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Hi all,


I’m building out a lot of automations using Airtable/Zapier.


Based on readings in the forum, my understanding is that whilst a “New Record in View” is able to trigger a Zapier automation, in the scenario that a given Record re-enters a given “View” (after having previously entered/left the “View” for some reason, then the Zapier trigger would not work again.


Is this understanding correct?


Again, based on my research, my understanding is that the only viable solution to this challenge is to use the 3rd party tool Openside (https://openside.com/).


@openside


Would be great to hear from others if I have come to the right conclusion here?


I have a lot of automations which are triggered by records changing in a certain way. Originally, I was planning to resolve this through creating lots of “Views”, but if a given Record can only be triggered once by a given View, then this is a problem for me.


Thanks in advance!


Given what you’ve described, I think this is correct - you need a process that utilizes a polling process to make determinations about additional changes to the data.



This is not entirely true. Zapier doesn’t “trigger” based on changes to a record despite the documentation lingo that it does. Instead, it is actually polling yfrequently] to know if a record has changed and executes it’s own “trigger” when so detected. We know this because Airtable itself does not provide event-based webhooks, an architecture that is desperately needed.


Anyone (with API skills and resources) is free to create polling business logic that looks for repeated changes and then applies arbitrary updates. I believe that’s how @openside overcomes the limitations of Zapier.


Given what you’ve described, I think this is correct - you need a process that utilizes a polling process to make determinations about additional changes to the data.



This is not entirely true. Zapier doesn’t “trigger” based on changes to a record despite the documentation lingo that it does. Instead, it is actually polling yfrequently] to know if a record has changed and executes it’s own “trigger” when so detected. We know this because Airtable itself does not provide event-based webhooks, an architecture that is desperately needed.


Anyone (with API skills and resources) is free to create polling business logic that looks for repeated changes and then applies arbitrary updates. I believe that’s how @openside overcomes the limitations of Zapier.


Great explanation Bill. So I guess that means this wouldn’t work with Integromat either. I am using zapier to send an airtable record to docupilot to format a pdf. You just click a checkbox (“send document”) in airtable to trigger. zapier than updates another checkbox “document sent” when done. But it looks like there’s no way to re-print the document – which is a pretty common use case.


Is that correct. There is no way?


A rough alternative solution would be to have a separate table just for triggers to Zapier (or Integromat), linked to the first table. Instead of clicking the checkbox, you would have to “+ Add New Record” in a Link column.


Not pretty. Could be mitigated by filtering that link so it’s not possible to select an existing record. Also, maybe a benefit, to have a log of your triggers.

Great explanation Bill. So I guess that means this wouldn’t work with Integromat either. I am using zapier to send an airtable record to docupilot to format a pdf. You just click a checkbox (“send document”) in airtable to trigger. zapier than updates another checkbox “document sent” when done. But it looks like there’s no way to re-print the document – which is a pretty common use case.


Is that correct. There is no way?


A rough alternative solution would be to have a separate table just for triggers to Zapier (or Integromat), linked to the first table. Instead of clicking the checkbox, you would have to “+ Add New Record” in a Link column.


Not pretty. Could be mitigated by filtering that link so it’s not possible to select an existing record. Also, maybe a benefit, to have a log of your triggers.


Yes - I believe you have stated all of these points accurately.

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