Automate Table Linking for Data Summaries | Advanced Automation

[@GarethPronovost]

Grab my *FREE TRAINING* that teaches the building blocks of automation: www.garethpronovost.com/webinar-registration 👈

[@zanshomeedu]

I am using this for my homeschool planning so far i haven't used any automations or formulae but i would love to use it for weekly and daily planning

[@leonie8316]

Thank you for all your videos! Can you make a video focused on how to create an automation to copy paste from one column or table to another? 🙏 Thank you!

[@yuryhorulko3834]

Thank you so much Gareth!

[@GarethPronovost]

My pleasure! Glad to help 🤝

[@freedomframework]

This is great, thank you so much! You made it so simple and I was able to implement it in my scenario right away :)

[@GarethPronovost]

Love to hear that! Thank you!!!

[@AllAboutThatBase1]

Great demo! However, it's worth noting that the "CONCATENATE" wrapper function in the "Formula Output (Date)" formula field is unnecessary because the "DATETIME_FORMAT" function already outputs a string.

[@GarethPronovost]

Thanks for sharing! For some reason I thought DATETIME_FORMAT still output a date. Always learning! 💪

[@reallyefficient]

You could also put the datetime_format in the automation rather than creating a new field

[@AllAboutThatBase1]

@@reallyefficient That won't work because Airtable formula functions like DATETIME_FORMAT only work in formula fields. An automation would treat it as literal text, not a function to execute. That said, a similar result *could* be achieved by using a script action in the automation to create a formatted date, eliminating the need for the formula field. However, not everyone wants to learn scripting for something like this.

[@reallyefficient]

@@AllAboutThatBase1 Ahh I might be thinking about my use case within integromat

[@reallyefficient]

And in which case the formula is formatDate({{Field name}};MM/DD/YYYY)

[@rhinoreign1324]

Not THAT advanced when you explain it SO clearly! The way in which you explain these concepts made a lot of things 'just' click. Thanks for sharing this with the community.

[@alanhurite8554]

I noticed that when you changed the shift, it did record in the daily labor summary. However, the start date and end date didn't change to correspond to the shift change. Could that also be done with the same automation by adding an action? If so, how? Everything I have tried doesn't seem to work.

[@GarethPronovost]

good catch! You can use formula fields to calculate the start and end dates, based on the shift selected. For example, if all morning shifts start at 9am and all evening shifts at 4pm, then you can write a Start Date formula that looks at the calendar date and adds the appropriate amount of time. On the other hand, if your start/end times are variable, it would be best to input that data manually.

[@alanhurite8554]

That makes sense. Thank you!!

[@ladisonaike6720]

Hi Gareth, This is a great video and is exactly what you suggested for a recent question I had about getting a linked record to automatically update in my base. I’d like to think that my question inspired this video but I highly doubt it 😂. Thanks again for the great content 👍🏾

[@GarethPronovost]

Your question absolutely did inspire this video! 🙌 It was such a great example I had to share it.

[@ladisonaike6720]

@@GarethPronovost 👍🏾

[@agoogleuser6937]

What are the pros and cons of linking records with a script vs with a non-scripted airtable automation?😊

[@GarethPronovost]

It really depends on your use case. Most of the time we will default to linking with automation wherever possible. We'll typically use a script as a last resort, especially now that Airtable has enabled looping automation that will perform multiple links.

[@platanocapo]

Excelent video as usual!!. I'm waiting for your vídeo about sending whatsapp from Airtable!!🙏🏻😉. Is really confuse what I saw in other chanels… I didn't understand you can I get mi whatsapp API key… I'm sure that this vídeo is in your pocket list!!☺️

[@GarethPronovost]

Thanks for the idea! 🙌

[@Pithon369]

WOW This must be the first video where you did not link a record with the Record ID.

[@GarethPronovost]

Lol - true! I should have spoken to that in the video, but you're absolutely right! 95% of the time I do link with a record ID, but in order to create/link the summary record in one easy step, I like using the name method here.

[@davezdon4746]

I am trying to apply this technique (automated table linking) to my Project Proposal base. I have these tables: PEOPLE (Linked to PROJECT TICKETS and PROPOSAL PAGES) CLIENTS (Linked to PROJECTS) PROJECTS (Linked to CLIENTS and PROJECT TICKETS and PROPOSALS) PROJECT TICKETS (Join table between PEOPLE and PROJECTS)(many-to-many relationship) Also linked to PROPOSAL PAGES) PROPOSALS (Linked to PROJECTS) PROPOSAL PAGES (Linked to PEOPLE and PROPOSALS and PROJECT TICKETS) The end goal is to create PROPOSAL PAGES (using Documint) for the PEOPLE who will be featured in the PROPOSAL. The PROPOSAL PAGE has bio info on the person (from PEOPLE) and a list of pertinent projects they have worked on (from the PROJECT TICKETS table) An employee might have 30 PROJECT TICKETS associated with them, but we only want to feature 10 in a particular PAGE and in a certain order. Now that I can reorder records in an interface, I don't need to resort to making mirror PROJECT TICKET records and numbering them for sorting to certain order. >>>>>>> My question is: In an interface grid view of PROJECT TECKETS (already interface filtered to narrow down the choices from thousands to maybe 50), how can I easily link the PROJECT TICKETS to a particular PROPOSAL PAGE without scrolling through a giant list of PROPOSAL PAGES? NOTE: Each PROPOSAL PAGE record will have a PROJECT TICKETS link field with multiple links. Once the PROPOSAL PAGE is complete, the number of links will not change. The PROPOSAL PAGE only exists linked to one PROPSAL record. BUT, each PROJECT TICKETS record will have a PROPOSAL PAGE links field with an always growing number of links to each PROPOSAL PAGE that PROJECT TICKET appears in. As that PROJECT TICKET record (linked to only one PEOPLE record and one PROJECT record) appears in more and more PROPOSAL PAGES records as a featured project, it will accumulate more and more links in its PROPOSAL PAGES Linked field. I'm not sure I can copy/paste into the PROPOSAL PAGES Linked field without deleting the existing links in the process. Maybe this needs a relationship map.

[@GarethPronovost]

Hey Dave, this is a pretty complex question and one that would be too hard to help you with here. We do have an hourly consulting option available on our website in case you're looking for a private session.