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filter loop actions?

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RedwolfSports
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

I have a table called Task template, which contains a 18 records of all the tasks I want assigned to a project. I have been using a simple automation that runs in airtable when a new project record is detected. The automation finds all the tasks in the template table then loops through the resulting list and creates new tasks in the task table matching each of the template tasks.  This all works fine.

This evening I added a step to set a field in each newly created task to be the assignee based on a field in the project table that initiated the automation. This works too... but sets ALL 18 tasks with the same assignee, and this is not what I want.

Each task has a field called "system task ID" which is a text field containing value 001 - 018. The intent was to make these tasks referenceable in the softr platform I am using with this data.

The challenge I need to figure out is how can I set the automation to set the assignee ONLY on newly created tasks with a system id of 001 - 010?

Below is a screenshot of current the automation. I had an idea about creating separate automations based on grid views that filter to create the groups of tasks I want assigned, but that seem potentially redundant and figured someone may have a more elegant approach?

@Mike_AutomaticN  you were johnny-on-the-sot with your other answer earlier today, perhaps you have a trick to solve this one? 

RedwolfSports_0-1739850656591.png

 

1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
ScottWorld
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

@RedwolfSports 

Unfortunately, Airtable does not allow us to combine repeating loops and conditional filtering within the same automation. Be sure to submit this as a feature request to support@airtable.com.

In the meantime, there are 3 workarounds for this:

1. If you know JavaScript, you can write your own custom JavaScript code to handle this for you.

2. You can break up your single automation into multiple different automations. Each automation would search for “more specific” records, to avoid the need for conditional filters. Note that Airtable has a limit of 50 automations, so if you create a lot of extra automations, you will be getting closer & closer to that 50 automation limit.

3. You can use Make’s advanced automations for Airtable, which can handle both repeating loops and conditional filters within a single automation. If you’ve never used Make before, I’ve assembled a bunch of Make training resources in this thread. For example, here is one of the ways that you could instantly trigger a Make automation from Airtable.

Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire the best Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld  

See Solution in Thread

7 Replies 7
ScottWorld
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

@RedwolfSports 

Unfortunately, Airtable does not allow us to combine repeating loops and conditional filtering within the same automation. Be sure to submit this as a feature request to support@airtable.com.

In the meantime, there are 3 workarounds for this:

1. If you know JavaScript, you can write your own custom JavaScript code to handle this for you.

2. You can break up your single automation into multiple different automations. Each automation would search for “more specific” records, to avoid the need for conditional filters. Note that Airtable has a limit of 50 automations, so if you create a lot of extra automations, you will be getting closer & closer to that 50 automation limit.

3. You can use Make’s advanced automations for Airtable, which can handle both repeating loops and conditional filters within a single automation. If you’ve never used Make before, I’ve assembled a bunch of Make training resources in this thread. For example, here is one of the ways that you could instantly trigger a Make automation from Airtable.

Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire the best Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld  

To solve this problem, add a condition to your automation that only assigns the manager to tasks with system task IDs 001 through 010. One way to do this is to create a field in the Task Template table to mark these tasks, and then update the Find Records step to retrieve only those specific tasks. This ensures that only the right tasks are assigned, keeping everything in one automation. Let me know if you need help setting it up!

Hey @RedwolfSports!

Thanks for the shoutout 🤗!

1. Would you mind providing more information on the logic for who should be assigned to each task?

With further context I can probably help in a more tailored way! However, @ScottWorld is right that you will probably be needing multiple automations to this effect.

On a very similar current project I am working on, I have the following setup:
1. Projects
2. Tasks
3. Staff
4. Roles Library
5. Tasks Library

Tasks Library table will list all corresponding tasks, and will be linked to the Roles Library. The idea behind it is that Task "Customer Survey" is only undertaken by Role "Project Manager" for instance.

The Staff table, is also linked to the Roles Library table. In such way, Mike gets to be "Project Manager".

Each time a new Project is created, my first automation gets triggered, which fetches all records from Tasks Library and creates them in Tasks table, linked to the corresponding Project.

Now, each time each the Task record matches the condition where Staff is empty, and Project is not empty, a different automation is triggered. (Note that this automation is triggered for every single Task, rather than for the Project itself). This automation will check what Role the task from Task Library should be assigned to, and then checks who from Staff (which should be linked to Project) has that same Role. For last, it will assign such Staff to the task by updating the Task record.

Just keep an eye out for hitting hard limits on automations. For more information on hard limits on Airtable Automations, you can check this link.

In short:
Automation 1: Create tasks
Automation 2: Assign corresponding task.

Let me know if this is somehow helpful!

Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation

RedwolfSports
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Again Brilliant answer, and does solve a problem I knew I had but was ignoring. I was laser focused on the assigning of the initial tasks to the client was ignoring the assigning of tasks to other project members. You approach would remedy that well.

For now I have implemented two separate automations (sort of what @ScottWorld  suggested). One to handle the creating & assigning of tasks to the client and another automation to just create the rest of the task to the project with no assignee.

To do this I learned about creating different filtered views, and used the resulting views as the source data for the automation(s). It works well enough for now, but I'll likely revisit with you suggest approach at a later date.

Since you are working on a similar project yourself I have another issue I'm pondering but will create a new post address that since this current issue can be deemed solved.

Thanks again.

Glad to hear that @RedwolfSports! I'll try to find your new post now :D.

Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation

hello @ScottWorld and first thank you for explaining why I was unable to find what I was looking for. It seems I had conceived the right workflow but the tool is presently unable to achieve that at that moment.  

For now I have implemented your suggestion #2, with two separate automations and it is working well enough for now. Thank you for such a clear and informative response!

 

You're welcome! Glad I could help! 🙂