Help

Email digest sent even when no records found

Topic Labels: Automations
Solved
Jump to Solution
2301 4
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
PeterB
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Hi, I have followed How to create email digests with automations – Airtable Support
and all works fine except, how do I prevent the email going when no records are found i.e. the email should only go when the action in step 2 (Find records) has found records?

1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
PeterB
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

RJ @ Airtable gave me this, which works fine for me.

“there is a workaround in which you can insert a script action after the Find records step to achieve this – check out the video here to guide you through how to do it!”

See Solution in Thread

4 Replies 4

Yah, I too am keen on hearing how to only send an email if there’s data to email.

Until Airtable adds branching and conditional behavior to automations, my preference is to split a process into two separate automations, with one calling the other via a webhook only when it needs to run. I shared some thoughts on this in another recent thread on this topic:

The downside is that it nearly doubles the number of automations run for that process, but it’s the best that can be done for now.

PeterB
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

RJ @ Airtable gave me this, which works fine for me.

“there is a workaround in which you can insert a script action after the Find records step to achieve this – check out the video here to guide you through how to do it!”

While that technically works, it’s going to bug you with an error message—including an email—every time that the automation fails. Without checking that error message every single time, you won’t know if it’s a legit error that needs to be addressed or just a lack of found records. I also don’t like the idea of equating “no found records” with an error, because it’s not an error. I’d still prefer a solution that just ends cleanly, and the two-automation process that I outlined is the only way that I’m aware of to do that.