Question

Creating a link from existing data in Airtable

  • 12 January 2022
  • 5 replies
  • 63 views

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Thanks in advance for sharing the wisdom.

 

I have a lovely zap that uses a person’s name, email and cell to generate a customlink to book an appoitnment in OnceHub.

 

Due to OnceHub’s update, the link can no longer include normal phone number data, but instead just needs to be a string of digits. Fine.

I created a Value field in Airtable that extracts that number. But now I need to update about 18,000 links for records where such a link is already created. I wrote a zap that will generate an updated link (LINK2 we’ll call it), in a view with a checkbox checked off. Now I have a manual way of checking off a box, which populates a view and triggers a zap that creates LINK2. That said, I wonder if there is an easier way than clicking on 18,000 checkboxes. 


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5 replies

Userlevel 7
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Hi @Boguslda 

You can/should use an Airtable Formula field to create the link via a concatenation of static/dynamic values from referenced Airtable fields, then the links would be automatically updated once you update the Formula conditions: https://support.airtable.com/hc/en-us/articles/203255215-Formula-field-reference

Otherwise, try using internal Airtable Automations to do this instead: https://support.airtable.com/hc/en-us/articles/360050974153-Automations-overview

Userlevel 1
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Hi Troy, 

 

I wish it was that easy. The link is easy but I need it to be shortened so I use the Zapier’s link shortner to accomplish that.

Userlevel 7
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@Boguslda 

First make sure your Zapier plan has enough Tasks to be able to reprocess all these 18k records, otherwise you may need to upgrade.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Zap has throttling limits.

Rule of thumb is 100 fires of the same Zap in a short amount of time.

 

In Airtable you can bulk select and update records to “check” the checkbox, by first copying an existing “checked” checkbox field cell and pasting to other records.

 

 

Userlevel 7
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@Boguslda 

Why does the link have to be shortened?

What is the use case for that?

How is the link being sent?

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We text the link to our clients, and it’s way better when it’s not 40 characters long :)