Automate Link to another record

[Antonio_Lopez_J]

Hi All!

Has anyone figured out how to automate the link to another record field? Basically have a flow where I am collecting a similar field such as an “email” or “name” and want to join from different tables. Eventually, i was to add parameters to not need to add for an email each time.

Anyone have insight into this? that way I don’t have to manually link these records.

Appreciate any help or advice!

[Justin_Barrett]

Automations can create links. All you need is the record ID of the target record for that to work.

You didn’t describe your use case in much detail, but you might try creating an automation that triggers when a new record is created (or when a form is submitted, whichever makes the most sense). Add a “Find records” action to look for a matching record in the other table based on your desired criteria (e.g. email), then add a conditional branch that only runs when you have at least one result from that “Find records” action. In that conditional branch, update the original record to link to the record found from “Find records”. I just tested this process and it works well.

[Antonio_Lopez_J]

Thanks I’ll give this one a try! It may get me what I am looking for, which is to automate the linking of records

[Laura]

Hi @Justin_Barrett. Would you be willing to elaborate on the second part of your response here? I’ve spent awhile trying to figure it out on my own (with the help of Airtable support articles) and I’m not succeeding. :grinning_face_with_sweat:

I’m pretty new to Airtable but have set up multiple Automations and have linked records so I understand some of the basics.

The first part of your response describes what I’m trying to do:

If a new record is created in Table B (i.e., a Typeform is submitted),

Then a field in a record in Table A is updated (e.g., “Form received”)

Table A contains the person’s main record and I want it to show me as soon as we’ve gotten the form we requested from that person (i.e., that new record in Table B). The link should be the email address.

Assuming this is feasible, I’m not sure how to configure a ‘conditional branch that only runs when you have at least one result from that “Find records” action".’ I’m also unclear on how to ‘update the original record to link to the record found from “Find records”.’

I appreciate any additional instructions / guidance you can share.

Thank you!

[Justin_Barrett]

Welcome to the community, @Laura! :grinning_face_with_big_eyes:

Laura:

I’m not sure how to configure a ‘conditional branch that only runs when you have at least one result from that “Find records” action".’

After setting up the “Find records” action and moving on to a later action, one of the output options of “Find records” is a count of the number of records found. To see it, choose the “Find records” action when adding data from previous steps, choose “Continue” next to “Records”, then look under “List properties” for an entry labeled “<> length”. Insert that value into the condition setup, and you’ll get options for comparing against that value:

Laura:

I’m also unclear on how to ‘update the original record to link to the record found from “Find records”.’

Add the “Update record” action as the first action in the condition group. For the record ID of the record to update, add a value from the “Find records” step, choosing “Records” again, then look under “Make a new list of” for an entry labeled “Airtable record ID”. (This will only work if there’s only a single record to update, which is why I recommend following my example in the screenshot above and only triggering the condition group if there is exactly one record found.) From there set up the fields to update as desired.

[Laura]

Thank you, @Justin_Barrett. I’m getting closer thanks to this info and the screenshot. I hope to post again once I succeed. :upside_down_face:

I’m also referencing this Airtable support article, in case it’s helpful for anyone else who lands here.