Zapier Platform CLI
Zapier is a platform for creating integrations and workflows. This CLI is your gateway to creating custom applications on the Zapier platform.
These docs are available here and the CLI docs are available here.
Table of Contents
Getting Started
What is an App?
A CLI App is an implementation of your app's API. You build a Node.js application
that exports a sinlge object (JSON Schema) and upload it to Zapier.
Zapier introspects that definition to find out what your app is capable of and
what options to present end users in the Zap Editor.
For those not familiar with Zapier terminology, here is how concepts in the CLI
map to the end user experience:
- Authentication, (usually) which lets us know what credentials to ask users
for. This is used during the "Connect Accounts" section of the Zap Editor.
- Triggers, which read data from your API. These have theior own section in the Zap Editor.
- Creates, which send data to your API to create new records. These are listed under "Actions" in the Zap Editor.
- Searches, which find specific records in your system. These are also listed under "Actions" in the Zap Editor.
- Resources, which define an object type in your API (say a contact) and the operations available to perform on it. Tehse are automatically extracted into Triggers, Searches, and Creates.
How does the CLI Platform Work
Zapier takes the App you upload and sends it over to Amazon Web Service's Lambda.
We then make calls to execute the operations your App defines as we execute Zaps.
Your App takes the input data we provide (if any), makes the necessary HTTP calls,
and returns the relevant data, which gets fed back into Zapier.
CLI vs the Web Builder Platform
From a user perspective, both the CLI and the existing web builder platform offer the same experience. The biggest difference is how they're developed. The CLI takes a much more code-first approach, allowing you develop your Zapier app just like you would any other programming project. The web builder, on the other hand, is much better for folks who want to make an app with minimal coding involved. Both will continue to coexist, so pick whichever fits your needs best!
Requirements
All Zapier CLI apps are run using Node.js v4.3.2
.
You can develop using any version of Node you'd like, but your code has to run on Node v4.3.2
. You can accomplish this by developing on your preferred version and then transpiling with Babel (or similar).
To ensure stability for our users, we also require that you run your tests on v4.3.2
as well. If you don't have it available, we recommend using either nvm or n to install v4.3.2
and run the tests locally.
For NVM on Mac (via homebrew):
brew install nvm
nvm install v4.3.2
You can then either swap to that version with nvm use v4.3.2
, or do nvm exec v4.3.2 zapier test
so you can run tests without having to switch versions while developing.
Quick Setup Guide
Be sure to check the Requirements before you start! Also, we recommend the Tutorial for a more thorough introduction.
First up is installing the CLI and setting up your auth to create a working "Zapier Example" application. It will be private to you and visible in your live Zap editor.
npm install -g zapier-platform-cli
zapier login
Your Zapier CLI should be installed and ready to go at this point. Next up, we'll create our first app!
zapier init example-app
cd example-app
npm install
Note: there are plenty of templates & example apps to choose from! View all Example Apps here.
You should now have a working local app. You can run several local commands to try it out.
zapier test
Next, you'll probably want to upload app to Zapier itself so you can start testing live.
zapier push
Go check out our full CLI reference documentation to see all the other commands!
Tutorial
For a full tutorial, head over to our wiki for a comprehensive walkthrough for creating your first app. If this isn't your first rodeo, read on!
Creating a Local App
Tip: check the Quick Setup if this is your first time using the platform!
Creating an App can be done entirely locally and they are fairly simple Node.js apps using the standard Node environment and should be completely testable. However, a local app stays local until you zapier register
.
mkdir zapier-example
cd zapier-example
zapier init . --template=trigger
npm install
If you'd like to manage your local App, use these commands:
zapier init . --template=resource
- initialize/start a local app projectzapier convert 1234 .
- initialize/start from an existing app (alpha)zapier scaffold resource Contact
- auto-injects a new resource, trigger, etc.zapier test
- run the same tests as npm test
zapier validate
- ensure your app is validzapier describe
- print some helpful information about your app
Local Project Structure
In your app's folder, you should see this general recommended structure. The index.js
is Zapier's entry point to your app. Zapier expects you to export an App
definition there.
$ tree .
.
├── README.md
├── index.js
├── package.json
├── triggers
│ └── contact-by-tag.js
├── resources
│ └── Contact.js
├── test
│ ├── basic.js
│ ├── triggers.js
│ └── resources.js
├── build
│ └── build.zip
└── node_modules
├── ...
└── ...
Local App Definition
The core definition of your App
will look something like this, and is what your index.js
should provide as the only export:
const App = {
version: require('./package.json').version,
platformVersion: require('zapier-platform-core').version,
authentication: {
},
hydrators: {
},
requestTemplate: {
},
beforeRequest: [
],
afterResponse: [
],
resources: {
},
triggers: {
},
searches: {
},
creates: {
}
};
module.export = App;
Tip: you can use higher order functions to create any part of your App definition!
Registering an App
Registering your App with Zapier is a necessary first step which only enables basic administrative functions. It should happen before zapier push
which is to used to actually expose an App Version in the Zapier interface and editor.
zapier register "Zapier Example"
zapier apps
Note: this doesn't put your app in the editor - see the docs on pushing an App Version to do that!
