Setting a checkbox for the last record inserted only, via Scripting
Accepted Solutions
Hey @Justin_Barrett. I’m using the Airtable WebClipper app. Please find attached some screenshots that hopefully help explain what I’m doing. Look forward to your thoughts…
Oh and apologies for the scripting syntax errors. I’m literally copy/pasting from examples & YT videos - I have no idea what I’m doing :slightly_smiling_face: , hence the reason for asking here.
Dave.
some
Great to hear, and I almost forgot: this is the kind of thing that you really want to have running on autopilot.
Button-pushing “solutions” have a tendency to streamline your problems, but at the cost of adding at least one new responsibility to your agenda. So, avoid them whenever reasonably possible, which is very much the case here.
As an example, here’s a slightly modified version of the original that I’ve confirmed works as an Automation (the first one would probably run up until the custom logging part, then report a failure after updating the records):
The code
let table = base.getTable('Table 1'),
q = await table.selectRecordsAsync(
{
sorts: [{ field: 'ID', direction: 'desc' }],
fields: ['Done']
}),
latestRecord = q.recordIds[0],
cache = []
q.records.forEach(
rec => {
let mark = rec.id === latestRecord ? true : null
if (rec.getCellValue('Done') !== mark) {
cache.push({ id: rec.id, fields: { Done: mark } })
}
})
let neededUpdating = [...cache = cache.filter(obj => obj !== null)]
// statement 3
while (cache.length > 0) {
await table.updateRecordsAsync(cache.splice(0, 50))
}
neededUpdating.forEach(object => {
object["Action taken"] = object.done
? 'I determined this to be the newest record but it wasn\'t marked as such. No need to get up, I handled it.'
: 'This wasn\'t the latest record but it had a checkmark. Well, Checkbox field privileges #canceled, mister... object, whatever.'
})
console.log(` ${neededUpdating.length}/${q.recordIds.length} records updated`)
console.table(neededUpdating)
Example Automation trigger setup
How the new logging mechanic works
- this output is always accessible via the “Run History” tab visible in the upper-right corner of the previous screenshot
- that’s also where you’d find Airtable’s own logs
- meaning this is merely a redundancy which we can afford because the script is so lightweight that there’s no feasible scenario in which it hits Airtable’s runtime or memory limits
Not saying you should be paying for an Airtable Pro subscription to automate this single action, obviously.
Just leaving it as general food for thought in case anyone from the future reading this is currently thinking something along the lines of “pressing this button solves my problem”.
No, it simplifies it.
But even Airtable buttons, as strikingly inviting as they are, aren’t worth your time in the long term. :slightly_smiling_face:
