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Re: Webhook on field updated

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Toni_CC
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Hello,

I’m developing a custom integration to generate websites from Airtable.

Wondering if there is any webhook to check when a field is updated via API.

What i want to achieve is to receive it in my server.

Thanks

13 Replies 13

If you are generating updates to Airtable from an API call, why not simply dispatch the webhook call when such API call succeeds?

We use this exact approach for gathering analytics about API transactions. We simply test to ensure that the API call was successful and push analytics into Firebase using a simple webhook interface. But, the API process itself is responsible for informing the analytics system that (a) it made the API request, and (b) the request was either successful or failed and why.

Alternatively, but potentially brittle, is to create a script automation that calls a webhook from Airtable when a record/field has changed. This approach is not ideal for a number of reasons.

  1. Script actions are bound by quotas.
  2. Why create another entirely independent script process when one will work?
  3. Any changes to a field - user or API would be indiscernible.

This is one of those questions that should be accompanied by details concerning the entire process and why a webhook from Airtable is perceived as needed.

Hey Bill, thanks for the reply !

Not i’m not generating updates from my API call, the updates are generated in Airtable but since the sites are static, i want to “redeploy” them whenever the content is updated. So, i have to “listen” airtable whenever is an update but i cannot find the documentation about this.

You could use Airtable’s Automations to run a custom JavaScript that triggers your webhook whenever a record is updated.

Alternatively, for a no-code way of doing the same thing, you could use Integromat to watch for updates to your records, and then it could trigger your webhook upon any updates.

(Note that I am a professional Airtable consultant and a Registered Integromat Partner, and the Integromat link contains my personal referral code. If you have a budget for this project and you’d like to hire someone to help setup Integromat for you, please feel free to contact me through my website at ScottWorld.com.)

Hey i know about integromat, what i reall want to do is to have the same behaviour as integromat. But as far as i know Integromat is not using any custom javascript trigger, that’s why i’m wondering how they get those changes.

Isn’t there a simple webhook to get notified?

They are using Airtable’s REST API, and they poll it on a regular schedule (for example, every 60 seconds).

Seriously ? We are in 2021, and there is this thing called Webhook, so you don’t need to be polling the API every 60 secs to get this. What i don’t undersand is why airtable does not offer it publicly or is not yet implemented.

Welcome to Airtable, the time machine that takes you back to 1998.

As I mentioned above, then you need to use Airtable’s Automations which trigger automatically when a record is updated.

If you need further help, I am available for hire. :slightly_smiling_face:

Ok thanks ! Will check the automation @ScottWorld is telling me to

As @ScottWorld has suggested, you are free to mimic webhooks by writing them in Javascript as script actions. But unlike true webhook support, the burden is on you to not only build every aspect of the hooking process, but to also utilize a triggering action and lastly - ensure that the number of actions doesn’t exceed the arbitrary quotas established for your account.

That’s a lot of responsibility that vendors try to shield users from by providing true webhook features that everyday users can tap into without these complexities. Until a fully-baked event model and webhook layer is added, this is the state of webhookery in Airtable.

Thanks for the explanation.

Do you have any code sample? Also when a base is duplicated the the script will be lost so for me this is not a solution for now.

Thanks again

Okay - well, you best pursue a non-script approach.

D_C
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

I'm late to the party from 2021 but is this all sorted now with:

https://airtable.com/developers/web/api/create-a-webhook

so you can setup hooks via calling an API and they stay around for a week or so?