If you'd like to manage your App, use these commands:
zapier apps
- list the apps in Zapier you can administerzapier register "Name"
- creates a new app in Zapierzapier link
- lists and links a selected app in Zapier to your current folderzapier history
- print the history of your appzapier collaborate [user@example.com]
- add admins to your app who can pushzapier invite [user@example.com]
- add users to try your app before promotion
Deploying an App Version
An App Version is related to a specific App but is an "immutable" implementation of your app. This makes it easy to run multiple versions for multiple users concurrently. By default, every App Version is private but you can zapier promote
it to production for use by over 1 million Zapier users.
zapier push
zapier versions
If you'd like to manage your Version, use these commands:
zapier versions
- list the versions for the current directory's appzapier push
- push the current version the of current directory's app & version (read from package.json
)zapier promote [1.0.0]
- mark a version as the "production" versionzapier migrate [1.0.0] [1.0.1] [100%]
- move users between versions, regardless of deployment statuszapier deprecate [1.0.0] [YYYY-MM-DD]
- mark a version as deprecated, but let users continue to use it (we'll email them)zapier env 1.0.0 [KEY] [value]
- set an environment variable to some value
Private App Version (default)
A simple zapier push
will only create the App Version in your editor. No one else using Zapier can see it or use it.
Sharing an App Version
This is how you would share your app with friends, co-workers or clients. This is perfect for quality assurance, testing with active users or just sharing any app you like.
zapier invite user@example.com
zapier collaborate user@example.com
You can also invite anyone on the internet to your app by observing the URL at the bottom of zapier invite
, it should look something like https://zapier.com/platform/public-invite/1/222dcd03aed943a8676dc80e2427a40d/
. You can put this in your help docs, post it to Twitter, add it to your email campaign, etc.
Promoting an App Version
Promotion is how you would share your app with every one of the 1 million+ Zapier users. If this is your first time promoting - you may have to wait for the Zapier team to review and approve your app.
If this isn't the first time you've promoted your app - you might have users on older versions. You can zapier migrate
to either move users over (which can be dangerous if you have breaking changes). Or, you can zapier deprecate
to give users some time to move over themselves.
zapier promote 1.0.1
zapier migrate 1.0.0 1.0.1
zapier deprecate 1.0.0 2017-01-01
Converting an Existing App
Warning! This is in a very alpha state - the immediate goal is to provide some basic structure to match an existing application. It will not even get close to a working copy of your existing app (yet).
If you have an existing application (nominally named "V2") on https://zapier.com/developer/builder/ you can use it as a template to kickstart your local application.
zapier convert 1234 .
You app will be created and you can continue working on it.
Note - there is no way to convert a CLI app to a V2 app and we do not plan on implementing this.
Authentication
Most applications require some sort of authentication - and Zapier provides a handful of methods for helping your users authenticate with your application. Zapier will provide some of the core behaviors, but you'll likely need to handle the rest.
Hint: You can access the data tied to your authentication via the bundle.authData
property in any method called in your app.
Basic
Useful if your app requires two pieces of information to authentication: username
and password
which only the end user can provide. By default, Zapier will do the standard Basic authentication base64 header encoding for you (via an automatically registered middleware).
Note: if you do the common API Key pattern like Authorization: Basic APIKEYHERE:x
you should look at the "Custom" authentication method instead.
const authentication = {
type: 'basic',
test: {
url: 'https://example.com/api/accounts/me.json'
}
};
const App = {
authentication: authentication,
};
Custom
This is what most "API Key" driven apps should default to using. You'll likely provide some some custom beforeRequest
middleware or a requestTemplate
to complete the authentication by adding/computing needed headers.
const authentication = {
type: 'custom',
test: {
url: 'https://{{bundle.authData.subdomain}}.example.com/api/accounts/me.json'
},
fields: [
{key: 'subdomain', type: 'string', required: true, helpText: 'Found in your browsers address bar after logging in.'},
{key: 'api_key', type: 'string', required: true, helpText: 'Found on your settings page.'}
]
};
const addApiKeyToHeader = (request, z, bundle) => {
request.headers['X-Subdomain'] = bundle.authData.subdomain;
const basicHash = Buffer(`${bundle.authData.api_key}:x`).toString('base64');
request.headers.Authorization = `Basic ${basicHash}`;
return request;
};
const App = {
authentication: authentication,
beforeRequest: [
addApiKeyToHeader,
],
};
Digest
Very similar to the "Basic" authentication method above, but uses digest authentication instead of Basic authentication.
const authentication = {
type: 'digest',
test: {
url: 'https://example.com/api/accounts/me.json'
}
};
const App = {
authentication: authentication,
};
Session
Probably the most "powerful" mechanism for authentication - it gives you the ability to exchange some user provided data for some authentication data (IE: username & password for a session key).
