Using Modifiers to alter data

You learned that Variables are placeholders for data coming from previously connected components in your flows that will be eventually replaced with real values once they are available at flow runtime.

Sometimes you need to modify the values. For example, you receive a percentage value but you'd like to store it in the decimal format (i.e. 75 becomes 0.75). This is exactly where Modifiers excel.

Using Modifiers to alter data

Modifiers are a powerful tool to modify variable values, change their format or even use conditionals and loops to structure the actual output of your variables. It's like applying excel formulas to your variables - but simpler.

Modifiers can be stacked, meaning that the result of one modifier is an input to another modifier used for the same variable (e.g. "divide by 10, then add 50, then round").

Let's dig deeper into what Modifiers are by continuing with our simple example. Say we collect a "Percentage" field in a form and pass the data to a Google Sheet. On the way, we want to adjust the percentage from 75 to 0.75. To achieve that, you can simply click on the variable and choose the right data modifier.

Opening the Modifiers panel

As you can see, the Modifiers dialog contains different categories for different types of variable values. In our case, we're interested in the "Number" category and the "Div" modifier that divides our Percent variable by another number that we specify. Just click the "Div" modifier to apply it to our variable and tell the modifier that we want to modify our value by 100.

Using the "Div" modifier

Now press "Close" and you'll see the "Percent" variable changed appearance a little bit to tell you that it will be modified at runtime.

Saving the changes

To explain the power of modifiers, let's look at the second example. This time, we'll want to modify dates. Imagine we keep a record of our employees' vacations and want to notify them by email and SMS two days before their vacation ends to remind them that they should come to work in two days. Our sheet can look like this:

Record of our employees vacations

Our "To Date" column contains the end date of the employee's vacation. However, we want to send them SMS and email two days before their first day at work. Therefore, we want to subtract one day from the "To Date" and wait for that new date to send them reminders. Our flow can look like this.

Flow overview

Notice how we use the "Wait" component to wait for a certain date. In the "Until" field, we use the modified "To Date" column value. We modified our variable with the "AddSpan" modifier from the "Date" category and filled "-1" for the "Days" parameter.

Using the modifier to adjust the date

You might have noticed that there are many modifier categories and types at your disposal. We intend to give you maximal flexibility with our pre-built modifiers or empower you to simply build your categories and types.

Below, see the complete list of Modifier categories and types.

Object

Each Loops over all values of a list or an object

JSON Path Accesses nested properties of the VALUE object using dot notation

Map Maps array to another array

Stringify Converts an object or list to a JSON string

List

Deduplicate

Filter unique values or objects in an array if property name is provided

Each Loops over all values of a list or an object

Filter Iterates over items in the list and returns a new list with values that pass the predicate

First Item Finds the first item of a list

Flatten Flattens array a single level deep or recursively

Initial Gets the first element(s) of an array

Join Joins items into a text

Last Item Finds the last item of a list

Length Finds length of a text or list

Map Maps array to another array

Max Computes the maximum value of array

Mean Finds average (arithmetic mean) of the values of array

Min Computes the minimum value of array

Nth Index Finds the nth item of a list

Pick Transforms the list by picking nested object values

Reverse Reverses array so that the first first element becomes the last, the second element becomes the second to last, and so on.

Shuffle

Shuffle values of an array

Stringify Converts an object or list to a JSON string

Sum Computes the sum of the values in array

Tail Gets all but the first element(s) of array

Text

Add Adds two numbers or concatenate two strings

Base64

Generate base64 string

Camel Case Converts text to camel case. (Example: "Foo Bar"-> "fooBar")

Decode URL Decodes URL or a URL component

Encode URL Encodes URL or a URL component

Escape HTML Converts the characters "&", "<", ">", "", and """ in text to their corresponding HTML entities

Extract email addresses Returns a list of email addresses found in the text

Extract URLs Returns a list of email addresses found in the text

Extract words Splits the text into a list of its words

Kebab Case Converts text to kebab case. (Example: "Foo Bar" -> "foo-bar")

Greater than Tests if the first value ir greater than the second value

Length Finds length of a text or list

Less than Tests if the first value if less than the second value

Lower First Converts the first character of the text to lower case

Lowercase Transforms text to lower case

MD5 Gets an MD5 hash of the text

Padding Pads text on the left and right sides if it's shorter than a specified length

Regex Finds matches using regular expression

Replace Replaces part of the text using regular expressions or text patterns

SHA1

Hash a string using SHA1 algorithm

SHA256

Hash a string using SHA256 algorithm

SHA512

Hash a string using SHA512 algorithm

Snake Case Converts text to snake case. (Example: ""Foo Bar" -> "foo_bar")

Split Splits text by delimiter

Split By Whitespace Splits text into a list of words by chunks of whitespace

Trim Removes leading and trailing whitespace or specified characters from string

Trim End Removes trailing whitespace or specified characters from string

Trim Start Removes leading whitespace or specified characters from string

Truncate Truncates text if it's longer than the given maximum text length. The last characters of the truncated text are replaced with the omission which defaults to "..."

Upper First Converts the first character of the text to upper case

Uppercase Transforms text to upper case

Control

Condition Conditional statement. If EXPRESSION evaluates to true, TRUE VALUE branch will be the resulting value. Otherwise, FALSE VALUE will be used.

Custom Fields

Returns flow custom fields

Equals Tests equality of two values. Resulting value is true if FIRST EXPRESSION equals SECOND EXPRESSION.

Flow ID

Returns current flow ID

Flow Name

Returns current flow name

Not Invert value. True value becomes false and vice versa.

UUID v4

Returns UUID v4

JavaScript Function Run JavaScript code to transform a variable value. Anonymous functions, arrow functions, and plain javascript code are supported.

Arrow function example:

Another example:

Number

Add Adds two numbers or concatenate two strings

Avg Finds average (arithmetic mean) of a given number

Ceil Rounds to the smallest integer greater than or equal to a given number

Div Divides two numbers

Floor Rounds to the largest integer less or equal to a given number

Greater than Tests is the first value is greater than the second value

Less than Tests if the first value is less than the second value

Max Finds maximum of given numbers

Min Finds minimum of given numbers

Mod Finds remainder after division of one number by another

Mul Multiplies two numbers

Sub Subtracts two numbers

Date

AddSpan Adds time span to the date

Format Date Formats a date/time string using a string of tokens

Greater than Tests if the first date is greater than the second date

Less than Tests if the first date is greater than the second date

Now (ISO 8601)

Returns current date string in the ISO 8601 format

Relative time Formats a relative date/time

Timestamp (Unix)

Returns Unix timestamp

Math

PI

Returns value of PI

Random number

Returns a random number between 0 and 1

Appmixer is all about flexibility and agility. You can customise all modifiers and also implement your own using Node.js and upload them to the Appmixer engine via API to suit your specific business needs.

In the next section, you'll learn how to implement logic to your flows.