Zapier actions

Zapier connects thousands of apps through automated workflows called Zaps. The Send data to Zapier webhook action passes data from a recipe into a Zap, so anything a recipe can detect on your WordPress site can update an app that Uncanny Automator does not integrate with directly. No account connection is needed inside Uncanny Automator: the recipe and the Zap are linked by a webhook URL. This article covers creating the Zap, adding and testing the action, and finishing the Zap. To start a recipe from Zapier instead, see Incoming Webhook Triggers.

Create the Zap

Start in Zapier, so that Zapier gives you the address to send data to. You need a Zapier account.

1. In Zapier, click Create a Zap in the left menu.
2. For the trigger, search for and choose Webhooks by Zapier.

3. Choose the event Catch Hook, which makes the Zap wait for data from Uncanny Automator, and click Continue.
4. Leave Pick off a Child Key blank and click Continue.
5. On the Test tab, copy the webhook URL with Copy. Keep the Zapier tab open and switch to your WordPress site in another tab.

Add the action to a recipe

1. Open the recipe at Automator > Recipes, or create one from Automator > Add new recipe, and add its trigger; see Creating a recipe.
2. Click the + at the end of the flow. In the picker, search for Zapier, select it, then select Send data to Zapier webhook.
3. In the Set up step, paste the Zapier webhook URL into URL.
4. Request method opens on POST; keep it. The Data format field below it is set to JSON; leave it unless your Zap needs the other format on offer, x-www-form-urlencoded.
5. Leave Authorization empty, and keep the Headers row the action adds (Accept, application/json) as it is. Fill in Authorization or add headers only if your Zap expects them. Authorization takes an authorization string that is added to the request header and masked once you save. To add a header, click Add header and fill in its Name and Value.
6. In Body, click Add pair for each piece of data to send. Key is the label Zapier will see, Data type is the type of the value (Text for names and email addresses), and Value is the data. For data from the event, click the ∗ button at the end of the Value field and pick a token: common tokens such as the user’s first name work in every recipe, and trigger tokens such as a course title come from the recipe’s triggers. The token appears in the field as a chip with its name, such as User first name.

To send nested data, write the key as a path with a forward slash between the levels, for example user/email and user/name, and keep Data format on JSON. For every field of this action, see Webhook Actions.

7. Click Test. The Test step offers Validate data format, which is optional and shows the exact payload without sending it, and Send webhook, which sends a real request to Zapier. Run Send webhook: Zapier needs this sample to map your keys. Token values are not replaced during a test, so the placeholders arrive in Zapier as written. See Testing triggers and actions.
8. Click Save changes. To skip the test, click Save without testing instead; the action still runs normally.
9. Make sure the action and the trigger are On, then switch Recipe on in the top bar.

Finish the Zap

1. Back in Zapier, on the trigger’s Test tab, click Test trigger. Zapier finds the sample from your Send webhook test; if you skipped the test, run the recipe once first so that Zapier receives a sample. Then click Continue.

2. In the action step, choose the action app and its event on the Setup tab.
3. On the Configure tab, insert the data you sent from WordPress in the action’s fields: Zapier lists the keys from your sample.
4. On the Test tab, click Test step, or Skip test.
5. Click Publish in the upper right to turn the Zap on.

From now on, each time the recipe’s triggers complete, the action sends the data and the Zap runs.

Related: Webhook Actions, Incoming Webhook Triggers, Testing triggers and actions, Managing tokens