Operations Hub Show & Tell - Format Data Action Q&A Follow-up

[MeganLegge]

Hi all,

Thanks for your excitement at last week's Show & Tell! We were so eager to present Custom Formulas in Format Data Actions and to see everyone so excited about it was the greatest gift we could receive! 

You asked a lot of questions during the presentation and we could not get to them all, so the team and I will try to answer them to the best of our abilities here.

To repeat: If you're on Operations Hub Professional and you want to participate in the beta-test for Custom Formulas in Format Data Actions, please sign up using this form.

Let us know if you have any additional questions in the comments!

Format Data Actions Q&A

@CMcKay: Are webhook triggers coming to Operations Hub anytime soon?

The Workflows team is working on a separate initiative to bring event-based triggers to all new workflows. These will include webhook triggers. We don’t have a timeline for webhook triggers in particular, because there are some dependencies we need to work through first, but we are in a very early alpha of this event-based solution. We hope to bring the feature to one of these Show & Tells in the medium term

@callie: Is there a way to use variables in format data? (i.e. if I want to trim everything after “/“ in a single line text, something like trimming “/*”?)

Currently, the cut formula is available to trim specific sets of characters from an input value. In the near future, we will add support for a "regex" style cut function to replace more complex patterns with the characters of your choosing. In fact, our hope is to hear requests like this so we can add support for the kinds of formulas you all want to write.

Carter M.: Custom Code Templates. I would love the ability to save custom code actions for later use in other workflows.

We've heard this feedback from customers and it's definitely something we're thinking about, but we don't have firm plans to implement something like this at this time.

@Larissa_Pilat: Does an overview or list of potential use cases exist, where data format can be used/ makes sense to use?

We have a use case library for coded workflow actions (in which you can use JavaScript or Python to create automations), and will have one for dataset calculations coming soon. Nothing specific for these data formatting actions, but this is a great idea! We’ll add it to our list. In the meantime, the use case library for our custom code actions lives here: https://www.hubspot.com/programmable-automation-use-cases

Chrystal W.: When will all these features be available to Hubspot users?

The “custom mode” for Format data is in beta, and you can join by signing up here. Otherwise, we think this will go live to all operations hub pro and ent customers in a few weeks: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdOZVf__xmKPa2TuB6R9gmeqm_VYipVWjJLIzcHalqVPC-X_g/viewform

Alex L.: Are Quote fields open on this feature? ie; to use the "term" field to automatically insert the months

Format Data and custom mode can be used in Quote-based workflows. Something to note, though, is that only unpublished quotes can be updated by workflows (for example, if you want to use Format Data to calculate a value and then save it to a property), but if a quote has been published it can no longer be updated.

@CMcKay: GraphQL Workflow Action. I would love the ability to run GraphQL queries in workflows and then use the output in later steps

We're currently exploring how we can make more data available within workflows, and how we might support that by enabling more querying capabilities to pull data in. We still have a lot to figure out here, but its a primary area of focus for our team this year.

Jessica M.: Regarding the demo, wouldn’t a user be able to edit the "About us" and change the values in it?

Super admins can restrict a property so that only specific users and teams can edit the property on records. Read more here:

https://knowledge.hubspot.com/account/restrict-edit-access-for-properties

Steve K.: Custom mode - Cool stuff. Any plans to pull in data from associated records (with filters to define which) for use in the action?

We're currently exploring how we can make more data available within workflows, and how we might support that by enabling more querying capabilities to pull data in. We still have a lot to figure out here, but its a primary area of focus for our team this year. That said, you can also query for associated object data using the custom code action, and then use the custom code output in custom mode.

@CMcKay: Run regex natively in format function. This feature would be incredibly valuable. I know that this can be accomplished easily with custom code actions but it just makes sense to have in the format function.

Under the hood, we’re using the HubL format if you’re familiar with it. I agree that regex in certain functions would be a wonderful addition. Our system has a regex replace method that we will explore adding. Thanks for the idea!