Has anyone used the Zapier Webhook integration?

Airtable won’t push to a webhook like this. You’d have to write your own code running somewhere else that then pushes to the webhook. I don’t think you can accomplish what you are trying to do unless you write some code. ( Or hire us :winking_face: )

I don’t understand exactly how I am supposed to POST to that URL. I don’t see where it’s written in the Zapier documentation states about which format or method to send a “hook” to.

you need to be a programmer to understand how to do it.

here are details: https://zapier.com/page/webhooks/

Like i said, i don’t think this does what you think it does :slightly_smiling_face:

I am a programmer…

I am just trying to make API requests and send an alerts to my own systems. If I can’t do that, than the Zapier’s documentation is lying.

airtable doesn’t talk directly to zapier via webhooks.

You can write code that queries the airtable via airtable api, then push to zapier via a webhook. But it requires your code being in the middle.

You can’t use a webhook trigger in zapier that talks with airtable directly.

BUT, you can use the existing airtable connector on zapier as a trigger and everytime a new row is added (for example), use that table and push it to your own webhook using the webhook action (not trigger) in zapier.

That is what their documentation is talking about when they say you can integrate Airtable and webhooks.

To the best of my knowledge, NOTHING can track changes/updates to records other than Airtable itself. Zapier doesn’t have a “trigger” for Airtable updates (just new records) and the API (as you know) doesn’t expose date modified (only date created).

The only way I’ve managed (sane) syncs is by:

Fetching all records from a table (usually in batches), creating a hash using specific fields, comparing that hash to a cached value associate with that record ID, and only THEN can my script tell if that record has changed.

The biggest gotcha is ensuring that if your request (or requests in the case of batches) returns anything OTHER than a 200 HTTP response code, you cleanly exit rather than syncing an empty response (this has happened to me and it is unfortunate).

Airtable continues to double-down on NOT being a proper backend for data—they are fully invested in their front-end and have let all of us API users nibble on the meager crumbs they throw our way. I totally get it as their business model is clearly focused on monetizing the front-end UI and features (blocks, colors, etc). And to be fair, they’ve owned this from the start (I’m actually rather impressed by the clarity of their vision/roadmap). But still, I WISH we could have some simple things like “date modified”, field/table/base metadata, and filters by related record VALUE (not just related record ID).

I take some of that back—there is ONE Airtable Record Update notification feature that I’ve found.

Slack can receive notifications of updated records—not entirely sure of the details (or the usefulness of the feature for your purposes) but hey! it’s something :slightly_smiling_face:

Are you speaking metaphorically, or is there an actual accessible roadmap out there, somewhere? I’ve seen such a thing referenced previously, but I’ve never been able to track it down…

Of all the things I’m guilty of, speaking metaphorically is probably my most frequent…

I guess I meant that the things they say they care about have proven to be the things that they have improved. And the other things (no matter how easy and obvious have seem to me to be) have been neglected. So in hindsight, I feel like I can “see” their roadmap clearly and in a way I can project it into the future. It’s not an easy task to keep your product/service laser focused… there’s always plenty of people (like me…) who would LOVE to derail you in order to have their pet feature implemented. It’s the power of saying NO!

I’ve gotten around the missing ‘updates’ trigger for airtable records in by setting up a view with filters for the data updates I need and then any ‘new’ record in that specific ‘view’ will trigger zapier, which I can then use to update records elsewhere. I usually add a follow-up step in zapier to update the record in airtable so that it filters out of the view after being processed.

Will Zapier trigger on a record being displayed in the view a second time?

I’m fairly certain the answer to this is no.

I’ve built a system for duplicating linked records for a client that operates on this same principle - a checkbox manually checked by the client initiates the zap by adding the record to be dupe’d to a filtered view. The last step of the zap checks another box that indicates zapier has done its job and all should be well - the record is removed from the filtered view. In tests, it was not possible to uncheck both boxes and have zapier act on the same record again by repeating the process. Thus, the system utilizes the checkboxes as an indicator that the record has already been “zapped” and it cannot be done again.

hey everyone, we solved this shortcoming of triggering on updates more than once (as well as many other things) and finally able to announce its availability. Would love to get your feedback.

Connect the table to Slack which displays the update including the first column “key” value. Use zapier to lookup the document and do what you want like update the “updated date” field. The problem is that when you update 4 documents in zapier, it’s posted as one entry in Slack. It’s not an instant process. That’s the closest as I have come.

I’m banging my head against my desk because I’ve set up an entire system of email reminders to go out when something is overdue that depends on a record being able to trigger a zap if it is removed from the view and then reappears in the view at a later time point.

Can I get a definite answer from @Airtable_Support that the same record will not trigger a zap twice? I have a question into Zapier support as well.

Has anyone come up with any workarounds that do not cost $50/month? (Sorry, @openside, I work for a non-profit that does not have that kind of cash flow.)

Thanks for any help!

Can you give an example of when something that is overdue, becomes not overdue, then back into overdue again. Mapping this process may reveal a way to address the issue. :grinning:

My use cases:

1. A document could be due from one of our collaborators. However, our timelines often change (always being delayed, never moving up). If the timeline changes, I want to be sure that if the document was previously due (before the timeline change), that it will trigger the zap again when it comes to be due again.

2. We require quarterly check-ins with some on our collaborators. I keep track of when the quarterly check-in is due with a single view (I have a calculated field that tells me which quarter it is - 1, 2, 3, or 4). If a record in this view has already triggered my zap for the first quarter check-in, it won’t trigger it for any subsequent check-ins. I know I could solve this problem by creating a view for each quarter… but I have so many views already. This thing needs to be user-friendly in the end.

I ended up using the @openside plugin for these issues with the date trigger - so far so good! (Openside has a generous non-profit discount that helped a lot.)

Hi y’all,

I’ve setup webhooks for new records and record updates using a combination of Airtable’s Slack notifications and Pipedream (think Zapier, but optimized for webhooks).

For example, if you add a new record to a base, you’ll get a webhook out with a JSON payload sent to a custom HTTP endpoint for that update:

[
  {
    "tableId": "tbl98fitgvmmAR8aX",
    "recordId": "recltHKU7vKAv7bhW",
    "updates": [
      {
        "field": "Name",
        "newValue": "NEW RECORD"
      },
      {
        "field": "Status",
        "newValue": "CLOSED"
      }
    ]
  }
]

I documented the setup in a Medium post:

and this Pipedream pipeline:

I’d love feedback on whether this helps solve anyone’s issues getting webhook notifications for record creation / updates.

Feel free to personally reach out if you need help getting it working — more than happy to help.

Dylan

Didn’t use Zapier but used integromat since I couldn’t get it to work with the zaps.

Maybe you all want to have a look at my solution which I made to integrate airtable sheet with a wix website database. Same thing, but certain rules to follow for the integration to work. Have a check and let me know if it works for you’ll?