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Trigger if something does not occur

  • December 22, 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 34 views
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I’d like to show a record in a view if something does not occur by a given time in the user’s time zone.

The use case is that the users submit a form each day. If they do not submit the form, they should go into a particular view. I’m having problems bringing it into that view at the right time, because the formula I am using to get the current time doesn’t seem to be updating unless I open the base.

DATETIME_FORMAT(SET_TIMEZONE(NOW(), ‘Australia/Sydney’), ‘HH:mm’)

I have a couple of formulas there to calculate whether the submission has been made that day or not.

I’m using this filter for the view: https://cl.ly/cb5818052add

Appreciate any alternatives to get the record to come into a view at a certain time.

4 replies

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  • W_Vann_Hall
  • Inspiring
  • December 23, 2018

Yep.

Airtable processing essentially takes place in your browser: If the base isn’t open, it’s in stasis. If you need to force offline updates, you’ll need to do so through a programatic interface, either with a custom routine accessing tables through the Airtable API or (more likely) through a third-party integration service such as Zapier or Integromat.It should be relatively simple to create a Zap or Scenario that checks the base on a regular basis and flags missing forms.

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  • Shaun_Hughston
  • Author
  • Participating Frequently
  • December 24, 2018

Yep.

Airtable processing essentially takes place in your browser: If the base isn’t open, it’s in stasis. If you need to force offline updates, you’ll need to do so through a programatic interface, either with a custom routine accessing tables through the Airtable API or (more likely) through a third-party integration service such as Zapier or Integromat.It should be relatively simple to create a Zap or Scenario that checks the base on a regular basis and flags missing forms.


I figured as much… I’ll write something for it :slightly_smiling_face:

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  • Shaun_Hughston
  • Author
  • Participating Frequently
  • January 24, 2019

Just to clarify on this… So if data is pushed into Airtable from a third party service (e.g. via API or Zapier), but the base is not opened, will field value changes give a new value in a formula field?

As an example, if the formula is X=A+B, and I push a new value into A, will X be updated without actually opening the table?

And if there is a view that is filtered by a particular value, will that record then move into that view even if the base is ‘offline’?

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  • W_Vann_Hall
  • Inspiring
  • January 26, 2019

Just to clarify on this… So if data is pushed into Airtable from a third party service (e.g. via API or Zapier), but the base is not opened, will field value changes give a new value in a formula field?

As an example, if the formula is X=A+B, and I push a new value into A, will X be updated without actually opening the table?

And if there is a view that is filtered by a particular value, will that record then move into that view even if the base is ‘offline’?


To be honest, I don’t know. I don’t think so — but, once again, we’re back to that damn tree falling on top of Schrödinger’s cat.

Take your X=A+B example: Whether or not X is updated at the point A is modified is moot, as X's value is irrelevant as long as no one inquires as to its value. The moment someone checks to see what value X currently has, though, it triggers an evaluation of X=A+B, and the value of X is updated.

Similarly, a filtered view without viewers is a meaningless concept; it’s the quality of being viewed — whether by a user or by being queried by an integration service — that gives it substance.

Now, somewhere down the line Airtable may develop the ability to trigger an action based on field value. Should that be the case, the answers to your questions become crucially important. At present, though, given the only way to determine if a value has been updated is to inspect the value directly — and, in so doing, triggering an update — it seems to me the exact mechanism used is unimportant… :winking_face:

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