This article dives deep into how the Zapier and Sharetribe integration works. It introduces the different triggers and actions available in the integration and explains how they work and how to use them.
This article will use Zapier-specific terms like "triggers" and "actions." For a thorough review of these terms and concepts, review our introduction to the Zapier and Sharetribe integration.
Triggers from your marketplace
Triggers are events that, when they occur, initiate a Zapier workflow. The Sharetribe-Zapier integration can recognize several different kinds of events in your marketplace and use them as triggers for a workflow.
There are 3 categories of triggers available: Listing events, User events, and Transaction events.
Listing events
Think of Listing events as anything that happens to listings, which typically represent products, services, or items, on your marketplace:
Listing created: This event occurs every time a new listing is added to your marketplace. So, if you want something to happen whenever a new product, rental, or service is put up for sale, this is the event you'll want to focus on.
Listing updated: This event is triggered every time a listing is changed or updated. This could be something like the price being adjusted, the description being updated, or pictures being added or removed. Keep in mind that if listings on your marketplace require manual approval, when a listing is first created, it may go through several updates before it's published. You can use Zapier's own built-in filter tool to hone in on the specific updates you're interested in.
Listing deleted: This event happens whenever a listing is removed from your marketplace. If you need to track or react to the removal of listings, this event will be your guide.
User events
User events are all about the actions of your marketplace users. These events can help you automate tasks related to the registration, updates, or deletion of user profiles.
User created: This event happens when a new user signs up on your marketplace.
User updated: This event is triggered when a user changes information on their profile. Maybe they've updated their profile picture, changed their address, or added a new service.
User deleted: This event occurs when a user account is deleted. You could use this to remove them from your mailing list, for example.
Transaction events
Transaction events occur whenever two users interact through a listing, including events like starting a purchase, approving a sale, or leaving a review. Since transactions usually involve many steps (called “transitions”), you configure whether Zaps trigger at the beginning of a transaction or a later point.
Transaction initiated: This event happens whenever a new transaction starts - basically, when someone decides to make a purchase from a listing on your marketplace, or contact another user.
Transaction transitioned: This event occurs when a transaction moves from one state to another. For instance, when a Purchase transaction transitions from "accepted" state to "delivered" state. The transition available depends on the transaction process in use.
Transaction updated: This event is triggered when a transaction is updated but doesn't necessarily change state. For instance, if additional information is added to the transaction but it's still in the same state (like "delivered").
Actions in your marketplace
Actions follow triggers. They determine what happens during a Zap. Zaps can have one action or many. The actions available to your Zap depends on the Zapier integration the application you want to use has built.
The Sharetribe-Zapier integration has two types of actions: Create actions and Search actions.
Create actions
Create actions let you change the state of a user, listing, or transaction using the Zap. By default, these actions (specifically, the changes they cause) are only available to the marketplace admin through Console. Using these Zapier actions enables you to automate the task of completing these tasks in Console.
Create actions always need the ID of the resource (user, listing, or transaction) they should change.
The following Create actions are available:
Approve listing: Approve a listing that is currently in pending approval state and make it published. When you enable listing approval, newly created listings must be approved before they are published. Listings can be approved from Console. This action enables you to automate the approval of new listings.
Approve user: Approve a user that is currently pending approval and make them active. When you enable user approval, new users who sign-up and create an account must be approved in order to create a listing or start a transaction. Users can be approved from Console. This action enables you to automate the approval of new users.
Close listing: Close a listing that is currently published. Closed listings are not visible on the search page. Closed listings are only visible to the listing author. Listings can be closed from Console or by the listing author in the marketplace. This action enables you to automate the closing of listings.
Open listing: Open a listing that is currently closed. Open listings are visible on the search page. Listings can be opened from Console or by the listing author. This actions enables you to automate the opening of listings.
Transition transaction : Transition a transaction from one state to another. This can only be used when an operator transition is possible. Examples of operator transitions include cancelling a booking transaction after it has been accepted by the provider. The operator transitions available depend on the transaction process used in the listing type of the listing used in the transaction. Operator transitions are typically performed in Console, but Zapier can automate these actions for you.
Search actions
Search actions look up a particular resource (user, listing, or transaction) in your marketplace and return all its information for use in your Zap. You need them because the Zap workflow is only aware of the information that has been explicitly given to it while, for your automation to work, you often need to bring in additional information to complete required steps.
