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Should I update automation or change to script?

  • Oct 29, 2026 4:17 PM UTC
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CaitlenBerg
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I have no experience with scripts so far, so I’m basing this question on what I *think* they’re used for.

I’ve built out a base that takes incoming QR Code requests, which have a simple URL, and uses a formula field to append UTM parameters, and then shows the full URL in an interface which the user turns around and uploads into our QR platform. 

We’ve just started working with a new vendor for coupons, and they have some pre-populated UTMs in their URLs. Important to note that this only accounts for a portion of our QR builds. Since they already have UTMs, I can’t use the current formula to create our final URL. I believe my options are: 

  1. Update the current automation to send the URL to one of two formula fields, based on the type of incoming request (this is already captured in a single-select). My concern here is that there will definitely come a time when someone mis-labels their request, which will make the final URL unusable. I think this will be a small use case, but still inevitable. I haven’t nailed down this workflow yet, but I expect I’d also need to then create another field that will consolidate the two final URL fields into one that will show in the interface. 
  2. Use a script in the automation to create the final URL (is this even possible?). This would be more straightforward, as the rule that I need to create is basically “If there’s already a question mark in the URL, do this, if not, do that”. After that initial rule, it’s a bunch of simple substitutions of characters like turning spaces into “%20” 

I’m not sure which of these options is the better choice, or if the second one is viable for what I’m looking for. I’m leaning towards the script because I expect it’ll cover future instances of URLs with UTMs already appended - there’s every possibility that some other website my company works with winds up giving us a URL like this. Does anyone have any advice? Any other callouts on things that I’m missing?

 

More technical info, not sure if this is needed - 
Currently I have a form with a few intake fields such as campaign name, launch date, url, etc. Airtable base has a second normalization field for each of these which deletes special characters and spaces, makes everything lowercase, etc. Then a final field concatenates that and adds the same UTM parameters to the end of each. So what I’d really need to add is a normalization field for the initial URL - if that already has UTMs (or if it has a question mark in the URL at all) it’ll need to follow one set of rules to encode the URL; if there is no question mark, we could just leave it as-is or we could encode as well but we’d need to add a question mark at the start of UTMs. I think I’d still need the final Concatenate field after this, but that’s simple. 

After writing all this out, I’m realizing that my ideal solution should work for any URL, regardless of whether it’s tagged as a coupon or not. 

Best answer by WorkflowEngineer

I’d base the logic on the URL itself rather than the coupon selection. If you’re just appending parameters, you may only need one final formula field. A script can also build the complete final URL.

Before choosing between them, decide how to handle existing UTM keys. If the incoming URL already has utm_campaign, appending it again creates duplicate keys, and their interpretation can vary. Choosing “?” or “&” doesn’t address that.

Keep the incoming URL’s case and existing encoding intact. Normalize your new UTM values separately, and use ENCODE_URL_COMPONENT() on each value, not on the whole URL. If the URL has a #fragment, add the query parameters before it.

I’d use a formula for straightforward appending and lean toward a script if you need to selectively merge or replace existing parameters.

When the vendor supplies a UTM key you normally add, should their value stay, or should yours replace it?

-Roe

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    WorkflowEngineer
    Forum|alt.badge.img+1

    I’d base the logic on the URL itself rather than the coupon selection. If you’re just appending parameters, you may only need one final formula field. A script can also build the complete final URL.

    Before choosing between them, decide how to handle existing UTM keys. If the incoming URL already has utm_campaign, appending it again creates duplicate keys, and their interpretation can vary. Choosing “?” or “&” doesn’t address that.

    Keep the incoming URL’s case and existing encoding intact. Normalize your new UTM values separately, and use ENCODE_URL_COMPONENT() on each value, not on the whole URL. If the URL has a #fragment, add the query parameters before it.

    I’d use a formula for straightforward appending and lean toward a script if you need to selectively merge or replace existing parameters.

    When the vendor supplies a UTM key you normally add, should their value stay, or should yours replace it?

    -Roe

    CaitlenBerg
    Forum|alt.badge.img+9
    • CaitlenBerg
    • Author
    • Inspiring
    • Oct 29, 2026 5:28 PM UTC

    This helps - I think I’m focusing too much on how to solve this specific instance and I’m missing the possibility of other edge cases. I’ll work with one of my engineers to figure out the full script that we’ll need. Thanks!

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