Introduction to Formatters

Formatter is Eshopbox’s built-in utility tool for transforming text, numbers, and other data into the format you need. Use Formatter when you need data in a different format than the format it’s coming in from your trigger or another step.

With Formatter, you can:

• Modify text formats

• Modify number formats

• Modify date formats

• Perform a variety of utility functions

Before you start

• You should have a partner login and a configured App.

How it works

1. In the Automation editor, click the + icon to add a new step.

2. Select Formatter.

3. Select from four options:

   1. Numbers

      1. Click on Continue.

      2. Choose your transform, which is the specific action that you want to do to the number. You can select from the following transformations:

         • Format Currency

         • Format Number

         • Format Phone Number

         • Perform Math Operation

         • Spreadsheet-Style Formula

      3. In the Input field, click the dropdown menu and specify the input value by choosing a field from a previous step.

      4. Fill out additional required or optional fields which are mentioned below in Glossary.

      5. Click Continue.

   2. Text

      1. Click on Continue.

      2. Choose your transformation, which is the specific thing that you want to do to the text. You can select from the following transformations:

         • Capitalize: Capitalize the first character of every word.

         • Convert Markdown to HTML: Convert Markdown text into valid HTML

         • Convert to ASCII: Replace all non-ASCII characters.

         • Default Value: Return a default value if the text is empty. If a line-item field is provided, a line-item field is returned.

         • Extract Email Address: Find and copy an email address out of a text field. Finds the first email address only.

         • Extract Number: Find and copy a number in text.

         • Extract Pattern: Find the first match for a regular expression in a text field. Returns all matched groups with start and end position.

         • Extract Phone Number: Find and copy a complete phone number out of a text field. Finds the first phone number only.

         • Extract URL: Find and copy a web URL out of a text field. Finds the first URL only.

         • Find: Find the first position of a value in the text, -1 if the value is not found

         • Length: Count the number of characters in the text

         • Lowercase: Convert all characters in a string to lowercase

         • Pluralize: Pluralize any English word (frog turns into frogs; child turns into children)

         • Remove HTML tags: Remove every HTML tag to leave just the plain text.

         • Replace: Replace all instances of any character, word or phrase in the text with another character, word or phrase.

         • Split Text: Split the text on a character or word and return a segment

         • Superhero Name: Convert a name into the name of a Superhero.

         • Titlecase: Convert all characters in a string to titlecase

         • Truncate: Limit your text to a specific character length, and delete anything over that.

         • Trim Whitespace: Removes leading and trailing whitespace.

         • URL Decode: Decodes text from URLs.

         • URL Encode: Encodes text for use in URLs.

         • Uppercase: Capitalize every character in the text

         • Word Count: Count the number of words in a string.

      3. In the Input field, click the dropdown menu and specify the input value by choosing a field from a previous step.

      4. Fill out additional required or optional fields which are mentioned below in Glossary.

      5. Click Continue.

      6. In order to find, replace, or split on special characters in text, you can use a special character syntax:

         • [:space:] - matches space (\s) characters

         • [:tab:] - matches tab (\t) characters

         • [:newline:] - matches newline (\n) characters

         • [:return:] - matches carriage-return (\r) characters

   3. Utilities

      1. Click on Continue.

      2. Choose your transformation, which is the specific thing that you want to do to the utilities. You can select from the following transformations:

         • Import CSV file

         • Line Itemizer (to create, append or prepend line items)

         • Lookup Tables

         • Pick from list

         • Text to line-item

         • Line-item to text

      3. In the Input field, click the dropdown menu and specify the input value by choosing a field from a previous step.

      4. Fill out additional required or optional fields which are mentioned below in Glossary.

      5. Click Continue.

   4. Date/Time

      1. Click on Continue.

      2. Choose your transformation, which is the specific thing that you want to do to the date. You can select from the following transformations:

         • Add/Subtract time: Manipulate a date and/or time by adding/subtracting days, months, years, hours, minutes, seconds.

         • Format: Change a date or time to a new format or style

      3. In the Input field, click the dropdown menu and specify the input value by choosing a field from a previous step.

      4. Fill out additional required or optional fields which are mentioned below in Glossary.

      5. Click Continue.

4. To test your formatting click Send Test To Formatter. If your test was successful, you'll be able to see the results of your test next to the label output.