Re: Search records in Airtable from Integromat

Sridhar_Rajendr · ‎Mar 29, 2018

I am trying to search for records in Airtable from Integromat and unable to figure out how.
I have created a scenario where I get a unique id to be searched for in Airtable via a webhook. After linking the webhook to Airtable, I selected the option “Search records”. There is a field called “Formula” and I am not able to figure out what it means.

M_k · ‎May 29, 2020

Hi @Sridhar_Rajendran and @Kristina_Traeger1

This is in response to your posts.

You would use thIs basic Integromat scenario and then you can expand on it to suit your own use case:

Airtable=> Watch Records only use this if you are not using an app before this one
Airtable=>Search Records
The formula:
{type keyword/unique ID} = “use the value/blue tag of the field name”. **use straight quotes
Use Router
Airtable=>Update Record. **secod branch, filter before the app: chose blue tag (ID) and Record Updates
Airtable=>Create Record **first branch, filter before app: chose blue tag (ID) and Exists

Here are screenshots to illustrate how to setup a basic scenario to a update and create records and how to setup Gmail module. You can add on and expand the scenario for your use case.

Images 5 and 6 shows how to setup the formula, you would just use your own unique key.

Hope this can help.

Mary Kay

See Solution in Thread

W_Vann_Hall · ‎Mar 29, 2018

Here’s what Airtable’s API documentation says about ‘Filter by formula’:

filterByFormula: string: optional

A formula used to filter records. The formula will be evaluated for each record, and if the result is not 0, false, “”, NaN, [], or #Error! the record will be included in the response.

If combined with view, only records in that view which satisfy the formula will be returned.

For example, to only include records where Name isn’t empty, pass in: NOT({Name} = ‘’)

It also directs users to the main Airtable formula reference page for additional information.

Sridhar_Rajendr · ‎Mar 29, 2018

Thanks for the link @W_Vann_Hall.

Basically I want to retrieve the records that match the field “Customer ID”.

From the API reference page I am not able to figure out how to compare a string that I have received from webhook with the field “Customer ID”. Any idea how to do it?

dave_brand · ‎Apr 29, 2018

did you manage to make it work? I tried integromat and had similair problems. compared to zapier setup is much harder.

Sridhar_Rajendr · ‎Apr 29, 2018

Yup I was able to make it work. Thanks for checking in.
I wrote a tutorial for Google Sheets and the steps are same for Airtable as well.

Graphic_Ragz · ‎May 24, 2018

@Sridhar_Rajendran
What exactly was your formula? That’s the part I’m having some issues with.

UPDATE: Nevermind, I just got it to work!

W_Vann_Hall · ‎May 24, 2018

That’s a great write-up of the process, BTW. I’ve been struggling¹ with automating some processes with Integromat, and I think you’ve lit enough of a fire under me to send me back to the task.

By ‘struggling,’ I mean, 'trying not to have to read the documentation — but at least there is documentation, thankfully, and not just improvised tutorials on YouTube…

Kristina_Beever · ‎Aug 14, 2018

I am still having trouble with this. I mainly use Zapier, but a client I am working with want s to use Integromat. I have tried two routes and keep running into the same problem. Ideally, this is how it will work - we have a form in Airtable set up to go to it’s own tab. We want to use Integromat to read that data, then search another tab within the same base in Airtable and then either create or update a record depending on whether or not it is already there. I know the problem I am having has to rely in the search portion of the setup. I want it to search based on the same field in both tabs, Participant Name, and have tried to set this up but it doesn’t seem to be working. When I test it with an existing record, it just starts updating a variety of existing records instead of the one that matches. I’ve tried writing a formula to filter it and then get met with an error every time. I do not know what I’m doing wrong. I tried to figure it out from the tutorial, but I was so lost in it I had no idea what to do. Please help!

Leo_Dusseja · ‎Sep 10, 2018

I think I have figured out, yet to test out, you have to use {Field name}=select-variable", can someone confirm if I am doing it right?

Geoffrey_McCale · ‎Feb 07, 2019

Sorry to resurrect this old thread but I’m still struggling to figure out why my filterbyformular query isn’t working. I’ve got a simple two column table with some first names and last names.

To work around the API limits, I constructed my query using curl after reading the docs. This pseudo query got me what I wanted:

curl https://api.airtable.com/v0/$id/$table?filterByFormula='{FirstName}="Bob"' $AUTH

Great, I get a JSON payload that returns the row I’m looking for! But when I plug that filter into Integromat (everything after the ? and before the auth string), I get the following error:

The formula for filtering records is invalid: Unknown field names: filterbyformula

Anyone have any ideas what I’m doing wrong?