CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

I read a bit about Zapier (and heard about it from another company that asked if CiviCRM could use Zapier, as they plan to use that as their integration strategy)

What I observed: It seems like "Zaps" are a lot like Drupal rules. ie an end-user can configure "when X happens, do Y".   I am thinking a consultant would do the configurations of the Zaps.

I think its a good idea as it gives people more choices as to how to integrate with CiviCRM and it has the potential to eliminate a lot of point-to-point integration projects for CiviCRM.

My concerns:  Seems like it would be time-consuming to configure "zaps" needed for each environment for a common use case. ( ie such as ConstantContact integration. Then again, Drupal rules are time-consuming too.

Also, if anything happens to the company running Zapier (ie they shut down, change prices, etc) then any CiviCRM integrations that depend on Zapier are no longer viable.  Seems like this kind of risk would be smaller with an established PHP integration library that provides integration into other SaaS products.  (ie like OmniPay for payment processors, that in theory eliminates one-off payment processor projects)

Just to tag on to this, another service similar to Zapier is If This Then That, which also has apps for iOS and Android. Though I'm not sure how easy it is to define custom channels on services like this.