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Pocket integration using IFTTT

  • September 14, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 13 views
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  • Dave_Lee
  • Participating Frequently
  • 9 replies

Hi all,

I’m trying to import all of my Pocket bookmarks into one Airtable sheet, via IFTTT. (My goal is to then use filter views to narrow down by subject based on the tags I assign to each item I save).

I’m having a problem with what seems to be the last step — the “record content field”. On the AirTable support page tutorial guide to IFTTT integration, there’s an “ingredients” button that seems to help you select which bit of source data you want to put into your chose sheet field.

But when I try and set up my Pocket > Airtable recipe, the ingredients button isn’t there.

I’ve tried putting in a few random field names in there anyway, and it doesn’t work – it just creates blank entries in my target spreadsheet.

Any other suggestions? I’m a single user (journalist), so not looking to pay out for Zapier given how basic this should be…

Any help gratefully received.

Cheers

Dave

1 reply

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  • Bill_French
  • Inspiring
  • 3263 replies
  • September 14, 2019

Welcome to the forum @Dave_Lee!

Yep - I did exactly this a while back and it was difficult. They offer an export, but only in HTML format. I guess they’re trying to lock us in.

I had to resort to the Pocket API and despite being a fairly skilled integration developer, I ran into issues with their security model. They do not support oAuth (completely) which makes it impossible to fully authenticate and use the API from a web service (like Heroku) without jumping through many hoops.

The authentication documentation alone is quite a journey and they have the nerve to cite best practices. Here’s a best practice - how about implementing ALL of oAuth?

I can only imagine it’s a security issue (i.e. IFTTT is unable to process the authentication maybe). Perhaps a support request into IFTTT would be a good place to start.

You also have some integration nuances that may create issues with IFTTT (or any code-free platform). The Pocket API (which services like IFTTT must use) creates objects of varying types. For example, some artifacts are stored in Pocket without the images which are left to resolve by reference. Others are encapsulated in Pocket’s cloud. As such, you have to decide how you want to integrate Pocket content into airtable. Do you grab the resolved URI and title, or the “given” URI and title. Also, do you import all the images? How about tags, and embedded images?

This is just one item as represented by the API:

