Pre Filling a Form and Adding Information to an Existing Record

[ethang]

Hi there,

I work at a chain of veterinary clinics and I'm looking to create a process for medical records upload.

1) I have a grid created "Medical Record Workflow"

2) Connected to the "Medical Record Workflow" grid I have a form that contains the following data points:

• Client Name (Short Text)
• Patient Name (Short Text)
• Medical Records (Attachments)
• Any other helpful information (Long Text)

3) We have an automation that whenever a Checkbox field is checked it sends an email to the other veterinary clinic that we're try to gather information from 

In that message I'd like to create a pre filled form what the other Vet opens up and uploads medical records to. 

The problem I'm dealing with is when the form is submitted it's creating a duplicate row. Is there a way to prefill a form that updates the existing row?

[ethang]

Additionally, I've created an automation that auto sends an email containing the pre-filled URL. Is there a way that I can avoid the url break line when it sends

[ScottWorld]

@ethang 

For help with your prefill link, check out @kuovonne’s Prefilled Forms extension.

Unfortunately, Airtable’s forms don’t allow updating nor editing existing records. They always create new records.

To update or edit existing records, you would either need to:

1. Create a complex automation by using Airtable’s automations or by using a more powerful automation tool like Make. You can also use JavaScript scripting to help create a complex automation.

2. Use an external form tool that was designed to let people edit/update records via a form, such as Fillout or Glide or Noloco. I give a step-by-step tutorial of Noloco on this episode of the BuiltOnAir podcast.

p.s. All of this can get rather complex, but if you have a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you create this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld 

[TheTimeSavingCo · Accepted solution]

Airtable has a guide for updating records via form submissions that you can find here.  Using this method still leaves you with a record created via that form submission I'm afraid, but it'll update the approriate row for you at least

For the issue you're facing with the link breaking, try updating your message so that it sends like this instead:

[TEXT_TO_DISPLAY](URL)

For example:

[Test](https://airtable.com/shrtCL4BREtrbqpLE?prefill_Name=Test&prefill_Notes=Notes)

And this will send the email like this:

[ethang]

Thanks Adam, I'll give the record updater a look. I could always just filter out of the workflow based on some sort of criteria.

Ahh yes, hyperlink is perfect, thanks!