How to clean and format API data

Imagine you are building your next no-code project. It might be in Squarespace or Webflow, or some other builder.

The design is sleek, and the animations are smooth. However, you run into a problem that the tool lacks some functionality. For example, it might be lacking a good email builder to send transactional emails.

No problem! Automation tools like Zapier or Integromat can help. Just pass the data along, and automagically, both tools connect. Or do they?

What happens if the API Response you get is not what you expected? How do you change the text casing or remove an unwanted trailing character? Or even parse email addresses?

We have a solution

This is where we come in. Reshape API works as a mediator between your tools helping them to communicate. It seamlessly integrates into the workflow by reshaping the data as it travels to the automation platform. 

Let's take a quick look at the builder itself. The UI is designed to be similar with the tools use already use. Everything boils down to three parts:

• You set up the no-code app that you want to automate. It's pretty similar to Zapier.

• You select a trigger and the information that comes with that trigger. For example, it might be a form submit or a new order request.

• Finally, you choose whether to pass that data through Zapier or your own API endpoint.

The second part of the process is what this app is all about. We would like to draw you attention to the builder image below. It is called a transform block. You can add as many of these as you want. On your left, you can choose which fields you want to modify, and on your right, you can see the result in real-time. It's pretty much it.

If you want to learn more, here is our getting started guide.

Our transforms

We have quite a few api transformations called transforms to help you get the most out of your no-code apps. Let's see some of them who belong to the Clean and format category.

Change text casing

Did you notice that your naming is all messed up? It might be all lowercase, or worse, ITS ALL IN UPPERCASE. NO WORRIES, our Change text casing transform helps you quickly fix up your transformation. Just select the field you want to edit and choose either:

• Upper Case (THIS IS UPPER CASE)

• Lower Case (this is lower case)

• Title Case (This is Title Case)

• Sentence Case (This is sentence case)

• Proper Case (This Is Proper Case)

We will update your fields with the option you had selected. For example, in this case, I updated customerPaid group to have the USD currency in uppercase.

Find and replace

With this transform, we look for a specific value and then replace it with whatever you want.

For example, we replaced the order field, which shows unfulfilled to requested as it is much easier to filter this through my CRM. You could select any field that might not be just right for you. The sky is the limit!

Rename fields

A field name doesn’t quite work? No worries. Just use our Rename columns transform and let your imagination run wild!

In this instance, if we take a look at the customerPaid group, the price is in the field named string. That's not clear enough, so we renamed it to orderPrice. Now, it's a lot easier to understand in Zapier.

Clean data

The Clean data step removes leading or trailing spaces and other unwanted characters (letters, numbers, or punctuation). Imagine your data is ok, but not exactly tidy. It could be that some parts have lots of trailing space while others look a bit weird.  Clean data transform helps you keep everything neat.

You can choose from:

• Remove leading spaces

• Remove trailing spaces

• Remove all punctuations

• Remove all characters

• Remove all numbers

• Remove all non-numbers

• Clean to use as JSON

In our case, the customerPaid and netAmmount groups were rendering fields in a weird way. Might be a no-code tool bug. No worries. We fixed with just a few clicks.

Extract text from field

Extracts a portion of the text based on your condition. You may use this to get various names, emails or to remove any unwanted items. You can use one of these options:

• Find all text after

• Find all text after the chosen matching text or offset

• Find all text before

• Find all text before the chosen matching text or offset

• Find some text after

• Find a set length of text after the chosen matching text or offset

• Find some text before

• Find a set length of text before the chosen matching text or offset.

Imagine you are working with a list or orders. With every order there is a shippingProvider information attached. However, you just want the company name. Not the local branch name. To solve this select Find all text before the chosen matching text or offset and select Vilnius.

All you have to do is give the new field a name. Let's name it ExtractedShippingProviders and thats it. We will look for a word Vilnius and then extract the text before it to the new field.

Convert to decimal percentage

There might be cases when you want to convert a number to percentages. This transform could be connected to a math function. With Reshape it is relatively easy to do. Just select a column which has that number and we will sort out the rest.

Parse email addresses 

The Parse email addresses (beta) step separates columns of email addresses into broken down, smaller category parts.

You may want to use this feature when you want to separate your customers' email addresses into different columns. One could be a domain name while other could be the username.