New Entry Trigger Automation - Leaderboard

The image for your second automation isn’t loading for me, but the problem with your first one is you don’t do addition inside automations, that’s what formulas are for. In the first setup the other big issue is that you aren’t using Airtable's database features. 

Your setup in #2 is better, using links between the tables and rollups to sum entries. What isn’t working that you’re trying to automate? Trying to just guess from the sentence you wrote, you’re using Typeform forms to feed in your data… Those create new records, and then the automation would handle auto-linking between the Responses and Leaderboard tables, right? That should work pretty simply with a “When Record is created” in Response, Update record with the Team name field in Leaderboard field. 

Thank you so much for responding! Honestly just jumped for joy. The automation seems according to the history - but it’s not updating the leaderboard table. When I manually add a row, nothing seems to happen on the Leaderboard tab. However, if I manually select the right team name in the Responses Tab > Leaderboard Linked Record - it updates. So it seems to be triggering only when Leaderboard Linked Record is manually populated. 

Hoping this summary of the automation currently is accurate: 

• Trigger:

  • Fires “When a record is created” in the Responses table.

• Find records action:

  • Table = Leaderboard.

  • Condition = Where Team Name is Team Name / Name (screenshots below)

• 

• Maximum record limit = 1.

• Update record action:

  • Table = Responses.

  • Record ID = Airtable record ID from the trigger (the new Response).

• Fields updated: Leaderboard (linked record) = Airtable record ID from the “Find records” step.

• 

   

Confirmation of automation run:

When you’re manually adding a row, the record is created but the Team Name is blank (you modify it moments afterward) so the automation doesn’t have information to link since it fires when record is created. When Record is Created is useful for forms as all the information comes in together, but it’s important to keep that in mind when manually testing.

Because you’ve got a simple 1-1 table link, I think you’re overcomplicating this automation with using Find Records. As I mentioned above, I would make a very simple automation that only acts in the Responses table. Trigger- When Record is Created in Responses. Action- Update Record in Responses, populating the Leaderboard field with information from the Team Name field. That establishes the link between the tables (AT links point both ways, so no need to mess with the Leaderboard table) and then the rollup handles the rest. 

The only consideration here would be you have to delete the submissions to clear the rollup for the next event, if you want to archive that information there’s some other thinking that has to go on.

Thank you so much for your guidance. I simplified the automation but feel I’m still missing something big. The chip for Leaderboard Linked Record doesn’t populate unless I manually do so. I can’t get typeform to pass that information to that cell b/c it’s a multiple choice option and will only drive to single select. How can I get that information populated automatically. Apologies if this is right in my face.

Typeform doesn’t need to populate the Leaderboard linked field, that’s what the automation does. Your form just asks for the Team Name and Quiz Score, and feeds into the response table. Then the automation takes the Team Name field and populates it into the Leaderboard linked field. As long as the primary field for the Leaderboard table is the same as Team Name (and there aren’t duplicate team names) it should all link together no problem.

Also I should do the obligatory plug for Fillout Forms, which is way more powerful with super tight integration with Airtable. 

Hm it sounds like you want to submit a form with a team’s score and then have it added up?  If so, I’ve set it up here for you to check out, and it uses Airtable Forms and no automations.  The idea is to just let the user select the Team they want during form Submission itself, then use a rollup field to sum it up

Hi,
you should consider that a trigger “when record Created” almost never used unless you are creating Record in a single step with all values. That’s because trigger is a watchdog that barks once, when you press “+” and new row appear, with all empty values. It does all you programmed it to do with it, and finish. Any further changes does not affect automations. Btw, in Automations you have step Sort Records.

To do this without Automations, you can create 1-record table ‘totals’, link all to it, in table totals add lookup with built-in Sort by Score descending.
Then in main table add this Rollup.

I can show you. But I’m not sure it’s better than Automations

 

I just added all these ‘proxy-fields’ to make you understand how I get final formula. It can be added as Rollup
 

The rest is on your own. You have place number, you have where to edit sort rules. The only thing you have to do - ensure all new records will be linked to Totals. And also - To ensure your Team Names will not have intersections.  If you , for example, Have “Stars” team and “Starships” team, procedure FIND will detect ‘Stars’ in ‘Starships” and detect in a wrong way. So you should create another formula with some ID included to guarantee unique string.
Or you can turn to other way and use Automations, there are some problems on that way as well, but maybe it will be easier for you.