Key concepts
Data & mapping
Mapping
9min
what is mapping? mapping is how {{product name}} knows what information to get from one app and which app to send it to you can use mapping to tell {{product name}} how to transform data in your {{scenario singular lowercase}} for example you want to automatically send information from emails to a colleague in a slack message in this case, map the subject or body of email messages to slack when a customer submits a form to request support, you want a jira issue created automatically here, you can map the information from the form into jira your business gets valuable leads from facebook, so you want a database of this information and the same information entered into pipedrive just map the data from facebook leads to airtable and pipedrive in the same way that a map leads you from your starting point to your destination, mapping in {{product name}} tells your data where to go in your {{scenario singular lowercase}} what can i map? you can map any information that a module gets in a bundle a bundle is like a box of information some boxes are large; some are small; some have just one thing inside them; some might have smaller boxes in them bundles are similar sometimes a bundle is just one piece of information, for example, a number or email address other times a bundle contains a variety of information when bundles have a lot of information, you might see the data organized into an array or collection an array is like a menu organized into different sections like soups, starters, desserts, and so on there's a lot of information but it's the same kind of information food an array has information of only one kind for example, it might have multiple dates or names but not both collections can have different kinds of information and are like a moving box when you move, you might put various things into one box books, small gadgets, a box of letters collections contain a similar variety of information, for example, dates, numbers, and text descriptions getting a bundle to know what you can map from a module, you run only that module and look at its bundles once you know what you can map, you can start mapping let's use the first example above to explore how this works we want to take information from emails and send them to a colleague before we do any mapping, we begin by finding what information we can get from the email module because the email module provides the information we want, we call it the source module go to the scenario editor and add the module email > watch emails create a connection select a folder and criteria click ok choose where you want {{product name}} to start getting your emails and click ok right click the module select run this module only a small circle with 1 inside appears beside your module click inside the small circle a window opens and shows you all of the information that your email module got you can map anything that appears click + to expand items what's in a bundle? let's take a closer look at the information in the bundle window in this example, we see the bundles from the slack > create a message module input the information {{product name}} sends to the third party app in this example, you can see text the content of the message sent click + to expand for further details user the user id of the person receiving your slack message output the information {{product name}} gets back from the third party app in this example, you can see message the text content of the sent message, similar to text in the input click + to expand for further details channel the id of the channel where the message was sent in this case, it's the same as user from the input that's because we sent a direct message to a specific user mapping to the target now we know what information we can send to other modules next, we map that information to do that, we first add the module we want to receive the information in our example, that's slack > create a message if you're still in the {{scenario singular}} editor, continue with these steps add the module slack > create a message create a connection under enter a channel id or name , select choose from a list under channel type , select im channel under user search or scroll to find your intended recipient under text , click inside the empty field a new window appears in the new window, click text content a red box labeled text content appears in the text field click ok your data is now mapped so that slack automatically receives email content and sends it in a message tips and solutions find the source module while mapping a {{scenario singular lowercase}} , you can find the source module by hovering over the mapped data as you keep your mouse on a mapped item, the source module pulses when there's no info for an instant trigger when you click run once or run this module only, an instant trigger waits to receive information the instant trigger needs incoming info to run so the trigger waits until it receives incoming data to run the module, you need to provide incoming information let's explore with an example airtable > watch responses right click on airtable > watch responses and select run this module only the module waits for new responses go to your airtable form and submit a response the information submitted goes to your airtable > watch responses module you can inspect the bundle to check that your configuration is working when there's no info for a polling trigger you can use the mapping docid\ upfwozscc5soixr2954z2 to generate a bundle for most modules, including polling triggers for instant modules, see the solution for instant triggers the following are the general steps to get a bundle go to the scenario editor and find the module you want to get a bundle for right click the module select choose where to start to get a bundle, select one of the following options and click ok a from a specific date option for example emails from after a specific date enter a date you know there is data for example enter a date you know you received emails b select the first option when available, this option lets you choose from a list right click the module select run this module only a small circle with 1 inside appears beside your module click inside the small circle