This article covers important terms and functions to explain how your marketplace and Zapier work together. In case you haven’t done so already, please take a look at the article introducting Zapier and Sharetribe to understand what Zapier is all about and how to connect your marketplace to Zapier.
Sharetribe "Events" and how they work with Zapier
As we discussed in the last article, Zapier works with things called "Events". In the context of a Sharetribe marketplace, an Event is something that happens on your Sharetribe marketplace. This could be a new listing being created, a user updating their profile, or a transaction being initiated. Pretty much every action that happens on your marketplace is logged as an Event.
Events are important because they serve as triggers for Zapier. Triggers are a Zapier term: they refer to events that happen in one application (like your marketplace) that serve as the starting point for subsequent events to trigger in other applications.
Think of them like a domino chain - when an event (the first domino) occurs in your Sharetribe marketplace, it causes a sequence of actions (other dominoes) to happen in different applications. The sequence is configured in Zapier.
What kind of Events are there?
Zapier can automate a variety of tasks based on Events that happen in your marketplace. When certain Events occur, Zaps can be started or triggered.
We've categorized these Events into three main categories: Listing Events, User Events, and Transaction Events. Each category has many possible Events that can occur, but only a specific subset of each category of Events can be used as triggers in Zapier. We cover these below:
Listing Events
Think of Listing Events as anything that happens to the products, services, or items that are listed 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. This could be add the user to your newsletter audience or announce the new user on your social media, for example.
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. If you want to monitor or react to such changes, this is the event to use.
User Deleted: This event occurs when a user removes their account from your marketplace. You could use this to remove them from your mailing list, for example.
Transaction Events
Transaction Events are about the buying and selling activities on your marketplace. They give you the power to automate actions based on the status and changes in transactions.
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, from "accepted" to "delivered". The meaning of this event can vary depending on how the transaction process works on your specific marketplace.
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").
Understanding actions
Now that we've discussed Events and how they trigger Zaps, let's delve into the actions that Zapier can perform as a result of Events that occur in your marketplace.
Think of actions as responses to the Events (or "triggers" in Zapier terms) we just covered. When an Event occurs, Zapier can use it to trigger actions.
Zapier can take actions within your marketplace and in other applications. We cover both types of actions below.
Show actions
Zapier can be told to execute "show actions" in your marketplace to look up or search relevant information to the Zap. Show actions are important to pull in additional information from your marketplace that are necessary for the Zap to function properly.
For example, when building a Zap to send SMS notifications for a new booking to providers (tutorial here), show actions retrieve the provider's phone number from Sharetribe to use in the Zap. The show actions brings in information needed to perform a particular action (the phone number to send a text) because this information is not present or included in the Event trigger (a new booking being created).
Show actions always take an ID from the Event trigger to search and retrieve the relevant information. This is either a user ID, listing ID, or transaction ID.
The following show actions exist:
Show User: This action lets Zapier 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: This action lets Zapier 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 field values or price.
Show Transaction: This action lets Zapier 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 show action can be used to search for further information about users, listings, and transactions by including relationships. Relationships allow you to include data related to the searched-for entity.
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 these 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 in external applications.
Actions in external applications
Show actions search for information in your marketplace and bring it into your Zap. The point of bringing in this information is to use them when taking actions in apps external to your marketplace.
As mentioned, Zapier connects to 1000s of applications where it has capabilities to perform some action. The action that is possible depends on the application and the type of support Zapier and that app have built.
A simple example is with Google Sheets: Zapier can take an action to add an additional row to an existing Sheet. It can also modify an existing row or format the spreadsheet, among others.
The best way to see the possible actions Zapier can take in an application you want to use is to search for that application on Zapier's homepage. The resulting page includes an "Action" section, showcasing what actions Zapier can perform. 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.
You'll also see the triggers supported for the app. These are not relevant, only the actions in the context of integrating your marketplace to external apps. This is because your Sharetribe Events serve as the triggers in your Zaps.
Actions that change data in your marketplace are not currently supported. Events in your marketplace serve as triggers and show actions bring in additional information into your Zap workflow to use in external applications, but the inverse is not supported. There are no actions supported that would change some information about a user, listing, or transaction as a result of triggers from an eternal application.
Next steps
With this background info, you're ready to jump into creating Zaps!
We created two step-by-step tutorials you can follow to create your first Zaps:
1. Add new users to your Mailchimp audience
You can also review our Zap templates and modify those to get started, or build your own Zap.