CMS: Creating Automations for Collection Items

Add a new item to an existing collection.

Note: Fields you don't populate remain empty in the new item.

Delete an item from an existing collection. Deleting an item is permanent and cannot be undone.

To delete an item:

Find an item by ID only. Get an empty result if not found.

To find an item:

Note: Use the found item's data in subsequent steps of your automation by selecting properties from the  Find item action.

Edit or clear values in selected fields only. Fields you don't include in the patch remain unchanged.

To patch an item:

Get items from a CMS collection based on specific filters. Unlike the Find item action — which retrieves a single item by ID — Query items returns all items that match your filter criteria.

To query items:

Tip: After the Query items action runs, you can use the returned items' data in later steps of your automation. Select properties from the Query items action when setting up subsequent steps.

Overwrite every field. Leaving a field empty deletes its existing content.

Important: This action overwrites all fields in the selected item. Any field you don't populate will have its existing content deleted. Make sure to map all fields you want to preserve.

To update an item:

Yes. This is the recommended way to automate form submissions. When a visitor submits a custom form on your site, the data saves as a new item in your collection. This activates the  Item added trigger. Using the  Item added trigger allows you to access all field types in your collection, including 'Email' fields, which ensures accurate data matching for your automations.

Automations trigger based on changes to your live collections.

The automations you can create depend on which apps (e.g. Wix Blog, Wix Restaurants) you have added to your site.

Automation trigger options are specific to the app you've selected, and automation action options are specific to the trigger you've selected. Select an app to view and set up its trigger options. Then add an action to view the actions available for your selected trigger. 

Popular automations include:

CMS actions let you automate repetitive collection management tasks. 

Here are some common ways to use them:

Yes, you can  use Zapier to connect your Wix automations to external apps such as Slack, Trello and Google Docs.

The following CMS collection fields are supported in automations: Array, Boolean, Date, Time, Number, Reference, Rich Text, Text, and URL.

Learn more about CMS collection fields. 

The Update item action overwrites every field in the selected item. Any field you don't populate will have its existing content deleted. The Patch item action only modifies the specific fields you choose — all other fields remain untouched. Use Patch item when you want to change one or two fields without affecting the rest of the item's data.

The Find item action retrieves a single item by its ID. If the ID doesn't match any item, you get an empty result. The Query items action lets you search for multiple items using filters based on field values, operators, and conditions. Use Query items when you need to find all items matching certain criteria rather than looking up one specific item.