FabMan is awesome and has a lot of potential in it´s API/webhooks. Hoewever, not everybody is a web developer that knows how to use the API/webhooks for external purposes.
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In our FabLab, we used to have internal web develeper, who was able to make all sorts of useful stuff. He is unfortunately not active in our lab anymore. We recently started a new Discord server, and we wanted to create a integration that could read FabMan´s webhook and through Discord bot send a messeage when a machine is disabled. We are not able to do that unfortunately.
That sort of thing is quite easy with services like PowerAutomate or Zapier. We actualy used Zapier for this exact thing with Mailchimp newsletter service (Mailchimp sends a info that a new newsletter is out, and Discord bot send messeage in channel with a link).
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So please, would it be possible to integrate it? It´s free for you, and I can imagine a lot of not only labs but also other institutions using FabMan would benefit from this.
Zapier: Zapier Platform: Build one integration to connect with 5,000+ SaaS apps
PowerAutomate: Power Automate documentation - Power Automate | Microsoft Learn
Hey Jan,
thank you for the suggestion. I’ll look into what would be required to offer Zapier integration in the future.
Best regards,
Raphael
@raphael Hi Raphael,
I know you did not promise any timeframe for when you would integrate Zapier, but I wanted to ask if there’s any development in this.
Thanks!
Hey Jan,
I looked into Zapier’s documentation back in May, as promised. Yes, it’s “free” as in “we wouldn’t have to pay Zapier”. But it would require a large amount of work to properly integrate the Fabman API with Zapier and continuous maintenance to make sure Zapier remains functional as we extend Fabman in the future.
We still want to do it, but since it’s clearly not a “quick win” item that we can just check off between larger projects, it will have to wait until some of the other things on our roadmap are done.
I’m sorry I don’t have a more satisfying answer for your at the moment. :-/
I understand. Thanks for replying!
Hi @raphael,
I just wanted to check in and ask if some space appeared on the roadmap for this. I really belive it would enable automation for FabMan for users without technical expertise.
Thank you for considering it!
Hey Jan,
it’s still on the list of things we consider whenever we plan a new release, but I can’t tell you anything more concrete.