{
    "768696405": {
        "item_id": "768696405",
        "resolved_id": "768696405",
        "given_url": "https:\/\/flic.io\/",
        "given_title": "",
        "favorite": "0",
        "status": "0",
        "time_added": "1482339002",
        "time_updated": "1482339013",
        "time_read": "0",
        "time_favorited": "0",
        "sort_id": 3,
        "resolved_title": "Flic - Pure simplicity at the push of a button",
        "resolved_url": "https:\/\/www.flic.io\/",
        "excerpt": "\\"Fantastic product. So many possibilities. Thank you :)\\" With a one-click command you can trigger dozens of actions at once.",
        "is_article": "0",
        "is_index": "1",
        "has_video": "0",
        "has_image": "1",
        "word_count": "278",
        "lang": "en",
        "top_image_url": "http:\/\/static2.shortcutlabs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Flic_Hero_High_fb-01.jpg",
        "tags": {
            "automation": {
                "item_id": "768696405",
                "tag": "automation"
            }
        },
        "image": {
            "item_id": "768696405",
            "src": "https:\/\/www.flic.io\/wp-content\/themes\/flic-theme\/pixel-images\/singles-day\/today_tag.png",
            "width": "0",
            "height": "0"
        },
        "images": {
            "1": {
                "item_id": "768696405",
                "image_id": "1",
                "src": "https:\/\/www.flic.io\/wp-content\/themes\/flic-theme\/pixel-images\/singles-day\/today_tag.png",
                "width": "0",
                "height": "0",
                "credit": "",
                "caption": ""
            },
            "2": {
                "item_id": "768696405",
                "image_id": "2",
                "src": "https:\/\/www.flic.io\/wp-content\/themes\/flic-theme\/pixel-images\/singles-day\/product_photo_campaign_bannner.png",
                "width": "0",
                "height": "0",
                "credit": "",
                "caption": ""
            },
            "3": {
                "item_id": "768696405",
                "image_id": "3",
                "src": "https:\/\/static2.shortcutlabs.com\/wp-content\/themes\/flic-theme\/pixel-images\/lightbulb-white.svg",
                "width": "0",
                "height": "0",
                "credit": "",
                "caption": "Control Lights --"
            },
            "4": {
                "item_id": "768696405",
                "image_id": "4",
                "src": "https:\/\/static1.shortcutlabs.com\/wp-content\/themes\/flic-theme\/pixel-images\/notes-white.svg",
                "width": "0",
                "height": "0",
                "credit": "",
                "caption": "Play Music --"
            },
            "5": {
                "item_id": "768696405",
                "image_id": "5",
                "src": "https:\/\/static1.shortcutlabs.com\/wp-content\/themes\/flic-theme\/pixel-images\/clock-white.svg",
                "width": "0",
                "height": "0",
                "credit": "",
                "caption": "Track Time --"
            },
            "6": {
                "item_id": "768696405",
                "image_id": "6",
                "src": "https:\/\/static2.shortcutlabs.com\/wp-content\/themes\/flic-theme\/pixel-images\/ifttt-white.svg",
                "width": "0",
                "height": "0",
                "credit": "",
                "caption": "Automate --"
            },
            "7": {
                "item_id": "768696405",
                "image_id": "7",
                "src": "https:\/\/static2.shortcutlabs.com\/wp-content\/themes\/flic-theme\/pixel-images\/presentation-white.svg",
                "width": "0",
                "height": "0",
                "credit": "",
                "caption": "Present Keynote --"
            },
            "8": {
                "item_id": "768696405",
                "image_id": "8",
                "src": "https:\/\/static3.shortcutlabs.com\/wp-content\/themes\/flic-theme\/pixel-images\/car-white.svg",
                "width": "0",
                "height": "0",
                "credit": "",
                "caption": "Call Uber --"
            },
            "9": {
                "item_id": "768696405",
                "image_id": "9",
                "src": "https:\/\/static3.shortcutlabs.com\/wp-content\/themes\/flic-theme\/pixel-images\/phone-white.svg",
                "width": "0",
                "height": "0",
                "credit": "",
                "caption": "Ping My Phone --"
            },
            "10": {
                "item_id": "768696405",
                "image_id": "10",
                "src": "https:\/\/static1.shortcutlabs.com\/wp-content\/themes\/flic-theme\/pixel-images\/wand-white.svg",
                "width": "0",
                "height": "0",
                "credit": "",
                "caption": "And much more... --"
            },
            "11": {
                "item_id": "768696405",
                "image_id": "11",
                "src": "https:\/\/static2.shortcutlabs.com\/wp-content\/themes\/flic-theme\/pixel-images\/startsida\/logos_desktop.png",
                "width": "0",
                "height": "0",
                "credit": "",
                "caption": ""
            },
            "12": {
                "item_id": "768696405",
                "image_id": "12",
                "src": "https:\/\/static1.shortcutlabs.com\/wp-content\/themes\/flic-theme\/pixel-images\/startsida\/logos_mobile.png",
                "width": "0",
                "height": "0",
                "credit": "",
                "caption": ""
            },
            "13": {
                "item_id": "768696405",
                "image_id": "13",
                "src": "https:\/\/static1.shortcutlabs.com\/wp-content\/themes\/flic-theme\/pixel-images\/logo-wired-white.png",
                "width": "0",
                "height": "0",
                "credit": "",
                "caption": ""
            },
            "14": {
                "item_id": "768696405",
                "image_id": "14",
                "src": "https:\/\/static2.shortcutlabs.com\/wp-content\/themes\/flic-theme\/pixel-images\/logo-mashable-white.png",
                "width": "0",
                "height": "0",
                "credit": "",
                "caption": ""
            },
            "15": {
                "item_id": "768696405",
                "image_id": "15",
                "src": "https:\/\/static2.shortcutlabs.com\/wp-content\/themes\/flic-theme\/pixel-images\/logo-dailymail-white.png",
                "width": "0",
                "height": "0",
                "credit": "",
                "caption": ""
            },
            "16": {
                "item_id": "768696405",
                "image_id": "16",
                "src": "https:\/\/static3.shortcutlabs.com\/wp-content\/themes\/flic-theme\/pixel-images\/logo-theguardian-white.png",
                "width": "0",
                "height": "0",
                "credit": "",
                "caption": ""
            }
        },
        "listen_duration_estimate": 108
    }
}


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