Importing entries with Zapier

With a direct Zapier integration, you can import historical entries into Award Force quickly and reliably.

What you need

• An Award Force account on the Pro plan or higher
• A Zapier account
• A Google Sheet containing the data you want to import

Step 1: prepare your Google Sheet

Preparing your data is the most time-consuming part of the process. Every piece of data you want to import must exist as a field in Award Force. If a field does not exist, it must be created first.

Your spreadsheet must include one row per entry and at minimum:

• Entrant slug
• Category slug
• Chapter slug
• Season slug
• Entry title

Any additional entry fields must:

• Exist in Award Force
• Use the correct field slug as the column header

If you want to import files, include a column with public file URLs. Each file will be uploaded into a matching file upload field.

Step 2: create an API key

1. In the Manage workspace, go to Settings > Integrations > API keys
2. Click Generate API key
3. Enter a name for the key
4. Set the scope to Read / Write
5. Click Save

Step 3 : create the Zap

1. In the Manage workspace, go to Settings > Integrations > Zapier
2. Select Google Sheets
3. Choose Create new Award Force users and entries from new/updated Google Sheets rows
4. Log in to Zapier
5. Select your Google Sheets account
6. Choose the drive, spreadsheet, and worksheet
7. Set the 'Trigger' column to any_column
8. Test the trigger
9. Select Create entry as the action event
10. Sign in to Award Force using the API key
11. Select the chapter, category, and season
12. Map the entrant slug and entry title
13. Map all required entry fields
14. Test the Zap
15. Turn the Zap on

Step 4: import your entries

1. Log in to Zapier
2. Open the Zaps page
3. Enable your Award Force Zap
4. Open the Zap menu and select Run Zap
5. Select all rows
6. Send the data to Zapier

Entries will now be created in Award Force.

Upload files using Zapier

To upload files, URLs must be converted to base64 format.

1. Add a new step to your Zap
2. Select Code by Zapier
3. Choose Run Javascript
4. Pass the file URL as input data

5. Use the following code: 

   const response = await fetch(inputData.url);

   const content = await response.buffer();

   const data = content.toString("base64");

   output = [{ data }];

6. Use the output to populate the Upload entry file action

Good to know

• Microsoft Excel can be used instead of Google Sheets.
• All fields must exist before importing.
• Slugs must match exactly.
• File uploads require publicly accessible URLs.
• Large imports may require a higher Zapier plan.
• You can add multiple upload steps for multiple files.