Zapier to create multiple rows in Google Sheet from Tsheets data - api

Question

In a Zapier Zap I am using an an API GET call to Tsheets to grab a list of Timesheets. I would like to split out each time sheet into line items like line items in a Xero invoice because I would like to save item data from each timesheet to its own row in a Google sheet. (Ideally I would like to save the line data directly to a MySQL database but I see that Zapier currently only support Google sheets saving multiple lines at a time.) However I am having no joy.
I suspect one of two issues:
Zapier expects the word lineitems in the response or
The format of the response is not correct - I seem to have two "results" categories
In my step to Set up Google Sheets Spreadsheet Row I don't get a selection of comma separated items as shown in the example shown on the picture here:
Add an action app that supports line items, and each item will be saved individually
The image is from this page: https://zapier.com/blog/formatter-line-item-automation/ with the caption "Add an action app that supports line items, and each item will be saved individually" For what I get see photo https://cdn.zapier.com/storage/photos/f055dcf11a4b11b86f912f9032780429.png
In the step that returns the data from the API the text response is shown in https://cdn.zapier.com/storage/photos/33129fb7425cfae44be4a81533d6e892.png
and if I return json data it is like this: https://cdn.zapier.com/storage/photos/34da1b98f8941324c35befef8efe350d.png
Can anyone confirm that my suspicions are correct and whether 1 or 2 is the likely culprit.
Is it possible this link Zapier - Catch Hook - JSON Array - Loop over each item in array will lead me to the solution? It looks like it may but I don't see exactly how the writer incorporated it in to his Zap.
Edit: My data returned from the API looks like this:
{
"results": {
"timesheets": {
"11515534": {
"id": 11515534,
"user_id": 1260679,
"jobcode_id": 11974818,
"start": "2018-07-13T14:58:00+10:00",
"end": "2018-07-13T14:58:00+10:00",
"duration": 0,
"date": "2018-07-13",
"tz": 10,
"tz_str": "Australia\/Brisbane",
"type": "regular",
"location": "(Brisbane, Queensland, AU?)",
"on_the_clock": false,
"locked": 0,
"notes": "",
"customfields": {
"118516": "",
"121680": "",
"118530": "",
"118518": "Field supplies, materials"
},
"last_modified": "2018-07-13T04:59:27+00:00",
"attached_files": [
]
},
"11515652": {
"id": 11515652,
"user_id": 1260679,
"jobcode_id": 11974830,
"start": "2018-07-13T14:59:00+10:00",
"end": "2018-07-13T14:59:00+10:00",
"duration": 0,
"date": "2018-07-13",
"tz": 10,
"tz_str": "Australia\/Brisbane",
"type": "regular",
"location": "(Brisbane, Queensland, AU?)",
"on_the_clock": false,
"locked": 0,
"notes": "",
"customfields": {
"118516": "",
"121680": "",
"118530": ""
},
"last_modified": "2018-07-13T05:00:30+00:00",
"attached_files": [
]
},
"39799840": {
"id": 39799840,
"user_id": 1260679,
"jobcode_id": 19280104,
"start": "2018-10-24T11:45:00+11:00",
"end": "2018-10-24T12:00:00+11:00",
"duration": 900,
"date": "2018-10-24",
"tz": 11,
"tz_str": "Australia\/Brisbane",
"type": "regular",
"location": "(Sydney, New South Wales, AU?)",
"on_the_clock": false,
"locked": 0,
"notes": "",
"customfields": {
"118516": "",
"121680": "FP - Field plant Installation",
"118530": "Site cleanup"
},
"last_modified": "2018-10-24T05:56:27+00:00",
"attached_files": [
]
},
"39801850": {
"id": 39801850,
"user_id": 1260679,
"jobcode_id": 19280204,
"start": "2018-10-24T12:00:00+11:00",
"end": "2018-10-24T13:45:00+11:00",
"duration": 6300,
"date": "2018-10-24",
"tz": 11,
"tz_str": "Australia\/Brisbane",
"type": "regular",
"location": "(Sydney, New South Wales, AU?)",
"on_the_clock": false,
"locked": 0,
"notes": "",
"customfields": {
"118516": "",
"121680": "OP - Plant, Vehicles",
"118530": "Load\/Unload"
},
"last_modified": "2018-10-24T05:57:04+00:00",
"attached_files": [
]
},
"40192757": {
"id": 40192757,
"user_id": 1260679,
"jobcode_id": 19280110,
"start": "2018-10-25T08:00:00+11:00",
"end": "2018-10-25T10:00:00+11:00",
"duration": 7200,
"date": "2018-10-25",
"tz": 11,
"tz_str": "Australia\/Brisbane",
"type": "regular",
"location": "TSheets Android App",
"on_the_clock": false,
"locked": 0,
"notes": "From my mobile",
"customfields": {
"118516": "",
"121680": "FW - Plant Assembly",
"118530": "Panels"
},
"last_modified": "2018-10-24T23:02:56+00:00",
"attached_files": [
]
},
"40193033": {
"id": 40193033,
"user_id": 1260679,
"jobcode_id": 19280108,
"start": "2018-10-25T10:00:00+11:00",
"end": "2018-10-25T10:00:00+11:00",
"duration": 0,
"date": "2018-10-25",
"tz": 11,
"tz_str": "Australia\/Brisbane",
"type": "regular",
"location": "TSheets Android App",
"on_the_clock": false,
"locked": 0,
"notes": "",
"customfields": {
"118516": "",
"121680": "FW - Plant Assembly",
"118530": "Panels"
},
"last_modified": "2018-10-24T23:06:05+00:00",
"attached_files": [
]
}
}
},
"more": false
}
And this is my Python code: https://imgur.com/a/8W1X1em

