Creating a new project from a template and updating row information using Zapier

Pedro Cuberos, PMP

Good afternoon. 

I am currently using Zapier to automate the creation of a project sheet once an initiative gets approved on a log. The current configuration is the following:

1. New initiatives are captured into a sheet called "Initiatives Log" through the use of a form
2. Approval of the initiative is captured on a column called "Approval Status"
3. Zapier uses this change to create a sheet from a template called "Project Template". that contains a header section (rows 1 to 10) to capture project information (project sponsor, project manager, start date, required by date, total budget, etc...)
4. The project manager assigned to the initiative has to go into the recently created project and populate the first rows by copying the information from the "Initiatives Log".

I was wondering if someone in the community has been able to automate step 4.  I have tried several zap configurations, however, I always get stuck when trying to update a row on a sheet that was created as part of a previous step on a multi-step zap.  The "New row update" action in zapier requires a row ID and I have not been able to find a way to capture the Row IDs of the rows from the recently created sheet. 

Thanks in advanced!

 

Mick Jordan

Hi Pedro, not used that approach with Zapier.  We have built an API app that achieves this ie updates the project info at the top of the sheet in the initial rows.

For larger organisations with lots of projects, templates, reports and project info they should consider using Control center which we are also familiar with.

Happy to share info on either of our approaches if you are interested to know more.

 

Mick

Remko_TVAA_services

Hello Pedro,

 

I have the exact same issue. And a lot of other users too. This automated updating into rows seems not possible in Smartsheet wich i think i really a issue. So i dont have a solution but i hope others will.

 

@Mick i assume this API is not from Smartsheet?

 

 

Stefan 7k

Actually it is

https://smartsheet-platform.github.io/api-docs/

 

Regarding Smartsheet Control Centre

I strongly recommend to follow Micks advice, if your organisation regularly starts new projects and maybe requires some of the projetcs values in a report.

 

J. Craig Williams

The problem you are facing is that when Zapier creates a new sheet, it does not actually 'fetch' it, so no information about it can be returned.

What you MIGHT be able to do, and I have not yet had to try this myself, is to have the next sheet trigger another Zap. Assuming Zapier at least returns the Sheet ID. The API might be easier for this case, but I enjoy seeing if I can bend Zapier to my will. I'll add this to my list.

Craig

Bill Kurtzner

Mick; 

My API developer is running into a road block when using an API to create a new sheet from a template that contains workflows; the workflows are not being carried over on the newly created sheet.

Is this anything you've addressed or run into prior?  Hoping that someone can assist with why the workflows from the template do not seem to be carrying over...?

Thanks for any assistance you can offer! 

Bill