Introduction
Welcome to the third unit of the Introduction to Modules course.
In the previous unit, you learned about search modules in Make, and created a scenario with a search module.
In this unit you will focus on action modules in Make.
You will learn:
- what action modules are
- the different tasks they can do
- how to add and use them in a scenario
You’ll continue to build on your scenario in this unit.
Action Modules – what are they?
Think about the applications you use every day, whether for work or personal use. How do you use them?
Maybe you send messages on Slack, delete emails in Gmail, upload photos to Instagram, or post updates on LinkedIn. These are all examples of actions, things you do in an application.
You can use action modules in Make to get, create, update, or delete data automatically in applications.
Action modules – why are they useful?
With Make, you can automate many of these tasks to save time and reduce manual work by using an action module.
Remember, applications in Make are like library sections, and modules are like the books in the sections: Think about the librarian in a library. The librarian can get a book for you, add a new book, update a reading list, or remove a book.
If Make has an action module for your application, you can automate those tasks!
Action modules - what can they do?
An action module can do these tasks: create, get, update, and delete.
Create
Action modules can create new data on an application, for example, save a photo to Google Drive.
You ask the librarian to create a new entry in your reading list every time you borrow a book. That way, a new record is added each time, helping you keep track of what you’ve read.
Get
Action modules can get a specific piece of data from an application, for example, get a due date from Google Calendar to remind yourself about an upcoming assignment. Get is different from a search module, as get is precise. You know what you want, and you get that item.
Imagine you’re in a library. You ask the librarian for a book. Using get is like giving them the exact title. They go straight to the shelf and bring you that one specific book. This is different from search, for example, where you ask the librarian to look for all books on a topic, like “automation,” and they bring you a list.
Update
Action modules can update existing data in an application, for example, marking a Strava activity (like a run) as complete and adding key stats such as distance, duration, and pace.
When you return a book, the librarian updates the status as returned in their system.
Delete
Action modules can delete data from an application, for example, removing an unsubscribed user from a Google Contacts list.
You ask the librarian to remove a book from your reading list, because you didn’t enjoy it and you don’t want similar books recommended again.
Use case
In unit 2, you set up a search module to look through a Google Sheet that contains a list of cities and their countries. The search module brings that data into your scenario.
In this unit, you’ll add two action modules to continue working with the city data. First, you’ll get the current weather for each city. Then, you’ll update the Google Sheet by adding the weather next to each city in the same row.
Scenario overview
In Unit 2, you added a Google Sheets → Search Rows module to your scenario. That module searched your Google Sheet and brought in data from all the rows (city and country).
Now you’ll add two more modules. These will update the Google Sheet with the current weather for the cities listed in it.
Google Sheets → Search Rows
This module searches all the rows in your Google Sheet and returns the data from each row as a separate bundle to the scenario.
Since no filter is used, this module imports every row from the Google Sheet.
Each bundle includes values for City and Country, for example, Madrid and Spain.
Weather → Get current weather
This module gets the current weather data for each city in your Google Sheet.
Each city comes from the output bundles of the Google Sheets → Search Rows module you added earlier.
For example, if the first row has the city Madrid, this module will get the current weather data for Madrid.
Note: This is a GET action.
Google Sheets → Update a Row
This module updates each row in your Google Sheet with the current weather description and temperature for each city.
For example, the first row with Madrid is updated to show a weather description of clear sky and a temperature of 17° C.
Note: This is an UPDATE action.
Build it – part 1
Let’s get the weather for each city in your Google Sheet. Work through each stage before you continue.
Open your scenario MB_C01_U02 from unit 2. You want to bring the data from all the rows in the Google Sheet into Make, so you won’t be using a filter. Open your Module settings for the Google Sheets → Search Rows module and make sure there are no Filter conditions. To remove any, click on the x next to the Filter.
Click Add another module and search for Weather in the app list. From the list of Weather modules, select Get current weather. You’ll use this module to get the current weather for each city in your Google Sheet. In the Module settings, under I want to enter a location by, select cities from the dropdown. This lets you search for weather based on a city name, rather than city coordinates.
