How to Use the Iterator and Array Aggregator in Your Make Scenarios

Rarely is our online work neatly linked together. So when making integrations to automate workflows, we need to account for that. 

How often are we pulling just slices of information from one software to be compiled and sent to another service whilst sending other data to another? Or for a more obvious example, just grabbing the attachments from an email while discarding the email itself?

Workflow automation has helped to solve a lot of work problems. It helps to free up our time to concentrate on the more important stuff by linking our work together to transfer automatically. 

But, sometimes we need to do more than just transfer data, we also need to transform it. This is where the Make tools, iterator, and array aggregator come in. 

Iterators and aggregators are a part of Make’s robust features that allow users to automate almost any online task by using our platform. These tools let you take apart and regroup your data items, respectively to give you the flexibility to integrate and automate what you need. 

We have created a 3 part course to help educate and familiarize you with these tools. This course takes you from the beginning steps of what you can do, all the way to show you how you can automate more complex workflows. So wherever you are on your Make journey, this course will have something for you. 

Let’s take a look!

Iterators

The first video gives you the rundown on iterators. An iterator is a special type of module that allows you to split a larger bundle into multiple smaller bundles. For that purpose, iterators work only with arrays. 

An iterator converts each collection of items into individual separate bundles, and in doing so, you can process each element in the collection separately and exactly as you need. 

The video shows you how to set one up in your scenarios and what you can do with the output.

 Check out the first video, Introduction and Iterator Demo.

Array Aggregators

The next video covers Array Aggregators. Array Aggregators, in short, do the exact opposite of iterators. They convert multiple bundles of data into a single array containing collections of specified items. 

In this video, we show you how you can take the output of an iterator (or any module) and recompile it using an array aggregator, so it appears in the final destination as you wish.

Here is the second video on the course to familiarize yourself with the Array Aggregator, Array Aggregator Demo.

Array Aggregators and Target Structure

In the third and final video, we do an even deeper dive into array aggregators. In this video, we show you two different ways to define the target structure (how you want your newly aggregated data to show up in the designated app). 

You can either define it yourself by creating a custom target structure or, in the case of some modules, select a specific structure available for the subsequent mapped module. 

Here is the third video, Array Aggregator — Target Structure. All it takes is 12 mins to go through the entire course and to learn how to use iterators and array aggregators in your scenarios that will help to save you more than 12 mins in the long run. 

Let us know in the comments what other Make courses you would like to have! 

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