Developer Relations tools: Zapier
Zapier subscription
We use Zapier to automate the task of forwarding mentions of GitLab, swag store orders, etc.
The Zapier subscription runs on the Team plan, and is shared with the GitLab team.
Zapier access
- URL: https://zapier.com
- Account: search for the shared Zapier account in 1Password’s
Zapiervault. Please file an access request if you cannot access that vault.
Once logged in, you can access, edit and create Zaps in the Developer Relations folder
Current Zaps
List of Zaps that are enabled on the Developer Relations folder.
| Zap | Description | Involved Tools |
|---|---|---|
| Post new Blogs to the GitLab forum | GitLab blog post is posted as a new forum topic | about.gitlab.com/blog, Discourse |
Zaps for Developer Advocacy
The Zaps are organized in the Developer Advocacy folder as a sub-folder for Developer Relations in Zapier.
| Zap | Description | Involved Tools |
|---|---|---|
| New blog posts - GitLab | Reads GitLab blog RSS feed and posts to #developer-advocacy-updates channel. |
GitLab Blog, Slack |
| New blog posts - GitHub | Reads GitHub blog RSS feed and posts to #developer-advocacy-updates channel. Additional zap posts to competitive Slack channels. |
GitHub Blog, Slack |
| New blog posts - CNCF | Reads CNCF blog RSS feed and posts to #developer-advocacy-updates channel. |
CNCF Blog, Slack |
| New status updates - Discourse | Reads Discourse Status RSS feed and posts to #developer-advocacy-updates channel. |
Discourse status page, Slack |
Zaps for Discourse forum
The Zaps help with automated monitoring to support new product launches.
| Zap | Description | Involved Tools |
|---|---|---|
New forum topics with catalog or component |
Reads Discourse forum RSS feed https://forum.gitlab.com/latest.rss and posts to #f_ci_catalog channel. |
Discourse forum, Slack |
| New forum topics in the GitLab Duo category | Reads Discourse forum RSS feed https://forum.gitlab.com/c/gitlab-duo.rss and posts to #gitlab-duo-forum-posts channel. |
Discourse forum, Slack |
Zaps for Hacker News
The Zaps are organized in the Developer Advocacy folder as a sub-folder for Developer Relations in Zapier.
| Zap | Description | Involved Tools |
|---|---|---|
| Hackernews: Slack notifications for front page mentions: GitLab | Hackernews: GitLab front page stories to #dev-advocacy-team Slack channel. Adds Hacker News response workflow URL. |
HackerNews, Slack |
| Hackernews: Slack notifications for front page mentions: Open Core | Hackernews: Open Core front page stories to #dev-advocacy-team Slack channel. Adds Hacker News response workflow URL. |
HackerNews, Slack |
| Hackernews: Slack Notifications for mentions: GitLab | Hackernews: GitLab mentions to #hn-mentions Slack channel |
HackerNews, Slack |
| Hackernews: Slack Notifications for mentions: DevOps Platform | Hackernews: DevOps Platform mentions to #hn-mentions Slack channel |
HackerNews, Slack |
The Zaps poll the Algolia search API for Hacker News and add specific URL parameters in order to
- Query for a string in the posts;
?query="open%20core" - Filter by tags if the topic hit the front page of Hacker News:
&tags=front_page
Searching for a string with whitespaces requires to use quotes around the query parameter, for example https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?&query=%22open%20core%22&tags=front_page.
More API URL examples:
- Front page: https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?&query=gitlab&tags=front_page
- Mentions: https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search_by_date?query="devops+platform"
gitlab-blog Forum Bot
The gitlab-blog user is used to automatically post new GitLab blogs as a new topic to the Community category. This process is controlled through Zapier. Zapier reads the blog RSS feed at https://about.gitlab.com/atom.xml and posts a new topic using the admin API key and gitlab-blog user for each new entry there.
The gitlab-blog credentials and admin API key are stored in the 1Password Marketing vault. Admins can directly edit the user in Discourse without login.
Troubleshooting
Slack message misses data from Hacker News
Open the Zap, and inspect the Send Channel Message in Slack action. If the Message Text section contains placeholder variables with errors, inspect the data source. It may happen that the data retrieval in Zapier was broken in a step before, for example in Retrieve Polls in Webhooks by Zapier.
Example: The Open Core Hacker News frontpage Zap does not provide data fields, and refreshing the fields for the URL https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?&query="open+core"&tags=front_page does not bring up any result records to continue.
Fix: Temporarily change the search to a value which is currently on the Hacker News front page, and refresh the fields in Zapier. Fix the Slack message variable placeholders, and publish the Zap. Immediately edit the Zap again, and change the search query to the original value (open+core).
ac0e3d5e)
