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Hey all,


I’m really excited to share something that has been a long time in the making and one I think will help a lot of people. I’m curious: how many of you use Zapier for your Airtable integrations? I wanted to get a general poll for a sense of how people are using automation with Airtable:


POLL: Do you use Zapier for your Airtable integrations?






  • I have no need for Zapier

  • Nope, I use another platform

  • No, but I might in the near future

  • Yes, and it does absolutely everything I want it to

  • Yes, but I need it to do more (it lacks key functionality)





0
voters





Excited to tell you about a project I’ve been working on and finally ready to launch! I’d welcome your feedback and insights on this. It truly is a game changer for what you can do with Airtable and opens the door for endless possibilities.


Disclaimer: We are not associated with Airtable or Zapier (although we are an Expert Partner of Zapier). Using this product requires entering your API key into Zapier and our connector which means we technically do have access to it, however we do not store it on our systems anywhere. It is only stored on Zapier’s systems, similar to the existing connector.


What we’ve done: created an advanced Airtable-Zapier connector based on our experience and a lot of feedback from real-world companies’ experience


Who it’s for and why: any size companies using Airtable that rely heavily on automation in their workflows, and need it to do more (can I get an amen for triggering every time a record is updated, not just once?!)


What the connector includes: I’ve put together this chart to show the side-by-side of what the original Zapier connector has vs. what we’ve made:

(click on image to view full screen)



How you can help: check out the connector page, give some feedback here, and if it’s a fit for what you’re doing give it a try (use coupon code SHOWANDTELL for 10% off - offer good till end the month)


For full documentation on how it works, check out our knowledge base.


– the Openside Team


P.S. Here are a few use case examples of what it can do


This is an example of what we’ve been able to accomplish using this connector

How are you able to do things the Airtable API doesn’t enable? In others words, is this Airtable-safe?

How are you able to do things the Airtable API doesn’t enable? In others words, is this Airtable-safe?


HI Hashim, thanks for the question. Everything we do is through the API. We definitely had to come up with some creative workarounds to get around some limitations but everything is Airtable safe. However, there are still some limitations that may come into play (such as the api limit of 5 api calls/second, or zapier’s limitation of 30 seconds per step) that we can’t get around so that is something to be aware of. Let me know if any other questions.


Dan,

Founder, Openside

@openside I can’t work out if this is only for airtable automations or whether it can be used for third party ones as well? Can this be used to allow for a zapier synced google sheet to get updated automatically anytime an airtable record is updated?

@openside I can’t work out if this is only for airtable automations or whether it can be used for third party ones as well? Can this be used to allow for a zapier synced google sheet to get updated automatically anytime an airtable record is updated?


Hi @Lucinda_Lammin - sorry for not seeing this early. I didn’t get the notification.


Yes, that is the exact use case it handles. You can integrate it with anything available on Zapier.

Hi @openside - The knowledge base link is not working. Specifically, I was wondering how you did the “Update record” trigger. Is it by periodically retrieving records and seeing the differences or something else?

Hi @openside - The knowledge base link is not working. Specifically, I was wondering how you did the “Update record” trigger. Is it by periodically retrieving records and seeing the differences or something else?


hi @hossameldeen - yes we’ve moved things around (and I can no longer edit the original post). You can find documentation here:

https://community.openside.com/s25-on2air/knowledgebase/top/c37-on2air-actions


To answer your question, check out this article: https://community.openside.com/i22-records-selection

hi @hossameldeen - yes we’ve moved things around (and I can no longer edit the original post). You can find documentation here:

https://community.openside.com/s25-on2air/knowledgebase/top/c37-on2air-actions


To answer your question, check out this article: https://community.openside.com/i22-records-selection


@openside it appears that your connector only executes once per update per record. In other words, you do not trigger when the record is updated more than once/

@openside it appears that your connector only executes once per update per record. In other words, you do not trigger when the record is updated more than once/


Hi @Matt_Cummings, definitely not the case. We have hundreds of triggers that execute more than once per record. Let me know if you want to see it in action. Happy to provide a demo.

Hi @Matt_Cummings, definitely not the case. We have hundreds of triggers that execute more than once per record. Let me know if you want to see it in action. Happy to provide a demo.


On your product page it says:

"Updated Record


Triggered when a record has been updated. Will Trigger once per updated record"

On your product page it says:

"Updated Record


Triggered when a record has been updated. Will Trigger once per updated record"


Fair point. Poor explanation. I’ll improve that.


What that means is that each record that matches criteria will trigger its own zap. Where as our Bulk Triggers will trigger 1 zap with ALL matching records all within a single zap.


However, if the record later matches the trigger criteria, it will definitely trigger again.

Fair point. Poor explanation. I’ll improve that.


What that means is that each record that matches criteria will trigger its own zap. Where as our Bulk Triggers will trigger 1 zap with ALL matching records all within a single zap.


However, if the record later matches the trigger criteria, it will definitely trigger again.


Interesting, well the reason I ask is that I need to build my own integration and I can’t use Zapier, with or without your connector, so I’m trying to figure out how to implement my own listener which will execute when it detects an update to a record.


I don’t suppose you can give me a high level description of how you did this? One way would be to request all records in the table on a regular (e.g. cron-like) basis.


Are you pulling all of the records from the base?

Interesting, well the reason I ask is that I need to build my own integration and I can’t use Zapier, with or without your connector, so I’m trying to figure out how to implement my own listener which will execute when it detects an update to a record.


I don’t suppose you can give me a high level description of how you did this? One way would be to request all records in the table on a regular (e.g. cron-like) basis.


Are you pulling all of the records from the base?


Nope. You’ll want to check out the API specs and utilize the filterByFormula parameter of api to retrieve only what is relevant.


Good luck!

Nope. You’ll want to check out the API specs and utilize the filterByFormula parameter of api to retrieve only what is relevant.


Good luck!


OK, thanks.


I want to filter by last modified but based on this ticket, that functionality hasn’t been released yet: t/last-modified-time/18867/217

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