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On record delete automation

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Polina_Maksimov
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Hi! I’m creating an automations on Balances table. I need to track all the changes in the table. I have a possibility to create an automation when the record is created or updated. But how can I run an automation (to run a script) when the record is deleted?
Thank you!

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ScottWorld
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

Welcome to the community, @Polina_Maksimova!

As @Mohamed_Swellam said, you would need to combine your deletion action with the rest of your automation.

However, I do not recommend @Mohamed_Swellam’s approach of creating a view to trigger your automation. It’s never a good idea to trigger automations based on a view.

Simply trigger the automation based on the conditions of the field (either a checkbox being checked, or a single-select option being selected), and then you can delete your record that way by writing a script.

Alternatively, to do this without any scripting or coding, you can create an automation in an automation tool like Make. You can either have Make poll for records to delete on a schedule, or you can force the deletion immediately by triggering a webhook in Make.

The schedule polling method would look like this, and then you would add on any additional automation actions either before or after the delete action:

image

See Solution in Thread

10 Replies 10

Hi @Polina_Maksimova ,

Welcome to Airtable Community !

Question is, how is the record deleted? Manually from inside Airtable? Then you cannot trigger an automation in this case.

Alternatively, I would delete the record using a checkbox and trigger the automation from there. You would create a view where this checkbox is True which then runs a script and include the record deletion part in the script

Hope this helps.

Polina_Maksimov
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Yes, the question is: how to track the action, when the record is deleted from Airtable, and to run a script on this action.

I’m newbie in Airtable, can you make some screenshots please, how can I trigger a checkbox and create a view?

Thank you very much!

ScottWorld
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

Welcome to the community, @Polina_Maksimova!

As @Mohamed_Swellam said, you would need to combine your deletion action with the rest of your automation.

However, I do not recommend @Mohamed_Swellam’s approach of creating a view to trigger your automation. It’s never a good idea to trigger automations based on a view.

Simply trigger the automation based on the conditions of the field (either a checkbox being checked, or a single-select option being selected), and then you can delete your record that way by writing a script.

Alternatively, to do this without any scripting or coding, you can create an automation in an automation tool like Make. You can either have Make poll for records to delete on a schedule, or you can force the deletion immediately by triggering a webhook in Make.

The schedule polling method would look like this, and then you would add on any additional automation actions either before or after the delete action:

image

Hi, I don’t need to delete a record with the help of automation. I need to track a deletion, that is made from Airtable.

image

And than, I need to delete this record from my foreign database by id.

I know what you need to do. I’m telling you how to do it. As both @Mohamed_Swellam and myself already told you above in great detail, you can’t right-click on a record to delete it if you want to track the deletion.

Aaa, sorry, I suppose I understand! I need to create new checkbox field, and when this field is checked I need to delete this record with the help of automation from Airtable and from my database?

Am I right?

Yes @Polina_Maksimova , exactly.

Because you cannot track a deleted record and therefore you cannot trigger anything based on that. So you have to use an external help such as a checkbox to trigger it then use either a script or a no-code / low-code solution such as Zapier or Make

Polina_Maksimov
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

@Mohamed_Swellam @ScottWorld Thank you very much for your help!

Right, this is a limitation of Airtable that you need to work around with a creative workaround.

The 2 primary workarounds are (1) writing a script or (2) using an external automation tool like Zapier or Make. (Note that I do NOT like Zapier at all, because Make is much cheaper, much more powerful, and much more intuitive.)

A 3rd workaround might be to use DataFetcher.com, but I don’t know if you can automate multiple steps with that extension, and it also requires knowing how to hardcode your own API calls to Airtable.