Papertrail’s search alerts are great, but what happens when you need a specialized integration, or want to grab something other than raw messages and counts – like particular fields from a message, or data to analyze later?
Now, you can invoke a Zapier action using a webhook trigger, which can then perform any desired action in Zapier. This example Zap setup sends data on printer service behavior to a Google Sheet for later analysis.
Set up the Zap
Sign up for Zapier, or log in.
Create a new Zap. Under Built-In Apps, select Webhooks by Zapier, then Catch Hook, and save the new Zap.
In the Pick off a Child Key dialog that appears:
enter payload.events to get to the event details and Continue to show the Zap’s webhook URL.
Set up the alert
Create a saved search to find the lines of interest, then add a Zapier alert integration. Grab the webhook URL and paste it into the alert, then save.
Process data
Create a Google spreadsheet with column names for the relevant fields: received_at, source_name, program, message.
and test the data-sending step by clicking Send test data on the Papertrail alert, and in Zapier, clicking OK, I did this.
Once the test has succeeded, set up the action. Select the Google Sheets app, then Create Spreadsheet Row. Select the spreadsheet and worksheet created earlier, and fill in the fields with selections from the payload.
Voila! A spreadsheet that will dynamically update with details from the matched events when the Papertrail alert fires.
If custom alerts going right into your app of choice sounds great, give it a try and let us know your thoughts.