Editing a nIFTTTy applet’s feed url

March 2021 This no longer works – IFTTT have withdrawn this ability for applets that pin to Pinterest from an RSS feed.

IFTTT have today (September 10, 2020) introduced a limit of 3 applets without paying for their IFTTT Pro Subscription. If you had more applets than that, you’re allowed to keep them.

That means it makes sense never to delete any of your existing nIFTTTy applets when they run out. Instead you’ll want to edit the applet to replace the exisiting feed url with a new one (and, no doubt, rename the applet in line with what it’s now set up to pin).

The simplest way is just to use the nIFTTTy Scheduler to make your new feed url and replace the applet’s existing one with the new one.

Only for the brave

To save time, some people might want to dive in and edit the feed url in the applet directly. If that’s you, there’s one important thing you need to know – how to tell the scheduler part of the applet when the applet was “made”.

It needs to know so it can work out which is the next item to pin.

So how do you tell it?

You change a specific part of the feed url, the one beginning with cdt=

Here’s an example feed url with that part highlighted in light blue:

https://niftytoolz.com/niftyfeedscheduler-frames-1hr.php?rf=238582202591969585&udf=true&trm1=&trm2=&trm3=&fttls=&fdscs=&ftags=&t1s=12:00pm&t2s=1:00pm&t3s=2:00pm&t4s=3:00pm&t5s=4:00pm&t6s=5:00pm&t7s=6:00pm&t8s=7:00pm&t9s=8:00pm&t10s=9:00pm&t11s=10:00pm&t12s=11:00pm&dowc=127&uprn=1&pm=&cdt=1598569200&eis=2&cc=random&ecs=255&efs=&fdspc=https%3A%2F%2Ffeed.zazzle.com%2Frss%3Fqs%3DChristmas%2Bpets%26st%3Dpopularity%26sd%3Ddesc%26ps%3Dmax%26pg%3D2%26dp%3D%26cg%3D%26at%3D238582202591969585%26isz%3D500%26tc%3Dnnschdlr_pntrst_xms_pets_3clean3&ic=1

Next question – how do you get the number to use?

You visit the Epoch Converter website (opens in a new tab), put in the date of the day the applet is to first start and click the button as per the screenshot. You needn’t worry about the time as the scheduler just uses the date part and starts counting from the beginning of the day.

a screenshot showing the Epoch Cinverter page for getting the cdt number

When you visit the page, the incrementing counter you’ll see is the cdt number for right now, so you can use that if you want your applet to start today. If you want it to start tomorrow, then you’ll need to put in tomorrow’s date as per the screenshot.

Once you’ve copied the cdt number just replace the existing one after cdt= in the feed url with what you just copied.

That’s it, done.

Of course, if you’re changing the search term and / or department id and / or category id as well, you’ll need to change those in the feed url as well. If you want to do those as well and you’re not sure of what you’re doing, it’s probably best to use the nIFTTTy Scheduler to make the new feed url instead.

Published by

HightonRidley

Mark Ridley is semi-retired and followed a career as a freelance business analyst. He has delivered business requirements resulting in many successful, high-profile projects for the private and public sectors, including the merging of the then Customs & Excise and Inland Revenue Inward Payment Systems into a single integrated system for the new HMRC. He now develops free-to-use online tools for artists and designers, helping them promote their designs on social media.

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