LLN Robot Zapier API
Important Note: This article outlines the LLN Robot integration with Zapier. If you are a developer looking for the technical API documentation please go to:https://support.lln.training/article/376-api-for-the-lln-robot-system
Introducing the LLN Robot Zapier App
Zapier is an online platform that allows you to get different web-based systems to interact with each other, without needing to write any code! These interactions are called 'Zaps'.
Zapier is all about triggers and actions. Think of it as a 'if this, then that' kind of logic. For example a Zap might contain the following steps:
- IF I enrol a student into a course in my Student Management System, THEN send them a link to take the LLN Quiz, or;
- IF a learner does their LLN Quiz, THEN attach the results to their record in my Student Management System.
More complex sets of tasks can be used as well. For example:
- IF a learner does their LLN Quiz, THEN attach the results to their record in my Student Management System AND send an email to their trainer with a full LLN Report attached.
Click here to check out Zapier for yourself: https://zapier.com/app/dashboard
What can LLN Robot Connect to via Zapier?
There are thousands of web-based programs already affiliated with Zapier including:
- Google Apps & Gmail.
- Shopify.
- Mailchimp.
- Facebook.
- Dropbox.
Click here to see what Apps are available: https://zapier.com/apps
Zapier Subscription Plans
Depending on how complex you want to get with your integration there are a range of subscription levels available.
The first level is FREE and will allow you to do very basic functions made up of 1 trigger and 1 action. This level also limits the number of active Zaps you can have, how often they automate and how many times each month they will run. This level will allow you to perform very basic LLN Robot interactions such as inviting a learner to take a quiz, or collecting quiz results from LLN Robot and forwarding them to another system.
The next level is around $30 per month (at the time of publication) and allows for more complex zaps. You will need this level at a minimum to properly integrate LLN Robot with enrolment and student management systems and to automate functions like generating LLN Reports.
Click here for info on the different plans available at Zapier: https://zapier.com/pricing
What can you Automate with the LLN Robot App?
The following functions are available with the LLN Robot App in Zapier:
Triggers are functions that are 'triggered' by a specific event or something specific happening in your LLN Robot system. These are 'Step 1' when putting together a Zap. The Triggers available are:
- Quiz Completed - Learner Details: This trigger sends data to Zapier whenever a learner completes a quiz and returns the details located on the Learner Record within LLN Robot (Name, Quiz Taken, Unique ID, Results etc). This data is returned in JSON format but can be understood and transfered to other systems via Zapier.
- Quiz Completed - Learner Summary Report: This trigger sends the same data as the one above, but also provides a link to the Learner Summary PDF that can be embedded into the body of an email, or attached to it. This PDF is the same as the Learner Summary one generated from within LLN Robot.
Actions are functions that allow external systems to get information from your LLN Robot system. These are located anywhere after Step 1 and need something to be triggered first before they can run. This is because an Action required certain information to run and this information must be provided in an earlier step of the Zap.
- Create Learner Quiz: This action is used to invite a learner to take a specific LLN Quiz. It requires you to provide the same information that is entered into your current learner form in LLN Robot. The difference is you can gether that information from an existing source rather than entering it in again (e.g. from your enrolment software).
- Generate LLN Report: This action is used to generate an LLN Report for a learner that has already completed the LLN Quiz. This allows you to generate this report without having to log in to LLN Robot.
- Get Courses: This is a query that collects the details of all the courses that have been set up in your LLN Robot system including the Name, Units of Competency and ACSF Profile.
- Get Learners: This is a query that returns the details of all learners that meet the criteria you search for (an email address, or all learners who have completed a quiz etc.) It is used to gather the uniqu ID that is associated with each learner in the LLN Robot database for the purpose of Generating the LLN Report.
How to Connect your LLN Robot System to Zapier
Once you have a Zapier Account you can start connecting your other App Accounts to it. To connect your LLN Robot System:
- In Zapier navigate to My Apps and click on the dropdown arrow next to 'Connect a new account....'
2. Start Typing in LLN-Robot and select it from the list.
3. Enter the information in the 2 fields and click Yes, Continue to authorise Zapier to interact with your LLN Robot system.
You can locate the API Key in your LLN Robot system under the 'Settings: Manage System Settings' section.
Note: You will need an 'Administration' level LLN Robot account to access this part of the system. Please also ensure that the Enable API is toggled on (blue).
