Test operations to monitor a string variable

Cloud Integrations
1

I am working on creating my own recipes (via the IFTTT website) and I was wondering how to use the test operations on a string. They seem to be desiged to work well with numbers but not so much on strings.
Is there a way to do a IF <variable> CONTAINS <sub string>

Thanks
Markus

2

Wouldn’t it be easier to have your Spark check for the required word, and then have it fire an event if it finds it? This would eliminate having to check for a string. It should also be a bit more responsive than the variables.

Just an idea though. If you could describe your use case, we might be offer to viable alternatives/solutions.

3

@Moors7, Actually no. In my case I am using a cloud variable for error messages. the string can contain a combination of errors. If I want to trigger something on a combination then I need to create an exponentially growing event supply.
Take the Twitter module for example, it has a search string. I just think the choices

Greater
Less
Equals
Greater Or Equal
Less or equal

are useless for strings. How can I at least test if a string is empty?

The great power of IFTTT is that is decouples internal logic from external interpretation and leaving it up to the user what to do.

4

Hmmm. I think this is more of a IFTTT implementation but i’m sure it can be worked out. @dave should know best if this can be requested.

Seems like the current design is to handle number variables

5

Hey all,

Ooh, great idea! Although you can use greater/less than for strings, we could certainly add a few helpful string operations… how about we add…

1.) Is Empty
2.) Contains

Thoughts?

Thanks,
David

3 Likes
6

@Dave, is it possible to have type sensitive options - meaning showing different choices for numbers and strings?

wishlist:

is Empty
is not empty
is not equal
contains

The ‘contains’ operation would be great to feature ‘AND’ and ‘OR’ string operators

7

Heya @MarkusL,

Ooh good question, maybe! I know IFTTT lets you provide a set of options programmatically, but I don’t think they tell you what else has been picked in the form, so I don’t think you can do conditional logic like that in the form itself.

The other part that is tricky for adding options is I can’t change them directly myself now that the channel is published. So I need to wait on them to add them behind the scenes I suspect. But I think the string comparison options are a great idea, I’ll try to get them in. :slight_smile:

Thanks,
David