const getSessionKey = (z, bundle) => {
const promise = z.request({
method: 'POST',
url: 'https://example.com/api/accounts/login.json',
body: {
username: bundle.authData.username,
password: bundle.authData.password,
}
});
return promise.then((response) => {
if (response.status === 401) {
throw new Error('The username/password you supplied is invalid');
}
return {
sessionKey: JSON.parse(response.content).sessionKey
};
});
};
const authentication = {
type: 'custom',
test: {
url: 'https://example.com/api/accounts/me.json'
},
fields: [
{key: 'username', type: 'string', required: true, helpText: 'Your login username.'},
{key: 'password', type: 'string', required: true, helpText: 'Your login password.'}
],
sessionConfig: {
perform: getSessionKey
}
};
const includeSessionKeyHeader = (request, z, bundle) => {
if (bundle.authData.sessionKey) {
request.headers = request.headers || {};
request.headers['X-Session-Key'] = bundle.authData.sessionKey;
}
return request;
};
const sessionRefreshIf401 = (response, z, bundle) => {
if (bundle.authData.sessionKey) {
if (response.status === 401) {
throw new z.errors.RefreshAuthError();
}
}
return response;
};
const App = {
authentication: authentication,
beforeRequest: [
includeSessionKeyHeader
],
afterResponse: [
sessionRefreshIf401
],
};
OAuth2
Zapier's OAuth2 implementation is based on the the authorization_code
flow, similar to GitHub and Facebook. It looks like this:
- Zapier sends the user to the authorization URL defined by your App
- Once authorized, your website sends the user to the
redirect_uri
Zapier provided (zapier describe
to find out what it is) - Zapier makes a call on the backend to your API to exchange the
code
for an access_token
- Zapier remembers the
access_token
and makes calls on behalf of the user - (Optionally) Zapier can refresh the token if it expires
You are required to define the authorization URL and the API call to fetch the access token. You'll also likely want to set your CLIENT_ID
and CLIENT_SECRET
as environment variables:
$ zapier env 1.0.0 CLIENT_ID 1234
$ zapier env 1.0.0 CLIENT_SECRET abcd
$ CLIENT_ID=1234 CLIENT_SECRET=abcd zapier test
Your auth definition would look something like this:
const authentication = {
type: 'oauth2',
test: {
url: 'https://example.com/api/accounts/me.json'
},
oauth2Config: {
authorizeUrl: {
method: 'GET',
url: 'https://example.com/api/oauth2/authorize',
params: {
client_id: '{{process.env.CLIENT_ID}}',
state: '{{bundle.inputData.state}}',
redirect_uri: '{{bundle.inputData.redirect_uri}}',
response_type: 'code'
}
},
getAccessToken: {
method: 'POST',
url: 'https://example.com/api/v2/oauth2/token',
body: {
code: '{{bundle.inputData.code}}',
client_id: '{{process.env.CLIENT_ID}}',
client_secret: '{{process.env.CLIENT_SECRET}}',
redirect_uri: '{{bundle.inputData.redirect_uri}}',
grant_type: 'authorization_code'
},
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
}
}
}
};
const addBearerHeader = (request, z, bundle) => {
request.headers.Authorization = `Bearer ${bundle.authData.access_token}`;
return request;
};
const App = {
authentication: authentication,
beforeRequest: [
addBearerHeader,
]
};
module.exports = App;
Resources
A resource
is a representation (as a JavaScript object) of one of the REST resources of your API. Say you have a /recipes
endpoint for working with recipes; you can define a recipe resource in your app that will tell Zapier how to do create,
read, and search operations on that resource.
const Recipe = {
key: 'recipe',
noun: 'Recipe',
list: {
},
create: {
}
};
The quickest way to create a resource is with the zapier scaffold
command:
zapier scaffold resource "Recipe"
This will generate the resource file and add the necessary statements to the index.js
file to import it.
Resource Definition
A resource has a few basic properties. The first is the key
, which allows Zapier to identify the resource on our backend.
The second is the noun
, the user-friendly name of the resource that is presented to users throughout the Zapier UI.
After those, there is a set of optional properties that tell Zapier what methods can be performed on the resource.
The complete list of available methods can be found in the Resource Schema Docs.
For now, let's focus on two:
list
- Tells Zapier how to fetch a set of this resource. This becomes a Trigger in the Zapier Editor.create
- Tells Zapier how to create a new instance of the resource. This becomes an Action in the Zapier Editor.
Here is a complete example of what the list method might look like
const listRecipesRequest = {
url: 'http://example.com/recipes'
};
const Recipe = {
list: {
display: {
label: 'New Recipe',
description: 'Triggers when a new recipe is added.'
},
operation: {
perform: listRecipesRequest
}
}
};
The method is made up of two properties, a display
and an operation
. The display
property (schema) holds the info needed to present the method as an available Trigger in the Zapier Editor. The operation
(schema) provides the implementation to make the API call.
Adding a create method looks very similar.
const createRecipeRequest = {
url: 'http://example.com/recipes',
method: 'POST',
body: {
name: 'Baked Falafel',
style: 'mediterranean'
}
};
const Recipe = {
list: {
},
create: {
display: {
label: 'Add Recipe',
description: 'Adds a new recipe to our cookbook.'
},
operation: {
perform: createRecipeRequest
}
}
};
Every method you define on a resource
Zapier converts to the appropriate Trigger, Create, or Search. Our examples
above would result in an app with a New Recipe Trigger and an Add Recipe Create.
Triggers, Searches, and Creates are the way an app defines what it is able to do. Triggers read
data into Zapier (i.e. watch for new recipes). Searches locate individual records (find recipe by title). Creates create
new records in your system (add a recipe to the catalog).
The definition for each of these follows the same structure. Here is an example of a trigger:
const recipeListRequest = {
url: 'http://example.com/recipes',
};
const App = {
triggers: {
new_recipe: {
key: 'new_recipe',
noun: 'Recipe',
display: {
label: 'New Recipe',
helpText: 'Triggers when a new recipe is added.'
},
operation: {
perform: recipeListRequest
}
},
another_trigger: {
}
}
};
You can find more details on the definition for each by looking at the Trigger Schema,
Search Schema, and Create Schema.
Fields
On each trigger, search, or create in the operation
directive - you can provide an array of objects as fields under the inputFields
. Fields are what your users would see in the main Zapier user interface. For example, you might have a "create contact" action with fields like "First name", "Last name", "Email", etc.
You can find more details on each and every field option at Field Schema.
