I’m developing an action for my application in Zapier and I’ve encountered a challenge with field validation.
In my action, there are two fields: one for an email address and another for a phone number. Users should only fill out one of these fields - either the email or the phone number, but not both. At least one must be completed for the action to function correctly.
The issue arises because the typical ‘Required’ attribute in Zapier doesn’t fit this need. If both fields are marked as required, it forces users to enter information in both, which defeats the purpose. Conversely, if I do not mark them as required, users may end up leaving both empty.
I’ve gone through Zapier’s documentation but haven’t found a straightforward method for implementing this either/or requirement. Has anyone else navigated similar issues with conditional fields in their Zapier actions?
I’d really appreciate any advice on how to tackle this!
I ran into this exact problem building a customer contact integration. Here’s what worked for me: skip Zapier’s field-level requirements and handle the validation directly in your action’s perform function. Check if both fields are empty and throw a proper error, or if both are filled, decide which one wins based on your business rules. Also, add clear help text on both fields explaining the either/or requirement upfront. This gives you full control over validation while keeping things smooth for users. The key is doing validation server-side where you’ve got complete flexibility with conditional logic.
I ran into the same validation issues when building CRM integrations. Zapier’s input fields don’t support either/or requirements out of the box, so you’ve got to handle it with custom validation in your action code. To address this, set both fields as optional in the config, then add validation in the perform function to check if at least one field has data. If both are empty, throw a clear error like “Either email or phone number must be provided.” Also, add help text to each field explaining the requirement; this cut down on user confusion significantly. You gain full control over the validation logic while maintaining a clean user experience.
hey sophiac! i’m in the same boat. i managed to solve it by using custom validation in the perform function - i just check if both fields are blank and throw an error saying ‘plz provide either email or phone’. way simpler than relying on zapier’s built-in stuff.