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Airtable to wordpress - will it do what I need?

  • 16 December 2020
  • 5 replies
  • 115 views

Hi,

I’m completely new to Zapier and I’m wondering if anyone can tell me if Zapier will do what I need it to or am I on the wrong path? I’m completely new to automation so please bare with me :-) 

I have an airtable base that has multiple tabs set up in it (sorry if I’m using the wrong terms here...).  Two of those tabs store data that we want to send to multiple wordpress websites.  We need a new custom post to be created when a new entry is added to airtable, one of the tabs is to create one custom post type - the other tab creates a different custom post type.  We also need it to update the posts if there is a change within airtable.  

From what I’ve read so far I think Zapier will do the above for me...I’m not so sure about the updating of posts though.  The next bit however I really can’t work out.  Once the data is transferred to wordpress we need to be able to access the data to then be able to manually create different custom posts on an as needed basis.

The only other way I can explain it is each entry in airtable is a product with attributes, I want a custom post to be created when a new entry is added and I want that post to be updated if there is a change in airtable.  I also want to display some of those products in different ways on different pages within the website at my discretion. Each website is unique with these discretionary products. 

I’m truely grateful for anyone who can help a beginner get my head around how we can get this to work. :-)

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Best answer by andywingrave 4 January 2021, 08:45

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5 replies

@nicksimard thanks for the reply.  Maybe I’m missing something in your suggestion however as I read it I’d be creating the wordpress post first which would then update airtable?  I need it to work the other way around because I need to update information in 1 spot (airtable) for it to push to multiple wordpress locations.  The problem is the post id’s won’t be the same on all wordpress sites.  I’m starting to feel Zapier isn’t my solution for this particular problem...  

Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Hi @DesignArtisan!

You can actually automate the updating of the Airtable record using something like this:

Trigger: WordPress — New Post
Action: Airtable — Find Record
Action: Airtable — Update Record

When there’s a new post in WordPress, you would do a search in Airtable to find the appropriate record then you’d update that record with the ID of the post.

You’d need something to look up the post by, but I assume the title would work if you’ve created the post from the Airtable record to begin with.

Thanks @andywingrave & @Liz_Roberts and I’m also sorry for the late response.  I appreciate you breaking down my questions.  From your response this will be a far to manual process for what we are after...the manual part is as I see it... creating the wordpress post and then entering the ID into airtable.  Think 400+ and growing posts per website and then multiply the number of separate websites starting at around 10 and growing to around 500 :astonished:

I think we are needing a plugin completely built from the ground for us unfortunately. 

Cheers T

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Thanks for the tag @Liz_Roberts! Sorry for the delay in response. I was on staycation. Needed some time away from my laptop. 

I have an airtable base that has multiple tabs set up in it (sorry if I’m using the wrong terms here...). Two of those tabs store data that we want to send to multiple wordpress websites.

  • Sounds good so far... (tabs = "tables")

We need a new custom post to be created when a new entry is added to airtable, one of the tabs is to create one custom post type - the other tab creates a different custom post type. We also need it to update the posts if there is a change within airtable.

  • I think you should be doing this on the one table instead of multiple

    • You can do this by creating a field with the 'type of post', and another for your specific Wordpress site, and then creating subsequent views of these posts

From what I’ve read so far I think Zapier will do the above for me...I’m not so sure about the updating of posts though. The next bit however I really can’t work out. Once the data is transferred to wordpress we need to be able to access the data to then be able to manually create different custom posts on an as needed basis.

  • What you want to do here is add a new field in your table (column in your tab) called "Wordpress reference" and then:

    • Once the post is created, update that field with the Wordpress post ID

The only other way I can explain it is each entry in airtable is a product with attributes, I want a custom post to be created when a new entry is added and I want that post to be updated if there is a change in airtable. I also want to display some of those products in different ways on different pages within the website at my discretion. Each website is unique with these discretionary products.

  • I think you want two tables here:

    • Products

    • Website

  • This way you can link your products to the different websites, and even multiple if necessary

I’m truely grateful for anyone who can help a beginner get my head around how we can get this to work. :-)

Please let me know how you get on, and once again sorry for the delay!

Userlevel 7
Badge +8

Hi @DesignArtisan ,

Welcome and thanks for reaching out! I’m tagging in @andywingrave to see if he has come across a similar workflow as the one you’ve described above. @andywingrave have you seen something like this in action? Thank you in advance!