I ran into a very interesting situation regarding a fairly complex multi-step Automation: One of the Action steps would not reliably execute properly. Turned out to be a timing problem for which I came up with a solution.
Here is the situation: I have a first table ‘DC’ [Data Collector]; I have another table ‘RI’ [Reference Information]; and finally a ‘DD’ [Data Destination] table. I built an Automation, A1, triggered on new information arriving in table DC. The purpose of A1 is to analyze the incoming information, Look Up information in table RI, and then based on the results from RI, create a link to a specific record in table DD. But when Automation A1 executed, it would not reliably generate the Link. Big Problem.
After way too much troubleshooting I finally realized that the problem seemed to be that the Lookup steps took too long to complete, and the Automation blasted right ahead to the Link step before the needed information had materialized from the the Lookup step, so the Link step just did not work correctly.
So, here is the Solution that I used: I removed the Link step from Automation A1, and instead had A1 set a ‘Pending’ flag in a new field in DC. Then I created a new DC View [‘Pending’] that filtered for: Flag Set; and Needed Reference data being present in its normal field [not Empty]. Then I created a second Automation, A2, triggered on a DC record entering the ‘Pending’ View. When a DC record enters that View, A2 will THEN perform the Link step, (and then clear the Flag).
Seemed to do the trick. The ol’ Two-Step. It was interesting to monitor that Flag field after initiating a bunch of new records imported into the DC table: the Flags for the several new DC records would flutter on and off as Airtable information traversed the universe, and finally settled down after a couple seconds. The Flags wound up all gone, and the Links to DD established!
Not sure how many Airtablers have been baffled with this situation. Maybe this solution could help. And perhaps Airtable could establish better mechanisms for managing Automation step sequencing.
