Re: Combining standard records & synchronized ones in one table
Hey @Nicolas_Caplat!
You’ve encountered a rather frustrating design decision that has bugged me for the past year or so.
The quick answer to your question is no. You cannot add records to a synced table.
However…
There are a few possible workarounds. They work, but they’re not the prettiest thing in the world
The one I recommend the most is just to use automations.
Build an automation that looks for new records in your synced table.
- When new records come in, the automation will create a new record in another table that is not synced.
In its simplest form, you’ll be provided with the initial data from the sync.
However, this method alone will not give you data parity if there are updates in your sync source.
If you need to maintain data parity, you can build a second automation to handle updates. It would look something like this:
There are a few risks that come with this method.
First, unless you tweak the automation a bit, the automation will overwrite changes you make in a field.
- e.g.
Field 1came from the sync.
You made a change inField 1.
The source record is updated, and the automation runs to update the record.
The automation updatesField 1with the new data but overwrites the changes you previously made.
The second risk is that you can pretty quickly burn through automation runs depending on how frequently there are changes in your source record.
This isn’t a problem for enterprise accounts. For lower tiers, you’re playing with fire if you build automations with a possibility of an endless loop.
I’m probably overthinking for your use case, but that’s just where my mind goes.
Edit/Addition:
A quick bit of a side note about the automation risks.
Depending on how many records you’re dealing with, running any automations that trigger off of updates to records from external sources is a harsh lesson I’ve endured many times.
Since syncs are generally run in batches, a slight change in a value in a watched field will trigger an automation.
Even if you’re only dealing with 100 synced records, if there’s a batch update that provides a tiny change, you’re about to incur 100 automation runs regardless of whether or not there’s even anything to update.
It’s particularly harsh because Airtable doesn’t have strong automation failsafe measures or in-depth monitoring/troubleshooting.
I experimented with this today, where by “standard records” I have 2 bases with 2 tables, each with records containing Status, Start and End dates - and set out to create a no-code solution.
Using a mix of Sync’d tables from multiple bases, Lookups, Formula Fields, and finally automations - where the objective was to have multiple tables from multiple bases in one calendar - I concluded that it is possible - but just how stable, or useful is arguable.
Most striking, there are obvious limitations;
- It’s for viewing only - so staff can’t interact with the Fully detailed schedule from the combined calendar.
- If I recall correctly, sync’d records count towards a base record count. So for 100 records to show in a calendar, that costs 200 records to execute.
- Automations are required to patch in date changes, or other sync’d field changes. 1 to create a record, another to update either the date or the status upon a change.
The origin Base(s) data looks like this.
Base 1 “Calendar A”
Base 2 “Calendar B”
Calculated Fields to drive Automation;
Automations for this example;
Each record in the merged table has its Sync’d record stamped in an associated linked field;
And then the Lookup fields to drive no-code Automations;
The Merged Base calendar, 4 sync’d tables and one “combined table”;
I think the Timeline is more useful due to the ability to Group;
One immediate thought comes to mind; Airtable need to seriously consider a “Workspace” interface - that would allow users to overlay bases to create multi-base Calendar/Timeline element - and importantly, edit those records just like a we can normally in a calendar/timeline within a singe base table view.
Alternatively to this idea, would be automation scripts that send JSON data back and forth between base - if I have time on the weekend I’ll code that up and see how it plays.
:date:
