Automatically Linking Records to Each Other in Same Table

[Gunnell]

I have a table with contact information for people and business. I need to associate contacts (in the same table) with each other where appropriate. When I associate Sally with Joey (see screen shot), I'd like Joey to automatically be added as an associated contact for Sally.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how to automate this. Especially since I don't want to affect the Pizza Shop record in this case, I just need to locate the record that was just linked to (Sally) and enter the record that was updated (Joey) while also retaining any records the "linked to" record (Sally) already contained in the linked field (Pizza Shop).

[ScottWorld · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately, Airtable doesn’t offer automatic backlinking within the same table. Your only 2 options for this would be to:

(1) Write a custom JavaScript to handle this for you. Two scripts that do this are available here and here.

or

(2) For a no-code way of doing this that doesn’t require writing any programming code at all, you can use Make’s advanced Airtable automations, which is a no-code automation tool for Airtable.

There is a small learning curve with Make, which is why I’ve assembled a bunch of Make training resources in this thread. For example, to instantly trigger a Make automation from Airtable, check out this thread on instantly triggering a Make automation from Airtable using a webhook.

You will also need to know how to work with arrays, which I demonstrate on this Airtable podcast episode.

p.s. If you have a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld 

[Gunnell]

As always, thanks for your fast and helpful response. It sounds like I might have to finally break down and bring scripts and external tools into my Airtable universe. I've been holding out for so long... 🙂 

[ScottWorld]

Haha, I know what you mean! Although that’s where all the fun REALLY begins! 😉

I would highly recommend starting your external app journey with Make, because it can typically handle 95% of any advanced automation needs — with no coding!