Those fields have various options you can provide, here is a succinct example:
const App = {
creates: {
create_recipe: {
operation: {
inputFields: [
{key: 'title', required: true, label: 'Title of Recipe', helpText: 'Name your recipe!'},
{key: 'style', required: true, choices: {mexican: 'Mexican', italian: 'Italian'}}
],
perform: () => {}
}
}
}
};
Custom/Dynamic Fields
In some cases, it might be necessary to provide fields that are dynamically generated - especially for custom fields. This is a common pattern for CRMs, form software, databases and more. Basically - you can provide a function instead of a field and we'll evaluate that function - merging the dynamic fields with the static fields.
You should see bundle.inputData
partially filled in as users provide data - even in field retrieval. This allows you to build hierarchical relationships into fields (EG: only show issues from the previously selected project).
const recipeFields = (z, bundle) => {
const response = z.request('http://example.com/api/v2/fields.json');
return response.then(res => res.json);
};
const App = {
creates: {
create_recipe: {
operation: {
inputFields: [
{key: 'title', required: true, label: 'Title of Recipe', helpText: 'Name your recipe!'},
{key: 'style', required: true, choices: {mexican: 'Mexican', italian: 'Italian'}},
recipeFields
],
perform: () => {}
}
}
}
};
Additionally, if there is a field that affects the generation of dynamic fields, you can set the altersDynamicFields: true
property. This informs the Zapier UI that whenver the value of that field changes, fields need to be recomputed. An example could be a static dropdown of "dessert type" that will change whether the function that generates dynamic fields includes a field "with sprinkles."
module.exports = {
key: 'dessert',
noun: 'Dessert',
display: {
label: 'Order Dessert',
description: 'Orders a dessert.'
},
operation: {
inputFields: [
{key: 'type', required: true, choices: {1: 'cake', 2: 'ice cream', 3: 'cookie'}, altersDynamicFields: true},
function(z, bundle) {
if (bundle.inputData.type === '2') {
return [{key: 'with_sprinkles', type: 'boolean'}];
}
return [];
}
],
perform: function (z, bundle) {}
}
};
Dynamic Dropdowns
Sometimes, API endpoints require clients to specify a parent object in order to create or access the child resources. Imagine having to specify a company id in order to get a list of employees for that company. Since people don't speak in auto-incremented ID's, it is necessary that Zapier offer a simple way to select that parent using human readable handles.
Our solution is to present users a dropdown that is populated by making a live API call to fetch a list of parent objects. We call these special dropdowns "dynamic dropdowns."
To define one, you can provide the dynamic
property on your field to specify the trigger that should be used to populate the options for the dropdown. The value for the property is a dot-seperated concatination of a trigger's key, the field to use for the value, and the field to use for the label.
const App = {
resources: {
project: {
key: 'project',
list: {
operation: {
perform: () => { return [{id: 123, name: 'Project 1'}]; }
}
}
},
issue: {
key: 'issue',
create: {
operation: {
inputFields: [
{key: 'project_id', required: true, label: 'Project', dynamic: 'projectList.id.name'},
{key: 'title', required: true, label: 'Title', helpText: 'What is the name of the issue?'},
],
}
}
}
}
};
In the UI, users will see something like this:
Dynamic dropdowns are one of the few fields that automatically invalidate Zapier's field cache, so it is not necessary to set altersDynamicFields
to true for these fields.
Search-Powered Fields
For fields that take id of another object to create a relationship between the two (EG: a project id for a ticket), you can specify the search
property on the field to indicate that Zapier needs to prompt the user to setup a Search step to populate the value for this field. Similar to dynamic dropdowns, the value for this property is a dot-seperated concatination of a search's key and the field to use for the value.
const App = {
resources: {
project: {
key: 'project',
search: {
operation: {
perform: () => { return [{id: 123, name: 'Project 1'}]; }
}
}
},
issue: {
key: 'issue',
create: {
operation: {
inputFields: [
{key: 'project_id', required: true, label: 'Project', search: 'projectSearch.id'},
{key: 'title', required: true, label: 'Title', helpText: 'What is the name of the issue?'},
],
}
}
}
}
};
This can be combined with the dynamic
property to give the user a guided experience when setting up a Zap.
Z Object
We provide several methods off of the z
object, which is provided as the first argument to all function calls in your app.
The z
object is passed into your functions as the first argument - IE: perform: (z) => {}
.
z.request([url], options)
z.request([url], options)
is a promise based HTTP client with some Zapier-specific goodies. See Making HTTP Requests.
z.console(message)
z.console(message)
is a logging console, similar to Node.js console
but logs remotely, as well as to stdout in tests. See Log Statements
z.dehydrate(func, inputData)
z.dehydrate(func, inputData)
is used to lazily evaluate a function, perfect to avoid API calls during polling or for reuse. See Dehydration.
z.stashFile(bufferStringStream, [knownLength], [filename])
z.stashFile(bufferStringStream, [knownLength], [filename])
is a promise based file stasher that returns a URL file pointer. See Stashing Files.
z.JSON
z.JSON
is similar to the JSON built-in like z.JSON.parse('...')
, but catches errors and produces nicer tracebacks.
z.hash()
z.hash()
is a crypto tool for doing things like z.hash('sha256', 'my password')
z.errors
z.errors
is a collection error classes that you can throw in your code, like throw new z.errors.HaltedError('...')
.
The available errors are:
For more details on error handling in general, see here.
Bundle Object
This object holds the user's auth details and the data to for the API requests.
