Beta

Sub-Zaps is a beta feature. It’s available for use, but still in active development and may change.

Sub-Zaps allow you to create a set of actions that you can reuse in multiple Zaps.

This tutorial will show you how to:

• Build a Sub-Zap
• Process and receive data from a Sub-Zap

Learn more about how Sub-Zaps work and usage limitations.

Build a Sub-Zap

Sub-Zaps are created the same way as regular Zaps but they must begin with a Start Sub-Zap trigger and end with a Return from Sub-Zap action.

1. Start a Sub-Zap trigger

• In the Zap editor, select the Trigger step. A dialog box will open.
• In the search box, search for and select Sub-Zap. The right sidebar will open to the Setup tab.
• Click the Trigger event field to open the dropdown menu.
  • Select Start a Sub-Zap.
• Click Continue.
• In the Configure tab, add input field names to the Input/Argument List field to specify the data that will be sent to the Sub-Zap. Fields created here will be available in the Sub-Zap step of your Zap.

Example

Zaps can interact with the Sub-Zap by sending an email address to trigger various actions such as checking if a person is already on a mailing list in Mailchimp. 

Tip

Add the word “required” to any input field name to make it mandatory.

• Click Continue.
• Click Test trigger. The fields you create will show the message “missing sample data”, since it has not received data from your Zap yet. 
  • (Optional) To help with testing, you can modify the trigger test records and include data similar to what a Zap would send.
• Click Continue with selected record to use it in your setup.

2. Add actions to your Sub-Zap 

You can add as many actions to your Sub-Zap as you want. These actions will run each time the Sub-Zap is called by a Zap.

3. Add a Return from a Sub-Zap action

Lastly, you must add a Return From a Sub-Zap action to the end of your Sub-Zap. This action collects the data from all of your previous actions and sends it to any Zaps that have a Call a Sub-Zap action set to this Sub-Zap.

• Click the Action step. A dialog box will open.
• Search for and select Sub-Zap.
• Click the Action event field to open the dropdown menu.
  • Select the Return From a Sub-Zap action.
• In the Configure tab, set up your outputs in the Output/Return Values field:
  • In the field on the left, enter the output name.
  • In the field on the right, map fields from previous steps. This is the data your Zap will receive.
  • Add new sets of output and value for each field.
• Click Continue.
• In the Test tab, click Test step.
• In the middle of the top menu, click Untitled Zap, followed by Rename to name the Sub-Zap. This will help you identify it when building your Zap.
• Click Publish to turn the Sub-Zap on.

Example

The Sub-Zap uses email addresses to search Pipedrive and Google Sheets for customer details, as not all information is stored in the same apps. All customer information found will be sent back to main Zap.

Process and receive data from a Sub-Zap

To use your Sub-Zap's results in other Zaps, add a Call a Sub-Zap action to them. This will allow you to send data from any Zap to your Sub-Zap and receive the results back to use in your Zaps.

• In your Zap, click the Action step. A dialog box will open.
• Search for and select Sub-Zap.
• Click the Action event field to open the dropdown menu.
  • Select the Call a Sub-Zap action.
• In the Configure tab, click the Select your Account dropdown menu and select the Zapier account where your Sub-Zap is.
• In the Select Your Sub-Zap dropdown menu, search and select your Sub-Zap.
• The input fields you created in your Sub-Zap will appear. Map the data you want to send to your Sub-Zap.
• Click Continue.
• In the Test tab, click Test step. This will return the test data from your Sub-Zap. As this is a test, it will not send the Zap data to your Sub-Zap. 

You can continue to add more actions to your Zap as needed. Once you’ve added all of your desired actions, you can test and turn your Zap on.

You can repeat these steps for other Zaps where you want to process and receive data from your Sub-Zap.