AutomatorWP – Formatter

AutomatorWP – Formatter is an extension designed to transform, normalize, and manipulate data inside automation workflows built with AutomatorWP. Its primary purpose is to give site administrators and integrators granular control over the data that flows between triggers and actions: formatting dates, trimming or transforming text, converting numbers, parsing JSON payloads, joining arrays, and applying conditional fallbacks. By introducing a set of reusable formatting operations into AutomatorWP recipes, Formatter helps ensure that output sent to emails, webhooks, CRM systems, LMS platforms, or other plugins is consistent, human-readable, and system-ready. The Formatter add-on acts as a bridge between raw event data and the final action payloads, making automations more reliable and easier to maintain.

Features

• Variable Formatting Toolbox ‚Äì A broad suite of formatters that operate on variables passed by triggers: date/time formatters, number formatters, string transformers, casing functions (uppercase, lowercase, capitalize), trimming and padding utilities. Each formatter takes an input variable and outputs a normalized value that can be used by downstream actions.
• Date & Time Manipulation ‚Äì Convert timestamps and date strings between formats, apply timezone adjustments, and produce relative or human-readable dates (e.g., ‚Äú3 days ago‚Äù or ‚ÄúApril 12, 2025 10:00 AM‚Äù). This is especially useful when combining data from external systems that use different date formats or time zones.
• Number & Currency Handling ‚Äì Format numeric values, set decimal precision, add thousands separators, and apply currency symbols or ISO codes. Useful for invoices, order summaries, pricing displays, and integrations that require a specific numeric format.
• String Operations ‚Äì Replace substrings, strip HTML tags, remove whitespace, slugify text for URLs, URL-encode/decode, and truncate text to a specified length with optional ellipses. These operations prepare strings for safe output across different channels (emails, SMS, webhooks).
• Conditional & Fallback Logic ‚Äì Provide default values when a variable is empty, test simple conditions (equals, contains, starts with), and branch formatting based on those tests. This reduces the need for fragile conditional logic in action steps and prevents empty or malformed payloads.
• Array & JSON Helpers ‚Äì Join arrays into delimited strings, split strings into arrays, pick specific array elements, and parse or encode JSON payloads. These helpers streamline working with multi-valued data from form fields, API responses, and plugin outputs.
• Regular Expressions & Advanced Search/Replace ‚Äì Use regex to extract or replace complex patterns inside strings. Ideal for extracting tracking codes, cleaning phone numbers, or normalizing product SKUs before syncing with external systems.
• Mathematical Operations ‚Äì Perform simple arithmetic on numeric values within a workflow (add, subtract, multiply, divide) and apply rounding rules. Helpful for discount calculations, tax adjustments, or converting units.
• Shortcode and Template Parsing ‚Äì Render shortcodes or merge tags within formatted output, allowing the final payload to include dynamically generated content that may itself use WordPress shortcodes or AutomatorWP tokens.
• Chained Formatters & Reusable Presets ‚Äì Apply multiple formatters in sequence to a single variable (for example: trim -> strip HTML -> truncate -> slugify). Save commonly used formatter chains as presets to reuse across multiple recipes, promoting consistency and faster setup.
• Logging & Preview Mode ‚Äì Preview the output of a formatter using sample data and inspect logs to verify transformation behaviors during recipe development. This helps debug complex formatting issues without firing full automation actions.
• Where this Plugin Is Particularly Useful ‚Äì Formatter excels in environments where data consistency is critical: e-commerce platforms (WooCommerce) that need normalized SKUs and currency values, LMS platforms that require standardized user metadata, CRMs that expect specific date formats, multi-site networks with differing locales, and workflows that integrate third-party APIs where payload formats differ.
• Alternative Plugins and Addons ‚Äì There are several other tools and plugins that provide overlapping or complementary functionality:
  • Uncanny Automator ‚Äì A competing automation plugin that includes some formatting and merging features within its action and token system.
  • WP Webhooks ‚Äì Focused on sending and receiving webhooks with payload mapping and transformation capabilities.
  • Zapier for WordPress / Make (Integromat) integrations ‚Äì External automation platforms that can format and transform data but work outside the WordPress environment.
  • WP Fusion ‚Äì Syncs WordPress data with CRMs and includes field mapping and some formatting options.
  • Toolset or Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) ‚Äì While not formatters per se, they help structure data at the source and can reduce the need for complex formatting later on.
  • Gravity Forms / Fluent Forms / Formidable Forms ‚Äì Form builders with built-in merge tags and conditional logic; combining them with AutomatorWP + Formatter provides a powerful end-to-end solution.

Use Cases

• Email Notifications with Cleaned Content ‚Äì A membership site triggers an email when a member updates their profile. Raw profile fields may contain HTML, inconsistent capitalization, or extra whitespace. Formatter can strip HTML, trim and capitalize names, format registration dates into a human-friendly locale-aware string, and ensure the email contains tidy, consistent content for personalized messages.
• WooCommerce Order Sync to External Systems ‚Äì When an order is placed, AutomatorWP triggers a webhook to an external fulfillment or accounting system. Formatter normalizes currency formats, converts dates to ISO 8601 timestamps, ensures product SKUs are slugified, and joins product names into a single delimited string. This guarantees the receiving system gets clean, predictable data.
• CRM Enrichment and Contact Migration ‚Äì Leads submitted via multiple forms may have phone numbers in different formats. Use Formatter’s regex and replace utilities to normalize phone fields, set default country codes if missing, and format the date of inquiry. After formatting, AutomatorWP can send the cleaned lead data to a CRM (via API or integration) so records are consistent and searchable.
• LMS Progress Notifications ‚Äì An LMS triggers actions when a student completes a lesson. Formatter can convert complex course metadata into a readable summary: combine lesson titles, format completion timestamps to the admin timezone, and truncate long descriptions for SMS alerts while ensuring links are stripped or safely encoded.
• Multi-Locale Websites ‚Äì On multilingual or multi-region sites, dates and numbers need locale-specific formatting. Formatter can output region-appropriate date strings and number formats before sending content to localized email templates or third-party services that expect a particular locale format.
• API Response Parsing for Conditional Workflows ‚Äì When consuming an external API via AutomatorWP, the returned JSON might include nested structures. Formatter can parse the JSON, extract relevant fields, and conditionally route actions based on those values (for example, only trigger follow-up emails when the API returns a specific status).
• Form Field Normalization for Reporting ‚Äì Aggregate data from multiple form providers into a single reporting format by trimming values, standardizing cases, and joining multi-select fields into a consistent delimiter. This simplifies export and analysis downstream.
• Dynamic Content for Personalized Landing Pages ‚Äì Generate clean, SEO-friendly slugs from user inputs and combine formatted tokens into shortcodes that populate personalized landing page content. Formatter ensures user-supplied text is safe and well-structured before it is embedded into pages.
• Fallbacks for Missing Data ‚Äì In automations where some variables may be optional or missing (e.g., secondary phone number, company name), Formatter offers default values and conditional fallbacks so that emails, webhooks, or CRMs never receive empty or problematic fields.
• Complex Pipelines with Reusable Presets ‚Äì Large teams maintain dozens of automations that must produce identical outputs. Formatter’s presets allow teams to apply a standard transformation chain (e.g., normalize product codes, format prices, localize dates) across multiple recipes, ensuring consistency and reducing maintenance overhead.