Answer 1

Alright so I think I've worked something out for you. The example you provided Zapier - Catch Hook - JSON Array - Loop over each item in array is definitely on the right track, but, because it relies on webhooks, it probably won't work for you unless you can POST the data from your invoicing application.
Note: I code in Python so my examples will be in Python, that said these examples are pretty much code agnostic and can be replicated in Javascript as well.
I setup a dummy Zap to replicate what is happening with your zap currently
# results = requests.get(url, headers=header)
# results = results.json()
# Dummy result data converted to JSON object after API GET request:
results = {
"results" : {
"timesheets" : {
"timesheet_id_1" : {
"data_1" : "data",
"data_2" : "data",
"data_3" : "data"
},
"timesheet_id_2" : {
"data_1" : "data",
"data_2" : "data",
"data_3" : "data"
},
"timesheet_id_3" : {
"data_1" : "data",
"data_2" : "data",
"data_3" : "data"
}
}
}
}
return results
Reading a bit further here in order for Zapier to map line items it needs to receive the data in an array. The above output is a dictionary object, Zapier does map the values in this dictionary to data that can be accessed later, however it maps the entire dictionary which is why you are seeing the output as multiple fields and as is replicated in my output. What you are looking to do is map a subset of the dictionary AND provide each subset as separate outputs.
What you will want to do is loop through the inner fields of the results dictionary object and execute zaps on the nested "timesheet_id_n". To do so we will have to return a list of line items, as stated above line items must be placed into an array. And so my code to achieve this looks like:
# results = requests.get(url, headers=header)
# results = results.json()
# Dummy result data converted to JSON object after API GET request:
results = {
"results" : {
"timesheets" : {
"timesheet_id_1" : {
"data_1" : "data",
"data_2" : "data",
"data_3" : "data"
},
"timesheet_id_2" : {
"data_1" : "data",
"data_2" : "data",
"data_3" : "data"
},
"timesheet_id_3" : {
"data_1" : "data",
"data_2" : "data",
"data_3" : "data"
}
}
}
}
# Container for my line items. Each element in this list will be executed on separately
return_results = []
results = results.get("results")
results = results.get("timesheets")
for item in results:
return_results.append({"sheet_id" : item, "sheet_data" : results.get(item)})
return return_results
The output of return_results will be an array of dictionary objects. As these dictionary objects are in array Zapier will treat them as line items, additionally because each line item is a dictionary object Zapier will automatically map each value so that they can be independently be used in later action steps. You can see this demonstrated in the output of my trigger zap in the following screenshots:
output 1
output 2
output 3
Hope this helped!