The bundle
object is passed into your functions as the second argument - IE: perform: (z, bundle) => {}
.
bundle.authData
bundle.authData
is user-provided authentication data, like api_key
or access_token
. Read more on authentication.
bundle.inputData
bundle.inputData
is user-provided data for this particular run of the trigger/search/create, as defined by the inputFields. For example:
{
createdBy: 'Bobby Flay'
style: 'mediterranean'
}
bundle.inputDataRaw
bundle.inputDataRaw
is kind of like inputData
, but before rendering {{curlies}}
:
{
createdBy: '{{chef_name}}'
style: '{{style}}'
}
bundle.meta
bundle.meta
is extra information useful for doing advanced behaviors depending on what the user is doing. It looks something like this:
{
frontend: false,
prefill: false,
hydrate: true,
test_poll: false,
standard_poll: true,
first_poll: false,
limit: -1,
page: 0,
}
For example - if you want to do pagination - you could do:
const getList = (z, bundle) => {
const promise = z.request({
url: 'http://example.com/api/list.json',
params: {
limit: 100,
offset: 100 * bundle.meta.page
}
});
return promise.then((response) => response.json);
};
Environment
Apps can define environment variables that are available when the app's code executes. They work just like environment
variables defined on the command line. They are useful when you have data like an OAuth client ID and secret that you
don't want to commit to source control. Environment variables can also be used as a quick way to toggle between a
a staging and production environment during app development.
It is important to note that variables are defined on a per-version basis! When you push a new version, the
existing variables from the previous version are copied, so you don't have to manually add them. However, edits
made to one version's environment will not affect the other versions.
Defining Environment Variables
To define an environment variable, use the env
command:
zapier env 1.0.0 MY_SECRET_VALUE 1234
You will likely also want to set the value locally for testing.
export MY_SECRET_VALUE=1234
Alternatively, we provide some extra tooling to work with an .environment
that looks like this:
MY_SECRET_VALUE=1234
And then in your test/index.js
file:
const zapier = require('zapier-platform-core');
should('some tests', () => {
zapier.tools.env.inject();
console.log(process.env.MY_SECRET_VALUE);
});
This is a popular way to provide process.env.ACCESS_TOKEN || bundle.authData.access_token
for convenient testing.
Accessing Environment Variables
To view existing environment variables, use the env
command.
zapier env 1.0.0
Within your app, you can access the environment via the standard process.env
- any values set via local export
or zapier env
will be there.
For example, you can access the process.env
in your perform functions:
const listExample = (z, bundle) => {
const httpOptions = {
headers: {
'my-header': process.env.MY_SECRET_VALUE
}
};
const response = z.request('http://example.com/api/v2/recipes.json', httpOptions);
return response.then(res => res.json);
};
const App = {
triggers: {
example: {
operation: {
perform: listExample
}
}
}
};
Note! Be sure to lazily access your environment variables - we generally set the environment variables after your code is already loaded.
Making HTTP Requests
There are two primary ways to make HTTP requests in the Zapier platform:
- Shorthand HTTP Requests - these are simple object literals that make it easy to define simple requests.
- Manual HTTP Requests - this is much less "magic", you use
z.request([url], options)
to make the requests and control the response.
There are also a few helper constructs you can use to reduce boilerplate:
requestTemplate
which is an shorthand HTTP request that will be merged with every request.beforeRequest
middleware which is an array of functions to mutate a request before it is sent.afterResponse
middleware which is an array of functions to mutate a response before it is completed.
Note: you can install any HTTP client you like - but this is greatly discouraged as you lose automatic HTTP logging and middleware.
Shorthand HTTP Requests
For simple HTTP requests that do not require special pre or post processing, you can specify the HTTP options as an object literal in your app definition.
This features:
- Lazy
{{curly}}
replacement. - JSON de-serialization.
- Automatic non-2xx error raising.
const triggerShorthandRequest = {
method: 'GET',
url: 'http://{{bundle.authData.subdomain}}.example.com/v2/api/recipes.json',
params: {
sort_by: 'id',
sort_order: 'DESC'
}
};
const App = {
triggers: {
example: {
operation: {
perform: triggerShorthandRequest
}
}
}
};
In the url above, {{bundle.authData.subdomain}}
is automatically replaced with the live value from the bundle. If the call returns a non 2xx return code, an error is automatically raised. The response body is automatically parsed as JSON and returned.
An error will be raised if the response is not valid JSON, so do not use shorthand HTTP requests with non-JSON responses.
Manual HTTP Requests
When you need to do custom processing of the response, or need to process non-JSON responses, you can make manual HTTP requests. This approach does not perform any magic - no status code checking, no automatic JSON parsing. Use this method when you need more control. Manual requests do perform lazy {{curly}}
replacement.
To make a manual HTTP request, use the request
method of the z
object:
const listExample = (z, bundle) => {
const customHttpOptions = {
headers: {
'my-header': 'from zapier'
}
};
return z.request('http://example.com/api/v2/recipes.json', customHttpOptions)
.then(response => {
if (response.status >= 300) {
throw new Error(`Unexpected status code ${response.status}`);
}
const recipes = JSON.parse(response.content);
return recipes;
});
};
const App = {
triggers: {
example: {
operation: {
perform: listExample
}
}
}
};
POST and PUT Requests
To POST or PUT data to your API you can do this:
const App = {
triggers: {
example: {
operation: {
perform: (z, bundle) => {
const recipe = {
name: 'Baked Falafel',
style: 'mediterranean',
directions: 'Get some dough....'
