Any way to embed a link inside an email to update a Status column for my records?

#1

I am attempting to build a workflow that updates the status of a project. When a new project is sent to the client, it’s done via a form that adds an entry to Airtable, updates the STATUS cell to “in progress”, and then uses Zapier to send an email to the client.

I’m having difficulty finding an easy way for the client to update the project status to “complete” WITHOUT sending them to a dedicated Airtable form. I’m wondering if either of these two options are possible:

  1. Embedding the form into the email for easy access
  2. Preferred option would be an URL that is generated and included in the email, that when clicked, would update the status of the project.

Any ideas?

#2

Hey Nick,

The short answer is YES! It requires a 3 step Zap. Since you’re familiar with Zapier, I’m skipping some of the regular steps and focusing on the ones specific to this setup.

Setup Zapier webhook

  1. Using Zapier, create a webhook

  2. Select the Catch Hook option

    This will generate a URL that Zapier will recognize and respond to.

  3. In the Edit Options section, enter something like this: { "record_id": "1", "status": "Complete"}

    This is just sample of what it could be, but the first field (“record_id” in this case) must be a unique field in your table that can be used to look up records.

Find Record in Airtable Base

  1. Connect Zapier to your Airtable base
  2. Select the Find Record option
  3. When you get to the Edit Options step, under Search by Field, select the unique field you used in your webhook earlier.
  4. In the Search Value field, click the + sign and select Catch Hook > Querystring ID

Update Record in Airtable base

  1. Connect to the base
  2. Select the Update Record option
  3. When you get to the Set Up Template step, under Record, select Use a Custom Value
  4. In the new field that opens up, click the + sign on the right and select (2) Find Record—this comes from step 2
  5. Select Airtable’s ID field (the one with the random reference next to it that looks something like recLKJ234fds334
  6. In the Status field, click the + sign and select Catch Hook > Querystring Status

Essentially what’s happening is when you navigate to the Webhook URL Zapier has generated for you, it will trigger this flow. However, instead of just using the url (https://hooks.zapier.com/hooks/catch/stuff/morestuff/), you are adding in querystring parameters to pass along information. The url you want to use instead will be something like:

https://hooks.zapier.com/hooks/catch/stuff/morestuff/?record_id=1&status=Complete

Now, based on what we’ve entered setting up the Zap, it will search for the record with record_id = 1, and when it finds it, it will update the Status column to Complete.

So, going back to your original question, when you generate your email to send to a client you can include this url Zapier has given you, along with the parameters. The only thing that needs to change from one project to the next is the record_id.

I’d recommend creating a formula field in Airtable that forms this url for each project automatically. Essentially…

“https://hooks.zapier.com/hooks/catch/stuff/morestuff/?record_id=” + {Record ID} + “&status=Complete”

Since you know how to generate the email, I haven’t gone into detail here, but you would just include the reference to your formula field wherever you want it to be inserted into the email.

Please let me know if you have any questions! I hope this helps.

-Danny

#3

This worked great, thanks!