How to ignore blank data fields in a trigger step in a workflow

[RoCrow]

I have workflows were sometimes some of the fields in the trigger step have data and sometimes not.

How can I have make workflows automatically not map the blank fields to the action steps, or at least specify a 'if this field is blank, ignore it' rule?

N.B. I don't think routers are the answer as some flows might have 10+ fields that are blank sometimes, or full at other times; so setting up - and maintaining - 10+ router steps is not really feasible.

 

[Preeti Paryani]

Hello @RoCrow,

Thanks for your query.

As of now, there isn’t a direct “ignore if blank” rule available for field mapping. The Ignore Rule only applies to an action step when it fails—it doesn’t apply to specific field-level mappings.

However, here are a couple of alternatives you can use:

1. Text Formatter / Default Value Action
   You can use this to pass a default value in case a specific field comes through as blank. This ensures that the action still receives a valid input even when the original field has no data.
2. Lookup Table (Value Lookup)
   You can use the Lookup Table action to check for a specific value (or the absence of it) and pass a fallback or default value if nothing valid is found. This allows more flexibility in handling missing or unexpected data.

Let us know if this approach works for your use case or if you'd need help setting it up—we’re happy to assist further.

 

[RoCrow]

Thanks for that.

The lookup table won't work for my use cases, but I wasn't aware of it and can see other applications for it in other workflows — so that was useful!

The default value might work in some of my use cases but not all, unfortunately:

I have a flow with form data coming from attendees at over 1k live events per year, often with attendees going to multiple events, then their form submissions are going to my CRM.

The problem is that sometimes that data has many data points filled in, which updates the contact in the CRM, and sometimes it only has a few. When it has data, my CRM gets populated. But when it is blank in some fields, that will overwrite my contact's CRM fields, even if they used to have data from previously filled in forms (events).

Since each field is personal to that contact, I can't use default values. nor a lookup table.

The only fix I can think of is a 'if a field is blank, do not send it to the next step, but do push any other fields to the next step' toggle option for the workflow (which I know you don't have!).

Would be great if this could be added (or a workaround found) as I now constantly have CRM fields for thousands of contacts getting added with data, then blanked, then added, then blanked, repeatedly! Which breaks my further automations (e.g. drip sequences and workflows in my CRM!).

 

[ArshilAhmad]

The endpoint you are attempting to execute might be using a PUT request to update the data, which is why the entire data is being overwritten instead of simply updating the specific data being passed. In this case, there is nothing we can do about it from our end.