How to update records returned in find record step

[David_Nunn]

I have created a table to import Google Analytics data. It contains 500 records with relative URLs and total page views.

I then want to use an automation to do the equivalent of a VLOOPUP on the URLs to find matches in a content table.

When there is a match, I want to Update the content table record and insert the page view

If I do Update Record after the Find Record step, it tries to run 500 updates and most fail.

If I add Update Record under Conditional Actions, I would expect to be able to pass along the IDs from the Find Record step and just update those. However - though this passes in Test Step and returns a value for page views, it doesn’t get written to the record.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for looking!

[ScottWorld]

Unfortunately, Airtable doesn’t loop through the found records after a “find records” action. Be sure to email this as a feature suggestion to support@airtable.com and let them know how important this is to you.

Your only options are:

1. Write a custom JavaScript.

2. Use an automation tool like Make.com, which always loops through your records individually after finding records.

3. Use the workaround that I describe in the podcast below:

[David_Nunn]

Thank you @ScottWorld
I watched the podcast and it is very interesting! However, if I understand correctly, it can only work with a single table.

I need to know the IDs of records to update in one table, plus the corresponding data value to insert from the second table.

I don’t think that can work?

[ScottWorld]

I’m not sure I understand your situation well enough to let you know if you can do it or not. You probably could do it, but you would likely require 2 or more automations to do it.

You would definitely have more control over what you’re looking to do by writing your own scripts or using a tool like Make which gives you fine-tune control over everything.

[David_Nunn]

Hi Scott. I went back and had another try using the approach you demonstrated. I did get it to work consistent, but with errors. After many hours I couldn’t get rid of these, although the data seemed accurate, the email alerts from the failed processes was a nuisance. I also just don’t like know why stuff doesn’t work!

Much as I’ve enjoyed grappling with this problem, I’ve just had a demo from Fetch Data, and I think I will go with that as it will be easier for colleagues to maintain.