How to Log WordPress Plugin Updates to a Google Sheet

Agencies and site owners need to show what was updated and when. Zapify adds a row to a Google Sheet for every plugin update, with the plugin, the old and new version, and whether WordPress did it automatically. It uses the free A plugin is updated trigger and the Add a row to a spreadsheet action. Google Sheets is a Zapify PRO integration.

What this automation does

The automation is one trigger plus one action:

• Trigger: A plugin is updated (WPADMIN_PLUGIN_UPDATED, WP Admin)
• Action: Add a row to a spreadsheet (GOOGLESHEETS_APPEND_ROW, Google Sheets)

Each plugin update adds one row, whether it came from a one-click update, a bulk update or an automatic update. At the end of the month the sheet is your maintenance report.

Before you start

• A Google account with access to the destination spreadsheet.
• The spreadsheet's Spreadsheet ID — the long string in its URL, between /d/ and /edit.
• A header row in the sheet, added by hand once.

How to build the automation

Step 1: Connect Google Sheets

Google Sheets connects by signing in rather than pasting a key.

1. Go to Settings → Connections and click Add New.

2. Choose Google Sheets and click Connect.

3. Sign in with the Google account that has access to your sheet, and approve the permissions Google asks for.

See Connections for more on how OAuth connections work and how to reconnect one that expires.

Step 2: Create a new automation

1. In the WordPress admin, go to Zapify → Automations.
2. Click Add New to open the builder.
3. Name it clearly, such as Log plugin updates to a sheet.

Step 3: Add the "A plugin is updated" trigger

1. Click Add Trigger.
2. Choose WP Admin as the app.
3. Select the trigger A plugin is updated.
4. In the Plugin field, pick one plugin to watch, or leave it on Any plugin to be told about every plugin update.

Step 4: Add the "Add a row to a spreadsheet" action

1. Click Add Action.
2. Choose Google Sheets as the app.
3. Select Add a row to a spreadsheet.

Step 5: Configure the action

Field	Required	What it does
Connection	Yes	The Google account you connected in Step 1.
Spreadsheet ID	Yes	The long ID from the sheet's URL.
Sheet name	No	The tab to append to. Defaults to the first one.
Columns	Yes	One entry per column, left to right. Insert tokens, one per column.

For example, with a header row of Plugin, Old version, New version, Automatic, Done by:

1. {Plugin name}
2. {Old version}
3. {New version}
4. {Automatic update}
5. {Actor username}

Step 6: Set the steps Live and save

1. Set both the trigger and the action to Live. A new automation starts as Draft and will not run until its steps are Live.
2. Click Save.

Tokens you can use

Token	What it holds
Plugin name	The plugin's name, read from the plugin on disk.
Plugin file	The plugin's file inside the plugins folder, such as akismet/akismet.php.
Plugin version	The version installed now. After an update this is the new version.
Plugin author	The author named in the plugin.
Old version	The version before the update.
New version	The version after the update.
Automatic update	yes when WordPress updated it on its own, no when someone did it by hand.
Actor user ID / Actor username	The logged-in person who did it. Empty (and 0) when nobody was logged in, as with an automatic update.

How to test it

1. Update a plugin that has an update waiting.
2. A new row should appear in the sheet within a minute.
3. If not, open Zapify → Logs to see what Google answered.

Conclusion

With the free A plugin is updated trigger and the Add a row to a spreadsheet action, you build a maintenance log without lifting a finger. For a record of switches, see logging activations and deactivations.

FAQs

Is this free in Zapify?

The trigger is free. The Google Sheets action needs an active Zapify PRO licence and a Connection.

Will automatic updates appear too?

Yes. The Automatic update column holds yes for those, and the Actor username column is empty because nobody was logged in.

What happens when I update several at once?

The automation runs once for each one, so a bulk update of five plugins sends five alerts. An update that failed is not reported.

Can I add a header row?

Add it by hand once in the sheet. Zapify only appends new rows beneath what is there.

My connection stopped working. Why?

Google access can be revoked from Google's side. Reconnect it from Settings → Connections. See Connections.

Does it report when Zapify itself is updated?

No. Zapify cannot watch itself being replaced, so its own activation, deactivation and updates are left out. The Plugin dropdown does not list it.

Do I need to write any code?

No. Everything is configured in the Zapify visual builder.