I have a multi-select checkbox question on a SurveyMonkey survey and want to map its contents to the same options on a muti-select checkbox field in ActiveCampaign. Unfortunately, one of the options has an answer like “Green (Blue, Yellow)” (i.e., it has commas, and they’re inside parentheses). It appears that the commas are throwing off the ability for this to map to the field option. Since this runs through Zappier to get to AC, I’ve tried multiple variations (replacing commas with double pipes, removing quotes, removing parentheses, etc.). Still, I can’t get it to check that checkbox. (All the other checkboxes on the same field work–just not the one with commas in the answer.) Any suggestions?
Hey @excellenceined have you tried putting the double pipes around the values themselves? So in your example, you would import the value into ActiveCampaign as:
||Green (Blue, Yellow)||
Got the idea from this documentation for the Google Sheets integration.
Yes, but it still doesn’t select the checkbox. 
Hey Casey,
Phil from ActiveCampaign here. Thank you for your patience as we worked to reach your question. I have looked into this and have some updates for you.
After thorough investigation, it looks like this is happening because Zapier is changing the commas in the values to two vertical pipes (||) when passing the data to ActiveCampaign. We do not do any preformatting on our side, and have not been able to replicate this with our native importer, so we have deduced that this issue is coming from the Zapier side.
We found another instance of this happening with Zapier and another app (not ActiveCampaign) here: https://community.zapier.com/how-do-i-3/how-to-split-comma-separated-text-into-additional-line-items-using-line-itemizer-11439. In that thread, Zapier support provided this article as a solution: https://community.zapier.com/featured-articles-65/how-to-get-line-items-arrays-into-code-steps-6942.
I hope this helps shed some light on the issue, and please don’t hesitate to follow up with any questions. Have a great rest of your day!
Both of those articles are about splitting a line item that contains commas. I want the whole thing retained as a single option and selected on the field. I’ve tried all sorts of code to change the format of the text in Zappier before it is sent to AC. I can get options like the following to work fine:
- Purple (Blue Red) [contains parentheses]
- Orange, Yellow [contains commas]
But I can’t get AC to select the option when it has commas inside parentheses:
- Green (Blue, Yellow)
I’ve tried sending from Zappier as:
*Green (Blue, Yellow)
*“Green (Blue, Yellow)”
*||Green (Blue, Yellow)||
*|Green (Blue, Yellow)|
*Green (||Blue|| ||Yellow||)
*Green (|Blue| |Yellow|)
*Green (||Blue, Yellow||)
*Green ||Blue, Yellow||
*…and probably a few others (it’s been a little while)…
But none of those formats worked to tell AC to check the “Green (Blue, Yellow)” checkbox.
I created a workaround by removing the parenthetical text from the field option [e.g., now it just says “Green”] in AC and having Zappier update the text accordingly so it matches. However, I was hoping for a better solution.
Hey Casey,
Thanks for following up here with the additional info.
We tested this pretty vigorously, and were able to confirm that Zapier is splitting at the comma before it gets into our AC block in the Zap. Furthermore, our team confirmed there is no part of our code that would be doing this after close review of it.
I would suggest reaching out to Zapier support to see if they’re able to provide further insight into this.
Thank you again for following up and please keep me posted with any questions or updates.
Phillip, can you provide me with the actual text that needs to come out of Zappier to check that checkbox in AC (remembering that this is part of a multi-select checkbox on both ends)?
The text of my SurveyMonkey option (and original AC option) is:
- Overall functionality (Calendar, Tasks, Workflow, Searching, Communication, etc.)
Zappier has many code options for reformatting answers before they go to AC. If I know the exact format AC needs, I can get Zappier to reformat the data accordingly before sending it.
Thanks for following up.
The text that ActiveCampaign would need to receive to check the box in this case would be “Overall functionality (Calendar, Tasks, Workflow, Searching, Communication, etc.)”. The string needs to exactly match the value in the checkbox in ActiveCampaign in order to check it.
Through our testing, we are seeing that Zapier is splitting the string at the comma, sending over something like “Overall functionality (Calendar|| Tasks|| Workflow|| Searching|| Communication|| etc.)”, which does not match the value in your checkbox and thus does not check the box.
Again, you can get Zappier to reformat the text that it sends however you want (e.g. swap pipes back to commas, etc.). I was able to get it to send “Overall functionality (Calendar, Tasks, Workflow, Searching, Communication, etc.)” (along with whatever other options were selected). AC selects the other appropriate options but only displays the text “Overall functionality (Calendar, Tasks, Workflow, Searching, Communication, etc.)” in the field. If you try to edit the field, the checkbox isn’t checked (but the others are).
The issue we observed is when Zapier sends the text over, they are swapping the value of the comma and replacing it with ||. Through our testing, this happens regardless of how the text is formatted on Zapier’s side. We have reproduced the exact same issue you’re having, where the data comes over and looks fine, but the checkbox is not actually checked when you click into the field. However, there is no code on ActiveCampaign’s side that would be changing the values on our end.
So while you may be properly formatting the text within the Zap, the data is being reformatted when it is actually sent to ActiveCampaign.
I would suggest reaching out to Zapier directly. Of course, please follow up with me if they’re finding anything that says differently, and I’m happy to take it back to my tech team for further review.