};
const options = {
method: 'POST',
body: JSON.stringify(recipe)
};
return z.request('http://example.com/api/v2/recipes.json', options)
.then(response => {
if (response.status !== 201) {
throw new Error(`Unexpected status code ${response.status}`);
}
});
}
}
}
}
};
Note: you need to call z.JSON.stringify()
before setting the body
.
Using HTTP middleware
If you need to process all HTTP requests in a certain way, you may be able to use one of utility HTTP middleware functions, by putting them in your app definition:
const addHeader = (request, ) => {
request.headers['my-header'] = 'from zapier';
return request;
};
const mustBe200 = (response, ) => {
if (response.status !== 200) {
throw new Error(`Unexpected status code ${response.status}`);
}
return response;
};
const autoParseJson = (response, z) => {
response.json = z.JSON.parse(response.content);
return response;
};
const App = {
beforeRequest: [
addHeader,
],
afterRequest: [
mustBe200,
autoParseJson,
]
};
A beforeRequest
middleware function takes a request options object, and returns a (possibly mutated) request object. An afterResponse
middleware function takes a response object, and returns a (possibly mutated) response object. Middleware functions are executed in the order specified in the app definition, and each subsequent middleware receives the request or response object returned by the previous middleware.
Middleware functions can be asynchronous - just return a promise from the middleware function.
HTTP Request Options
Shorthand requests and manual z.request([url], options)
calls support the following HTTP options
:
url
: HTTP url, you can provide it both z.request(url, options)
or z.request({url: url, ...})
.method
: HTTP method, default is GET
.headers
: request headers object, format {'header-key': 'header-value'}
.params
: URL query params object, format {'query-key': 'query-value'}
.body
: request body, can be a string, buffer, or readable stream. Default is null
.json
: shortcut object/array/etc. you want to JSON encode into body. Default is null
.form
: shortcut object. you want to form encode into body. Default is null
.raw
: set this to stream the response instead of consuming it immediately. Default is false
.redirect
: set to manual
to extract redirect headers, error
to reject redirect, default is follow
.follow
: maximum redirect count, set to 0
to not follow redirects. default is 20
.compress
: support gzip/deflate content encoding. Set to false
to disable. Default is true
.agent
: Node.js http.Agent
instance, allows custom proxy, certificate etc. Default is null
.timeout
: request / response timeout in ms. Set to 0
to disable (OS limit still applies), timeout reset on redirect
. Default is 0
(disabled).size
: maximum response body size in bytes. Set to 0`` to disable. Default is
0` (disabled).
z.request({
url: 'http://example.com',
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json'
},
body: '{"hello":"world"}',
json: {hello: 'world'},
form: {hello: 'world'},
raw: false,
redirect: 'follow',
follow: 20,
compress: true,
agent: null,
timeout: 0,
size: 0,
})
HTTP Response Object
The response object returned by z.request([url], options)
supports the following fields and methods:
status
: The response status code, i.e. 200
, 404
, etc.content
: The response content as a String. For Buffer, try options.raw = true
.json
: The response content as an object (or undefined
). If options.raw = true
- is a promise.body
: A stream available only if you provide options.raw = true
.headers
: Response headers object. The header keys are all lower case.getHeader(key)
: Retrieve response header, case insensitive: response.getHeader('My-Header')
throwForStatus()
: Throw error if final response.status > 300
. Will throw z.error.RefreshAuthError
if 401.request
: The original request options object (see above).
z.request({
}).then((response) => {
response.status;
response.headers['Content-Type'];
response.getHeader('content-type');
response.request;
response.throwForStatus();
JSON.parse(response.content);
response.json;
response.buffer().then(buf => buf.toString());
response.text().then(content => content);
response.json().then(json => json);
response.body.pipe(otherStream);
});
Dehydration
Dehydration, and it's counterpart Hydration, is a tool that can lazily load data that might be otherwise expensive to retrieve aggressively.
- Dehydration - think of this as "make a pointer", you control the creation of pointers with
z.dehydrate(func, inputData)
- Hydration - think of this as an automatic step that "consumes a pointer" and "returns some data", Zapier does this automatically behind the the scenes
This is very common when Stashing Files - but that isn't their only use!
The interface z.dehydrate(func, inputData)
has two required arguments:
func
- this should any raw function
that be found anywhere in your app definition (though usually in the root hydrators
mapping)inputData
- this is an object that contains things like a path
or id
- whatever you need to load data on the other side
Why do I need to register my functions? Because of how Javascript works with its module system, we need an explicit handle on the function that can be accessed from the App definition without trying to "automatically" (and sometimes incorrectly) infer code locations.
This example that pulls in extra data for a movie:
const getExtraDataFunction = (z, bundle) => {
const url = `http://example.com/movies/${bundle.inputData.id}.json`;
return z.request(url)
.then(res => z.JSON.parse(res.content));
};
const movieList = (z, bundle) => {
return z.request('http://example.com/movies.json')
.then(res => z.JSON.parse(res.content))
.then(results => {
return results.map(result => {
result.moreData = z.dehydrate(getExtraDataFunction, {
id: result.id
});
return result;
});
});
};
const App = {
version: require('./package.json').version,
platformVersion: require('zapier-platform-core').version,
hydrators: {
getExtraData: getExtraDataFunction
},
triggers: {
new_movie: {
noun: 'Movie',
display: {
label: 'New Movie',
helpText: 'Triggers when a new Movie is added.'
},
operation: {
perform: movieList
}
}
}
};
module.exports = App;
And in future steps of the Zap - if Zapier encounters a pointer as returned by z.dehydrate(func, inputData)
- Zapier will tie it back to your app and pull in the data lazily.
