Zapier trigger for updated record or all records

[Christopher_Bis]

Love the Zapier integration, but without the ability to trigger on update/change/edit of a field, it’s pretty hard to keep other databases synced with Airtable - not sure if this my mistake or not.

Additionally, I can’t move my system across to Airtable without the above feature or the option to run a Zapier zap on all database entires in a view/base. For example, if I want to email all my contacts, I can’t do that via Mail-Chimp etc, because the triggers only fire on creation of a record not on update/change/manual selection.

Can you advise any workaround because this is one of only two barriers to me moving a client to your platform.

[Amanda_Zamora]

HOW IS THIS STILL NOT A THING? Four years later, I’ll cast another vote for this.

[CB1982]

You could use the filter option, to trigger Zapier on certain default updates, like a new payment status (“paid” for example). Just create a new view in the table and use the filter option to only show records with that very status. From now on, any existing record that gets updated to this status will be visible in that view and the Zap is going to be triggered.

Using Zapier you just have to choose the trigger event: New record in View.

Now, this might not help you, if you are not using default status options that can easily be filtered.

[Brock_Craft]

OK, nice. So that means on top of an airtable subscription, and Zapier, you also need a $50/mo subscription to OpenSide? That’s lovely, but the price point is too high if you are only using it for the thing this thread was started for: triggering upon record update.

[Puneet_Kaura]

Hi @Brock_Craft @Juan_Galati we are building a 3rd party webhook solution for Airtable (Works for create/update/delete) . You can sign up for beta access here: puneetkaura[dot]typeform[dot]com/to/ZovIRu

[ScottWorld]

It is sometimes rather puzzling if Airtable is listening to their customers. :crazy_face: :man_shrugging:t2: But it’s totally awesome that companies like OpenSide and Integromat have come to the rescue here.

[ScottWorld]

You could use the filter option, to trigger Zapier on certain default updates, like a new payment status (“paid” for example). Just create a new view in the table and use the filter option to only show records with that very status. From now on, any existing record that gets updated to this status will be visible in that view and the Zap is going to be triggered.

Using Zapier you just have to choose the trigger event: New record in View.

The problem with this is that “New Record In View” only triggers the very first time a record appears in a view.

If the record falls off the view, and then comes back onto the view later, the trigger is not triggered again.

So “New Record in View” is not really usable for a majority of use cases.

Hopefully, Airtable will fix their Zapier integrations soon.

Luckily, in the meantime, we’ve got OpenSide’s On2Air Actions to help us with this. It does cost $50 per month (or $500 per year) to use On2Air Actions, but for businesses that can afford it & can truly benefit from it, the cost is well worth it.

I’ve never used Integromat’s Airtable integrations, but it looks like they do a similar thing to On2Air Actions.

[Justin_Barrett]

I’ve used both Zapier and Integromat, and hands-down prefer the latter mainly for economical reasons:

1. With Integromat, you can make as many scenarios as you want on a free account (unlimited zaps in Zapier costs $49/month), and they can contain as many modules/steps as you want (to get multi-step zaps, you pay $19/month). The only limitation is a monthly operation allotment (equivalent to Zapier’s tasks). So if you build a very complex scenario that’s only used sparingly, the free Integromat account with 1000 operations might work. With Zapier’s free account, you get five single-step zaps, and you’re limited to 100 tasks/month. Incredibly limiting and frustrating.

2. If you need to pay, Integromat is much cheaper, and gives you more bang for your buck. I’m paying $9/month for their Basic account, which gives me 10,000 operations/month. Even with Zapier’s lowest paid tier of $19/month (only 750 tasks), I couldn’t do nearly as much as I can do with Integromat.

Back to the topic at hand, Integromat’s trigger system for Airtable records is based on when a record is changed, either using a Last Updated or Created Time field. Because of that, you should be able to have a record trigger an Integromat scenario more than once if it’s updated multiple times, using the scenario logic to determine what to do with the triggering record.

[ScottWorld]

This information about Integromat is so so exciting. It seems like Integromat is FAR SUPERIOR to Zapier — from both a cost perspective and a functionality perspective!! It seems like there would be almost no reason at all to use Zapier — unless they have connectors for some app that Integromat doesn’t have!

[Justin_Barrett]

ScottWorld:

It seems like there would be almost no reason at all to use Zapier — unless they have connectors for some app that Integromat doesn’t have!

Correct. That’s one of the few differences I’ve seen that may sway some toward Zapier. However, Integromat has what I need at a price I can afford, so I haven’t felt compelled to do much with Zapier, and therefore can’t speak too much about its benefits.

[SteelsmithHaus]

FYI - Before this closes, I found a workaround (actually I use two of them, one for each situation).

The first workaround is to use Railsware Importer to sync every hour with Google Sheets. Sheets has a Zap trigger for new or updated rows that works… okay it is really annoying but it works overall if you follow a thousand caveats.

The second workaround is using the Airtable Slack triggers for new/updated records in a view. I created a Zap to wait for a slack notification in a channel I set up for it. When that happens, Zapier creates a row in another airtable tab and includes the record id (which saves a lookup). THIS is what I use for my actual Zap trigger.