Action script behaves differently than Extension script

[Alfonso_Garcia]

Hi,

I have written a very simple duplicate validation script that is triggered from a record create event, but it doesn’t work from the automation and it works fine in the extension.

This is the action script code:

// Input variables setup
let inputConfig = input.config();
let clientID = inputConfig.clientID;
let clientName = inputConfig.clientName;
let clientRename = clientName;

// Query Resultset
let table = base.getTable('Clientes');
let view = table.getView('Clientes Duplicados');
let queryResult = await view.selectRecordsAsync({fields: []});

// Duplicate Validation
let regex = /\[+\d+\]/g;
let duplicatesCounter = 0;

for (let record of queryResult.records) {
    if (record.name.toLowerCase().replace(regex,'').trim() == clientName.toLowerCase().trim()) {
        duplicatesCounter++;
    };
}

if (duplicatesCounter > 1) {
    clientRename = clientName + " [" + duplicatesCounter + "]";

    await table.updateRecordAsync (clientID, {
        "Nombre" : clientRename
    });
};

output.set('clientRename', clientRename);

This is the extension code:

//Values to match
let clientID = 'rec3CvbN38zLEEGgR';
let clientName = 'Canais';
let clientRename = clientName;

// Query Resultset
let table = base.getTable('Clientes');
let view = table.getView('Clientes Duplicados');
let queryResult = await view.selectRecordsAsync({fields: []});

// Duplicates validation
let regex = /\[+\d+\]/g;
let duplicatesCounter = 0;

for (let record of queryResult.records) {
    if (record.name.toLowerCase().replace(regex,'').trim() == clientName.toLowerCase().trim()) {
        duplicatesCounter++;
    };

    console.log (`
            ${record.name.toLowerCase().replace(regex,'').trim()}
            ${clientName.toLowerCase().trim()}
            ${duplicatesCounter}`);
}

if (duplicatesCounter > 1) {
    clientRename = clientName + " [" + duplicatesCounter + "]";

    await table.updateRecordAsync (clientID, {
        "Nombre" : clientRename
    });
};

These are the results:

• Extension Script

Before run extension script

Nombre	RecordID	Tipo
Alfa	recFcZFOXZ3HLceqf	Cliente
Beta	recwRqpeWKLhlisHH	Cliente
Canais	rec1sz2GEKuJbdXQh	Mandante
Canais	rec3CvbN38zLEEGgR	Final
Canais [1]	recM6JRtAtTsP91bz	Matriz
Canais [2]	recOzEQzIp92lVUwT	Cliente
Gamma	recZPc4mAYD81M7Dj	Matriz
Delta	recUeLOADTASjL4t5	Cliente
Epsilon	recHdvqDrwPITsGx0	Cliente
Zeta	recetQgGdTdJlaP5i	Cliente
Eta	recOByLdOtacr10bk	Cliente
Theta	recf6eFw2JIDfBVJx	Mandante

After run extension script

Nombre	RecordID	Tipo
Alfa	recFcZFOXZ3HLceqf	Cliente
Beta	recwRqpeWKLhlisHH	Cliente
Canais	rec1sz2GEKuJbdXQh	Mandante
Canais [1]	recM6JRtAtTsP91bz	Matriz
Canais [2]	recOzEQzIp92lVUwT	Cliente
Canais [4]	rec3CvbN38zLEEGgR	Final
Gamma	recZPc4mAYD81M7Dj	Matriz
Delta	recUeLOADTASjL4t5	Cliente
Epsilon	recHdvqDrwPITsGx0	Cliente
Zeta	recetQgGdTdJlaP5i	Cliente
Eta	recOByLdOtacr10bk	Cliente
Theta	recf6eFw2JIDfBVJx	Mandante

Console Log
CONSOLE LOG
“alfa
canais
0”
“beta
canais
0”
“canais
canais
1”
“canais
canais
2”
“canais
canais
3”
“canais
canais
4”
“gamma
canais
0”
“delta
canais
0”
“epsilon
canais
0”
“epsilon
canais
0”
“zeta
canais
0”
“eta
canais
0”
“theta
canais
0”

• Action Script (from Create Trigger)

Before run Create Trigger

Nombre	RecordID	Tipo
Alfa	recFcZFOXZ3HLceqf	Cliente
Beta	recwRqpeWKLhlisHH	Cliente
Canais	rec1sz2GEKuJbdXQh	Mandante
Canais [1]	recM6JRtAtTsP91bz	Matriz
Canais [2]	recOzEQzIp92lVUwT	Cliente
Canais [4]	rec3CvbN38zLEEGgR	Final
Gamma	recZPc4mAYD81M7Dj	Matriz
Delta	recUeLOADTASjL4t5	Cliente
Epsilon	recHdvqDrwPITsGx0	Cliente
Zeta	recetQgGdTdJlaP5i	Cliente
Eta	recOByLdOtacr10bk	Cliente
Theta	recf6eFw2JIDfBVJx	Mandante

