CSV Style Import

[ir_cdmed]

Hi there. We are looking to import order data into Airtable with something similar to the following CSV functionality except through the API:

Airtable Support

CSV import app

With the CSV import app, you can add new records to an existing table in your base - or merge data with existing records - directly from a CSV file. The CSV import app has a 25,000 row limit. Airta...

We would like to trigger automations only when there are a) new rows or if b) certain fields for an existing row are updated (eg. order cancelled field: null → ‘cancelled’).

Is there anyway to accomplish something like this through the api? Any other suggestions are greatly welcomed :).

Thanks!
IR

[JonathanBowen]

Hi @ir_cdmed - I wrote a small python script a while back that imports data using the API:

How to programatically import CSV to AirTable, creating a new table in an existing base (CSV is a fi... API

If the table already exists (with fields that match the file or, at least, fields that can be mapped to the file) and you are comfortable using the Airtable API, you could easily create a process/script on your VM that iterates through the CSV file and loads it into Airtable. This could be written in JS, Python, just about anything. The API has two record create methods - one is for single records the other is for a group of up to 10 records. As you already have a process that produces the CSV…

You could follow this pattern with pretty much any programming language that can parse a csv file and call an API.

I haven’t tried this out, but I assume new records imported via the API could then have automations triggered against them.