Automation That Copies A Video Attachment To A New Record

The issue is an attachment field needs both a link and a file name, and through this copy automation you’re delivering only 1 of those. Perhaps someone else knows how to automate those as a package but there are a couple workarounds I can think of…

• Instead of duplicating the records entirely, link them and use a lookup field instead.
• Instead of an Attachment field, in Table 2 use a URL field and just include the url component for your Attachment.
• Generate the second table attachment from Make 

​@walkero

Your setup is correct, but you can also try choosing the “expiring download URL” token from within the attachment field to see if that works.

However, if that still doesn’t work, it means that you’re not waiting long enough after the record has been created.

It can take Airtable 30 seconds to process a new attachment, so you’re probably triggering your automation too quickly… you’re triggering it before Airtable has had a chance to process the artachment.

Your best bet would probably be to just do it all from Make.

- ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant

Ah I see - that’s interesting. In that case, I’m going to run a test and only pass the URL from make to Airtable for the original record, then trigger the automation in airtable to create a new record (which should then only be passing the URL)

Not sure if I can keep the field type as an attachment without an ID.

We’ll see.

Thanks for the insight!

Ya I tried expiring download URL (as well as every other individual data point) and it didn’t work.

That’s my hunch as well, and from other research I’ve done there’s some sort of a buffer step I can add?
Where basically the data I’m trying to duplicate goes into a buffer queue before being uploaded into a new record, so that Airtable has time to process the mp4…

I’m not familiar with that approach as I’m new to airtable so if you have any insight on what that approach/setup might look like it would be greatly appreciated and probably save me quite a bit of time!

Ya I’m currently doing it all from Make - but I’m hoping to find a solution through airtable, cause doing it all from make means my data transfer usage would effectively double lol... and the fact that it’s literally the EXACT same data just going to 2 different tables doesn’t sit well with me hahah

I feel like I can figure out a way to do it natively in airtable

Thanks again!!

Hmm could I check whether the automation isn’t working properly when you turn it on and it gets triggered?  That error shows up for me when testing, but when it’s actually triggered it works fine!

I only tested it with a form submission with a 200mb file though and not with a record created via Make

Hey ​@walkero,

Would you mind sharing some further context on the use case?
Might not be your case, but usually having pretty much exact/similar information on records on different tables could suggest that there is room for improvement on your database architecture.

Is your use case something that could be solved with for example a Status field for the same record in Table A (e.g. Draft, Published) rather than creating a whole new table and record for it?

If the second new record on the different table is still needed, is this something that you could solve by linking the two records together and getting the attachment via lookup rather than “uploading” it as well? (do remember that Airtable has storage limits, so if not needed I would probably suggest avoid having the same video multiple times)

Just sharing some insights that I hope might be useful. Feel free to schedule a call if you’d like to go through all of the above together.

Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation

TheTimeSavingCo wrote:

Hmm could I check whether the automation isn’t working properly when you turn it on and it gets triggered?  That error shows up for me when testing, but when it’s actually triggered it works fine!

 

I only tested it with a form submission with a 200mb file though and not with a record created via Make

 

Interesting. I had this theory as well but I’m not sure if I can publish the automation and turn it on WITHOUT testing, mill airtable let you do this or do I have to test?

And was the 200mb file an attachment?

Will look into this though and see if it works, Thanks!!!

This is FANTASTIC insight Mike.

I was worried about the data storage limits as well but was more so focused on solving the immediate constraint (kind of a “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it” thing lol)

My architecture is as follows

Base: Client 1
> Table 1 (Media for Account 1)
> Table 2 (Media for Account 2)
> Table 3 (Media for Account 3)
etc...

The final table in each client’s base is a MASTER table, which I need to be comprised of ALL the media across all tables in that specific base.

Considering every single data point on the MASTER table already exists, I agree that housing duplicates of all that data is absurd and inefficient lol…

Essentially, I just need a way to populate cross-table data on ONE single table which I’m then displaying in a separate UI via the API.

My gut tells me the record reference is a great approach, I’ll just need to do a fair bit of research as that’s currently out of my wheelhouse.

I greatly appreciate the response!!

And was the 200mb file an attachment?

Yeap

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I’m not sure if I can publish the automation and turn it on WITHOUT testing, mill airtable let you do this or do I have to test?

You should be able to publish it yeah, I was able to publish mine without any issues!

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I’m curious why you have separate tables for this actually.  Are the fields in Table 1, 2 and 3 very different from each other or something?  Is that why you’re not using one big table and tagging each media record to an account?

The file size could be a limiting factor here. I would recommend tackling all of this with Make’s advanced automations for Airtable, because Make won’t even let your automation continue until the file has been successfully downloaded.

You would use the Get A File Module to download the attachment, then upload it to a cloud storage space such as Google Drive, which would give you a working URL to send to Airtable.

Below is a sample screenshot of how this might look in Make, if you follow my instructions for instantly triggering a Make automation from Airtable with a webhook.

However, you may want to re-evaluate how your Airtable base is setup, because ideally, a database system shouldn’t require the copying and pasting of the same file across multiple locations. A file should ideally live in only one location in a base.

Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire the best Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld