Supporting Popular API Integrations Such as Zapier and PieSync

NURV

NURV

Active member
It really is a surprise to me that XenForo has so little API integrations in 2020 (Don't get me wrong, I'm a XenForo admin with over 1M posts on my forum and love the software).

As the owner of a digital marketing agency, however, I use APIs all the time to connect different pieces of software together and feel this is a major opportunity that XenForo could be capitalizing on, but isn't. Most of the big platforms out there fully integrate with things like Slack, Zapier, PieSync, CRMs, Email Marketing Platforms, etc. I'd love to see more talking back and forth between XenForo and other leading platforms out there.

Are there any plans to include anything like this in future versions? Zapier, in particular, would be a huge plus since that opens the door to so many other services.

Thanks!
 
Upvote 92
I wonder why no XF Addon developer had made a Zapier addon yet, he could make quite some $$$ with this. Might be an idea for @021 since he’s very active with his addon development lately 👀
 
Lucianin said:
integrate xenforo with ifttt.
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This would be nice. I have IFTTT Pro+, which is a much more affordable option for me over Zapier's much higher pricing. I would love to see IFTTT integrated, but can't afford custom development on a hobby site, tho I'd love to automate posting my blog posts and announcements to multiple platforms like FB, twitter, LinkedIn maybe, etc.
 
KensonPlays said:
This would be nice. I have IFTTT Pro+, which is a much more affordable option for me over Zapier's much higher pricing. I would love to see IFTTT integrated, but can't afford custom development on a hobby site, tho I'd love to automate posting my blog posts and announcements to multiple platforms like FB, twitter, LinkedIn maybe, etc.
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IFTTT is much more limited than Zapier or a similar service, so it's unlikely they'd choose that over something else.
 
Forsaken said:
IFTTT is much more limited than Zapier or a similar service, so it's unlikely they'd choose that over something else.
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I won't use Zapier since it's a lot more complicated to use, and significantly more pricey, as well. Ease-of-use is preferable for me. Click, type, done.

I've played around with it a bit, but I could never understand how it worked.
 
I thought zapier was a good idea until I signed up to weigh if I should utilize it for a project I'm working on and I was utterly disappointed. I have to pay for a pro license to keep my zaps via webhook, and to put the cherry on the cake they started a daily spamming campaign to spam my email with junk mail. They ignored the unsubscribe requests and required me to go through the loophole of logging into my account to stop the email spam. I decided the easier solution while I was there was to just delete the account. Good grief!
 
⭐ Alex ⭐ said:
I thought zapier was a good idea until I signed up to weigh if I should utilize it for a project I'm working on and I was utterly disappointed. I have to pay for a pro license to keep my zaps via webhook, and to put the cherry on the cake they started a daily spamming campaign to spam my email with junk mail. They ignored the unsubscribe requests and required me to go through the loophole of logging into my account to stop the email spam. I decided the easier solution while I was there was to just delete the account. Good grief!
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If we - finally - could have a webhook support, it won't matter whether Zapier, Make, IFTTT, or the next best thing (obviously) :)
 
If we would get bi-directional webhook integration then this one would be implemented.
The new webhook implementation works only from XF → Zapier / IFTTT. But we cannot let XF do something if Zapier / IFTTT is triggered.

i.e. IF X happens on on of the connected platforms, THEN post a new XF thread.
Example: https://zapier.com/apps/youtube/integrations/webhook
IF a specific YouTube Channel posts a new video, then post it to XFMG.

Zapier and IFTTT have can send webhooks. Zapier has its webhooks app that can be the exit point:
zapier.com

Webhooks by Zapier Integrations | Connect Your Apps with Zapier

Instantly connect Webhooks by Zapier with the apps you use everyday. Webhooks by Zapier integrates with 6,000 other apps on Zapier - it's the easiest way to automate your work.
zapier.com zapier.com

Incoming webhook → XF API would be awesome.
 
Alpha1 said:
If we would get bi-directional webhook integration then this one would be implemented.
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What exactly does bi-directional mean to you?

Alpha1 said:
The new webhook implementation works only from XF → Zapier / IFTTT.
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Yes. (And No ;). Any website / service /app that can receive HTTP POST requests could be the target of a webhook).

Alpha1 said:
But we cannot let XF do something if Zapier / IFTTT is triggered.
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Thats's what the XenForo API is for?

Alpha1 said:
Example: https://zapier.com/apps/youtube/integrations/webhook
IF a specific YouTube Channel posts a new video, then post it to XFMG.
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This is already possible with Zapier (and most likely other automation services too) and XenForo 2.1+ using the API (though the documentation is a bit lacking ...).

1698184169555.png

The first step is to create a XenForo API key with scope media:write

1698180322387.png

Afterwards create a webhook action in Zapier.
If you want to add a YouTube video to a XFMG album ID 1 using user ID 1:

1698180567480.png


1698180623753.png


If you instead want to add the video to a category, use category_id instead of album_id.

Save the action and you're done.

Alpha1 said:
Incoming webhook → XF API would be awesome.
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Well ... the XenForo API basically is a "webhook receiver":
A webhook is just a HTTP request with payload, this is exactly what the XenForo API receives / processes.

The main difference between "sending a webhook" and "sending a REST API call" is that return data of API calls is usually required & processed (beyond checking success viw HTTP status) by the sending system - a webhook more like a "fire and forget" notification.

So to clarify:
It will (based on the information given in HYS) not be possible to send a webhook and receive smth. in return from the remote system as the result of that webhook call and do smth. with the result (create a thread, media, etc.) in XenForo.
It will be possible to send a webhook to an automation service, do smth. there and (within the workflow for that webhook) send an API call back to XenForo to trigger some action (like creating a thread, media, etc.)
It is also possible to use a trigger from outside of XenForo (like the mentioned Zapier YouTube app) to send a API call to XenForo from an automation plattform - this use case doesn't use XenForo webhooks functionality at all and can therefoer be used already with 2.1/2.2.
 
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Started writing something similar earlier and we have already clarified that there are some use cases where the REST API in conjunction with automation intermediaries will be useful for doing a lot of stuff that people want.

There may be tighter integration in the future with one or more automation platforms but for now, while the setup may be more complicated, there probably aren’t too many use cases that cannot be achieved.

A lot of tinkering required but certainly not beyond the capabilities of typical forum admins without having to write and understand code.
 
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