Beginner's Guide to Make (Integromat): Updated!

no Code and low code tools let anyone automate their workflows prototype ideas and even create fully functional web apps one of the biggest names in the no code low code space is an app that often doesn't get the recognition it deserves in an industry that's dominated by zapier today I'm going to show you how to get started with make formerly known as integromat make is a powerful and affordable platform for no Code and low code automation I'll show you how to start automating your work with make today with absolutely no coding experience required hi I'm Tom from X-ray tech the workflow company at x-ray we use automation providers like make to help our team and our members create hundreds of hours each month if you'd like to see more tips and tutorials about no code automation every single week be sure to like this video And subscribe to our Channel don't forget to turn those notifications on too in this video I'm going to explain what make is I'll show you how to build your first automated scenario step by step and I'll give you a preview of makes unique features that can simplify complicated automation logic so let's get started first what is make make is a no code in low code automation provider as I alluded to in the intro you might recognize it by its previous name integromat they rebranded the app over a year ago and made some changes behind the scenes however for users the platform Works in exactly the same way if you've used integromat in the past you can think of make as the same thing just with a new coat of paint for those who never used make in the past here's how it works make lets you connect two or more web apps to automate actions in those apps in something called scenarios in your scenario you can specify that whenever a certain event occurs in one app make should automatically perform one or more actions with another app for example a scenario might look like this whenever a new event is added to Google Calendar create a new spreadsheet Row in Google Sheets with the details of the event this first module is our Google Calendar trigger and its parameters specify exactly what the scenario should watch for new events in our chosen calendar the second module is our Google Sheets action detailing which data should be added to which column and pulling that data from the Google Calendar event retrieved in the trigger you might also build a scenario with Gmail openai and slack whenever a new tag is added to an email in Gmail summarize the contents with an open AI prompt then send the resulting summary as a DM in slack our team's messaging software you can see a very similar setup here compared to the first example a Gmail trigger an openai action and a slack action automations like this can all be built without writing any code at all everything is built with a drag and drop visual interface however compared to competitors like zapier make is also great at supporting low code automations a low code automation augments a no code workflow with very small amounts of code like an API call to perform an action that isn't natively supported in make or a regex script for precise text parsing and replacement if you have some coding experience or you want to have some coding experience make is a great platform to use for automation however coding knowledge is not necessary at all to use make in our tutorial today will not require writing a single line of code before we build our first scenario let's take a look at how scenarios in make work as we've already seen Illustrated with a couple of examples every Automation in make is built on the same basic structure every scenario consists of a trigger module and any number of actions and searches that follow that trigger let's add a little more context to those terms in an app like make a trigger is the event that prompts your automation to run a trigger can be based off of an event in any app that makes supports for instance your trigger could be configured to run when you add a new contact in HubSpot when you get a new email in Gmail or when you add a new record to a view in airtable you can even schedule the automation to run at a specific time rather than waiting for any particular external event to occur in a designated app for instance you might schedule a slack message to send to your general Channel every Monday at 9am that ask your team to share their focus and goals for the week now once the trigger event is fulfilled the automation needs to actually do something right an action module will automatically perform any action that you configure this could be something like creating a new document from a template in Google Drive or in notion adding or updating rows in a spreadsheet or sending messages through email slack or Microsoft teams and so much more you can also use modules in your make scenarios to find data instead of creating it this is what we call a search module for instance you might want to look up a record in a spreadsheet app like Google Sheets or airtable or you might want to find a contact in a CRM like HubSpot or pipedrive you can use a search module to find those records then use an action to send that data to another app now let's get started building our first scenario for our example we'll build a simple automation that sends an alert in slack whenever a new event is added to our Google Calendar once we've built and tested the basic automation we'll add a few Advanced elements to make it a little more flexible everything we do today can be built with a free make plan makes paid plans unlock additional features which you can learn more about in our zapier versus make comparison video if you want to follow along precisely step by step you can use Google Calendar and slack right alongside with us both apps offer free plans if you're not already using them but if you'd like to use different apps instead you'll still be able to follow along some of the specific configuration options might not be relevant to your apps though but the same principles will still apply really it's your choice to get started you'll need to sign