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Adding Attachments Received via Form and Retaining Existing Ones

Topic Labels: Automations
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Gillian_Mortime
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Hi all,

I have read a couple of posts on this question and tried the suggestions but I can’t seem to get it to work.

I have a view that I am sharing via a view only link with various collaborators. In order to allow them to update certain fields of the records, I have an Edit Record button in the grid that opens a form where they can update the information, then an automation to update the form.

One of the fields they can update is an attachment field. I want them to be able to add new documents without deleting the existing ones, as for certain records there are multiple documents that will be added over time. I would rather not create a separate field for each attachment and instead just add the new ones in with the existing ones.

Is there a way to do this without using a script or an external program. I am on a free plan, and we have no budget for anything more.

@Kamille_Parks I saw that you offered some solutions in the past. Below is a sceenshot of how the automation works at present. Do you have any idea if what I want to do is possible?

Automation Form

Many thanks
Gill

4 Replies 4

You need to insert the urls of the previously uploaded documents. To get those, you’d need a Find Records step that looks in the original table where Record ID = Original Record ID (from form). Then add a comma between the new doc and the old urls.

Your update record step’s Document field would look like [Document (from form submission)], [List of field values > Document (from find records step)]

Thank you for replying. I spent a long time looking at your screenshot today and going through various iterations and it was very helpful.

I think this issue is that I don’t know what I am looking for in the Find Records step. I can set up the step to Find Records in the original table, but then I have to choose either Condition or View. For Condition I can’t figure out which records based on which criteria I am trying to return.

For the Update Record step I think everything is clear.

Gillian_Mortime
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

I think that I am almost there. I have created the steps and I can fill the form and it will add multiple attachments to the record in the same field. However, I have two problems:

  • It adds random attachments that are neither on the form or the original documents that were in the field.
  • Sometimes I have a run error and it tells me that the value is not permitted in the documents field.

I have it set up as below:
image

@Kamille_Parks Am I missing something obvious?

Many thanks,
Gill

HannesK-ME
8 - Airtable Astronomer
8 - Airtable Astronomer

Our miniExtensions form can do this natively, using our "add-only mode" feature. It allows you to open up an existing record for editing and only add new data to an attachment field (also works with some other field types, e.g. linked records), without overwriting the existing data. You can also choose to display or hide the attachments already present in the record.

Screenshot 2025-01-21 at 14.47.04.jpg