that I don’t want to be part of the process when the form answers sends out to slack. Is it possible to automat that process to?

 

/Linus

Userlevel 1

I would need a plug in from “Google Drive Direct Link Generator”.

 

In that case.

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hi there @linus16,

We probably need to add a Formatter by Zapier step for this to be possible. I have replicated your workflow, and here’s what I’ve achieved so far:

  1. Add a Text in Formatter step as your 2nd step.
  2. Choose the “Replace” function.
  3. Copy and paste this to the “Find” field: open?id=
  4. Copy and paste this to the “Replace” field: uc?export=download&id=
    94abbf954ef34ce4f5de56c455d8db9f.png
    (view larger)
  5. Test the Formatter step.
  6. Map the output of the Formatter step to the “File” field in your “Send Channel Message” step.
    77c985296c0c34f4bb4c409d4f2554d4.png
    (view larger)
     
  7. Result:
    08734d0b57d8b383e9fbbf045585c654.png
    (view larger)

Please give that a try, and let me know how it goes.

Userlevel 1

Thanks for all your help.

Appreciate it!

One more question, if I would like to tagg a person in slack chatts, how would I set up that?

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hi @linus16,

You are most welcome!

You can @ mention a user in Slack by following the instructions on our help article here:

https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496025607181-Tips-for-formatting-Slack-messages#mentions-and-notifications-0-6

Hopefully, this helps! 😊

Userlevel 1

Hi!

Thanks for the tip.
The issue still remains unfortunately.

The person who is meant to be tagged does not know about it.
I’ll explain more detailed.

​​​​​​1. A random person fill out the form and refer to a member in the slack group (doesn’t have the slack ID)
2. Therefore, I would need some setting or AI to scan our slack group to match the referred name with the slack ID.

It is hard to explain, but do you understand what I am talking about?

Is there any solution?

/Linus

Userlevel 1

Is there any way I can get the message in a draft and schedule it to a specific time. Every time a new form is fill out, it just get the same scheduled time, but for the next week?

/Linus

Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Hi there @linus16! 👋

There’s a Find User by Name search action available for Slack. Perhaps you could add that to the Zap to take the name the person entered in the form to search for the relevant Slack User? 

There’s a field called Schedule At on the Send Channel Message action which could be used to have the message sent at a specific time:
8c2f9e5eb961044751fa12bec417c721.png
It’s a date field so you could use modifiers to dynamically adjust the date. See our Adjust date and time values in Zaps guide for more details.

Hope that helps to get you pointed in the right direction. If I’ve misunderstood or you run into any issues on the above suggestions just let us know! 🙂

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