Too many operations in a text parser that follows a first text parser (2.0)

Steps taken so far

This question was asked several months ago, but the original question was never answered so I am bringing it up again.

I have pared my scenario down to just 3 modules for the sake of troubleshooting. In this pared down scenario, I am parsing a gmail email for information and have 2 text parser modules behind it. One text parser that pulls the Address, another text parser that pulls the Recipient’s name and the SKU for the item they purchased. See my scenario screenshot below.

If you look at the 2nd text parser, labeled “Find SKU|Recipient”, you’ll see that it correctly pulls 5 bundles, showing the data. However, the issue I have is that it creates 5 OPERATIONS for the exact same data! This is burning through my Make.com operation credits.

Any ideas why its burning 5 Operations?

Screenshots: scenario setup, module configuration, errors

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Welcome to the Make community!

Combining Bundles Using Aggregators

Every result (item/record) from trigger/iterator/list/search/match modules will output a bundle. This can result in multiple bundles, which then trigger multiple operations in future modules (one operation per bundle). To “combine” multiple bundles into a single variable, you’ll need to use an aggregator of some sort.

Aggregators are modules that accumulate multiple bundles into one single bundle. An example of a commonly-used aggregator module is the Array aggregator module. The next popular aggregator is the Text Aggregator which is very flexible and can apply to many use-cases like building of JSON, CSV, HTML.

You can find out more about the other types of aggregator modules here:

Question: Which is the best aggregator do you think you’ll need for your use-case?

Mapping a Specific Structure Into a Complex Field

If you have an array of collections, in programming terms, this is called an array of objects, or an array with non-primitive data types (“complex”).

The Array Aggregator module is very powerful because it allows you to build a new complex array of collections that matches a later module’s field to map multiple items (collections) to it. Such fields initially would allow you to manually add items, but you can toggle the “Map” switch to the “on” state and map a whole array into a single field.

This is done by selecting the “Target structure type” in an Array Aggregator module.

As you can see from the above example, the “Map” toggle on complex fields are used when you have an array variable (like from an array aggregator). Other combinations of modules may also allow you to generate an array that matches a future field’s array structure, like “Aggregate to JSON + Parse JSON”, or “Create JSON + Parse JSON”, but this is an advanced topic.

Question: Are you mapping your array into a field that accepts more than one item/collection?

Example

Here is an example of how your scenario could look like:

This is just an example. Your final solution may or may not look like this depending on your requirements and actual data.

For more information, see “Mapping with arrays” in the Help Centre. You should also do the Make Academy, which also covers the use of Iterators & Aggregators.

Hope this helps! Let me know if there are any further questions or issues.

@samliew

P.S.: Investing some effort into the Make Academy will save you lots of time and frustration using Make.

Thanks Samliew. Before I dive in to your instruction, I did want to clarify one point. I know and expect there to be multiple BUNDLES. What I wasn’t expecting is there to be multiple OPERATIONS, especially with the same exact data in each.

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1 bundle entering a module = 1 operation

So if one module outputs multiple bundles, future modules will multiply this effect.