How to automate ACF & WP REST API: Google Sheet with Activepieces

#automation #wordpress #restapi #wordpresstutorial #activepieces
Part 2: Auto import from Google Sheet using REST API and Activepieces
Automate creation and update Custom Posts and Custom Fields in your WordPress site using the built in REST API and Active pieces to bring in data via Google Sheets. In this video I create and start the automation flow to accomplish this.
This post is also listed on my website: brendan-oconnell.com/blog
Steps:
1. Create Custom Post types and any fields you want to map
2. Create new automation flow in Activepieces
3. Connect Google Sheets
4. Download & Install JSON Basic Auth plugin
5. Connect WordPress to Activepieces
6. Choose Custom API call and set your custom route
7. Add JSON body to map the ACF fields
Body Code I used (adjust this to your custom fields)
{
"title": "",
"content": "",
"acf": {
"street_address": "",
"city": "",
"state": "",
"website_url": "",
"phone": ""
}
}
-----------------------------------
🌟 Brendan O’Connell 🌟
🎨 WordPress | Design | Development | Automation | Tech 🖥️
Want to connect or work together?
🌐 Website: brendan-oconnell.com
🐦 Twitter: / brendanocwp
🔗 LinkedIn: / brendan-o-connell1
☕ Buy Me a Coffee (or Tacos): buymeacoffee.com/brendanoconnell
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[@AidanJoyce]

Another great video Brendan. Loving this series - really useful and lots of potential for various applications. thank you.

[@BrendanOConnellWP]

Great to hear! Hope you found something useful. Thanks

[@kevinrittershaus9380]

Awesome! Thanks for walking us through the entire process.

[@BrendanOConnellWP]

Thanks, I hope it made sense!

[@starmap]

Thanks for the tutorial. Very helpful. Please do more like this :)

[@BrendanOConnellWP]

Thanks for watching. What do you want to automate

[@nostressirish2767]

excellent Brendan

[@BrendanOConnellWP]

Glad you enjoyed! You think of a good use case for your projects?

[@stevebaker2896]

Wow Brendan - thank you so much for this! - in a few weeks I need to set up an import from Google Sheets to CPTs just like you show here. I was wondering how it was done - now I know!

[@BrendanOConnellWP]

happy to share! REST API is a fantastic tool. thanks for watching. Hope you are successful w/ your import... Let me know if you have any questions!😀

[@paradis2]

Great video Brendan!

[@BrendanOConnellWP]

thank you my friend!

[@isaurasotoca]

Great video, once again Brendan! 😊 Did you find what was causing the query loop to not work as expected? Maybe because you did not actually select "Post" as the query source? Anyway, that was not the point of the video and I have learned a lot about Activepieces and REST API, so thank you!!! 😊

[@BrendanOConnellWP]

Thank you, hope it helps some folks. I haven't gone back to check but I think it's just that I had a secondary page layout that was overriding the brand new custom post archive template. But yeah didn't want to get distracted yet again (I already do that freely every day 😊)

[@kamelberlime3532]

Coool! Is there a way to do a much longer content like a blogpost?

[@BrendanOConnellWP]

yes it will do all body content and images i believe. if you mean writing blog content, it can also do that with adding in gpt to the flow it can rewrite your blog posts and repost them on your other sites. lots of possibilities! thanks for watching!

[@rubengarciajr]

this is a really good video, the only question, can you import images this way???

[@BrendanOConnellWP]

yeah i believe you can, dang i should have added that. i did it from that same spreadsheet - it was importing the google business images, so the images i think need to be in a URL format. only problem is trying to bring in data directly from other sites API (like i did in the part 1) because I believe WP has to have the media in the folder already. i think there can be a step to the flow added right before to do a api request on posting to media folder, then mapping to the posts. maybe i'll do this in part 3, cuz there's some things left to test as you mentioned

[@rubengarciajr]

i need this for a client to update two websites at the same time but the images were the annoying part lol

[@BrendanOConnellWP]

@@rubengarciajr i have a client that needs this right now too so if i remember, i'll report back how i do it. where are the images currently? can they be fetched independent of WP and then added to the flow upload step?

[@myboringdesktop]

How do you delete or update custom post types this way? For example, if America's Advantage Remodeling also had a repeating field of sale items that changed weekly, how would you remove the old sale items and add the new sale items?

[@BrendanOConnellWP]

I used GET to get the data, and POST to create new data. You can use the actions of PUT to edit/update data and DELETE to delete them. GET POST PUT DELETE are the common features of HTTP

[@myboringdesktop]

@@BrendanOConnellWP Thanks so very much. While there are about 3 quadrillion channels showing the basic and intermediate stuff about WordPress, I can find very few that explain the more in-depth stuff in a simple manner. Thanks for the videos!

[@BrendanOConnellWP]

@@myboringdesktop Let me know if you find more, I am looking for those as well

[@myboringdesktop]

@@BrendanOConnellWP Will do. I may make a few if I can't find them.

[@MohammedGrowth]

Are you using the cloud version of active pieces or self hosted

[@BrendanOConnellWP]

I am using the Cloud version here. You can do quite a lot with the free cloudplan (1000 tasks a month) and each 1000 are $1 more. I have installed it self hosted but didn't get it finished. might try again, but the cloud is maybe cheaper than self-hosting at least initially

[@MohammedGrowth]

@@BrendanOConnellWP worth getting this vs make or zapier

[@BrendanOConnellWP]

@@MohammedGrowth havent used zapier in a long time. it looks like this is similarly priced to Make (around $1/1000 tasks). I think either can work for you. Take a look at the integrations - if make has 1 you definitely need check it out. You can usually custom call into anything though, so just pick the one that looks easiest to learn and maintain and sell to potential clients.

[@BrendanOConnellWP]

if you dont mind setting it up, you can host activepieces and have unlimited tasks yourself. there are several quick install options with docker i believe. otherwise the cloud and pay-as-you go pricing for tasks, seems pretty appealing vs committing to a monthly subscription and have tasks you arent using.

[@kellog89]

Thanks for the video. Is there a way to trigger a one shot import instead of a recurring one every n minutes?

[@rubengarciajr]

We need a WEB CAM!!!

[@BrendanOConnellWP]

🤨 do we?

[@BGdev305]

WP headless? Or not, drop google sheets and use Supabase! WAYYYYY more functionality then using an insecure google sheet.

[@BrendanOConnellWP]

Yes definitely better ways to do this type of thing. I've been trying to check out headless more, but it's a lot to undertake. i'd like to eventually get into it more