Why can't I just load the data immediately? Isn't it easier? In some cases it can be - but imagine an API that returns 100 records when polling - doing 100x GET /id.json
aggressive inline HTTP calls when 99% of the time Zapier doesn't need the data yet is wasteful.
Stashing Files
It can be expensive to download and stream files or they can require complex handshakes to authorize downloads - so we provide a helpful stash routine that will take any String
, Buffer
or Stream
and return a URL file pointer suitable for returning from triggers, searches, creates, etc.
The interface z.stashFile(bufferStringStream, [knownLength], [filename])
takes a single required argument - the extra two arguments will be automatically populated in most cases. For example - a full example is this:
const content = 'Hello world!';
z.stashFile(content, content.length, 'hello.txt')
.then(url => z.console.log(url));
Most likely you'd want to stream from another URL - note the usage of z.request({raw: true})
:
const fileRequest = z.request({url: 'http://example.com/file.pdf', raw: true});
z.stashFile(fileRequest)
.then(url => z.console.log(url));
Note: you should only be using z.stashFile()
in a hydration method - otherwise it can be very expensive to stash dozens of files in a polling call - for example!
See a full example with dehydration/hydration wired in correctly:
const stashPDFfunction = (z, bundle) => {
const filePromise = z.request({
url: bundle.inputData.downloadUrl,
raw: true
});
return z.stashFile(filePromise);
};
const pdfList = (z, bundle) => {
return z.request('http://example.com/pdfs.json')
.then(res => z.JSON.parse(res.content))
.then(results => {
return results.map(result => {
result.file = z.dehydrate(stashPDFfunction, {
downloadUrl: result.secret_download_url
});
delete result.secret_download_url;
return result;
});
});
};
const App = {
version: require('./package.json').version,
platformVersion: require('zapier-platform-core').version,
hydrators: {
stashPDF: stashPDFfunction
},
triggers: {
new_pdf: {
noun: 'PDF',
display: {
label: 'New PDF',
helpText: 'Triggers when a new PDF is added.'
},
operation: {
perform: pdfList
}
}
}
};
module.exports = App;
Logging
There are two types of logs for a Zapier app, console logs and HTTP logs. The console logs are created by your app through the use of the z.console
method (see below for details). The HTTP logs are created automatically by Zapier whenever your app makes HTTP requests (as long as you use z.request([url], options)
or shorthand request objects).
To view the logs for your application, use the zapier logs
command. There are two types of logs, http
(logged automatically by Zapier on HTTP requests) and console
(manual logs via z.console.log()
statements).
For advanced logging options including only displaying the logs for a certain user or app version, look at the help for the logs command:
zapier help logs
Console Logging
To manually print a log statement in your code, use z.console
:
z.console.log('Here are the input fields', bundle.inputData);
The z.console
object has all the same methods and works just like the Node.js Console
class - the only difference is we'll log to our distributed datastore and you can view them via zapier logs
(more below).
Viewing Console Logs
To see your z.console
logs, do:
zapier logs --type=console
HTTP Logging
If you are using the z.request()
shortcut that we provide - HTTP logging is handled automatically for you. For example:
z.request('http://57b20fb546b57d1100a3c405.mockapi.io/api/recipes')
.then((res) => {
return res;
})
Viewing HTTP Logs
To see the HTTP logs, do:
zapier logs --type=http
To see detailed http logs including headers, request and response bodies, etc, do:
zapier logs --type=http --detailed
Error Handling
APIs are not always available. Users do not always input data correctly to
formulate valid requests. Thus, it is a good idea to write apps defensively and
plan for 4xx and 5xx responses from APIs. Without proper handling, errors often
have incomprehensible messages for end users, or possibly go uncaught.
Zapier provides a couple tools to help with error handling. First is the afterResponse
middleware (docs), which provides a hook for processing
all responses from HTTP calls. The other tool is the collection of errors in
z.errors
(docs), which control the behavior of Zaps when
various kinds of errors occurr.
General Errors
Errors due to a misconfiguration in a user's Zap should be handled in your app
by throwing a standard JavaScript Error
with a user-friendly message.
Typically, this will be prettifying 4xx responses or API's that return errors as
200s with a payload that describes the error.
Example: throw new Error('Your error message.');
A couple best practices to keep in mind:
- Elaborate on terse messages. "not_authenticated" -> "Your API Key is invalid. Please reconnect your account."
- If the error calls out a specific field, surface that information to the user. "Invald Request" -> "contact name is invalid"
- If the error provides details about why a field is invalid, add that in too! "contact name is invalid" -> "contact name is too long"
Note that if a Zap raises too many error messages it will be automatically
turned off, so only use these if the scenario is truly an error that needs to
be fixed.
Halting Execution
Any operation can be interrupted or "halted" (not success, not error, but
stopped for some specific reason) with a HaltedError
. You might find yourself
using this error in cases where a required pre-condition is not met. For instance,
in a create to add an email address to a list where duplicates are not allowed,
you would want to throw a HaltedError
if the Zap attempted to add a duplicate.
This would indicate failure, but it would be treated as a soft failure.
Unlike throwing Error
, a Zap will never by turned off when this error is thrown
(even if it is raised more often than not).
Example: throw new HaltedError('Your reason.');
Stale Authentication Credentials
For apps that require manual refresh of authorization on a regular basis, Zapier
provides a mechanism to notify users of expired credentials. With the
ExpiredAuthError
, the current operation is interrupted, the Zap is turned off
(to prevent more calls with expired credentials), and a predefined email is sent
out informing the user to refresh the credentials.
