Using new Last Modified fields with Integromat

[Julian_Kirkness]

Having a Last Modified field sounds quite unimportant - but when combined with tools like Integromat it becomes very powerful - and this on top of the new Airtable / Integromat ‘app’ which makes Integromat so much more useful to us!

I’ve written a blog post about this which will show how to use this new field type to drive processes - and it’s the first post which I’ve initially published on my new Blog / Forum site - Online Database Experts. This is a site aimed at users of Airtable and other similar platforms and all are welcome to join and collaborate about Airtable and other tools like Integromat. Here’s a link to the post:

Using Last Modified Fields with Integromat

[Jeremy_Brunet]

Integromat just updated its Airtable “Watch Records” trigger and you can now pick up in the trigger field your “Last Modified Time” column!

Now, Integromat offers two different triggers for Airtable:

1. Watch new records when the trigger fields points to the “Created Time” column of your table.
2. Watch updated records when the trigger fields points to the “Last Modified Time” column of your table.

Best update so far done by Integromat :thumbs_up:

[Troy_Gamble]

Hi Jeremy

I created a “comment” field that can be updated by using Formnano. If I add a last modified column and tie it to this field can I have it trigger an outbound email every time the comment field has been made updated - using Integomat?

[Jeremy_Brunet]

Sure, why not :slightly_smiling_face:

You can add a “Last Modified Time” column and set it up to watch only the changes made in your “Comments” column. Every time you update a cell in your “Comments” column, “Last Modified Time” will be updated, meaning you can trigger any action you want (like an outbound email).

[Troy_Gamble]

Ok, super….thank you

[Elias_Gomez_Sai]

If I choose a Last Modified Time field that is configured to watch specific fields, it does not work in Integromat :frowning: Just work if I check all the fields.

[Jeremy_Brunet]

Works fine for me Elias, are you sure you’ve set everything up the right way? Feel free to share screens or links so I can help you out.

[Joseph_Steenso1]

Hi all, having a problem that might be along the lines of this thread so didn’t want to make a whole new one.

I use a formula field in Airtable that results in “Yes” if its between 9am and 5pm and 2 days before a clients appointment. This then appears in a view called “sending” that Integromat watches for new records in a view and triggers Clicksend to send a reminder sms, then checks a field called “Sent”, removing it from my airtable view “sending”

The problem is that because I use a formula to work out when to send the reminder text it doesn’t update the Last Modified Time as this only updates when editable fields change, not formula fields. Therefore Integromat doesn’t recognize it as a changed/updated/new record and doesn’t trigger and I end up with many records in my “Sending” view.

Any ideas on how to get integromat to trigger on the view? I know i can schedule the texts directly in Clicksend but then if i cancel or change an appointment in airtable it won’t update the sms in Clicksend.

thank you in advance!

Joe

[ScottWorld]

Integromat had a name change — they are now Make’s advanced integrations & automations.

There are at least 2 solutions for you, and they both involve starting your Make scenario with a different module.

1. Start your Make scenario with a custom webhook module, and instantly trigger your automation from Airtable. Here is a script that lets you instantly trigger a Make automation from Airtable.

OR

2. Start your scenario with the Airtable “Search Records” module instead! So delete your “Watch Records” module and replace it with the “Search Records” module. You can start your entire scenario with that module.

Once you make “Search Records” your very first module, then you can simply schedule it to run on a schedule. Depending on what Make pricing plan you’re on, you can schedule it to run every 1 minute, every 5 minutes, or every 15 minutes. (Free plans are restricted to running every 15 minutes.)

Even better: Make lets you schedule which hours of the day, which days of the week, and which months of the year you want your search to run! So, you can even tell Make to only run your scenario on weekdays between 9am and 5pm!

Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld 

[Joseph_Steenso1]

Ah excellent suggestions :slightly_smiling_face: can’t tell you how grateful I am to find a clean solution to this and you have explained it so clearly.

I see the scheduling part in Airtable is just about redundant now, it was left over from when we used Zapier (don’t think scheduling is available in Zapier)

Thanks again!

Joe