Automate Book Data Scraping, CSV Export & Email with n8n

What This Workflow Does ⚙️

This workflow helps you take bookstore URLs from a Google Sheet and get a clean list of books sorted by price.

You avoid copying data by hand and stop mistakes from typing errors.

The result is a neat CSV file emailed to your team automatically.

It saves time while giving accurate, easy to use book data.

How the Workflow Works: Input → Process → Output

Inputs

• Google Sheets: New bookstore URLs added in a sheet trigger the workflow.
• Dumpling AI API: Retrieves cleaned HTML content of the bookstore webpage.

Processing Steps

• The workflow watches Google Sheets for new URL rows.
• It sends each URL to Dumpling AI to get full HTML without extra junk.
• Extracts each book’s HTML based on CSS selectors targeting book items.
• Splits the list into individual book entries for clean processing.
• Extracts title and price from the HTML snippets for each book.
• Sorts all books by price from highest to lowest.
• Converts sorted book data into a CSV file format.
• Sends the CSV file via Gmail to a set email address.

Output

You get an email with a CSV file showing all books sorted by price.

This file is easy to share, analyze, and store.

Tools and Services Used

• Google Sheets: Tracks and triggers new URLs entered by users.
• Dumpling AI API: Scrapes clean HTML data from bookstore websites.
• n8n Automation Platform: Orchestrates node workflows and data processing.
• Gmail: Sends the final CSV files via email automatically.

Beginner Step-by-Step: How to Use This Workflow in n8n

Step 1: Import Workflow

1. Download the provided workflow JSON file from this page.
2. Open the n8n editor you already use.
3. Click “Import from File” and select the downloaded JSON.
4. This loads the entire workflow without building from scratch.

Step 2: Configure Credentials and Settings

1. Add your Google Sheets API credentials to the Google Sheets Trigger node.
2. Insert your Dumpling AI API Key in the HTTP Request node headers.
3. Set up Gmail OAuth2 credentials in the Gmail node.
4. Update the Document ID and Sheet Name if your Google Sheet differs.
5. Change the recipient email address to who should get the CSV file.

Step 3: Test and Activate

1. Add a sample URL row in Google Sheets to trigger the workflow.
2. Check the execution logs inside n8n editor to see each step’s output.
3. Confirm the email with CSV arrives correctly.
4. After testing, turn on the workflow with the active toggle switch for production use.

Now the workflow works automatically and keeps sending up-to-date book lists.

Consider using self-host n8n for more control if needed.

Common Edge Cases and Failures

• If Dumpling AI returns no HTML, check API Key, URL correctness, and headers.
• Empty book extracts often mean CSS selector changed; update selector in HTML Extract node.
• Price sorting may break if prices remain strings; convert prices to numbers before sorting.
• Gmail errors usually caused by OAuth2 token expired; reauthorize Gmail credentials.

Customize the Workflow

1. Change CSS selectors to scrape different products or updated website layouts.
2. Switch Sort node to ascending or sort by title for different data views.
3. Add new fields like author, rating by extending HTML extractor keys.
4. Make email recipient dynamic with expressions based on sheet users.
5. Insert a Google Sheets Append node before CSV conversion to archive scraped data.

Summary

✓ Automates data scraping from bookstore URLs in Google Sheets.

✓ Extracts and cleans book titles and prices from webpage HTML.

✓ Sorts books by price properly.

✓ Sends a ready-to-use CSV file by email without manual work.

✓ Saves hours weekly and prevents manual copy-paste errors.