How to use macros in Coupler.io importers?

In any text field of Coupler.io importer, you can use macros to interpolate date-time strings. Macro is a pattern that specifies how a certain input should be mapped to a replacement output.

For example, you don’t have to manually specify yesterday's date-time value in Quickbooks report parameters or JSON URL query. You can instead type {{yesterday}}, and the importer will automatically interpolate it with yesterday’s date-time value.

Macro's syntax:

{{macro}}

Supported date macros

The default date format is YYYY-MM-DD that corresponds to the ISO 8601 date standard.

today
yesterday
tomorrow
thisweekstart
- this can be replaced with last or next
- week can be replaced with month or quarter or year
- start can be replaced with end
weekago
- week can be replaced with month or quarter or year
2weeksago
2weeksfromnow
- 2 can be replaced with any numeral
- weeks can be replaced with days or months or quarters or years

Date macros usage examples

Parameter + macro	Output
`start_date: {{today}}`	`start_date: 2020-12-24`
`updated_at: {{thisweekstart}}`	`updated_at: 2020-12-21`
`to: {{3monthsago}}`	`to: 2020-09-24`
`to: {{1yearfromnow}}`	`to: 2024-07-04`

Supported date-time macros

The default date and time format is YYYY-MM-DD[T]hh:mm:ss[Z] that corresponds to the ISO 8601 date and time standard.

now
thishourstart
- thiscan be replaced with last or next
- start can be replaced with end
hourago
2hoursago
- 2 can be replaced with any numeral
1hourfromnow
- 1 can be replaced with any numeral

Date-time macros usage examples

Parameter + macro	Output
`created_at: {{lasthourstart}}`	`created_at: 2020-12-24T14:00:00Z`
`updated_since: {{5hoursago}}`	`updated_since: 2020-12-24T07:00:00Z`
`created_at: {{3hoursfromnow}}`	`created_at: 2020-12-24T18:00:00Z`

Check out this Coupler.io Macros Generator to optimize your flow.

Custom format

You can format each macro as needed using the following syntax:

{{macro.format(output-format)}}

macro - specify the macro you need
output-format - specify the format you want the macro to output

Macros custom format example

Parameter + macro	Output
`start_date: {{today.format(dddd)}}`	`start_date: Thursday`
`created_at: {{5hoursago.format(hh:mm)}}`	`created_at: 08:23`
`created_at: {{55hoursfromnow.format(YYYY-MM-DD)}}`	`created_at: 2023-07-06`

Where I can use macros

You can use date and date-time macros in:

JSON / CSV URL, URL query string and Body fields of the JSON or CSV Client importer.
Quickbooks "Where" field
- Note: QB requires using of macro values in single quotes, i.e. '{{today}}'. Check more here.
Quickbooks reports the "Query parameters" field
Xero "Where" field
- Note: special formatting to be used with Xero Importer: check the details here.
Xero reports "Report Period" field
BigQuery "SQL query" field
JIRA "JQL" field
Slack "Search query" field
Shopify "Created after date", "Created before date", "Changed after date", "Changed before date" fields
Facebook Ads "From", "To" fields
WooCommerce "After date", "Before date" fields
SalesForce "Changed after date", "Changed before date" fields
Mailchimp "Created after date", "Created before date", "Sent since date", "Sent before date" fields
Hubspot "Created after date", "Created before date", "Updated after date", "Updated before date" fields
- Note: only date macros are available for Hubspot date fields. Date and time macros ( {{hourago}} etc) are unavailible.

The most frequent cases, however, include the field " URL query string" for GET requests, for example:

and the field “ Request body" for POST requests. For example, here is how you can post a message to Slack:

And here is the output: