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Formatter

Formatter

Owned by Yashna Chhatwal (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Apr 15, 2020
8 min read

Formatter is Eshopbox’s built-in utility tool for transforming text, numbers, and other data into the format you need. Use Formatter when you need data in a different format than the format it’s coming in from your trigger or another step.

With Formatter, you can:

  • Modify text formats

  • Modify number formats

  • Modify date formats

  • Perform a variety of utility functions

Before you start

  • You should have a partner login and a configured App.

How it works

  1. In the Automation editor, click the + icon to add a new step.

  2. Select Formatter.

  3. Select from four options:

    1. Numbers

      1. Click on Continue.

      2. Choose your transform, which is the specific action that you want to do to the number. You can select from the following transformations:

        • Format Currency

        • Format Number

        • Format Phone Number

        • Perform Math Operation

        • Spreadsheet-Style Formula

      3. In the Input field, click the dropdown menu and specify the input value by choosing a field from a previous step.

      4. Fill out additional required or optional fields which are mentioned below in Glossary.

      5. Click Continue.

    2. Text

      1. Click on Continue.

      2. Choose your transformation, which is the specific thing that you want to do to the text. You can select from the following transformations:

        • Capitalize: Capitalize the first character of every word.

        • Convert Markdown to HTML: Convert Markdown text into valid HTML

        • Convert to ASCII: Replace all non-ASCII characters.

        • Default Value: Return a default value if the text is empty. If a line-item field is provided, a line-item field is returned.

        • Extract Email Address: Find and copy an email address out of a text field. Finds the first email address only.

        • Extract Number: Find and copy a number in text.

        • Extract Pattern: Find the first match for a regular expression in a text field. Returns all matched groups with start and end position.

        • Extract Phone Number: Find and copy a complete phone number out of a text field. Finds the first phone number only.

        • Extract URL: Find and copy a web URL out of a text field. Finds the first URL only.

        • Find: Find the first position of a value in the text, -1 if the value is not found

        • Length: Count the number of characters in the text

        • Lowercase: Convert all characters in a string to lowercase

        • Pluralize: Pluralize any English word (frog turns into frogs; child turns into children)

        • Remove HTML tags: Remove every HTML tag to leave just the plain text.

        • Replace: Replace all instances of any character, word or phrase in the text with another character, word or phrase.

        • Split Text: Split the text on a character or word and return a segment

        • Superhero Name: Convert a name into the name of a Superhero.

        • Titlecase: Convert all characters in a string to titlecase

        • Truncate: Limit your text to a specific character length, and delete anything over that.

        • Trim Whitespace: Removes leading and trailing whitespace.

        • URL Decode: Decodes text from URLs.

        • URL Encode: Encodes text for use in URLs.

        • Uppercase: Capitalize every character in the text

        • Word Count: Count the number of words in a string.

      3. In the Input field, click the dropdown menu and specify the input value by choosing a field from a previous step.

      4. Fill out additional required or optional fields which are mentioned below in Glossary.

      5. Click Continue.

      6. In order to find, replace, or split on special characters in text, you can use a special character syntax:

        • [:space:] - matches space (\s) characters

        • [:tab:] - matches tab (\t) characters

        • [:newline:] - matches newline (\n) characters

        • [:return:] - matches carriage-return (\r) characters

    3. Utilities

      1. Click on Continue.

      2. Choose your transformation, which is the specific thing that you want to do to the utilities. You can select from the following transformations:

      3. In the Input field, click the dropdown menu and specify the input value by choosing a field from a previous step.

      4. Fill out additional required or optional fields which are mentioned below in Glossary.

      5. Click Continue.

    4. Date/Time

      1. Click on Continue.

      2. Choose your transformation, which is the specific thing that you want to do to the date. You can select from the following transformations:

        • Add/Subtract time: Manipulate a date and/or time by adding/subtracting days, months, years, hours, minutes, seconds.

        • Format: Change a date or time to a new format or style

      3. In the Input field, click the dropdown menu and specify the input value by choosing a field from a previous step.

      4. Fill out additional required or optional fields which are mentioned below in Glossary.

      5. Click Continue.

  4. To test your formatting click Send Test To Formatter.
    If your test was successful, you'll be able to see the results of your test next to the label output.

