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Re: Automation google sheets data comes across as html

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Robert_Blakeley
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

I have an automation that uses the Find Records and the Google Sheets actions. Everything works except that the data is html formatted and appears en masse in one cell in the Google Sheet. I’m using the free version.

I’m not sure whether I’m doing something wrong or whether I need to do something on the Find Records action to yield correct formatting for the subsequent Google Sheets action.

Any ideas?

5 Replies 5

Hey Robert, that’s a weird one. Any chance you could provide some screenshots of how the automation’s setup?

Robert_Blakeley
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

I’m still trying to figure out how to upload an image to this message. In the meantime, here’s the issue:

I choose the source of the google sheets action to be the prior Find Records action. Then, I choose the column in the google sheet. But when I go to choose the data that goes into that column (“Choose data” dialog box), the only options seem to be “Make a new list of …”

thx for your help!

@Robert_Blakeley You have hit upon one of the major limitations of Airtable’s Automations, which is that Airtable’s Automations do not support looping through found records.

Airtable’s Automations can only process your found records as an entire group of records, but it can’t separate them out individually.

First, I would highly recommend sending an email to support@airtable.com about this issue to request that they add this as a feature in Airtable’s automations.

Second, you didn’t actually say what you are trying to accomplish, so I can only assume that you are trying to add new rows to a Google Sheets spreadsheet based on the records that were found — one new row for each record found.

There are at least 3 workarounds that would enable you to accomplish this:

  1. Write a JavaScript. I do not know JavaScript, so I can’t help you there.

  2. Use the workaround that I discuss in this BuiltOnAir Airtable podcast episode:

  1. Use an external automation tool like Make to accomplish this. In my personal opinion, Make is the best automation platform on the market, and I believe that it is a million times better than Zapier. Doing what you want to do would be a very simple 2-step automation that looks like the screenshot below. It is literally as simple as this:

Screen Shot 2022-09-01 at 3.53.38 PM

p.s. If your company has a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with #2 or #3 above, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld

Robert_Blakeley
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Thank you for your reply. I thought that I had seen a demo that showed this could be done directly within Airtable but I will look into your suggestions.

Yes, #2 is done directly within Airtable.