up for make if you haven't already and log into your account then click scenarios on the left hand panel next click on the plus sign next to the folders and make a new folder this isn't strictly necessary of course you could always just make a new uncategorized scenario however I'd always recommend staying organized from the very beginning building The Habit from the outset will make it much easier for you to find and maintain your automations later on give your folder a name like make beginners tutorial and then click save select the folder then click the big purple create a new scenario button to make a new scenario within that folder make will now open up the scenario Builder right away you should give your scenario a descriptive name we'll call ours send alerts in slack for new calendar events now before we start building we need to have some data to test our scenario with whenever you're building an Automation in make or similar platforms you'll always need to have test data to confirm your automation's work correctly every step of the way in this case that means we need to have an event already on our calendar I'll quickly add one here called test event meet with Matt now we can go back to makes scenario Builder and add our trigger click on the plus button in the middle of the screen to add a new trigger scenario search for the app you want to use and we'll look for a Google Calendar click on your app when it pops up in the list of search results next you'll need to choose the exact trigger event you want to use each event will include a short description of what it does and how it works we'll choose watch events to watch for new events added to the calendar note that you'll also see action and search options here you can use these with a scheduled trigger but otherwise these should only be used after your trigger module Standalone trigger modules will usually say watch or new rather than create find or get once you've chosen your trigger you'll be prompted to create a connection to automate any app in make you'll need to log into that app and authorize make to act on your behalf to start just click create a connection to authorize make with your app next you'll see this warning about makes Rebrand since they used to be called integromat your app may still use that name during the authorization process this is really nothing to worry about make an Integra mat of the same product made by the same company so it's still safe to authorize the app even if it's using the old name integromat give your connection a descriptive name and sign in with your credentials for the app in question you'll then see a list of the permissions make requires click on allow and authorize and continue once you've authorized your app you'll be returned back to the scenario Builder where you can configure your trigger further with watch triggers like this one you'll typically need to specify what you want make to watch which workspace which folder which spreadsheet you or in this case which calendar that way make will only run for the calendar you've specified instead of running for every calendar in your account we'll select the calendar we want to watch next you'll see a couple of fields for query and limit both of these are usually included in any watch trigger in make by providing a query you can ensure that your scenario only runs for items that match your search to get started I'd recommend leaving this field blank but you can always go back and add a query later if you want limit lets you determine how many records the scenario can process at one time if it defaults to two but you can set this to any number you'd like for this tutorial I'd recommend setting it to one otherwise your automation may run twice every time you test it and you'd just be burning operations needlessly we'll discuss makes operation limit in more detail later on for now just know that testing your scenarios will use up operations and you're limited to 1 000 operations each month on the free plan with all of those options configured you can click ok to finish setting up the trigger now we need to test the trigger to make sure it can find our data after closing the configuration window we see this choose where to start dialog select choose manually and you should see some data appear if you don't see the event that you created earlier make sure that it's in the right calendar and make sure that your trigger is set to watch the right calendar if your test data is there select it and click OK we've now told the trigger module to start with our test data when it runs but it hasn't actually run yet to run your trigger and have it gather your test data you can either right click and select run this module only or click on run once to run the entire scenario which for now is just the trigger once you've run the trigger you should see a green check mark and a number appear above the module this number indicates how many bundles of data the module processed we can click on it to see more information about the data retrieved and confirm that our test data is there now our trigger is set to run every 15 minutes and watch this calendar for new events each new event will prompt the automation to run close this window to continue now we can add an action hover over the trigger module and click on the plus sign search for the app you want to perform in action or search in and for our example we'll use slack to send a message we'll search for slack and select it from the search results then we need to choose an action just look for whatever is closest to the action you want to perform since we want to send a message we'll select create a message once again we need to authorize make to automate slack with our account but first make requires us to choose a connection type this is particular to slack and isn't something you'll always need to do since we want to send DMS we'll need to choose bot not user now you can follow the same steps as before to authorize slack note that in slack make is still referred to as integromat just as we had warned it might be but again this is nothing to worry about just