While a multiple-select field might work in the short term, I can see that becoming very cumbersome to manage over the long haul, with the field options quickly becoming unwieldy unless someone goes in and manually strips out old options on a regular basis. Of course that will mess up any old records that use those outdated options, but then again I don’t know the specifics of your use case, so maybe clearing out old records for past appointments isn’t a problem. Anyway, I suggest considering a switch to using linked record fields instead of multiple-select fields. You’ll still likely find yourself wanting to strip out old records as old dates become invalid, but the changing list will be much easier to manage with the options in a separate table, not items in a field setup.
Unfortunately I don’t have time to invest into writing a full script to solve this problem, but here’s a very rough outline:
- Get the the timing data from the automation trigger step (you can use input variables for the script action to make this a little easier) into two arrays
- Find the intersection of the arrays using the snippet above
- If
filteredArray isn’t empty, you’ll then need to parse the text of the matching dates into actual date objects so that you can compare them to find the earliest option
- Set the target field of the original record to this final date & time
The best recommendation that I can make is to just take it a piece at a time. Write a simple script that will collect and display the raw data first to ensure that you’re collecting it correctly. Then move on to the intersection. Test it and confirm the output. Keep going until you have a finished script, then test the full automation. The API documentation at the bottom of the script editor is a great resource, and we can always help you to troubleshoot if you get stuck. If you’d rather have someone else write the script, there are several of us here who are available for hire, but full development from scratch always comes with a price tag.
