Hello everyone!
So I want to make a Zap that fires when a row in Excel is deleted, and when it’s deleted the attached record in Airtable should be deleted as well (or moved).
I’ve some idea about how to do it, but I’m quite unsure if it’s actually possible at all?
+12
Hi
This is somewhat possible, though maybe not in the way you need. Firstly, there’s no action that will delete an Airtable record, but you could move it or edit it into a ‘to be deleted’ type pile.
Secondly, a very important warning: if you are using the Excel sheet with an Updated Row trigger, you shouldn’t delete rows from it without first turning off that Zap. With both Google Sheets and Excel, when you delete a row it’s a bit like re-odering the whole sheet. Let’s say you delete row 4, what was row 5 now becomes row 4, row 6 becomes 5 and so on, so to the Zap it looks like the information in ALL the rows beneath the one you deleted have all been updated.
Because of this quirk, you can’t set up a Zap that works when a row is deleted, but you can set up a Zap that will trigger when a particular cell is updated. Other options instead of deleting the row are:
Personally, I’d opt for the latter. You can set up Excel so that hides rows based on a filter, so you could set it up so that when a particular column is ticked (or has a ‘yes’ in it, or whatever you prefer) then it’s hidden from view. You can then set up a Zap so that it’s triggered when the value in that column is changed. So when you tick the column in Excel, the row is hidden and the Zap is triggered.
If you want to permanently delete the rows, you could turn off the Zap once a week (or whenever you want), change the Excel filter so you only see the ‘ticked’ rows (that were hidden), delete those rows, change back the filter and turn the Zap back on.
So, it is possible in a roundabout way, but it’s not super simple. I hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions!
Hello
So I followed your guides (thanks!) and I’ve now made a filter in Excel and a Zap in Zapier. The Zap looks at the column in Excel and triggers when the value of tha column changes. That’s the idea.
However, when Publish the Zap and run it, the changes the value in another Record? These are the steps in the Zap:
Do you need me to expand them?
I do also have this Zap which works in the same table in Airtable (something is a bit wrong, maybe we can look at that after), but what I want to fix now and here, is that this Zap shouldn’t run when the other Zap (updated column) runs. Is that possible?
Right now it will trigger because a row is being updated.
Regarding the first answer:
See here what I mean (in the History it looks good since it finds the right Record):
But in Airtable it comes out like this:
+11
Hi
On the Update Record step for Airtable are you using Custom for the record, and mapping the Record ID from the Find Record step?
That’s how you would let Airtable know which record you’re trying to update, by pointing to the one you just found via your search.
More info on custom values: https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496241696141-Add-custom-values-to-dropdown-menu-fields-in-Zaps.
Enter your username or e-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.
