One of the most common methods for pulling data into Parabola is via email. This method is incredibly useful when working with third-party vendors, carriers, and other partners who send data in formats that don’t map directly to your internal structure and also when working with systems that support sending out automated email reports.

This step supports CSV, PDF, Excel, and JSON files, plus it allows you to pull in email subjects, bodies, file names, and information about the sender. 

Building challenge

In this challenge, we’ll upload our inventory data by emailing it into our Flow. 

1. Add a card to the canvas titled Pull inventory data. 
2. Drag a Pull from inbound email step onto the canvas. 
3. After opening up the step, copy the unique email address provided for your flow 
4. Email the inventory CSV file to your Flow’s email address & hit Refresh data. Note: It may take up to one minute for the data to load into your Flow after sending the email.  

To check your work, take a look at this quick video. 

How to use the step

1. Drag a Pull from inbound email step onto the canvas. Every Flow comes with a dedicated email address: Open the Pull from inbound email step to access the address for your Flow. 
2. Send an attachment to your dedicated email address.
3. Click the Refresh data button to pull your file into the Flow. Note: It can take up to a minute for your file to Flow into Parabola. 

Pro tip

• Once you’re ready to fully automate your process, you can set up an auto-forwarding rule to have emails automatically Flow into Parabola. 
• Many systems allow you to automatically export a CSV report on a recurring schedule. You can have that auto-exported CSV Flow directly into Parabola. 

Visit our support docs to learn more about the step.