Q&A Follow-up | Custom Automation Workshop on data enrichment using Clearbit

[jackcoldrick]

Hi everyone!

Yesterday you could hear me give the first Custom Automation Masterclass workshop on Data Enrichment using Clearbit. I sadly couldn't get to all of your questions before the end of the workshop, so Jan and I decided to answer your questions here in the community!

You can find all the other resources (incl. recording) here.

Q: If I have Sales Hub professional, do I have access to any of these capabilities? Or is this unique to Operations hub?

A: No, custom code actions, the ability to trigger webhooks, and our data formatting actions are features exclusive to Operations Hub Professional. More information can be found here: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/workflows/choose-your-workflow-actions#custom-code

Q: Is there a benefit to a developer account over a sandbox?

A: There are benefits to Developer Accounts vs Sandboxes but it's important to first understand that the two are not really comparable. A Developer Account allows developers to register applications and manage webhooks, CRM Cards, Timeline Events, and the various scopes they need to access data in the portals that their applications are installed in. Within a developer account, you can also set up what is known as "test portals" and there are certainly comparisons to be made between these and a sandbox environment.

A sandbox would be the preferred option as this would provide you with replica data from your main HubSpot account. In contrast, a test portal is effectively a blank canvas and it's up to you to populate with the data you need to conduct the various tests required. Having said that, one benefit to a test account is that they're free to set up, you do not need to be a HubSpot customer and this can be appealing to certain individuals who are simply exploring possible solutions or developers looking to try/test functionality. More information on the different types of HubSpot accounts can be found here: https://developers.hubspot.com/docs/api/account-types

Q: Does the enriched data only concern American companies or are there, for example, also Italian companies?

A: Clearbit also covers international companies, and I've heard they are specifically growing their focus into EMEA.

Q: Is there a tutorial that shows how to do this with oAuth, since the Marketplace does require that?

A: Custom Coded Automation does not support oAuth at present, you can only make requests to services using API keys. If you want to learn the fundamentals of HubSpot’s platform or see an example before making your first API call, you can find sample apps and tutorials as well as detailed information about developer accounts, working with OAuth, API rate limits, and more in our Integration Guides section: https://developers.hubspot.com/docs/api/developer-guides-resources

Q: What is the benefit of using the custom-coded actions rather than the native Clearbit/HubSpot integration?

A: Clearbit has an incredibly powerful integration with HubSpot and I would recommend you check it out. If you wanted more flexibility in terms of the data you are sending and receiving from Clearbit Operations Hub is worth exploring. However, the purpose of the workshop was more to show the mechanisms of how a custom-coded workflow action functions with a tangible example so that you can apply them to meet your own needs. For instance sending/retrieving data from another system.

Q: Can you choose the field type of the data being sent to Hubspot?

A: Clearbit data fields are standardized (ex. Company Name is a Text field and Company Employee count is a Number) however, you could map a “number” in Clearbit to a “text field” in HubSpot if you really wanted to.

Q: We built an integration between Hubspot and Credit Safe for EMEA. Could we have used Clearbit? If so, with what advantages?

A: I guess that depends on what data Credit Safe and Clearbit hold. The former sounds like a credit score company. Not sure if Clearbit holds that data. The advantage really depends on the use of the data. Not knowing a lot about either tool, are we comparing apples and pears?

Q: Please advise on data security when different domains are involved

A: Security is crucial when utilizing various different systems, whilst I cannot speak for the wealth of third-party services that exist today the core tenets of HubSpot’s security program are to safeguard customer data and to maintain customer trust. Our security program is driven not only by compliance and regulatory requirements but also by industry best practices like the OWASP Top 10 and the CIS Critical Security Controls and threat intelligence. Please check out our security page for more information: https://legal.hubspot.com/security.

Q: Do I have to learn javascript in order to do this or is there a "dummy" version for non-coders. 

A: A basic proficiency in Javascript is required to utilize custom-coded workflow actions. We are working on making it much more intuitive and easy to use for non-technical users. In the meantime, though we're doing all we can to supply code snippets and documentation (and workshops like this!) to help our customers. You can check out some of our code snippets and use cases here: https://www.hubspot.com/programmable-automation-use-cases

Q: Does this work both ways? So in the same workflow could you then send data back to Clearbit to update their end? Or is it only pulling data into Hubspot?

A: Yes, Custom Coded Workflow Actions can be used to send/receive data to/from another system. Just be mindful that in order to send data from HubSpot the system you are sending to would need to have an endpoint to support that.

Q: is there a fix for when a website's API expires in an hour?

A: If the endpoint you are making a request to expires in a certain time frame then ideally the response being returned from the service would contain information that the custom coded action could parse and retry the request. This isn't something we have any control over though unfortunately and would likely be an issue regardless of how you build out the functionality you require. I'd be keen to know which website/service/API you are referencing as then I could provide more context and clarity!

Q: Do you have to use custom-coded actions to get the data too and from Hubspot?

A: No, you are free to use our APIs and build your own applications to do this. The benefit to using custom-coded automation is that the logic is hosted in the cloud using AWS Lambda and it removes any requirement for you to manage your own servers/hosting.

Q: I noticed that the custom code block is using an outdated Hubspot SDK. Any chance this will be updated to use the latest version any time soon? Or maybe we could select the version?

A: At present custom coded workflow actions support @hubspot/api-client ^3.4.1. In the future, we'd like to get to a stage whereby individuals could specify a version they'd like to use.

Q: Do HubSpot sandboxes pull in metadata from your account as well?

A: I'd recommend checking our our knowledge base article which describes the functionality available within a sandbox account: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/account/set-up-a-hubspot-sandbox-account

Hope to see you next week when we'll talk about data validation using Kickbox!

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