Doc too big for API / Zapier, any workarounds?

[Ben_Swanson]

Hey all!

I was trying to connect my doc with Zapier and apparently it’s too big!

Has anyone found any workarounds that can help solve this? I.e. is there a way to sync another doc with Zapier and then transfer the data from that doc into my main one?

Thanks!
Ben

[anon88315625]

Interesting… Just adding the hyperlink for those curious: https://help.coda.io/en/articles/3370370

[Ben_Swanson]

Interesting wasn’t quite the word that came to mind when it happened haha

Hopefully someone will be able to help us with a workaround here!

[Breno_Nunes]

Hey, @Ben_Swanson,
I believe this post bellow might help you. It helped me.

This doc is too big to sync

[Ben_Swanson]

Thanks @Breno_Nunes!

I also chatted to support, adding what they said here in case it helps someone else:

• There are now workarounds, the only solution is to reduce the size of your doc (because large docs trying to use the API effects overall systemwide API performance)
• They can’t provide you with a way to find out the size of your doc
• For the purpose of syncing, the size of the doc won’t change/be refreshed until it’s been backed up by their automatic backup system

TLDR: For now it seems the best you can do is delete a bunch of stuff in your doc and then wait for an undetermined period of time and try again.

They said they are working on increasing the size limit though!

[Paul_Danyliuk]

Hey @Ben_Swanson,

I’m no Coda support, but I know a thing or two about oversize docs since I deal with them in my coda-expert-for-hire practice way too more often than I’d like to. I outlined a lot in the post linked above. There you can see how to figure out the doc size. For more detailed breakdown (i.e. by table) I composed myself a script to inspect that:

PSA: The hidden cost of Checkbox column for true/false values

No hidden formula. I had to download the 0.json (schema) and 1.json (data) files, evaluate these as JSON, then decode individual rows as base64 to find more JSON+flat buffers. I hacked together a very basic Node.js script for that: Use: node stats.js ./path/to/file/1.json I’ve heard this kind of stats should be added to Coda somewhere soon, so you’ll be able to see this in the UI and not the way I had to do it.

Quick actionable steps to reduce doc size:

• Cut down on conditional formatting; ideally remove it wherever you can and replace with emoji or some other colorful labeling. See: This doc is too big to sync - #7 by Paul_Danyliuk
• Cut down on controls: replace sliders etc with numbers, replace formula controls with Text or any appropriate type (e.g. if you have a calculated yes/no checkbox, just replace it with Text type — Coda will still treat it as yes/no but doc size will shrink). See: PSA: The hidden cost of Checkbox column for true/false values
• Cut down on table buttons. The button’s code is replicated for each row. Use approaches like this one instead: Tutorial: Iterator tables (CurrentValue workaround)
• Cut down on crossdoc item references. They take multiple times more space (because of much longer identifiers) than local tables.
• ToText() your Display Columns always. See: Here's a doc size riddle for the community

Also here’s a large thread on big doc perf: Realistic number of rows in a table

Keep in mind that deleting bunch of stuff will only have effect after 12 hours (IIRC), that’s the time when you can still restore deleted rows and they are still stored in the doc.

[Ben_Swanson]

Wow, this is great, thanks @Paul_Danyliuk, very actionable insights, I really appreciate them, thank you!!

[Breno_Nunes]

Hey, @Ben_Swanson, if you would like to know the (uncompressed) size of your Doc, you have to access the DevTools on Chrome.
For that, while opening your Doc, you have to press Command+Option+i or Ctrl+Shift+i
There’s a tab called Network. Go there and press Command+r or Ctrl+r
On the bottom left of the DevTool, you will see the amount of resources that was loaded for that Doc.

[Premshay_Hermon]

A workaround could be the cross-doc feature.

[Mario]

No @Premshay_Hermon
Cross-doc is based on coda api

@Breno_Nunes

On the bottom left of the DevTool, you will see the amount of resources that was loaded for that Doc.

@Breno_Nunes Thanks for this!!!

[Johg_Ananda]

One strategy I have been able to implement is using CrossDoc; I crossdoc my zapier-linked table into a new doc, Zapbook. I copy my original zap and reconnect it from original doc to Zapbook and then map the zap to this sync table. Set sync to hourly.

@Mario

Cross-doc is based on coda api

I have this working on docs that are not able to connect to zapier.