A Zap is a blueprint for a workflow you want to do over and over automatically. Creating a Zap involves choosing a trigger, adding one or more action steps, testing the Zap, and finally, turning the Zap on.
Read more on Zapier's "Creating a Zap" help doc. The rest of this article is a curated version of Zapier's "Creating a Zap" help doc.
To create a Zap from scratch, click the "Make a Zap" button from your dashboard.
Terminology - Triggers and Actions
Zaps can be made using two main components, triggers and actions. The trigger is something that happens in an app that you want to be the start of a Zap's workflow. There can only be one trigger in a given Zap. The action is something your Zap does after a trigger occurs.
Creating a Zap
Clicking the “Make a Zap” button puts you in the Zap editor. The first thing you'll want to do is set up the trigger and then set up the actions.
Setting up a Trigger
Setting up a trigger has several steps:
Choose an App - Pick the app to be the trigger. If you have a specific app in mind (i.e. Sprout Studio), use the search at the top to narrow down to the app you want.
Choose the Trigger - Pick the specific trigger for that app. Click here to read the documentation on what triggers Sprout Studio offers.
Choose an Account - Pick the specific account for that app that you want the Zap to use. There's also the option to "connect a new account" to make sure the proper account is being used.
Specify Trigger Options - Some triggers have different options that you have the ability to customize.
Test the Trigger - In this step, your Zap will try to get a sample item from the trigger, which makes it easier to match up fields and test actions.
Setting up an Action
Once you've set up (and tested) your trigger, click the large + at the bottom left for the action to go at the end of the existing trigger. Setting up action is similar to setting up a trigger:
Choose an App - Just like with triggers, you'll pick the app that will have the action performed on it. Again, if you have a specific app in mind, use the search at the top to narrow it down to the app you want.
Choose an Action - Pick the specific action for that app. Click here to read the documentation on what actions Sprout Studio offers.
Choose an Account - Also like with triggers, pick the specific account for that app that you want the Zap to use. There's also the option to "connect a new account" to make sure the proper account is being used.
Set up Action Template - You'll see various fields from the action that you can fill in. Specify what details will be sent for each field. Use the + button on the right of a field to bring up a list of fields you can use to populate.
Test the Action - In this step your Zap will try to send a sample action to the app to make sure everything is coming through properly.