a simple Rebrand just like with a trigger module every action module needs to be precisely configured so make can perform the action you want you'll typically need to identify where you want to create or update an item the name of the item the text used for the message or body and other similar attributes make will describe each one and let you provide it in this simple form layout for slack we need to select the channel or user we want to send a message to this first option gives us the choice to enter our Channel manually or select it from a list this is a common practice in make modules you can identify objects in your app by using their ID or by finding its name in a drop down menu whenever possible I'd recommend entering the object's ID manually the ID is a fixed value that won't change so it's more precise and reliable than a name that might be updated at any time if you need the ID of something in a web app you can often find it in the URL bar but if you can't find the ID then selecting the item from the drop down menu should work just fine since I'll be sending these messages to myself I can just grab my slack user ID from my profile and paste it here next we can fill in the text of the message in any text field in make you can enter a combination of static text Dynamic data retrieved from earlier modules and even functions and custom variables to start we'll enter the static part of the message there's a new event on your calendar and we'll add labels for the title start date and time and events URL now we'll add some Dynamic data to provide the actual title start time and URL for whichever event prompted the automation to run we can find Dynamic data in this panel that appears whenever we select a text field data retrieved by earlier modules like our trigger will be under the star tab these other tabs include functions to work with numbers dates and times and text we'll explore those a bit more later on but they are super useful and unique to make for now let's look at the data we want to add to this message these blue variables represent the title of each piece of data make retrieved while the gray text indicates the value of that variable for the current test data you'll always see the same blue variables for each calendar event but the gray text will be unique to each event we can see the title of our event here next to summary test event meet with Matt so we'll add the summary object to our text after title next we can see the start date and time labeled as start and the URL is called HTML link so we'll add that in there as well our basic message is all set but we need to configure a few more things first before we can test it out fully click on show advanced settings to reveal a few more options we'll set both of these unfurl options to no that way the slack alert won't show a large link preview with every message it sends me then we'll add an icon Emoji date and a unique username for our slackbot this will give it a little personality and help to distinguish it from other automated messages you might set up now that the action is fully configured we can click on OK to close this window to test a complete make scenario I'd recommend always choosing a manual starting point just like we did when we tested the trigger alone right click on your trigger module select choose where to start then choose manually pick the record you want to use then click run once your action should run instantly when we check slack we can see a new alert everything looks correct but this date and time aren't exactly easy to read thankfully make has an easy fix for that but we'll cover that in a moment after we've finished testing and activating the scenario with a successful test we're ready to turn on the automation first always click on the save icon before switching your scenario to on make does not automatically publish your changes if you turn your scenario on without saving it first it may operate without your latest changes next we need to set the interval that we want our scenario to run at on a free plan you're limited to running your scenario at intervals of 15 minutes or more on higher tiers your automations can run up to every minute it's important to note that every run of your scenario will consume at least one operation and the free plan is limited to a thousand operations per month even if the trigger doesn't find any data in the subsequent actions don't run it will still use an operation for the trigger testing your scenario will also consume operations for every module ran a 15 minute interval for this trigger means four runs an hour which translates to nearly a hundred operations every day and over 2500 operations every month for the trigger alone but there are some simple ways to reduce the amount of operations your scenarios consume first we set the interval to be less frequent say every 30 minutes we can also select Advanced scheduling to set specific time frames and days of the week that the scenario should be running on we'll set this to run from 9am to 5 PM Monday through Friday this results in a bit under 350 operations each month for the trigger that's still a substantial number but a fraction of what it was before and it doesn't waste operations on the weekends or at night for locoders many watch triggers like this can be replaced with a web hook trigger you can check out our tutorial for using webhook triggers in make just note that it's a little bit more of an advanced tutorial once you've configured the scheduling to your liking save the scenario and turn it on to fully confirm that it's working as intended give it a test by creating a new event in Google Calendar within your scheduled time frame which in our case is 30 minutes you should get your Alert in Slack once you get the message you're all set you've made your first scenario in make click on the arrow in the top left to exit the scenario Builder on this screen you can view the operations and data that your scenario has consumed to date if you need to raise your limits paid plans will offer more operations and more data every single month ultimately while the free