To illustrate how to use a Search action, consider a Zap that sends an email reminder to a customer 24 hours before their booking. The Zap starts (triggers) when a transaction initiates, which makes data about the transaction, such as the booking start time, available to the Zap. To complete your Zap, you also need information about the user who made the booking, like their email. Search actions (in this case, the Show user action) find such needed information in your marketplace and return it to your Zap workflow for use in subsequent actions.
Search actions always need the ID of the resource (user, listing, or transaction) they should find and return information about.
The following Search actions exist:
Show User: Search and retrieve information about a user in your marketplace based on their user ID. It can be the buyer or seller. You will retrieve all the information stored to that user profile, like their email or display name.
Show Listing: Search and retrieve information about a listing in your marketplace based on its listing ID. You will retrieve all the information stored to that listing, like listing fields values or price.
Show Transaction: Search and retrieve information about a transaction in your marketplace based on its transaction ID. You will retrieve all the information stored to that transaction, like the total paid or when it was started.
Each Search action can be used to search and retrieve further more information about users, listings, and transactions by including relationships. Relationships allow you to include data related to the searched-for resource, but which is not directly stored to the resource itself.
Show user can also include the name of your marketplace, the URL to the user's profile image, and their Stripe account.
Show listing can include the name of the marketplace, the author or owner of the listing, the current stock, and images related to the listing.
Show transaction can show a whole host of related information, such as the name of the marketplace, the listing involved in the transaction, the provider of the listing, the customer who initiated the transaction, the booking created by the transaction (if applicable), stock reservation, reviews, and messages that may have been exchanged between parties during the transaction.
Using Search actions brings in information about the user, listing, and/or transaction (and their relationships) into your Zap workflow that you can then use in subsequent actions.
Setup, configure, and test - the steps to configure every trigger or action
To configure a trigger or action, you always need to complete 3 steps in Zapier: setup, configure, and test.
Setup involves choosing the software, trigger or action you want to configure, and the account in that software. If you want to use one of the triggers or actions mentioned in this article, then your software selection will be Sharetribe.
Next, you configure the trigger or action. You choose what exactly the Zap should be doing when the trigger or action happens.
Finally, you must test that the chosen trigger or action can happen. Zapier pulls in test data from your marketplace, tries to perform the trigger or action, and tells you results. In order to complete this step, you must have relevant data in your marketplace for Zapier to perform the configured task. You can generate relevant data by testing your marketplace if you’re just starting out.
Filtering and formatting workflows using Zapier's built-in actions
Zapier has several actions to help you create more complicated workflows. You will use at least two frequently when working with Sharetribe: Filter and Formatter.
Filter actions specify the conditions under which the Zap should proceed or stop. This is necessary when you do not want a workflow to proceed under all conditions. A listing being created, for example, involves several different events on your marketplace. Filter actions can be used to specify what exact event is relevant to your workflow (and what events should be ignored).
Formatter actions format the data in your fields. You can use them to transform how the data looks or the format it takes. Consider booking start time, for example, which includes a lot of detail (year, month, day, and time of day down to the second). If you want to use this information in an email, likely you’ll want to make it more human-friendly (i.e. less detailed) and the Formatter action would be used to do so.
External applications and your marketplace
Most Zaps are going to connect your marketplace with external software applications: something happens in one application, perform some change in the other application. An event on your marketplace can serve as the trigger for a Zap causing change or action in another system. Or, events in the external application can trigger a Zap that changes some state or information in your marketplace. Moreover, in your Zap, you can take actions changing something in Sharetribe and/or take actions that change something in a different software, perhaps using data from your Sharetribe marketplace via show actions.
The available triggers and actions for any given application depend on the integration that application has with Zapier. The best way to see the possible triggers and actions Zapier supports in an application you want to use is to search for that application on Zapier's homepage. The resulting page includes a “Trigger” and "Action" section showcasing what the integration can do. It is a good idea to check these before building your Zap to make sure Zapier can achieve what you need it to do in the external application.
Next steps
You now have all the conceptual knowledge needed to build your first Zapier workflow. Check out our templates and tutorials for inspiration on guidance for automating your workflow.