Posting to Zapier: Quick Start Guide

This article describes the steps to utilize Zapier with the Forth CRM. Zapier is a third-party platform that takes the request or post from one system and then formats it into another system’s expected format. 

The article is organized into the following sections:

• Overview
• Creating a Catch Hook in Zapier
• Zapier Connection to the CRM
• Formulating the post to Zapier
• For More Information

Overview

By connecting your CRM with Zapier, you can post information from Forth to various other platforms that Zapier connects to. This guide aims to help you formulate your first post into Zapier so that you can connect your Forth instance to a platform that Forth is not natively integrated with.

This process will require you to have an account with Zapier; you can create an account directly on their website (https://zapier.com).

Creating a Catch Hook in Zapier

Begin by logging into your Zapier account and clicking the “Create” button on the top left-hand side of the page.

Upon clicking "Create", the following dropdown option appears. Please choose your option.

You will then be taken to a new "Zaps" page that will look similar to the page below. Go to the middle of the page and click Trigger (highlighted below in purple).

You will be presented with options, such as the ones shown in the image below.

Click Utilities in the left sidebar (see below) and then scroll down to the end of the page and select Webhooks.

You will then be presented with a "Select the Event" popup. 

Click the Trigger event* dropdown menu, and select Catch Hook from the dropdown menu (see purple highlight above).

Once the Event choice is complete, proceed by clicking the “Continue" button.

Now click Continue once again, after clicking "Continue" for the second time, you are brought to a page with a custom webhook URL that has been generated for you (see the red highlighted area in the image below). Click the "Copy" button on the right side of the page to have it available.

NOTE: Consider pasting the webhook URL into a blank note/document in case you need to use it again in the future.

Zapier Connection to the CRM

The Webhook URL needs to be input in the CRM, on the "Create a WebHook" setup page (accessible by clicking on the Contacts tab, selecting "Webhooks" from the Navigation Bar, and then completing the  "Create a Webhook" page).

Once the URL is inserted, go to the "Method" dropdown menu and select “post”. Make sure you complete all required fields on this page, such as "WebHook Title". Additionally, you can choose which users or teams have access to this webhook by choosing them in the “Shared With” option just above the "Save WebHook" button.  Click the green "Save WebHook" button found at the bottom of the page to continue. 

You should receive a confirmation image at the bottom of the page stating that the WebHook creation was successful. 

Formulating the post to Zapier

Return to your Zapier.com page. You should have an option to “Test Trigger". 

If successful, you will see a page similar to the one shown below. Click "Continue" to continue with this process.

If unsuccessful, you will see the following page.

If preferred, you can click Skip test (see above) and click Continue.

Before you can test, return to your webhook in the CRM and first set up some fields to post over into Zapier.

Begin adding some fields in the "Add Fields to Webhook" section, and mapping them to their correct CRM field. For detailed steps on configuring webhook fields please consult our webhooks article: WebHooks.

In this example, we send the contact's first name, last name, email, and contact ID. 

Once you have the fields you would like to push to Zapier on the post, navigate to a contact record and execute the webhook you just created.

Back on the webhook setup page in the CRM for your post, in the “results” section you should see an array response that has a success in the result. Below is an example of what that response can look like: 

<pre>Array

(

    [id] => 48516498

    [post_id] => 8442

    [contact_id] => 290583037

    [stamp] => 2019-10-23 16:11:33

    [http_code] => 

    [result] => {"status": "success", "attempt": "5db0c205-f4b7-475d-8ecb-e06e3006e2e0", "id": "efb4b5a5-8dfe-4c00-91a2-8152869f34e7", "request_id": "5db0c205-f4b7-475d-8ecb-e06e3006e2e0"}

)

</pre>

This is a response from Zapiers system confirming that the post we just configured and pushed to them was successfully received. Please note, any error messages that you see would need to be resolved through Zapier’s support resources.

Back in Zapier, you can now choose “test and review” to see the information that the CRM passed over. If any information is missing, you can add it to the webhook in the CRM and execute more posts to Zapier and click “get more samples” to see more posts into Zapier. Subsequent tests will be labeled as “Hook B,” “Hook C,” etc. 

In the above example “Hook B” is the post that had all the information needed to proceed forward. 

For More Information

You have now successfully configured your CRM to post data into Zapier. At this point (from step 2 onward in Zapier) consult Zapier’s support materials to format your Zap to post to the system or service of your choice. Visit https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us for more information.

Article Version History: