What's new
in Parabola?

We’ve updated the Pull from inbound email step with options to pull in the full HTML representation of the body of an email, as well as a parsed list of URLs contained within the body.

This list of URLs can be used to isolate URLs from an email, fetch a document from that URL, and then process that document via the Pull from file queue step.

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Filtering rows and if else logic are at the heart of every Parabola Flow. We’ve given both steps a massive upgrade to make them faster, easier to use, and more powerful

Both steps have access to series of new operations:

• Filter dates to… (filter dates relative to now or a set date)
• Is unique (is the value in each row unique within that column)
• is not unique (is the value in each row not unique within that column)
• Text is equal to (equals but assumes text - faster than “is equal to”)
• Text is not equal to (equals but assumes text - faster than “is not equal to”)
• Text starts with (matches the first part of a cell)
• Text ends with (matches the last part of a cell)
• Text length is (length of cell = #)
• Text length is greater than (length of cell > #)
• Text length is less than (length of cell < #)
• Text matches pattern (regex match)
• Text does not match pattern (inverted regex match)
• Is between (between two numbers)
• Is not between (not between two numbers)

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Text field level options - accessible via the settings cog icon on the right side of any text field:

• Each text field can be toggled to evaluate what has typed in as a math expression, instead of just text. You can type numbers or reference them from columns using {merge tags}
• Each text field can be toggled to match based on the casing provided, or ignore the casing of the text

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Add If else column step-specific updates:

• Choose to replace value in an existing column, as opposed to only create values in a new column
• Add additional criteria to a single condition. This was already supported in the Filter rows step. For example, define a list of items that a field may be equal to.
• To accommodate all of these amazing features, the Add if else column step has a new design that is more compact and easier to read

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Parabola Flows can be set up to be triggered to run via an email. When an email is sent to a Parabola Flow, the Flow will try to enqueue the new run. If that enqueueing fails, an email is sent back to editors of the Flow alerting them that a certain email could not be processed.

With this change, that email also:

• Contains the name of the file attached that caused the issue (such as the wrong file type)
• Sends to the email address who sent the original email in to Parabola

Use the updated options in the Run another Parabola Flow to run Flows in sequence. The new options are:

• Run once per row
• Run once per row with a file URL

If Flow 1 tells Flow 2 to run, these options will allow Flow 1 to finish running before Flow 2 has finished. In the existing options, Run once and wait, and Run once per row and wait, the step will wait for Flow 2 to finish before it can finish.

Using the Run once per row with a file URL option will add runs to the file queue of Flow 2.

Use the new Pull from file queue source step to access and parse files at the end of URLs.

The file queue works like a webhook or email trigger, but can be triggered via an API call (webhook) or the Run another Parabola Flow step.

Use the updated Format dates step to easily change the format of dates, convert between timezones, round dates, and more.

This update completely overhauls the step with a new powerful date engine, updated interactions and design, and AI auto-detection.

We've added support for converting between timezones and precisely rounding dates.

Check it out here!

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Introducing, the AI co-builder. Configure steps quickly and easily using AI to transform simple prompts into complex rules and settings.

To use the AI co-builder:

1. Click the “Configure with AI” button to access the co-builder.
2. Enter instructions for how to configure the step and click “Configure it for me”
3. Once the AI has determined the right configuration, any existing settings will be replaced with the new settings.

The AI co-builder only runs when you click to configure the step. During subsequent runs, the step will not use AI to create results.

Now available in limited steps during the beta:

• Replace with regex
• Filter rows
• Format dates
• Find & replace
• Add if / else column

We're thrilled to launch Parabola University, a dedicated space on our website featuring video tutorials that guide you through creating effective Flows. What's more, you can access these helpful videos directly from the menu bar while you're building Flows.

Our website and product interface have undergone a stunning transformation! Explore the new colors, styles, and overall look and feel that reflect our commitment to making your experience more vibrant and user-friendly. It’s not just a makeover; it’s an upgrade to how you interact with Parabola.

We've released a few new features to make sharing and getting around Flows easier.

🎨 Colorful, Collapsible Cards: Dive into our latest update where you can now compress parts of your Flow with collapsible cards and organize them with vibrant, colorful banners. It's easier than ever to manage and share your workflow.

🧹 Simplified Flow Navigation: Alongside, we’ve refined the navigation to smoothly toggle between Published and Draft versions of your Flow, ensuring a cleaner and more intuitive experience.

The Pull from Email Attachment step now supports creating URLs to access the files that have been sent to a Flow.

When this option is enabled, the step can be configured to create URLs that are publicly accessible, accessible only to members of your Parabola team, or accessible to teammates who have access to the Flow.

More API request body formatting options

The "Protocol" dropdown in request body of all three API steps has been replaced with a "Format" dropdown.

In addition to JSON and GraphQL, Parabola now supports plain text, form-data, and x-www-form-urlencoded formatting types.

When using these options, if an API step does not already have a "Content-Type" header included, we will also now automatically add the right one, according to the last selection in the "Format" field.

This is available on all API steps - Pull from AP, Enrich with API, and Send to API

Merge tag support in header values

Utilize merge tags, columns referenced by name and wrapped in {curly braces}, within the value field of a custom header to merge in values for each API call from the input data.

Available in the Enrich with API and Send to API steps.

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We've completely overhauled the Flow builder to give you more performance, faster building, and more intuitive features.

Canvas

• Infinite canvas so you can build as far and wide as you’d like
• Better defined grid for improved spacing throughout your Flow
• Better performance for even your largest Flows
• Improved zoom and fit controls on the canvas

Steps and arrows

• Smoother arrow connection
• Updated design of step controls

Cards

• Place steps anywhere inside of cards
• Hold shift, click, and drag to multi-select steps inside of cards
• Move many steps in, out, and between cards
• Updated design of card controls

Try it out in your Flows now!

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Brand-new integration, hot off the press: we now support connecting to Microsoft SharePoint and OneDrive!

We want all teams to be able to access their data as easily as possible. With these new steps, you can access any XLS and CSV files in SharePoint or OneDrive. Pull your files into a Flow, create new files, or update existing files.

This integration is available to all customers. Please refer to our documentation for more details!

Our latest release is next-level: it converts even your gnarliest PDFs into usable data, with really simple configuration. 

Now combining two elements of AI—battle-tested OCR and cutting edge multi-modal LLMs—Parabola does all the hard work transcribing and importing your data for you, so there’s no setup required on your end. 

Want to learn more about this new capability? Learn more

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1. The next time that you authenticate a Google Sheets step, you will see an updated experience. Instead of selecting files from a dropdown, you can use the native Google Drive file selector to find your file by searching or navigating through your Drive.

(Note: you will need to reauthorize existing Google Sheets steps in order to select a new file.)‍

2. When sending data to Google Sheets, you can now select a folder in which to create the new sheet(s), as opposed to always creating the file in the root of the drive.

We hope these upgrades make connecting to and using Google Sheets within Parabola easier and more delightful!

To take advantage of these changes, be sure to refresh your Flow.

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By popular demand, our Email a CSV Attachment step now supports dynamic values. Values can be used in any field: the email subject, body, recipients, and even the file name of the attachment. Simply reference the desired column using merge tags {}, and the email will automatically insert the first row from that column. All the details here!

You can now connect the Send to Parabola Table step to any other step, and in particular, the Run another Flow step.

By connecting these two steps, a Flow can first send data to a Table and then run other Flows that pull data from that Table. This ensures that connected Flows run in the correct sequence and that data is passed directly between them.

We’re delighted to announce that you can now process multiple attachments from a single email, using the “Pull from email attachment” step.

Previously, email-triggered Flows would always run with the first valid attachment received. Now, you can configure your Flow to run with each valid attachment received on a single email. So if you expect to receive one email with multiple CSVs, XLS, or PDF files, a single Flow can process them all, sequentially!

Check out all the details here.

We’ve also given you more visibility and control over your “queue” of pending Flow runs. For triggered Flows, you’ll see how many runs are pending, and you can manage how runs are added and executed.

Specify the format of any date column within a Table to improve the accuracy when changing its format.

Use the new “Recents” drawer in quick filters to access sets of filters that you have previously applied to tables and charts.

If you find yourself repeatedly filtering the same Flow, you’ll now be able to reapply those filters with one click.

We’ve also made filters easier to manage by adding a “clear” button, allowing you to instantly remove all applied filters.

The Compare Dates step can now calculate the difference between dates in terms of weekdays only, akin to the NETWORKDAYS function in spreadsheets. To use, select “weekdays” as your unit of measurement, and compare two dates (either two columns, or one column to current time). Here’s the handy documentation.

We’ve released a small but mighty feature to the Pull from FTP step!

The new “Archive file once processed” setting allows this step to cycle through a list of files in a folder, moving them after each one has been processed into a different folder.

Using this setting, you can build Flows that check folders for new files and process them one by one until the folder is empty.

We now support sending data to Snowflake!

Snowflake is an essential repository for storing and accessing business data. Paired with our Pull from Snowflake step, Flows can be used to automate and collaborate on critical processes.

Read more in our documentation.

Send to Snowflake is available to customers on our Advanced Plan. Please contact us or schedule a call if you’re interested in them for your team!

Hot on the tails of our exciting release of visualizations, we’ve added three new features to Parabola Tables to make them more powerful for reporting.

Append and upsert

From the Send to Parabola step, you can now decide whether your data should:

1. Overwrite on each run (existing functionality)
2. Append new data to the bottom or top of your Table (new!)
3. Update existing rows (new!)

This is great for anyone who is continuously adding new or updated data to their Tables, like week-over-week reporting.

Hiding and freezing

When looking at a Table on your published Flow page, you can now hide specific columns. These hidden columns can still be used within filters, sorts, or groupings for even more control over your final Table.

The first column and/or first row can also be frozen in place, so they “stick” while scrolling vertically or horizontally.

Use these to tailor Table views to exactly what you and your teammates want to see.

Automatic links

Any URLs in your Flow descriptions, Table descriptions, or even the cells within Tables will now be clickable.

Internally, we’ve found it incredibly helpful to add documentation links in our descriptions, and to easily access data that lives in another tool.