Webhooks for Records

[Sam_Bauch]

Webhooks for records would be really useful.

I’m heavily caching Airtable data on my own server via the API, and if Airtable could notify my server when a record is updated, created, or destroyed, that would help me invalidate the cached data and re-request it.

Ultimately that would mean less calls from my server to the Airtable API, which I imagine would please Airtable.

Are webhooks on the roadmap at all?

[Matthieu_d_Oult]

+1 for webhooks !
I can’t use airtable without that…
Thanks for the awesome work

[HammerOz]

and also webhook based zapier triggers which are pretty delicious

[Tom_Kerswill]

This would make Airtable into a serious tool for us.

[Bob_Ziroll]

I agree with all these sentiments! If Airtable introduces webhooks, we would likely be able to switch away from our current CMS and begin using Airtable instead! However we have too many automations triggering from our CMS webhooks currently that without it, we can’t switch.

[Jeremy_Brunet]

With the addition of the “Last modified time” type of column, it’s now possible to trigger an integration when records are updated. It’s only possible to do with Integromat so far, the integration can run every minute if you pay for it (instead of 5 for Zapier) and bonus: you can perform as many actions as records that have been updated.

We spent our last few weeks @ Automate Me to develop a workaround to trigger on updates and this new addition is a real game-changer.

First things first : go to Airtable and add a “Last Modified Time” column. You can pick up which columns you would like to watch or just select all of them.

Then, Head to Integromat, sign up if you have no account yet and start a scenario.

In the trigger slot, select Airtable > Watch Records.
Connect your Airtable, then select both the base and the table.

Unlike Zapier, Integromat asks you to add columns such as “Created Time” or now “Last Modified Time” to be able to trigger. Integromat refers to the data inside these columns to know when to trigger or not. Now, you can pick in the trigger field “Created Time” if you want your scenario to trigger when a new record is created or “Last Modified Time” if you want your scenario to trigger when a record is updated.

You can also select more than one record in the field “Max records” to process records in batch. Type a formula if you need to filter the records you’d like to pick up and you should be ready to go! :slightly_smiling_face:

[Dylan_Sather1]

Hi y’all,

I’ve setup webhooks for new records and record updates using a combination of Airtable’s Slack notifications and Pipedream (think Zapier, but optimized for webhooks).

For example, if you add a new record to a base, you’ll get a webhook out with a JSON payload sent to a custom HTTP endpoint for that update:

[
  {
    "tableId": "tbl98fitgvmmAR8aX",
    "recordId": "recltHKU7vKAv7bhW",
    "updates": [
      {
        "field": "Name",
        "newValue": "NEW RECORD"
      },
      {
        "field": "Status",
        "newValue": "CLOSED"
      }
    ]
  }
]

I documented the setup in a Medium post:

Medium – 20 Jun 19

Airtable Webhooks with Slack + Pipedream

We love Airtable here at Pipedream. But Airtable lacks one killer feature  —  webhooks.

Reading time: 7 min read

and this Pipedream pipeline:

Pipedream

Airtable Slack Messages -> Webhook - Pipedream

Accepts Slack messages from a channel dedicated to Airtable Slack notifications, modifies and sends a webhook out

(apologies for the formatting, the Community site wouldn’t let me include any direct links in this post)

I’d love feedback on whether this helps solve anyone’s issues getting webhook notifications for record creation / updates.

Feel free to personally reach out if you need help getting it working — more than happy to help.

Dylan

[Waldemar_Pross]

Yes please! Would be really helpful for a lot of scenarios in our business

[Waldemar_Pross]

Hey. Has it been used in any project for some time at all? Considering to use it in our project.

[Dylan_Sather1]

We’re using it internally and it’s worked fine for us. It’s totally free and Pipedream gives you a lot of flexibility for how you manipulate the incoming updates from Slack before sending those via webhook out.

See the Limitations section near the end of the Medium article to make sure the solution will work for your use case, e.g. Airtable Slack updates don’t support notifications for deletes.

I’d be happy to work with you on any changes you might need to make to the Pipedream workflow that handles the Slack -> webhook out. Just let me know!

[Waldemar_Pross]

Thanks Dylan. I will keep this in mind. Currently we are looking to switch from Zapier to Integromat. So far I am really impressed by Integromat - it has a lot of ready integrations, but also allows you to work on lower level with webhooks, JSON, array, functions, switch statements etc. Almost like programming without writing code. It sounds like it will be able to deal with the Airtable’s Slack notifications too.