Automator Pro 6.0: CSV, JSON, XML, Custom Actions & More

Hot on the heels of the 6.0 update of our free automation plugin, Uncanny Automator Pro 6.0 brings a whole new level of flexibility and power to your WordPress workflows. In fact, you can use it to connect to almost any WP plugin, and there’s new file support that allows complex imports and automations based on file contents. The Pro release is packed with new features to make WordPress automation even smoother and more efficient.

CSV, JSON, XML – Automate WP Data Imports

One of the biggest additions to Uncanny Automator Pro 6.0 is support for CSV, JSON and XML file imports. These new integrations allow you to loop through uploaded data records and run actions based on the data. From creating posts and users to sending emails to everyone in an uploaded file, the new uploader support offers a variety of new workflow opportunities.

Across the 3 new data import integrations, here are the new triggers that are supported:

1. Import a CSV file
2. Import a JSON file
3. Import an XML file

Perhaps an uploaded CSV file includes new employee information, and the recipe loops through each row in the file to create the new WordPress users, assigns roles, and send welcome emails. Perhaps an XML upload from another system creates new Woo product listings for an ecommerce store. Whatever the case, our new support for structured data uploads make building workflows around imported data easier than ever. Here’s an example of the new Import a CSV file trigger:

You can see that the new trigger offers a lot of control over how imports are processed, including the source of the data, the delimiter used, support for column headers, etc.

These new integrations introduce a new framework for working with structured data that will allow other exciting integrations in future, like RSS feed support.

New integration: Plugin Actions

Do you have a favourite or custom plugin that you wish integrated with Uncanny Automator? With the new Plugin Actions integration, you can create custom triggers based on any plugin’s action hooks.

That’s all there is to it. Suppose you have a plugin that we don’t yet integrate with, but you want to use it as a trigger for your recipe. As long as you know the action hook that will be called that you want to initiate the recipe, Automator can use that in a recipe and capture data from it for use in actions.

New integration: Custom Action

Sharing a similar theme with the new Plugin Actions integration, Custom Action allows you to run anything as an action in your Automator recipes if you know the do_action hook. You can even pass variables in, like this:

For developers, this is a way to add almost anything you want to Automator recipes more efficiently than building out an independent workflow.

New integration: WP Admin

Uncanny Automator is all about making your WordPress site more efficient and eliminating the need for extra plugins that perform niche functions. With the new WP Admin integration, we have now replaced the need for site audit plugins that track changes on your WordPress site. Automator Pro 6.0 introduces these new triggers:

• A plugin is updated
• A plugin is activated or deactivated
• A theme is activated or deactivated
• The WordPress version is updated

Want to keep a log and be updated when someone makes changes to the plugin stack on your WordPress site? Now, whenever a plugin is activated or deactivated, you can log the audit history in Google Sheets and send the site admin team a notice in Slack. When someone asks, “What did we update and when?”, you’ll have a complete record.

New triggers and actions

Uncanny Automator Pro 6.0 adds a number of new triggers and actions across several plugins. Below is a list of what’s new that hasn’t already been mentioned.

New triggers

• Advanced Coupons: A user receives a number of loyalty points
• LifterLMS: A user’s enrollment of a type is changed to a status
• MemberMouse: A member’s account status is changed to a status
• MemberMouse: A member’s membership level is changed to a specific level
• MemberMouse: A member’s account data of a specific field is updated to a specific value
• MemberMouse: A user’s membership to a specific product is resumed
• The Events Calendar: An attendee checks in for an event

New actions

• MemberMouse: Add a bundle to the member’s account
• MemberMouse: Create or update a member
• Woo Subscriptions: Remove a variation of a subscription product from the user’s subscription

Yes, there’s definitely a lot there for MemberMouse in particular to supplement what we introduced for the new integration in Uncanny Automator 6.0.

Other updates

Elsewhere in Uncanny Automator Pro 6.0, the loop filters for WordPress gain support for a post’s date meeting a condition, allowing you to target posts before, after, or on a certain date more efficiently. There are also several new tokens and improvements behind the scenes elsewhere.

For a full list of what’s in Uncanny Automator Pro 6.0, make sure to review the changelog.

Ryan Moore Director

Ryan Moore (MA, PMP, BCom) is the Cofounder and Director of Uncanny Owl, creators of Uncanny Automator and a suite of popular add-ons for LearnDash. Since 2013, Ryan has helped thousands of companies add elearning and automation capabilities to their WordPress websites.

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