Automation to create Link to an existing table

I am struggling with the last stage of an automation and keep getting a message that it's received invalid inputs but I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I'm a Literary Agent and have a Titles table, an Authors table and an Editors Table.

When I'm working on a book and chat to an editor about it I have a section in the title field where I can add a link to an editor who wants to see that book and it will create a new entry in my submission tracker that is named 'Title - Editor' so that when I come to do my submission I have a full list of who I've spoken to in the right place. This brings through the title/author information no problem, but, the editors are all lumped in together on the linked field which means I can't separate out and easily find the publisher/imprint info.

I've created a formula that will pull the editor name from the main field on this table. Then I've created an automation that says when the editor name calculation updates, find a record that matches in the editor table. This part of the automation is working fine.

I've then done a condition where if the result list is 1, the base record should be updated and I've created a new linked field to the editor table and what I want is for the automation to add the record it found in the earlier stage to this field but I can't figure it out.

Thanks for any help...

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Hey @HannahS!

I might be missing the point, but I do believe that you will want to have yet a third table called something like "Interactions".

Interactions table should work as a junction table to show a 1:1 relationship between Title (linked field) and Editor (linked field). In such way you'll be able to keep specific data (e.g. status of the interaction) for each specific Title-Editor match rather than having all editors lumped up on the same linked field at the Title table.

Feel free to reach out, and we can go through this architecture (and corresponding automation) together on a super brief call.

Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation

Hi,
you can link by inserting the text value, or values, separated by comma, but this is not 100% reliable - if the table has same value in other record (I mean value in a primary field), it can link to a wrong record.
record id is unique, so it's the best way to link.
you should update it in such way:

Additional note: 'Find records' is a step that can find a number of records (0,1,2...1000), and it's output is a list of records and their data. You can set limit - how many records to find, sometimes you may want to set 1 as limit.
Linked field is a field containing a number of links. The number can be 0,1,2,3... Therefore, the output of Find records is full compatible to put into Link field, you can even omit your condition (count=1) - if it finds 2 or 3 records, it links to all of them. If it finds nothing - linked field will be clear.

You're almost there! The issue is likely that the automation is not adding the editor's record ID but something else (like the name). Airtable needs the record ID to correctly link records.

Try this: In your "Find Records" step, make sure you're grabbing the record ID of the editor, not just the name. Then, in the "Update Record" step, add this ID into the linked field.

If you need a full step-by-step guide, let me know, and I'll walk you through it!

nice

It looks like the issue might be with how the automation is handling linked fields. Make sure you're passing the Record ID instead of the editor’s name, as Airtable requires IDs for linking. Also, check if the field expects an array format and ensure the automation has the right permissions to update records. If possible, try logging the output of your 'Find Records' step to see what’s being returned

Hi,

I'm definitely using the record ID from the search, but how do I check if the field expects an array format and that the automation has the right permissions?

Thanks

Thanks for this - I'm definitely interested in learning about how junction tables work so will take you up on the offer of talking it through.

Hi,

I'm definitely using the record ID from the search, but how do I check if the field expects an array format and that the automation has the right permissions?

Thanks

Link field contains array of links. The link is object contains record ID and record name.

The name is a value of primary field in linked table

If you want to link to a record and try to put 'Test3' in field, Airtable doesn't know which record you mean.
But record_id is always unique (in the scope of the same base), so basically it is used to link in automations.

'Find records' returns array of records (or list of records) together with their values.
So, you just need to take a list of IDs from Find records (as I shown before)
It should be simple. If something wrong, check it:

Expand failed step from Run history and see what's wrong. That's how is should to be: