Automations and lookup field issues

[Ana_Karina_Sant]

I’m setting an automation to send a slack message using a lookup field (formatted as string).
The automation doesn’t get the value from this lookup field. I get an error message saying “This property cannot be used right now” Has anyone hit the same issue or has something to add to help?

[Steve_Haysom]

Try creating a calculation field based on the lookup then use the calculation field instead of the lookup

[ScottWorld]

Yes, what @Steve_Haysom said is correct. Unfortunately, lookup fields aren’t supported by automations, which is not documented anywhere by Airtable. You are required to create a formula field that equals your lookup field.

[Jason · Accepted solution]

@Steve_Haysom Sorry for the current limitation here - lookup fields aren’t currently supported in automations as noted in this related support article. As mentioned, we do plan to support lookup fields in the future.

[Steve_Haysom]

Thanks Jason. i just tried an automation myself and the test keeps failing, saying that there is no input even when there is, I’m using an email address calculated from a lookup using the arrayjoin formula. If I type an email in the field by hand then the test passes, but that’s not much use though. It picks up calculated start and end dates for a google calendar invite, but not the attendees.

[Jason]

@Steve_Haysom Could you try running a new test for the automation trigger? Then, try another test for the action again.

[Justin_Barrett]

Steve_Haysom:

I’m using an email address calculated from a lookup using the arrayjoin formula

I’ve found situations where ARRAYJOIN() doesn’t work as expected with the value from a lookup field. A more reliable way of converting a lookup’s array into a string is to concatenate it with an empty string:

{Lookup Field Name} & ""

[micavs]

I’ve tried doing this for a date and time field but the test still fails. I’m trying to send a google calendar invite, maybe you can have a look: Google Calendar automation - cannot parse date and time!

[Steve_Haysom]

Thanks for the info, but I tried again and it seems that the available values aren’t appearing in the test data. I gave up and tried creating another trigger which just sends an email, but that also was not working as the send email action would not allow me to run a test with the update record trigger even though I had entered values for all the fields. I was thinking that I would send an email with the record id to a google apps script and do things there, but I would need a create and update trigger to do it properly.

[Justin_Barrett]

I’m not sure that I understand the problems you’re having. Could you share some screenshots showing the flow of your automation?