Zapier Actions

Zapier is a complex action and a number of steps are required to get everything working properly.

Create a Zap

To begin, make sure you have a Zapier account. Then you’ll want to start by setting up a new Zap with a webhook:

1. Create a new zap by clicking the red Make a Zap!
   
2. Find and click the Webhooks icon in the Built-in Apps section.
3. Choose Catch Hook to tell Zapier to wait for communications from Uncanny Automator, then click Save + Continue.
4. Leave the Pick off a Child Key option blank for now; click Continue.
5. Zapier will now show you a URL that we’ll need over in your Automator Recipe. Copy that URL and keep it in your clipboard. Keep the Zapier window open and switch back to WordPress in another tab or window.

Create an Automator Recipe

Create your Automator recipe next:

1. Create your new Automator recipe and add Zapier as an action. Choose Send data to Zapier webhook.
2. Click the webhook box in the action to set the webhook parameters.
3. In the URL field, paste the URL you copied over from Zapier.
   
4. Leave the Request method as default (POST).
5. If you want to change Data format, select it from the dropdown. Otherwise, leave this as default (JSON).
6. If you want to pass Headers to Zapier, add them as Key and Value pairs. Otherwise, leave this as default.
7. If you want to pass data from WordPress to Zapier, enter match Key and Value fields in the Body section. Think of a Key as a label for the value.
   1. Enter a text label in the Key field first.
   2. For Values, you will probably want to pass in dynamic data related to the user and WordPress environment. To choose variables, click the * symbol to the right of the value. You’ll see drop-down lists for common tokens as well as tokens related to the triggers in the recipe. An example of a common token is the user’s name, as it can be used in any recipe; a recipe token might be the name of a course associated with a course completion trigger. Choose a token to include by clicking it. You’ll see something like “{{user_firstname}}”. Make sure that you do not make any changes to the token format.
8. If you want to pass nested data from WordPress to Zapier, enter Keys as a parent/child pair, separated by forward-slash / in the Body section. Ensure that Data format is set to JSON.
9. If you want to preview your outgoing data, click Check data format.
10. If you want to send a test webhook, click Send test.
11. Save the action. Now switch the action from Draft to Live.  Don’t forget to set your triggers and the recipe to live as well.

Set up the webhook in Zapier

Finish setting up the webhook in Zapier:

1. If you switch back to Zapier you should see a new sample in your zap. This means your test worked! If you don’t see the sample or you didn’t perform testing in #6 above, you won’t see a sample. Samples are helpful though if you did pass over keys and values. Click Continue.
2. Now that the trigger has been set up and is working, you need to choose a Zapier action. Choose any action app from the Zapier list.
3. The next steps depend on what app you used. If you previously set keys and values over on the WordPress side, you can click the icons to the right of Zapier fields to choose the data you passed from WordPress.
4. Click Continue after defining all parameters for the action.
5. Complete the final test Zapier recommends or skip it.
6. Finish the zap, name it, and then turn your Zap on.

And that’s it! You now have a recipe that triggers an action in Zapier.

It is unfortunately a lot of steps to set up, but the end result is an extremely powerful way to connect your WordPress site with other apps.