 

Glossary

Additional required/optional fields for every format

  1. Number format:

    1. Format currency: Format a number as a currency.

      1. Currency: Specify the currency of the input field

      2. Currency Locale: Specify the locale to be used for the currency formatting.

      3. Currency Format: Specify the format to be used for the currency formatting. 

    2. Format Number: Format a number to a new style. Does not perform any rounding or padding of the number.

      1. Input Decimal Mark: The character the input uses to denote the decimal/fractional portion of the number.

      2. To Format: The format the number will be converted to.

    3. Format Phone Number: Format a phone number to a new style. The number should be a valid phone number for country code, or phone number will be returned unchanged.

      1. To Format: The format the phone number will be converted to.

      2. Phone Number Country Code: The 2-letter ISO country code of the phone number. 

    4. Perform Match Operation: Perform mathematical operations on value(s)

      1. Operation: The math operation to perform.

      2. Input(multi-select): Numbers you would like to use in the math operation.

    5. Spreadsheet type formula: Transform a number with a spreadsheet-style formula.

      1. Values: Input your formula using data from previous steps to create your formula. There are different types of functions you can perform, either formula function, formula arithmetic and formula comparisons. View a list of all Spreadsheet-style formula functions.

  2. Text Format:

    1. Default Value: Return a default value if the text is empty. If a line-item field is provided, a line-item field is returned.

      1. Default Value: Value to return if the text is empty. 

    2. Extract Pattern: Find the first match for a regular expression in a text field. Returns all matched groups with start and end position.

      1. Pattern: Enter the Python regex you want to use in the Pattern field

    3. Find: Find the first position of a value in the text, -1 if the value is not found

      1. Find: Value to find in the text

      2. Skip Characters(Optional): Will skip the first N characters in the text. This field is a dropdown.

    4. Length: Count the number of characters in the text

      1. Ignore Whitespace(optional): Will ignore whitespace characters, including tabs, spaces, and newlines. This field is a dropdown which is by default false.

    5. Replace: Replace all instances of any character, word or phrase in the text with another character, word or phrase.

      1. Find: Enter the text to be searched. To find a space, use [:space:]

      2. Replace: Enter the text you want to replace the searched word with. Leave blank to delete the found text.

    6. Split Text: Split the text on a character or word and return a segment

      1. Separator: Character or word separator to split the text on. (Default: [:space:])

      2. Segment Index: Segment of text to return after splitting. (Default: First). This field is a dropdown which consists of following options:

        • First: Returns the first word

        • Second: Returns the second word

        • Last: Returns the last word

        • Second to Last: Returns second last word

        • All(as separate fields):Returns all the words as separate fields

        • All(as line items): Returns all the words as line items

    7. Truncate: Limit your text to a specific character length, and delete anything over that.

      1. Max Length: The max length the text should be.

      2. Skip character: Will skip the first N characters in the text.

      3. Append Ellipsis?: Will shorten text by three characters and append "..." to the end, if necessary. This field is a dropdown which consists of value true and false.

    8. URL Decode: Decodes text from URLs.

      1. Convert Plus To Spaces? : Will convert "+" to spaces instead of converting "%20", and will not convert "/". This field is a dropdown which consists of value true and false.

    9. URL Encode: Encodes text for use in URLs.

      1. Convert Plus To Spaces? : Will convert "+" to spaces instead of converting "%20", and will not convert "/". This field is a dropdown which consists of value true and false.

  3. Date/Time Format:

    1. Add/Subtract time: Manipulate a date and/or time by adding/subtracting days, months, years, hours, minutes, seconds.

      1. Expression: Provide the amount of time you would like to add or subtract to the date (negative values subtract time). Examples: +8 hours 1 minute,+1 month -2 days, -1 day +8 hours.

      2. To Format: Provide the format that the date should be converted to. 

      3. From Format(Optional): If we incorrectly interpret the incoming (input) date, set this to explicitly tell us the format. 

    2. Format: Change a date or time to a new format or style

      1. To Format: Provide the format that the date should be converted to. Select one from multiple formats.

      2. To Timezone(Optional): Choose a timezone the date should be converted to. Select one from multiple timezones.

      3. From Format(Optional): If we incorrectly interpret the incoming (input) date, set this to explicitly tell us the format. Select one from multiple formats.

      4. From Timezone(Optional): If no timezone is provided in the incoming (input) data, set this to explicitly tell us which to use. Select one from multiple timezones.

References for UI:

  1. Numbers:

     

2. Text:

3. Utilities:

4. Date/Time:

 

 

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