Zapier

Zapier connects a form to thousands of other apps. Turning a Zap on adds a workflow to your form that sends every new response to it; move its Send to app step to send only after an approval, or only on one branch. Every delivery shows in the workflow’s runs, with what Zapier answered. It’s available on every plan.

Connect Nextforms in Zapier

Nextforms on Zapier is in review, so it’s available by invitation: accept the invitation once with your Zapier account, and Nextforms appears among your apps.

In Zapier, make a Zap with the trigger Nextforms → New Response. When Zapier asks for an account, sign in to Nextforms and allow access to the team you’re working in. That access is yours: it ends when you leave the team, and any editor can end it under Settings → Connected apps.

Pick the form and give it a name in Nextforms (“Leads to HubSpot”), then turn the Zap on. Keep that name: it is how a workflow you changed finds the Zap again after it was turned off and on. That’s all: every new response now goes to the Zap.

What turning the Zap on does in Nextforms

Turning the Zap on adds a workflow to the form, named “Zap: “ and the name you gave it: Form submitted, then a Send to app step pointing at your Zap. It’s an ordinary workflow, and its runs show every delivery with what Zapier answered.

To send only some responses, change where the step sits:

• After an Approval step, on its Approve branch: only approved responses go.
• On one branch of a Route step: only responses that match go.

Turning the Zap off removes that workflow, unless you changed or renamed it; then it stays, and its step says the Zap is gone. Turn the Zap on again with the same name in Nextforms and the step follows it, live at once unless its workflow has unpublished edits. A form can have several Zaps, each with its own workflow.

Event names

When one Zap should tell the steps apart, give each step an event name (“approved”, “declined”). It arrives in Zapier as Workflow event, so a Filter or Paths step in the Zap can branch on it.

What Zapier receives

Each answer, named after its question, plus the response number, the time, a link to the response in Nextforms, the payment outcome when the form takes payment, and the outcome and comment of an approval that came before the step. An upload question also offers its files themselves: map them into a Google Drive, Dropbox or email step and Zapier fetches each file when that step runs. (Its download links stop working after a few minutes; the files do not.)

While setting the Zap up, Zapier shows the form’s latest responses as samples.

Fixing problems

• No workflow appeared for the Zap: the Zap isn’t on, or it’s set to another form. Turn it on in Zapier with this form selected. If the form already had ten workflows, or has a Send to app step whose app was disconnected, add the Zap to a Send to app step yourself; the Workflows page names the Zap nothing sends to.
• A run failed at the step with “410 Gone”: the Zap was deleted or its trigger was changed. Its workflow is removed; if you had changed that workflow, it stays and the step says the Zap is gone. Turn the Zap on again with the same name in Nextforms and the step follows it; otherwise pick another Zap in the step or remove it.
• A run failed with “The app did not take the response”: Zapier answered 404, 401 or 403, usually because the Zap was switched off or deleted without telling Nextforms. The run fails rather than waiting, and the team’s owners get an email. Turn the Zap on, then Retry the runs. If it answers like this for 3 days, the Zap is disconnected as if it had been switched off; turning it on again brings the step back.
• A run failed with another status: Zapier answered with an error; the step’s detail shows it. Nextforms retries a temporary failure a few times over several hours before giving up.
• Zapier’s access ended (removed in Settings, or the member who connected Zapier left the team): what the Zaps set up in Nextforms is removed, with the workflows made for them. A workflow you changed stays, and its Send to app step says the app was disconnected. To come back, reconnect Nextforms in Zapier and turn the Zap on: steps that sent to it follow it again under the same name in Nextforms (and go live at once, unless their workflow has unpublished edits). A step that still says it was disconnected needs the Zap picked again. Responses that failed meanwhile can still go: Retry them and choose Use the latest published version.
• The Zap stopped receiving after you deleted its workflow: nothing is sent without a Send to app step. Add one to any workflow of the form and pick the Zap.