Ping a url or script using IFTTT (with no repercussions)

Update: This actually doesn’t work as I’d hoped. Because flickr reports an error each time, eventually IFTTT disables the recipe after a few hours of calls. Back to the drawing board.

I’ve been trying to get IFTTT (if this then that) to send a call to a php script file when a trigger goes off for months. The problem wasn’t getting it to work in the first place, but for it not to leave any artifacts hanging around, or repercussions as I call them. I wanted the script to be triggered and that to be the end of it, with no files being created or errors being recorded.

An example of the problem would be the IFTTT Google Docs channel. You can upload a file to google docs from a url. You can define that url to be your php script and then tell your script to return a 404 (after it’s done its coding goodness) but when you view Google Docs a new file has still been created. If you want to use this for a large number of pings, you’re going to end up with a folder full of pointless files and a waste of your disc space. The Evernote and WordPress channels are a similar story. Even when you attempt to fail the call to your url (with a 404 or 503) they still create a note or post.

Continue reading “Ping a url or script using IFTTT (with no repercussions)”