Troubleshoot trigger payload size

Testing trigger in Zap editor

Constraint

When a user clicks Test Trigger in the Zap editor, the response payload must be less than 6MB.

Errors user will see if constraint is hit

  • “Scripting payload too large (‘n’ bytes but max is 6291456bytes).” - (‘n’ is the number of bytes in the payload.)

Best practice

The Zap editor will only process three new records at a time for sample data, so one way of making sure your payload size is less than the limit is by limiting your results to three records.

To determine when the request is for sample data, use the bundle meta parameter bundle.meta.isLoadingSample. When that is set to true, the user is testing in the Zap editor, and your integration can respond with a limited payload. More on bundle.meta properties here.

Turning Zap on

Constraint

When a user toggles a Zap with a polling trigger “On”, Zapier does some additional initialization that must be accomplished in 30 seconds.

First, it tests the user’s authentication to your service.

Then it uses the trigger’s perform method to build a deduplication table of records, so that the Zap will not run for existing records. The payload returned from this request must also be less than 6 MB.

Errors user will see if constraint is hit

  • Users will receive an email with an error message that includes the text “Your Zap could not be turned on”.

Best practice

There is a bundle.meta property that you can take advantage of here, bundle.meta.isPopulatingDedupe. When set to true, the Zap is being enabled, and you can use that to create a distinct request. The deduplication process only uses the id property of each record, so one option to consider for this request is filtering the fields you return to reduce record size.

More on bundle.meta properties here.

For those requests that might otherwise exceed timeout or size limits, you can make sure your filtered request is successful. Alternatively, if your filtered request has a lot of headroom in both time and size, you could instead use this to load more records into the Zap’s deduplication table than you usually request in your perform. This is especially relevant for an API that might return an inadvertent older record in a later polling request.

Example: The Salesforce integration has an Updated Field on Record trigger that can trigger on older records that a user might not consider relevant for their running Zap. To help mitigate this, the integration uses a filtered request to download up to 104,000 records to the deduplication table during Zap startup.

Trigger runs in a Zap

Constraint

Each time a Zap executes, the trigger’s response payload must be less than 6MB for a polling trigger and less than 10 MB for a REST Hook trigger.

Errors user will see if constraint is hit

  • User will receive an email with an error message, usually with “Trigger Partner Failure” in the message text.

Best practice

  • For polling triggers, if your API endpoint supports request filtering around number of records or datetime, using these to reduce the number of records returned
  • If filtering isn’t an option, consider using the simplest available endpoint on your API for the basic record data, and use Zapier platform dehydration to request supplementary data. A dehydration pointer is created for each subsequent request, and this pointer will only be resolved if the Zap needs a hydrated property in a later step.
  • For REST Hook triggers, if your REST Hook subscription endpoint supports filtering, one option is to provide input fields in the trigger so a user can decide what record data they want to return.
  • Consider sending a notification REST Hook that includes minimal record data. You can then use additional API endpoints and Zapier platform dehydration to request the supplementary record data. A dehydration pointer is created for each subsequent request, and this pointer will only be resolved if the Zap needs a hydrated property in a later step.

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