Building Zapier Zaps

Modified on Wed, 25 Jun at 4:26 PM

In this article:

Basics for Setting Up a Trigger
Zapier Actions and Actionstep
Working with Custom Data Fields When Setting Up Zaps
Creating a Zap on a Certain Step Change

Zapier allows hundreds of cloud-based applications (including Actionstep Practice Management) to communicate with each other using "Zaps".

You create Zaps by connecting "Triggers" in one application to "Actions" in the other application. Then, when something changes in one application (for example, if a new appointment is created in Google Calendar) a "Trigger" is activated. The "Zap" connects the Trigger to an available "Action" in the other system (for example creating a file note). The Zap passes the related information from the Trigger to the Action (in this example, the details of the new appointment in the Google calendar). You can create your own Zap, or choose from a list of existing Zaps listed on the Zapier website.

To recap, in order to build a Zap, you need two things:

A trigger, or what needs to happen for the Zap to start. For example, you may want to send an email to your assistant every time you create a filenote. Your trigger is New Filenote.
An action, or what needs to happen after the trigger occurs. To continue with the example, you may want the Zapier action send an email of the filenote.

CAUTION: Please ensure you always have only one connection to your Actionstep account. Multiple links to the same Actionstep account may cause authentication issues.

Before you begin:

Install the Zapier integration here and choose which apps you want to connect. (Refer to the Zapier help for complete instructions.)
Make sure you're signed in to Zapier and both applications you want to connect.
When you sign in to Zapier and select your applications, you will see a list of published Triggers and Actions supported by those applications.
Refer to the Zapier help system for complete and up-to-date instructions. The information here is provided as a courtesy and may be outdated as other non-Actionstep systems make updates.

Basics for Setting Up a Trigger

These instructions provide a high-level overview of how to create Zaps in Zapier. Please refer to the Zapier help for full instructions.

To create a Zap:

In Zapier, create or edit the Zap you are working with.
On the page showing your Zap, click the Trigger event step you want to set up and complete the requested information (i.e., choose your App, Trigger event, and Account (which will require sign-in).
Click Continue and Test the trigger.
Click the Action event and set up what you want to happen when the Trigger is enabled. (Follow the instructions in Steps 2-3).
Optionally, to add a filter, delay, loop, or path after the trigger or event, click the plus icon below it and choose Flow controls. Then choose from the options:
- Delay: Delays the zap from continuing until a certain amount of time or a date and time of your choosing.
- Filter: Will filter the information to obtain what you want for example you may only want your zap to continue if the Matter Type = Conveyancing so you can filter out the results. In the example above we only want the zap to continue if the filenote is not a "System" filenote so we can enter a filter to state that only continue if Source does not equal System. That way the zap only runs if it is a user created file note.
- Looping: Lets you repeatedly run the steps.
- Paths: With higher-paid subscriptions of Zapier, you can add paths so if your Zap meets a certain condition, you continue down one path however if it meets a different condition it can proceed down a different path. Stops the need for multiple zaps.
Add as many Actions as you need by clicking the plus icon and choosing the required options.
Complete any remaining steps as covered in the Zapier help.

Zapier Actions and Actionstep
There are two different Actionstep types of Zapier Actions:
Finding Certain Information in Actionstep. Using the find function, you can find a contact, matter, matter custom field, retrieve a matter custom field value and find a tax code.
Creating a Certain Action in Actionstep.

Finding Certain Information in Actionstep

A Trigger can provide data about contacts, matters, custom matter data fields, and tax codes. For example, a new file note trigger shows the following information:

This example shows that the Linked Action ID (i.e., the matter the file note belongs to) is Matter: 89 and the filenote has been entered by Jane Smith who is linked participant ID: 28.

To find information about this matter, complete a find matter Action and search for the matter ID. This will provide more information about the matter itself that you can use in further Actions. This is the same for contacts, custom data fields, etc. as well.

NOTE: Custom data fields are explained more in-depth below in Working with Custom Data Fields When Setting Up Zaps.

Creating a Certain Action in Actionstep

Once you have found all the data you require to complete your action, your final step is to set up your final action.

Remember that you can "surface" any data you have found in any of your tasks. The following shows an example of the email that will be used to send the filenote.

Working with Custom Data Fields When Setting Up Zaps

Custom data fields can be a little tricky to understand. While Practice Management supports two kinds (custom matter data and custom participant data) only custom matter data fields are available in Zapier.

There are three actions that you’ll likely find most useful. It's recommended you use them in the order shown below:

Find a Custom Matter Field
Retrieve a Custom Matter Field Value
Update Matter Custom Field Value

1. Find Matter Custom Field

The first Action to use is the Find Matter Custom Field action. This allows you to locate and retrieve the unique identifier for a custom data field based on its name. The retrieved unique identifier will be used as input to the Retrieve Matter Custom Field Value action (described below).

Select the Find Matter Custom Field action.
Specify the name of the custom data field you want to retrieve. This is the name of the custom data field in Actionstep.
Execute the Action to retrieve the custom data field's unique identifier (highlighted in the red box).

2. Retrieve Matter Custom Field Value

The next action to use is the Retrieve Matter Custom Field action. This retrieves the current value of a custom data field for a specified Matter.

Select the Retrieve Matter Custom Field action.
Select the unique identifier of the custom data field from Step 1 above, and specify the required Matter id.
Execute the action to retrieve the custom data field's current value and unique identifier (highlighted in the red box).

3. Update Matter Custom Field Value

The final action (which is optional depending upon your requirements) is to update the value of the custom data field for the associated Matter. This takes as inputs the unique identifier from the Retrieve Matter Custom Field action and the value you want to store.

Select the Update Matter Custom Field Value action.
Select the unique identifier of the custom data field value from step 1 above, and specify the value you want to store.
Execute the action to update the custom data field's value (highlighted in the red box).

Summary

By using the three Zapier actions described above, you can either retrieve the text of a custom data field or update the text of a custom data field.

NOTE: In order to retrieve the value of a custom data field, it must exist even if it is null. This means that if you create a new matter that has custom data fields but those custom data fields have not been saved (even if they are blank) then Zapier can't retrieve the string value as it does not yet exist. To correct this problem add the custom data fields to the start step (or an earlier step to when the zap will take place) so that the user has the option of entering the custom data fields on that step (even if they are left blank) and this means that Zapier will then be able to retrieve the matter custom data.|

How-To Video

Creating a Zap on a Certain Step Change

Another tricky piece of data to find is the Step Change ID when you want to filter a Zap to trigger only on a certain step change.

For example, let's say you only want a Zap to trigger when an Estate Planning matter is closed. The trigger you want to add is Matter Step Change, which provides the following data:

In this example, the Linked Step ID shows which step the matter has been changed to. If you want to limit it to a particular step on a particular matter type, you need to filter it:

In this example, the Zap should only continue if the Step ID exactly matches the closed step ID in the Wills Matter Type. The easiest way to find this is to create a Wills Matter and move along the workflow until you get to the step you want to use as the trigger. In this example, it is the Closed step.

Then, look at the URL to find the ID look in your web browser to see the address - the address will give you the information you require:

The action_id is 96 and the step_number is 1. (Do not use the node_id.)

This means the Linked Step ID you'd want to use to trigger the zap is 96--1 (including the two dashes).