Mar 16, 2020 07:32 PM
Hey,
I’m a newbie with JavaScript so this might be obvious …
I need a delay(ms) method to slow down the script after 5 API calls (limit 5/min.). Problem is all the JavaScript help on the intertube points to the setTimeout() method of the Window object. But it appears that Window is not instantiated inside the Airtable code block, therefore, no setTimeout() method. What’s a good workaround for this?
What might I be missing - other methods?
Thanks
David
Feb 13, 2023 08:05 AM
@David_Koontz @Bill_French Do know if this has been solved yet? With this code:
function timeout(ms) {
return new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
}
await timeout(1000); // 1 sec pause
}
I am throwing this error:
ERROR
ReferenceError: setTimeout is not defined
at <anonymous> on line 16
at timeout on line 16
at main on line 19
I'm not a professional code monkey as much as I try to be, so I may just need to load the library or something, not sure.
Mar 07, 2023 05:39 AM
function delay(ms) {
var limit = new Date();
limit = limit.setMilliseconds(limit.getMilliseconds() + ms);
while ((new Date()) < limit) {
// do nothing
;
}
}
delay(20000); //delay 20 second
This will work for Delay just replace value inside Delay()
Mar 10, 2023 06:46 PM
Hi All,
Common pain point - Wish they'd just add a delay action, a la Zapier!..
That said, what would be the risk of using a script like this, which seems to run just fine...
Jun 21, 2023 06:47 PM
A very quick and dirty DIY solution for those who have access to a public web server that runs PHP could be as simple as creating a script with the following:
<?php
sleep(max(0, (int) $_POST['seconds']));
Then do a fetch on it in your automation like so:
await fetch('https://your-site.example/delay.php', {
method: 'POST',
body: new URLSearchParams([
seconds: 55
])
});
Seems pretty bizarre that Airtable would rather have users max out their servers' CPUs than provide a sleep function. They could provide a simple network service like slowwly, that's only reachable from automations, to avoid modifications to their JavaScript execution environment.