Now you’re going to pass the values from your Google Sheets → Search Rows module to your Weather → Get current weather module.
As covered in Introduction to Mapping, you can pass values form one module to another. This lets the next module use the data.
For example, the
city (A)value from the Google Sheets → Search Rows can pass to the Weather → Get current weather module to look up the current weather for Madrid.In this example, you can see values next to the mappings. For example,
city (A)shows Madrid. This doesn’t mean you’re mapping the value Madrid, Make is just showing you the value from the first bundle of a previous run.For example, row 1 in your Google Sheet has the city Madrid. This preview helps remind you what kind of value to expect from each mapping field.
If your scenario hasn’t run before, you won’t see any values next to the mapped fields.
For example, if the city in row 1 is Madrid, this module will get the current weather for Madrid. Under City, map the value city (A) from the Google Sheets → Search Rows module. Click Save, and save your scenario. Click Run once on your scenario.
Your Weather module will get the current weather for each city in your Google Sheet. For example, row 1 contains Madrid, so your scenario will get the Weather Description and Temperature, for Madrid. Click the module’s output bubble. You’ll see six separate OUTPUT bundles, one for each row in the Google Sheet. Expand each one to view the weather data for each city. Now you have the weather data that you need to update the Google Sheet!
Build it – part 2
Let’s update your Google Sheet with the weather data. Work through each stage before you continue.
Now you’re going to add a Google Sheets → Update a Row module. In your scenario, click Add another module. Search for Google Sheets in the list of apps, then select Update a Row from the module list. This will update the rows in your Google Sheet with the weather data from the Weather → Get current weather module.
Under Connection, select the connection you already used for your Search Rows module.
Under Search Method, choose Search by path.
Under Drive, choose My Drive.
Under Spreadsheet ID, select MB_C01_U02 which is the Google Sheet you created in unit 2.
Under Sheet Name, choose Sheet1.
Under Row number, map the Row number from the Google Sheets → Search Rows module. This is how Make will know to update the same row on the Google Sheet from where the City (A) value was taken.
The Row number mapping makes sure the Google Sheets → Update a Row module changes the exact same row that the Google Sheets → Search Rows module found earlier. For example, if the search finds the row with Madrid, you want to update that same row with Madrid’s weather, not the weather for a different city.
Scroll down to the Values section. Under Weather Description (C) map Description from the Get current weather module. Under Temperature (D) map Temperature from the Get current weather module.
Click Save, and save your scenario. Then, click Run once on your scenario.
Look at your scenario. Your Google Sheets → Update a Row module will show an output bubble with the number 6. This is because this module executed six times, once for every row in the Google Sheet.
Look at your Google Sheet. Each row now includes weather data in the columns Weather Description (C) and Temperature (D).
Great job! You’ve just created a scenario that updates the weather for the cities in your Google Sheet. Pretty cool, right?
Note: Your weather data may look different, as it will depend on when you run the scenario.
Scenario recap
Let’s recap what your scenario did, and how the different types of modules helped make it work.
Google Sheets → Search Rows
This module searched your Google Sheet and found all the rows with data. Each row of data was brought into your scenario.
Each row is created as a separate bundle in your scenario, containing the City and Country values. For example, row 1 included Madrid (city), and Spain (country) so the bundle will contain this information.
Weather → Get current weather
This module retrieved the current weather for each city from the bundles passed by the previous module.
It then returned the weather data for each city as a separate bundle. For example, for Madrid, the bundle contained the description clear sky and the temperature was 17 °C.
Google Sheets → Update a Row
This module took the temperature and weather description from the previous module and updated each row in your Google Sheet with the correct information for each city.
For example, the row for Madrid was updated to show clear sky and 17 °C (or whatever the current weather was when you ran your scenario).
This example shows how useful it is to use different module types together.
Wrap up
In Make, action modules let you perform the same tasks you usually do in an application, such as getting the current weather from the Weather app and updating new rows in a Google Sheet.
These action tasks include creating, getting, updating, and deleting data from those applications.
By combining search and action modules, you can bring data into your scenario and update it (or use other actions) to make your scenario do exactly what you want, whether that’s a small task or your wildest dream!