plan is great for giving make a try it's not ideal if you intend to use make long term to automate your work fortunately makes paid plans are very affordable you can learn more about them at makes pricing page or in our zapier versus make comparison video both of which are linked in the resources board in the description down below just be sure to turn off this example scenario if you don't intend to keep using it after all you don't want to burn all your operations for the month just with this tutorial what we've built so far is a very simple scenario since this is a beginner's guide we won't go too much in depth but I do want to give you an idea of how makes more advanced tools work as we mentioned earlier make offers several tools and functions for transforming your data to finish this guide we're going to improve this scenario with a simple function to reformat the date and time in our slack message I'll also share some resources you can explore to learn more about adding more advanced functions routers and Loops to your scenarios to add a function go back to the slack module and select the text field all of these tabs contain several functions to run mathematical calculations edit text format dates and a whole lot more we'll use a function to reformat this date into something that's easy to read select the calendar icon for the date time functions then you can hover over any function like this format date one to get more info click on it to add it to the text field hovering over the function in the text field explains the data or arguments we need to provide before the semicolon we need to enter the date we want to format as the first argument and note that you'll almost always use Dynamic data in make functions as the first argument we'll put the start date variable here after the semicolon we need to provide the format we want to use as the second argument you can find a link with several examples for formatting dates in make in the resources board we'll use this format so dates will be formatted with two digits each and the time will be displayed as a 12 hour format with AM or PM the function is complete we'll click on OK to close the module save our changes to the scenario and test it again now when we check slack we see the date is formatted correctly and is much easier to read if you'd like to learn more about using any function you can just hover over it and read makes helpful tool tips you can also check out our videos about using some select functions in make for a step-by-step guide at the bottom of the scenario Builder you'll also see these buttons flow control tools and Transformers flow control will let you add different paths to your automation or Loop through sets of data we have some videos about using these flow control options which you can find in the resources board too tools are used to add custom variables text and more to your scenario you'll also see options that let you pause your automation for a set period of time as well as switch functions for easy handling several different inputs Transformers will let you use regular expressions or regex to parse text or to extract elements from a web page we won't be using any of these today but I'd encourage you to explore them on your own after getting a little bit more familiar with make if you'd like to learn more about any of these options in the tools and Transformers menu leave a comment down below and let us know now that you've tried out make you might be considering a paid subscription you can see the pricing page here or check the links in the resources board for more detail we've also made a video covering makes pricing and unique features compared to zapier which you can check out in the link on your screen to give you the main takeaway for makes pricing compared to zapier's make is way way cheaper and generally better for more advanced low code automation even if it has fewer Integrations it's just more flexible try out the free tier first to see if it's a good fit for you or your company and then find a plan that works for you whether you're new to automation or just looking for an alternative to zapier make is a great choice just do a quick search on x-ray dot tools to see if your apps are supported and start building today and yes at x-ray we do use both almost every day if you've enjoyed this video prove you're human like And subscribe for more automation tips every single week if you'd like to learn more about no Code and low code automation follow us on LinkedIn Twitter or Facebook and you can find all of our content on our website at x-ray.tech you can find all those links in the resources board down below and as always don't forget keep the flow trying to Future proof yourself start designing the way your team works with no code tools Automation and AI in x-rays workflow designer course we'll show you how to break down every part of a process to find the best opportunities for Automation and how to integrate those automations into your team's daily work you'll learn how to create time for your entire team get more reliable results and give everyone a newfound Clarity and confidence in their work just go to this URL to learn more the entire package includes over two hours of Premium video content challenging example projects and tons of helpful resources the course costs just 250 dollars and gives you lifetime access to a slack community of workflow designers Building Systems in dozens of different Industries space is limited so join the free waiting list today to get notified as soon as the course is live later this year thanks for watching and we hope to see you soon in our workflow designer course

Channel: XRay Automation

Views: 17,282

Keywords: no code, low code, Zapier, integromat, xray.tech, xray, automation, mindfulness at work, mindful work, airtable, slack, workflow, Make, make beginner's guide, get started with make, integromat beginner's guide, get started integromat, how to use integromat, how to use make, how to automate integromat

Id: SwLIGp07iOI

Length: 24min 40sec (1480 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 09 2023