Search Long Text field for string matching record in a linked Table

[Stu_Smith]

Ok... will try my best to explain and hopefully someone will get what I'm trying to do. 

I have a table where each record includes a long text description of an offer in one column and another column that links to a table of manufacturers. 

I would like to use automation to search the long text description for the name of a manufacturer from the manufacturer table, and then add the link to that manufacturer in the next column.

Is it possible within AirTable? I also have a Make/Integromat pro account so can use that if necessary. 

[Lom_Labs · Accepted solution]

Hello @Stu_Smith, I have created an Airtable template for just this purpose and you can purchase it on Gumroad here

Let's say you have a table where each record contains text you want to find matches for like this:

And so whenever a new string gets added to your base, you want to check if that new string contains any of the text in the table above, and if it does, link them together:

This template helps you do exactly that, and you can test it before buying it!

First, check out the view of all the text that we're searching for: Text to find view
Then, check out the view of all the strings that we want to do the search through: Strings view
Finally, submit a new string to search through via this form: Form

The automation will take 1-15 seconds to trigger, so please refresh the page if you do not see any changes! You will be able to see whether the automation has ran via the "Checked" field, once the automation has ran the "Checked" field will be marked.

Here is an example:

[Stu_Smith]

Heya. Looks cool. I will consider it though I'd prefer to implement this myself and understand it so I can adapt and apply the same in other places! 

[Stu_Smith]

Ok. I purchased this as I've not had any other suggestions yet and it just gives me read-only access to your table... no instructions or anything on how to implement this into my own table. Can you help me out here?

[Lom_Labs]

Hello Stu, thank you for your purchase!  I have emailed the instructions to you and am more than happy to answer any questions you might have!

[Stu_Smith]

Awesome, thanks. Taking a look now... tried to work it out for myself and just gave myself a migraine! 😅

[Stu_Smith]

AMAZING! took a bit of brainpower to fit it into my existing table setup but it's working... watching it burn through 70-odd records now connecting things correctly! From now on this will happen automatically whenever a new record is added and save me a daily job... so it's well worth the price for me! Thanks! ❤️

[ncho3088]

@Stu_Smith Which trigger are you using to extract the record that you want from the long text field?