Automate Linked Field Based on Form Response

[Kim_Seitz]

Hello!

I’m setting up a form where respondents would include their email address. I’d like to set up an automation that would use that email address to select a linked field based on the email addresses matching.
Possible?
Thanks!

[ScottWorld · Accepted solution]

If your linked record field displays email addresses, then you could just use the “Update Record” action to update the submitted record’s linked record field with the email address that they typed into the form.

[Kim_Seitz]

The primary field on the linked field is the person’s actual name, not the email address.
I see how that works if the email is the primary field in the linked table, but is it possible to make it happen without it being the primary? Thanks.

[ScottWorld]

Unfortunately, Airtable isn’t powerful enough nor smart enough to handle that sort of a situation reliably. You’d typically need to write your own JavaScript code or use a no-code external automation tool like Integromat, which doesn’t require any coding.

The only thing that Airtable can handle is performing a “Find Records” action to search for the email address in your linked table, and then updating the found record after that. However, Airtable is not smart enough to know how to handle a situation where it finds NO matching records or MORE THAN ONE matching record. In both of those cases, Airtable would halt the automation with error messages.

[Kim_Seitz]

Awesome, thanks for your help!