Table Syncing - manual triggers

[JoVa]

Hi Airtable community,

I am an avid user of Airtable for some time now, and am going deeper into spreading data in different bases (within 1 workspace) and letting these bases interact. I checked some other forum posts and the Airtable notes on how to get tables to sync manually, however am only able to find the below:

• beyond the manual trigger button, there is no way to directly trigger a sync action between 2 tables
• work around is to update a record in a synced table, to trigger Airtable's automated sync action
• another work around, or combined with the above, is to use 3rd party tools eg. Zapier to touch a record and trigger a sync

I was hoping for another way to trigger a sync action (API or Airtable functionality) directly eg. by automation, so not by doing the above. But to my understanding this does not (yet) exist. FYI I am on a Team plan. 

The use case would be to overwrite data for scenario management, meaning different bases represent different scenario's that need updating once in a while.

If someone could confirm my above understanding, or correct/update where need be - that would be great! Thanks a bunch.

[TheTimeSavingCo]

I was hoping for another way to trigger a sync action (API or Airtable functionality) directly eg. by automation, so not by doing the above. But to my understanding this does not (yet) exist. FYI I am on a Team plan

Yeah I've got an automation that runs once an hour just for this, and it basically just ticks/unticks a checkbox in the synced table so that it'll trigger the sync

[dilipborad]

Hello @JoVa,
As per the details you shared, I'm hoping you already know how Airtable Default Syncing and how it works with different plans. https://support.airtable.com/docs/getting-started-with-airtable-sync
Recommend you to read this page carefully if you don't know about it.

Now comes to other point that you want to update parent base data from child base? right?
Can you please give me more ideas(details) about your workflow?

👍

[ScottWorld · Accepted solution]

@JoVa 

You are correct in your research, as those are all the findings that the other consultants and myself have discovered over the years.

The best approach would typically be to build your Airtable system in one unified base as much as possible — if not entirely in one unified base.

There are typically not too many advantages to be gained by separating your base into separate bases, especially because you can just use Interfaces to shield users from the data that they shouldn’t be allowed to access.

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

p.s. You mentioned Zapier in your post, but note that it is recommended to use Make instead of Zapier. Make is infinitely more powerful & customizable than Zapier, yet it is SIGNIFICANTLY CHEAPER than Zapier. I wrote an entire post here comparing Make vs. Zapier.

[JoVa]

Hi @dilipborad, thanks for your response. Indeed I am aware of how syncing works, also on different plans. The question / use case is that I would need the sync to take place at specific moments, and am wondering if this "trigger to sync" could be automated. More specifically, a use case such as a sync from parent to child table only takes place if a button is pressed - and not on any other moment. Up to now, from all I have read I believe this is not possible, only by a work-around involving updating a record (or button) which indirectly would trigger a sync action to take place. However, with all the experience available I thought to ask the question here if anyone knows better how to get to a direct sync action.

Thanks for the help! 

[JoVa]

Thanks @ScottWorld , appreciate the response on this thread.