Script to trigger a webhook on the push of a button

[Rupert_Hoffschm]

I’m using a button to trigger a Zapier webhook. It’s annoying that every time the button is clicked, a browser window is opened. As I can select to run a script with the push of a button, is there any way to run a script in the background that triggers the webhook? Thanks!

[Dominik_Bosnjak]

You could have a dedicated view/formula/field that groups records you mark in a single/multi-select field or in any other way, then have an automation send the payload with a when-record-enters-view/matches-condition trigger.

That’s the most direct approach for doing exactly what you stated that comes to mind. But might I suggest it ought not be the buttons that annoy you, but the act of pushing them, itself? :slightly_smiling_face: That would be more in line with leveraging Airtable to its full potential. And given the size of Airtable, you might be waiting for a while if you’re hoping they deploy a UI component that isn’t immediately clear about whether it’s doing anything… well, that would be a serious engineering --not to mention UX-- mishap haha.

[kuovonne · Accepted solution]

The only way to run a script without having the Scripting app appear in the user interface is to use a scripting automation. Many people do this, triggering the automation from a checkbox or a single select field.

I personally just deal with the Scripting app fly out opening up, and I automatically ignore it when I know the the script has no user input or output.

[Dominik_Bosnjak]

kuovonne:

I personally just deal with the Scripting app fly out opening up, and I automatically ignore it when I know the the script has no user input or output.

Most of my bases eventually get a dasbhoard dedicated to stuff like this, usually used for testing. Resizing those no-block-output scripts down to little flex-wrapped blocks means that I usually don’t even notice the sidebar pop up if I’m on a workstation, i.e. surrounded by two or three monitors.

[Rupert_Hoffschm]

Thanks, Dominik. Pushing a button is helpful in our case as it provides more feedback to the user (our operations manager in this case). Just changing a view and having an automation based on that would make it less intuitive in my opinion and harder to recreate invoices if something has changed on it. I like a good old button :winking_face:

[Rupert_Hoffschm]

Yes, also working with the fly out opening up for now :slightly_smiling_face: Thanks!

Actually this older thread helped with creating that script (for reference here if anyone else reads this at a later point): A little help with a script to trigger a webhook

[learningtoexcel]

I recognize this probably won't help OP but it may help others. I created a button in my table with a CONCATENATE formula, and then appended the relevant values to the URL.

For example:

CONCATENATE("[WEBHOOKURL]?valuea=[VALUEA]&valueb=[VALUEB]&valuec=[VALUEC]")

This worked perfectly for my needs, and I think would solve the type of problem OP was facing.