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Integrating weather info into a record automatically

  • March 10, 2024
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K
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  • kujain
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I am creating a table/form to insert log entries into a daily log. It requires a bunch of sub-item data and inserting weather info of the day when the record was created. I was wondering if there is any way to automate inserting that day's weather info (temperature, rain data etc.) into that log when that entry is created (maybe even pulling in the date field and fetching the weather for that day automatically)? 

I reviewing ideas about using IFTTT or other automations but none seemed to allow for that day's weather info to be inserted into a log entry on record creating easily. 

Also, as you can see in the screenshot, I have to create a formatted record of multiple sub-items in a longtext field eg. in trade updates. Ideally these should be some form of structured sub-items but I am not sure if there's any way to handle that in this interface or data field (without creating a separate lookup table)...

Thanks!

Best answer by ScottWorld

@kujain 

Yes, automatically integrating the weather into Airtable records is incredibly easy to do with Make's weather automations & integrations.

Make offers 2 different weather modules — OpenWeatherMap and Weather — the latter of which is natively built into their platform, so you don't need to signup for any other services besides Make.

Of course, you can also choose ANY weather app on the entire web that you would like to use, as long as it offers an API to tap into. In that case, you would use Make's HTTP module to bring that weather into Airtable.

You mentioned IFTTT above, and another user mentioned Zapier above.

However, in general, the top Airtable consultants like myself typically recommend against using IFTTT or Zapier in favor of Make's automations & integrations.

This is because Make is infinitely more customizable & infinitely more powerful than Zapier, yet it is SIGNIFICANTLY CHEAPER than Zapier.

I wrote an entire post here comparing Make vs. Zapier. 

The only downside is that it might take a few minutes to learn how to use Make. If you’ve never used Make before, I’ve assembled a bunch of Make training resources in this thread.

For example, here is how you would instantly trigger a Make automation from Airtable.

I also give live demonstrations of how to use Make in many of my Airtable podcast appearances here.

p.s. If you have a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld 

9 replies

TheTimeSavingCo
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May I know what difficulties you faced while attempting to pull the data via IFTTT etc?  Having an automation from one of these services that ran once a day that pulled the data you want should work fine I think.  Zapier's got a weather service that you can tap into that seems to do what you want too: https://zapier.com/apps/weather/integrations

Adam, Airtable Consultant - thetimesaving.company
ScottWorld
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  • ScottWorld
  • Genius
  • 9808 replies
  • Answer
  • March 10, 2024

@kujain 

Yes, automatically integrating the weather into Airtable records is incredibly easy to do with Make's weather automations & integrations.

Make offers 2 different weather modules — OpenWeatherMap and Weather — the latter of which is natively built into their platform, so you don't need to signup for any other services besides Make.

Of course, you can also choose ANY weather app on the entire web that you would like to use, as long as it offers an API to tap into. In that case, you would use Make's HTTP module to bring that weather into Airtable.

You mentioned IFTTT above, and another user mentioned Zapier above.

However, in general, the top Airtable consultants like myself typically recommend against using IFTTT or Zapier in favor of Make's automations & integrations.

This is because Make is infinitely more customizable & infinitely more powerful than Zapier, yet it is SIGNIFICANTLY CHEAPER than Zapier.

I wrote an entire post here comparing Make vs. Zapier. 

The only downside is that it might take a few minutes to learn how to use Make. If you’ve never used Make before, I’ve assembled a bunch of Make training resources in this thread.

For example, here is how you would instantly trigger a Make automation from Airtable.

I also give live demonstrations of how to use Make in many of my Airtable podcast appearances here.

p.s. If you have a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld 

K
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  • kujain
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  • March 10, 2024

Thanks for your feedback!

I tried to set up Make.com's scenarios and those worked pretty well! But I am having an issue with sending the data back to the record.

I have a webhook that is triggering on record creation (I tried form submit as well since I have built an interface to load data into the table). And then a run script to send the record ID to the webhook (similar to the guides found here and elewhere)

But for whatever reason, the script is not getting any data from input.config(). This is always an empty object! I ran in test conditions, I also made it live and ran a live test, but this is always {}. What could i be doing wrong here?

console.log(`Hello, ${base.name}!`); let record = input.config(); console.log(input, record); let webhook = 'https://hook.us1.make.com/<webhookuud>'; let urlParams = record.recordID; let call = await fetch (`${webhook}?recordID=${urlParams}`); console.log (call);

Thanks very much - I feel as I am getting close to the solution here but missing something very basic!

 

ScottWorld
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  • ScottWorld
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  • March 11, 2024

Check out the link that I originally posted in my original post above — how to instantly trigger a Make automation from Airtable.

TheTimeSavingCo
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Thanks for your feedback!

I tried to set up Make.com's scenarios and those worked pretty well! But I am having an issue with sending the data back to the record.

I have a webhook that is triggering on record creation (I tried form submit as well since I have built an interface to load data into the table). And then a run script to send the record ID to the webhook (similar to the guides found here and elewhere)

But for whatever reason, the script is not getting any data from input.config(). This is always an empty object! I ran in test conditions, I also made it live and ran a live test, but this is always {}. What could i be doing wrong here?

console.log(`Hello, ${base.name}!`); let record = input.config(); console.log(input, record); let webhook = 'https://hook.us1.make.com/<webhookuud>'; let urlParams = record.recordID; let call = await fetch (`${webhook}?recordID=${urlParams}`); console.log (call);

Thanks very much - I feel as I am getting close to the solution here but missing something very basic!

 


Hmm, could you provide a screenshot of your "Run a Script" action with the input variables?  If you're attempting to send the record ID, you'd need it to be set up something like this I think:

 

Adam, Airtable Consultant - thetimesaving.company
K
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  • kujain
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  • March 24, 2024

Thanks Adam!

The input variable integration was the missing component! Once I had set that up, the correct recordID was sent the the webhook and Make.com integration worked as expected!

ScottWorld
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  • ScottWorld
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  • March 24, 2024

Yes, that was shown in BOTH the screenshots AND the text of the post that I linked to in all of my replies above: How to instantly trigger a Make automation from Airtable.

I also gave you a much simplified script to use, too.

p.s. If your company has a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld

K
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  • kujain
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  • March 24, 2024

Hi ScottsWorld - yes you are correct and your feedback really got me started on the right track as well!

I do now see that the screenshots did include the input vars (I apologize for missing them earlier) - thanks again for your help!

ScottWorld
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  • ScottWorld
  • Genius
  • 9808 replies
  • March 24, 2024

That's fantastic to hear, and you're welcome! 😃


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