OpenGraph.io Zapier integrationAutomate OpenGraph.io with Zapier.
The OpenGraph.io Zapier integration gives you 0 triggers, 0 actions and 3 searches. Hand it the address of any web page inside a Zap and it brings back a screenshot, the page's preview data or its HTML, ready for the next step to store or send.
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What the OpenGraph.io Zapier integration is good for
It plugs OpenGraph.io, a service that reads web pages for you, into Zapier, a tool that runs automations between apps without code. Another app supplies a web address, OpenGraph.io looks at that page, and Zapier passes on what it found: an image of the page, its title and description, or its full HTML.
Three results people build with it. A link list that describes itself: Retrieve Link Preview Data fills in the title, description, image and site name of each address someone drops in a sheet. A visual record of pages: Capture Screenshot takes a picture of a page each time a new address arrives, handy for keeping a trace of a competitor's landing page or a published ad. Raw material for analysis: Scrape HTML returns the page's HTML and metadata, so a later step can store it or hand it to another tool.
What it does not do: OpenGraph.io has no trigger, so it never starts a Zap on its own. It has no action either: it reads pages, it never writes anywhere. All three operations are search steps, which has a direct consequence on cost, explained below.
If you want to see how other tools handle this kind of page-reading job, the n8n vs Zapier and Zapier alternatives pages are a good place to start.
Zapier vocabulary in one minute
Eight words come back throughout this page. Here they are in plain English.
- Zap
- The automation you build in Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run every time the trigger event happens.
- Trigger
- The event in an app that starts the Zap. OpenGraph.io has none, so another app always plays that role here.
- Action
- What the Zap does once it has started: the step that writes, sends or updates something on your behalf.
- Task
- The unit Zapier bills: one action your Zap completed successfully. The number on your plan counts those.
- Polling trigger
- A trigger Zapier checks on a timer, asking the app for its latest items and keeping only the new ones.
- Instant trigger
- A trigger the app reports itself the moment the event happens, so the Zap does not wait for the next check.
- Search step
- A step that looks something up and hands the result to the steps after it. All three OpenGraph.io operations are searches.
- Multi-step Zap
- Any Zap beyond one trigger and one action. A filter, a search or a second action makes one, and it needs a paid plan.
What it really costs: a paid plan first
OpenGraph.io itself is not reserved to paid plans. But every one of its operations is a search, and a Zap that contains a search is a multi-step Zap. In practice, any Zap using OpenGraph.io needs a paid Zapier plan.
- Any OpenGraph.io stepSearch, so multi-step Zap
- Plan neededPaid plan
- Trigger of the other appNever counted
- Each successful action1 task
On the bill, Zapier counts one task each time an action succeeds; the trigger never costs one, and a failed action is not counted. The free plan, with its 100 tasks a month, only builds two-step Zaps, one trigger and one action, so it cannot host this app. How quickly the Zap starts depends on the trigger of the other app: instant triggers fire straight away, polling ones follow the grid below. Check your plan first.
Connect OpenGraph.io to Zapier in 3 steps
- 01
Open the Apps page
In your Zapier account, go to Apps and click + Add connection. A connection is your OpenGraph.io account linked once, then reused by every Zap step that calls it.
- 02
Pick OpenGraph.io
Type OpenGraph.io in the dialog, select it and click Add connection. Zapier opens a separate tab where the rest of the connection happens. Keep it open until you finish.
- 03
Sign in and grant access
Sign in to your OpenGraph.io account in that tab and let Zapier use it. You need an account of your own on OpenGraph.io before you start. The same connection then serves all three searches.
Your first Zap: a link sheet that fills itself
GoalEach new row holding a web address gets the page's preview data written back into the sheet.
- 01
Start from another app
Create a Zap and pick the app that supplies the addresses, here a spreadsheet where each new row holds a link. OpenGraph.io cannot start a Zap itself.
- 02
Test that trigger
Run the test. Zapier brings back the three most recent rows, so you can map the link from a real one rather than an empty example.
- 03
Add the OpenGraph.io search
Add a step, pick OpenGraph.io and Retrieve Link Preview Data under SEARCH, then map the link to Target URL. The Zap is now multi-step, so it needs a paid plan.
- 04
Write the result back
Add an action that updates the same row with the title, description, image and site name the search returned. Updating, rather than adding a row, avoids restarting the Zap.
- 05
Test, then publish
Run each step once and check the row. When the preview data lands where it should, click Publish to switch the Zap on. Then add a link to test.
The 3 OpenGraph.io searches
3 search steps look for data that already exists in OpenGraph.io, so a later step can use it.
A search step looks something up and hands it to the next steps; here, it reads a web page. In the editor, searches sit at the bottom of the Action event list, under SEARCH. Three settings decide what happens when the result is not the expected one.
Capture Screenshot
SearchIn Zapier“Captures a screenshot of the given URL using OpenGraph.io.”
Takes a picture of the web page at the address you give it, so the next step can file it or send it on.
Retrieve Link Preview Data
SearchIn Zapier“Fetch rich link preview data from any public URL, including the title, description, image, and site name.”
Reads a public page and returns what a link preview shows: its title, description, image and site name.
Scrape HTML
SearchIn Zapier“Retrieves the raw HTML and metadata of a webpage using OpenGraph.io.”
Fetches the raw HTML of a page together with its metadata, the most complete of the three results.
The three settings every search exposes
- Successful if no search results are found?Left on its default, a search that finds nothing stops the Zap there and the steps that depend on it are skipped. Switched on, the Zap carries on empty-handed.
- Create X if it doesn't exist yet?On apps that offer it, this box turns a search into find-or-create. OpenGraph.io exposes no find-or-create variant: it only reads pages.
- If multiple search results are found?Three ways out when several items match: keep the first one, which is the default, stop the Zap, or pass all of them on at once.
When an OpenGraph.io Zap breaks
Zapier attaches no help article to OpenGraph.io, so the failures you will meet are the ones every Zap shares, applied to the app that starts it.
Each is easy to avoid once you know it. If a Zap still misbehaves, the Zapier troubleshooting page takes over from here.
Old links are never processed
A Zap only reacts to what happens after you switch it on. Addresses already in your sheet before that stay untouched, and processing them is a separate job.A Zap that restarts itself
Writing the result as a new row in the very sheet the trigger watches sets the Zap off again and again, and burns through your tasks.A big batch of links held back
Pasting a long list of links at once can make the trigger return a huge batch, which Zapier's flood protection may hold back.A search that stops the Zap
If a search returns nothing and the setting stays on its default, the Zap stops there and the steps after it are skipped.
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