Airtable automation update records not running despite tests being successful - invalid input error

[airtable4music]

Hi y'all,

I'm trying to build an airtable base for a concert promoter. In one table (Current Shows), I have the shows they are working on, as well as fields for all the info attached (ex. artist, venue, show date). In another table (Ticket Links), I have a form for their ticketing team to add ticket links. I've built the form so it asks for the artist, venue, show date, and ticket link and it pulls from all existing artist and venues that the promoter works with, so none of the inputs are manually added (except the show date). 

I'm working on an automation that ideally says: whenever a ticket link form is submitted, find the record in the current shows where artist, venue, and show date match. Then, input the ticket link. 

Below are the steps I've taken. The automation runs successfully when I hit "Test automation" or "Run as configured" but fails to run on my Update Record step, giving me the error "Received invalid inputs".

Trigger: 

When a record matches conditions:

When, in Ticket Links table, Ticket Link Input field is not empty.

Step One: Find Records

(Also in each table, I have a concatenation of "Show Date - Artist Name - Venue Name", where I ran an automation to get a "manual input" of that concatenation in each table. I hope I worded that correctly. Basically I was running into an issue where I couldn't get Find Records to search by date so I made everything into text that the automation could work with.)

This step searches the Current Shows table where the concatenation of Show Date - Artist Name - Venue Name matches the same concatenation in the Ticket Links table. Both concatenations are short text fields.

Step 3: Update Record

My final step uses the record ID from the Find Records automation, and then updates the Ticket Link on the Current Shows table with the Ticket Link Input from the Ticket Link Table.

All the steps run correctly when tested, and as stated above when clicking run as configured or test automation work as described.

However, anytime the form gets inputted with a new ticket link, the automation fails, telling me it's received invalid inputs in the Update Records step.

Does anyone know what is going on or what I am doing wrong? I am relatively new to airtable, so any advice is appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Hmm, in your final screenshot it looks like the "Record ID" field is being updated with nothing, i.e. the "Find Records" step didn't find anything? 

If you could provide a read-only invite link to a duplicated copy of your base with some example data I could take a look at this for you! https://support.airtable.com/docs/adding-a-base-collaborator#adding-a-base-collaborator-in-airtable

[airtable4music]

That would be amazing!

Here is the link: https://airtable.com/invite/l?inviteId=inv64KlL2u0ebzLp9&inviteToken=6f336af3387e51098dc124b27398b0d...

Thank you!

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Thanks!  Hmm, I took a look and it seems fine actually.  Assuming "Ticket Link" records are being created via the form and the 'Ticket Link Lookup Manual Input' field is always updated to show the correct data, your automation should work fine

I think if I were you I'd review the automation history and try to figure out why the "Find Record" step can't find any records?  Sorry I don't have better news!

[Alexey_Gusev]

Hi,
Your automation is wrong because you are trying to apply a single record update operation to a list of record IDs (result of Find records). RecordID awaits a single value. And the list of Record IDs is a list of values. Even if it consists of 1 or 0 values. Sometimes it can work when the result of Find Records is exactly 1 record. But this is not guaranteed and it's wrong by design.
You should wrap Update step into Repeating group, looping each record in the list of found records, like this:

[airtable4music]

Thank you! I did what you said and though the automation claims to run successfully now, whenever my form gets submitted with a new ticket link it does not populate onto my Current Shows table. Like last time, when testing and running as configured the automation works and inputs the new ticket link, but does not work automatically. 

Here are my new steps:

Am I still doing something wrong? Or do you think this is an airtable glitch?

Thank you again for your help!

[Alexey_Gusev]

Hi,
to be honest, I don't understand.
You said " whenever a ticket link form is submitted (I suppose it's in the Ticket Links Table), find the record in the current shows where artist, venue, and show date match. Then, input the ticket link. "
If you want that each time form submitted, it create a new record in Current Shows with some data from form, you need to make automation with trigger 'When form submitted' and add Create record action.
Indeed you can use current automation, and add Create record, but it has to be installed before Find Records, so the Find records could find this new created as well.
Then, you can update submitted form record, by Update record, with ID taken from trigger using link to a new created record (ID taken from Create record step). So you don't need all those Find Records looping.