The deployment name is the text in the URL that comes before .lln.training. In the example below the Deployment Name is testing
Example Zaps for LLN Robot
Below are some examples of Zaps that you can build with LLN Robot. For the purpose of these examples we are using a simple webform (called Paperform) to collect initial query data and we are using email (Gmail) as a way of distributing the relevant information. You may have completely different start and end points to better suit your purposes for integrating LLN Robot - thats the best part about using Zapier!
To get started click on Make a Zap!
Example 1: Automatically Invite a new Learner to take an LLN Quiz
1. Enrol the learner using your standard process. For this example we have used a simple web-form. Your Student Management System may be connected to Zapier with a trigger similar to the submission of this form. This enrolment submission is the Trigger the sets the Zap in motion. Zapier will constantly check for any triggers that are occurring to ensure your processes run automatically and as quickly as possible.
To invite the learner to take the right quiz we need to identify it in this initial information. In this example we have used a dropdown menu, but as long as the data is entered somewhere in the process that triggers the zap (and that Zapier has access to) it should be ok wherever you choose to put it.
2. After selecting the appropriate trigger - in this case the submission of the above form - we add the next step of the Zap ( Action) which is to add the learner to LLN Robot. For this you will need to Choose the App (LLN-Robot) and the Action (Create Learner Quiz). Make sure you have connected your LLN Robot account in the 'My Apps' section of Zapier before you attempt to do this.
3. Next you will need to select your LLN Robot account.
4. In the Customise Learner section you identify the information that will be sent to LLN Robot. This information is taken from the first step in the Zap. In this example that is the Paperform submission.
To select the correct information click on the 'Add Field' box next to each required field and select the appropriate data from the dropdown menu. This is the one that has the small circle with the plus sign in it next to 4 horizontal lines.
5. Once all of the data has been located you can progress to a testing stage. This will let you test out the Zap to make sure everything is working properly.
Example 2: Automatically Export Learner Quiz Results when they Finish a Quiz
In this example we are using the 'Quiz Completed - Learner Details' trigger. This means the zap will run each time a learner completes a quiz in your LLN Robot system. For the purposes of this example we are going to email the results, but you could also import them to a Google Spreadsheet, or your Student Management System (if it has a Zapier App of its own).
1. Select the App (LLN-Robot), Trigger Event (Quiz Completed - Learner Details) and the Account (The one you have already connected - see How to Connect Your LLN Robot System to Zapier above). Finalise this step by using the Test and Review option.
2. Add an action to the Zap. In this example we are going to add Gmail and we are going to make it send an email. In the same process as above we select the App (Gmail), the Action (Compose and Send Email) and the Account (A Gmail account we have connected using the same method as connecting our LLN Robot system to Zapier). Once we get to the Customise Email part we can start to build the body of the email. You can insert data into the body of the email using the 'Add Fields' button and selecting data from an earlier stage in the zap - The first stage in this example is the Quiz Completed trigger.
All of the data that is gathered in Step 1 is available in a dropdown menu. Simply select the data you want to display in the email as shown below. The Fields act as placeholders for the actual informaiton when the Zap runs.
If you are using an upload function you should be able to select the appropriate data to be uploaded to the appropriate fields in your Student Management System. You may also need to add a step that checks your student management system for the correct learner first so that the data can be attributed to the right learner record. If you're not sure you should speak with the developers of your Student Management System and they should be able to advise you.
Example 3: Generate LLN Report
This example has a couple of extra steps so you'll need to paid Zapier plan to be able to run something like this. The way this Zap works is to find a specific learner in your LLN Robot system that has completed a quiz along with a course that exists in your system. Then using that data it generates the LLN Report and makes it available to be downloaded, attached to an email or have the link copied to some other student record.
1. We start by using the 'Get Learners' action to collect the unique Learner ID from your LLN Robot system. You can customise this query a couple of ways:
- Changed Since - You can enter a date & time here to collect the details of learners that have completed the quiz since a specific point in time (e.g. any completions in the last 7 days).
- Email Address - Return only a single learner record based on the learner's email address.
- Completed - Return learner records for any learner that has completed the quiz.
2. You can see here in the Customise Report step that we have gathered the Learner Id from the Get Learners step above. The Course Name is coming from our generic web-form submission (Step 1 of the Zap). As with any other Zap examples in this article you may be getting this information from your Student Management System instead.
3. When you get to the stage of customising the email it is important that you put the LLN Report into the Attachments field otherwise it might not download properly. You can also see that we have taken the data from the Get Learners action step to personalise the Subject line of the email.