Example: throw new ExpiredAuthError('Your message.');
For apps that use OAuth2 + refresh or Session Auth, you can use the
RefreshAuthError
. This will signal Zapier to refresh the credentials and then
repeat the failed operation.
Example: throw new RefreshAuthError();
Testing
You can write unit tests for your Zapier app that run locally, outside of the zapier editor.
You can run these tests in a CI tool like Travis.
Writing Unit Tests
We recommend using the Mocha testing framework. After running
zapier init
you should find an example test to start from in the test
directory.
const should = require('should');
const zapier = require('zapier-platform-core');
const App = require('../index');
const appTester = zapier.createAppTester(App);
describe('triggers', () => {
describe('new recipe trigger', () => {
it('should load recipes', (done) => {
const bundle = {
inputData: {
style: 'mediterranean'
}
};
appTester(App.App.triggers.recipe.operation.perform, bundle)
.then(results => {
results.length.should.eql(10);
const firstRecipe = results[0];
firstRecipe.name.should.eql('Baked Falafel');
done();
})
.catch(done);
});
});
});
Running Unit Tests
To run all your tests do:
zapier test
You can also go direct with npm test
or node_modules/mocha/bin/mocha
.
Testing & Environment Variables
These work much like normal environment variables - for example:
CLIENT_ID=1234 CLIENT_SECRET=abcd zapier test
Or, export
them explicitly and place them into the environment:
export CLIENT_ID=1234
export CLIENT_SECRET=abcd
zapier test
Viewing HTTP Logs in Unit Tests
When running a unit test via zapier test
, z.console
statements and detailed HTTP logs print to stdout
:
zapier test
Sometimes you don't want that much logging, for example in a CI test. To suppress the detailed HTTP logs do:
zapier test --quiet
To also suppress the HTTP summary logs do:
zapier test --very-quiet
Testing in your CI (Jenkins/Travis/etc.)
Behind the scenes zapier test
doing pretty standard npm test
with mocha as the backend.
This makes it pretty straightforward to integrate into your testing interface. If you'd like to test with Travis CI for example - the .travis.yml
would look something like this:
language: node_js
node_js:
- "4.3.2"
before_script: npm install -g zapier-platform-cli
script: CLIENT_ID=1234 CLIENT_SECRET=abcd zapier test
But you can substitute zapier test
with npm test
, or a direct call to node_modules/mocha/bin/mocha
. Also, we generally recommend putting the environment variables into whatever configuration screen Jenkins or Travis provides!
Using npm
Modules
Use npm
modules just like you would use them in any other node app, for example:
npm install --save jwt
And then package.json
will be updated, and you can use them like anything else:
const jwt = require('jwt');
During the zapier build
or zapier push
step - we'll copy all your code to /tmp
folder and do a fresh re-install of modules.
Note: If your package isn't being pushed correctly (IE: you get "Error: Cannot find module 'whatever'" in production), try adding the --disable-dependency-detection
flag to zapier push
.
Warning: do not use compiled libraries unless you run your build on the AWS AMI ami-6869aa05
.
Using Transpilers
We do not yet support transpilers out of the box, but if you would like to use babel
or similar, we recommend creating a custom wrapper on zapier push
like this in your package.json
:
{
"scripts": {
"zapier-dev": "babel src --out-dir lib --watch",
"zapier-push": "babel src --out-dir lib && zapier push"
}
}
And then you can have your fancy ES7 code in src/*
and a root index.js
like this:
module.exports = require('./lib');
And work with commands like this:
npm run zapier-dev
zapier test
npm run zapier-push
There are a lot of details left out - check out the full example app at https://github.com/zapier/zapier-platform-example-app-babel for a working setup.
Example Apps
See the wiki for a full list of working examples (and installation instructions).
Command line Tab Completion
We have provided two tab completion scripts to make it easier to use the Zapier Platform CLI, for zsh and bash.
Zsh Completion Script
To use the zsh completion script, first setup support for completion, if you haven't already done so. This example assumes your completion scripts are in ~/.zsh/completion
. Adjust accordingly if you put them somewhere else:
# add custom completion scripts
fpath=(~/.zsh/completion $fpath)
# compsys initialization
autoload -U compinit
compinit
Next download our completion script to your completions directory:
cd ~/.zsh/completion
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zapier/zapier-platform-cli/master/goodies/zsh/_zapier -O
Finally, restart your shell and start hitting TAB with the zapier
command!
Bash Completion Script
To use the bash completion script, first download the completion script. The example assumes your completion scripts are in ~/.bash_completion.d
directory. Adjust accordingly if you put them somewhere else.
cd ~/.bash_completion.d
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zapier/zapier-platform-cli/master/goodies/bash/_zapier -O
Next source the script from your ~/.bash_profile
:
source ~/.bash_completion.d/_zapier
Finally, restart your shell and start hitting TAB with the zapier
command!
Development of the CLI
npm install
for getting startednpm run build
for updating ./lib
from ./src
npm test
for running tests (also runs npm run build
)npm run docs
for updating docsnpm run gen-completions
for updating the auto complete scripts
Publishing of the CLI (after merging)
npm version [patch|minor|major]
will pull, test, update docs, increment version in package.json, push tags, and publish to npmnpm run validate-templates
for validating the example appsnpm run set-template-versions VERSION
for updating the platform-core version in the example app repos to VERSION
Get Help!
You can get help by either emailing partners@zapier.com or by joining our Slack channel https://zapier-platform-slack.herokuapp.com.