Introduction
Welcome to the second unit of the Introductions to Modules course.
In the previous unit, you learned about the different categories of modules in Make.
In this unit you will learn:
- what search modules are
- how to use a search module in a scenario
Find data with search modules
Before you can do something with data in Make, you need to find it first.
That’s where search modules help. They help you find data in an application and bring it into your scenario.
For example, you might search for an email in Gmail or look up rows in a Google Sheet.
Think of applications storing data like a library storing books. When you want information, you find the right books to read. In the same way, you search for the data you need and then use it in your scenario.
Find data with search modules
The search module finds data in the application and creates a bundle for each item in your scenario. A bundle is a single piece of data that your scenario can work with.
These bundles then move through your scenario one at a time.
You can process each one using other modules, such as forwarding an email or updating a row.
Think of a librarian in a library. It’s like asking them to find and bring you all the books on automation. Each book they hand you is like a bundle, one useful piece of data your scenario can work with.
You then use these books to learn, write reports, or prepare for meetings. Your scenario uses bundles to do useful tasks in a similar way.
Using filters to narrow your search
Sometimes, a search module finds more data than you need.
For example, you might search for all emails in your inbox, but only want the ones from this week. That is when you use a filter inside the module.
Filters help you narrow down results before they enter your scenario. This saves you time and prevents your automation from working on data you don’t need. Later in this unit, you will learn how to use filters inside search modules.
Think of the librarian again. Instead of bringing you every book on automation, you ask for only the books about Make.
Not all search modules have filters, but many do. If you don’t use a filter, the module will return all matching items. You can always filter them later in your scenario if needed.
Use case
In this unit, you’ll start building a scenario to see how to use a search module.
You’ll set up a search module to look through a Google Sheet that contains a list of cities and their countries. The search module (Google Sheets → Search Rows) will bring that data into your scenario.
In the next unit, you’ll add two action modules to continue working with the city data. You’ll get the current weather for each city and update the Google Sheet by adding the weather next to each city in the same row.
Let’s start with the first step: getting the cities from the Google Sheet into Make!
Scenario overview
In this unit let’s focus on the search module.
Google Sheets → Search Rows
This module searches the Google Sheet and creates a bundle for every row found and returned. Each bundle includes all the values from that row, such as City and Country, for example Madrid and Spain.
Weather → Get current weather
In the next unit, the Weather → Get current weather module will get the weather for each city found by the Google Sheets → Search Rows module, e.g. get the weather in London.
Google Sheets → Update a Row
Then, the Google Sheets → Update a Row module will update each row in the spreadsheet with the data from the Weather module, e.g. update the row for London with the current weather description and temperature.
Before you begin
You’ll need a Google account to use Google Sheets and to complete this exercise. If you’ve already completed Make Foundation, you should have one. If not, you can find instructions for creating an account in the unit Configure a Module.
In your Google Drive, add a new Google Sheet and name it MB_C01_U02.
Copy and paste this data to your Google Sheet in cell A1.
Check that your Google Sheet looks like the image shown here.
London is spelled with a lowercase l on purpose. You’ll see why shortly!
Note: JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a way to organize and share data using text that looks like a list or a table.
Build it
Now that your Google Sheet is set up, let’s start building your scenario. Work through each stage before you continue.
Let’s get started!
Log into your Make account. Click Create a new scenario and name it MB_C01_U02.
Add a Google Sheets → Search Rows module.
This is how you will bring all the cities from the Google Sheet into your scenario.
Under Connection, use your existing Google connection. This will default to the connection you created in Make Foundations. If you need a refresher, you can find instructions in Configure a module.
Under Search Method, choose Select from My Drive. You saved your Google Sheet to your Drive, so this module needs to know where to look for it.
Under Spreadsheet ID, select MB_C01_U02, which you just created. You need to tell the search module which Google Sheet to search.
Under Sheet Name, select Sheet1 from the dropdown. In this case, you only have one sheet in your Google Sheet.
Click Save, and save your scenario.
Click Run once on your scenario, and take a look at the module output. Each row from the Google Sheet is returned as an individual bundle. The first and second row of your Google Sheet is shown here, Madrid and Paris. The search module brings all the data from the Google Sheet into your scenario.
What about the filter?
That was easy, right?
You can bring all the cities and countries from your Google Sheet.
But what if you want only some of the data? For example, only cities that start with a certain letter.
This is where the search module filter helps. You can set it to find and return only cities that begin with a specific letter, such as L.
It’s a great way to learn how the search module filter works, even if you don’t need this filter right now.
Using the filter
Let’s use the filter to search for cities that begin with the letter L. Work through each stage before you continue.
Go back into the Module settings for your Google Sheets→Search Rows module. You will see a Filter section. This filter works the same way as a filter between modules, as shown in Make Foundation.
Click on the Filter dropdown, and you will see each column header from MB_C01_U2 (City, Country, Weather Description and Temperature). For the first condition, select City (A) from the drop down. This will tell the module you are searching in the column A of Google Sheet.
For the operator, select Text operators: Starts with (case insensitive). Choose a Text operator as the values in your Google Sheet cells are text values. Starts with checks the first letter in the word. Case insensitive matches on upper or lowercase letters. For example, London and london will both match. This is helpful when your data doesn’t use consistent capitalization. In your Google Sheet, you’ll see that London is written as london. This setting means it’ll still be found by the search module.
For the search field, type the letter L. This will search for any cells in the City (A) column that have text beginning with the letter L. Click Save, and save your scenario. Click Run once to run the search module. Before you look at the module output, you should expect to see three results. Your Google Sheet contains three cities beginning with the letter L: Liverpool, London, and Lyon.
Take a look at the module output. You’ll see three bundles in the OUTPUT. One for each city that begins with the letter L.
Removing the filter
You won’t need the filter in your scenario, so let’s remove it now to keep your build running smoothly in the next unit.
Open your Module settings again, and click the x next to the Filter. Don’t worry, you can always add the Filter back later!
Click Save to save your scenario.
Wrap up
A search module finds and returns data from an application to your scenario. This data could be rows from a spreadsheet, records from a database and more.
The search module brings the data into your scenario and creates a bundle for each data set. Other modules in your scenario can then work with these bundles.
Most search modules have filters. Filters help you narrow your search to find only the data you want.