Friday, March 21, 2014

Automatization with IFTTT

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Have not heard about it? I bet you are missing out on a lot.

IFTTT is an acronym for ‘if this then that’. IFTTT is a web automation app which helps to automatize several day to day chores. It uses ‘triggers’ and ‘actions’ to automate a process.

Sounds a bit too geeky? Nay, it’s super easy. And you will be taught all this, the best way!

Let’s say that I want a text message every time this blog gets updates.  So first of all, I need the URL for RSS feed of this blog which is this link

1. Now create an account on IFTTT and using your account credentials, login.
2. Click on ‘Create a Recipe’. This screen will appear. Click on this.
if this then that
3. ‘Choose trigger channel’ menu will appear, scroll down till you see Feed icon.
trigger channel
rss feed channel ifttt
4. Click on feed. On choose a trigger option.  Click on new feed item.
5. In Feed URL, enter the RSS feed URL of the desired website. Our blog feed is available here, Legally India, BarandBench. News sites give you feed category wise and you could subscribe to individual categories. Here are some places you could get RSS feed link of news feeds BBC, Times of India, The Hindu.
rss feed url
6. Click on Trigger.
7. Click on that.
if this then that ifttt
8. In choose action channel, scroll down till you see SMS.
sms action
9. Click on it. Now when you will be using Action first time you will need to activate it. So IFTTT will ask for your phone number and will send a verification code on it. It’s quite simple and you will surely manage that part easily. Once done, proceed ahead.
10. Now in ‘Choose an Action’ click on ‘Send me an SMS’.
11. Now you could alter your SMS content. Best left untouched if you don’t understand what stands for what. 
rss feed content

12. Click on ‘Create Action’.
13. Click on ‘Create Recipe’.
14. You are done. I mean the task is.
15. What now? If you want to subscribe to our blog updates via SMS, here is ready to use recipe link. 

This is not even 1% of what IFTTT is capable of. Below are some interesting uses

Every time you are tagged in a photo on Facebook automatically save it to Dropbox, Google Drive or SkyDrive .

Every time somebody follows you on Twitter, automatically thank them with a tweet using this recipe.

Get a text message before it rains or get weather updates daily for free.

Save all your Gmail Attachments directly to Dropbox, Google Drive or SkyDrive.

Automatically save your list of ‘watch later’ videos of YouTube to Pocket or Evernote.

Get publicly loved music on SoundCloud to your Google Drive or free music of last.fm to Dropbox.

Using this recipe, get a mail every time is new book is added to Kindle Top 100 Free eBooks.
iPhone users could backup their contacts to a Google Spreadsheet or send a "Nice to meet you!" email to new contacts.

Get the weekly top ten bit torrent downloads from Torrent Freak in your Gmail account using this recipe. Or better use this recipe to get a mail every time Yify uploads a new torrent.

There is world to explore on IFTTT. Go check it out. Be nice. Continue reading us!

Note:-
IFTTT’s action call doesn’t work in India.
To receive text messages make sure your number is not in the Do Not Disturb (DND) list.









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