Creating new entries from a long text field

Are the task names known? Is there a maximum amount of tasks that can be entered?

It’s definitely possible to have some javascript code parse over the text field and transcribe returns into a linked field - the tricky part will be knowing what triggers words and numbers within the text field to be a task, and what separates one task from the next.

The tasks are coming via a form submission, so they can be anything .
There is no Maximum but I don-t expect anything above 10.

Ideally, the script would be triggered via form submission or to run every day.

I’m sure this would be an easy task for someone with java script knowledge :slightly_smiling_face:

I think What I would like to do is similar to this:

Linking Existing Records Using Automations | Airtable Support

Except I would like to create the new records (tasks) from an existing field. So each task is unique for each project

Many thanks I will try it. just to be sure I got it…

I am guessing

“totals1” is the originator table with the “Task Submission” field from which lines will be converted to entries in the “totals2” table?

So I guess one of the “pri2” or the “link2” is the field in the destination table “totals2”, right? So what is the other one?

Maybe you copied this from another example and i am just a bit confused…
Thanks for clarifying
Thanks

Hi,
nope, I’ve created it, just forget to rename tables. Pri and Lnk are primary and link fields of destination table.

Thanks
FYI I found a work around that requires the use of automation and regex formula field. I will post it later

Hey, can you post the workaround that you utilized? I have a similar problem to address.

Yes, let me post the complete workaround in a while. But I can tell you it involves the Regex formula and an Automation

I was actually able to figure it out using a script.

Here is a different approach to generating multiple entries in a new field  (this field is in a new table) from a single field.
Table setup:

Table 1

• Primary Field
• Entry_Field (Fieldtype Longtext)
• Regex_Field (Formula = REGEX_REPLACE({Task Input},"\n",",")
• New_Field (Linked field in table 2)

as you can see each new line in the "Entry" field will be a new entry on table 2

Table 2

• Primary field
•  Name (Linked field in table 1)

In this setup for each new entry in table 1 each new line in the "Entry_field" will generate a new entry in table 2 via the Regex formula fiedl and an automation.

The automation is set up as follows:

• trigger: when a new record is created (or any other thing suitable to your implementation)
• action:
  
  • Find records: based on the trigger find the new record
  • Update record: in table 1, create a list of entries fromt he regex field as seen bellow:

There are some requirements for this to work:

• in the "Entry" field each new line in the entry field will generate an entry in the new linked field
• you cannot use commas, unless you somehow include in the formula a way to remove them

Maybe its not so clear but but happy to give feedback

Feel free to share!

const table=base.getTable('totals1')
const table2=base.getTable('totals2')
const query=await table.selectRecordsAsync({fields:['Task Submission']})
const arr=text=>text? text.split('"').join('').split(`\n`):[]
const newrow=r=>arr(r.getCellValue('Task Submission')).map(ln=>({fields:{'pri2':ln,'lnk2':[{id:r.id}]}}))
const crt=query.records.flatMap(newrow)
while (crt.length) await table2.createRecordsAsync(crt.splice(0,50))

To come back to this if I want to just do this for a record identified in an automation step, I would need to invoke the input config

How would I include that in this script example?

Many Thanks

Here is the full script I ended up using (in case someone else needs it), put together by a few helpful examples across the community board.

For context, this takes a booking submission for Musicians, Workshop Presenters, and Installation Artists from a Jotform submission, and turns it into records in the relevant tables. I can post screenshots of the database setup if anyone needs it.

In your example, I would change the variable name to selectedRecords (remove the space, use camel case if you want multiple words in one variable assignment).

Note that you can only call input.config() once. If you only have this one variable in your code, you can get away with doing something like

but if you anticipate using more than one variable from earlier in the automation, you'll need to assign input.config() to it's own variable, then assign each new variable using that. This is what I did in my script, input.config() became inputData, and I brought each variable into the script by doing "xyz = inputData.xyz"

Please note: I am not that experienced with Javascript. I may not be using best practices in my script. If anyone else would like to chime in with any suggestions, edits, or conventions they'd like to share, by all means.