After run Create Trigger

Nombre	RecordID	Tipo
Alfa	recFcZFOXZ3HLceqf	Cliente
Beta	recwRqpeWKLhlisHH	Cliente
Canais	rec1sz2GEKuJbdXQh	Mandante
Canais	recJUkM5aolLFadhH	Mandante
Canais [1]	recM6JRtAtTsP91bz	Matriz
Canais [2]	recOzEQzIp92lVUwT	Cliente
Canais [4]	rec3CvbN38zLEEGgR	Final
Gamma	recZPc4mAYD81M7Dj	Matriz
Delta	recUeLOADTASjL4t5	Cliente
Epsilon	recHdvqDrwPITsGx0	Cliente
Zeta	recetQgGdTdJlaP5i	Cliente
Eta	recOByLdOtacr10bk	Cliente
Theta	recf6eFw2JIDfBVJx	Mandante

Could someone tell me where the error is? Even though I’ve reviewed it, I can’t find any differences in the code…

Thanks in advance

[Alexey_Gusev]

Hi,

What’s the output of output.set(‘clientRename’, clientRename); ?
I think you should also check duplicatesCounter

upd: yes, counter was 0 and the reason : record.name ='Unnamed record' inside loop.
with record.getCellValueAsString(‘your_primary_field’) it works OK.
interesting case.

[Alexey_Gusev]

btw, it works ok with record.name, when for loop not used

let {clientID,clientName} = input.config();
let table = base.getTable('Clientes');
let view = table.getView('Clientes Duplicados');
let query = await view.selectRecordsAsync({fields: []});
let val=x=>x.toLowerCase().replace(/\[+\d+\]/g,'').trim()
let dupes=query.records.filter(r=>val(r.name)==val(clientName))
let update={'Nombre':clientName+'['+dupes.length+']'}
if (dupes.length>1) await table.updateRecordAsync(clientID,update)

[Alfonso_Garcia]

Hi Alexey,

First of all, thanks for your excellent contribution and quick response, unfortunately it still doesn’t work when fired from the trigger (action script), but it works fine when run from the extension script (same as my code).

The record is executed from an Airtable interface and, in theory, the record should be created only when the Submit button is pressed, or so I have interpreted from the documentation.

Once the submit button is pressed, the automation should be triggered, which has this structure:

TRIGGER

• When a record is created in Client

ACTIONS

• Run a script (my code or yours) [Output.clientRename]
• Create record
  TABLE: Journal Client (historical)
  FIELDS: Origin = Record for step 1->Airtable record id
  Name = clientRename
  …

I suspect that the ACTUAL write operation to the table occurs when the automation completes and therefore it is the update in the script that fails, but I am new to Airtable and I am probably wrong and there is another reason why that the script does not work, in any case, I really appreciate the interest and the time you have dedicated to trying to help me, thank you very much.

Best regards,

PS: I really liked the elegance of your code and the economy of resources used :winking_face:

[Alexey_Gusev]

Alfonso_Garcia:

I suspect that the ACTUAL write operation to the table occurs when the automation completes and therefore it is the update in the script that fails, but I am new to Airtable

Yes, such automation behavior happens for some users, you can search here to read more. I never encountered such issue, but remember that solution included some additional field(s) with ‘Date created’ and view with some delay (5 minutes?) and trigger changed to “When record enters view”.

You can dig into run history to be sure. Like this

Maybe you can install script step before your actual script, with some delay and avoid extra fields. No timeout/sleep/delay command, but you can, for example

try {const responce = await fetch('https://somesite.com')
  console.log(responce.status===200? 'ok':'not ok')}
  catch {console.log('not ok')}

But then, in your actual step, you cannot rely on input.config().clientName, because it’s value defined at the automation start. Instead, you should query it using ID (which does not change after creation)
query.records.getrecord(id).name //or query.records.getrecord(id).getcellvalue('field')

[Alfonso_Garcia]

Hi Alexey,

I’ve finally gotten it to work, although I’m not quite sure how since I’ve changed so many things that now I have no idea which one has produced the miracle.

I changed the approach in relation to the trigger that fired the event and it didn’t work either, I changed the code and introduced the following modifications (that I remember):

1. Nominate the field to work with the data collection:
   let query = await view.selectRecordsAsync({fields: ['Name']});
2. Take the “cleanup” out of the filter’s clientName variable to optimize performance:
   let clientClean = val(clientName)
3. I used CellValue to get the cell value:
   r=>val(r.getCellValue('Name')

I’m sure I’ve made a lot more changes and gone back to the origin several times so I may have changed something else, the end result is that it now works although I had to do some tweaking to get the duplicate numbering to work as expected. (the same way Windows File Explorer works with duplicate files)

Again, thank you for the enormous and selfless help you have given me.

Best regards,