Workflow Overview:
Trigger: Deal stage change in Pipedrive
Goal: Generate merged document with product details using Formstack
The Challenge:
I’m working with Formstack Documents which has a loop feature that can create table rows from structured data. Right now I have to use their hosted webhook solution, but when their servers get busy, document processing becomes really slow. I want to move this logic into a Zapier workflow instead.
Current Data Structure:
Zapier gives me the product information but it’s all separated by field names rather than grouped by individual items. I have fields like product names, codes, quantities, units, and categories but they’re not organized as complete records.
What I Need:
I want to use a Python code step to take these separated values and restructure them into a proper nested format. The goal is to group related fields together so each product becomes one complete record. Then I can send this organized data to Formstack Documents where their loop function can process each item properly.
My Approach:
Pull the individual field arrays into the code step
Restructure them into grouped product records
Output the organized data for Formstack to consume
Has anyone successfully restructured Zapier data this way for document generation? I’m also open to calling the Formstack API directly from the Python step if that works better.
I’ve dealt with similar data restructuring for document APIs. Your Python approach is solid, but a few things can make or break it. Watch out for product arrays with different lengths - I’ve hit cases where one field has 5 items but another has 4 because empty values got filtered somewhere. Use itertools zip_longest so you don’t lose data. I’d go with the Formstack API route if you’re comfortable with Python. You get better error handling and can add retry logic when requests fail. That webhook method you mentioned? Yeah, it’s unreliable when traffic spikes. For the transformation, build a dictionary where each product index maps to all its fields. Then convert to whatever JSON format Formstack wants. Test edge cases hard - missing product codes, zero quantities, stuff like that breaks document templates in weird ways. One thing that bit me: Formstack’s picky about data types. Make sure numeric fields like quantities are actual integers/floats, not strings.
Your restructuring plan makes sense, but heads up - Zapier’s Python step has memory limitations that caught me off guard. I hit timeouts processing deals with 50+ line items because the transformation took forever. You might need to chunk your data if you run into this.
Also, Zapier’s Python environment doesn’t save variables between runs, so handle everything in one go.
For API calls, I actually skip Zapier’s native Formstack integration entirely. You get way more control over requests and can deal with Formstack’s weird authentication issues better.
When you’re building nested JSON, watch how Formstack wants the loop data formatted. Their docs suck, but they usually want arrays of objects, not objects of arrays.
Debug tip: spam print statements in your Python step - they show up in Zapier’s logs and you can actually see where things break.
the API route’s def the best way to go. Zapier can struggle with complex data stuff. just keep an eye on your auth tokens - Formstack is sneaky with those expiring randomly and throws some weird errors. pro tip: always validate your JSON first. Formstack won’t give you a heads up on bad data, so you could end up wasting hours on silent failures.