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1

I have a daily file of listings that I need to update in Airtable from a CSV.

What I could do is clear down the Airtable table every time and load it fresh, but not sure if that is the best way of doing it?

The alternative is to do an “overlap” match and update the ones that match, add the ones that don’t or delete if they are not on the new file.

That seems like I would need to set up three “Overlaps” on the same data and do A = B then A not in B and B not in A.

API call to Airtable for each one (PATCH, PUT, DELETE).

Which way should I go with this ?

2

Well, I gave up in the end. Which is a shame.

Burning through credits to get the format right for different methods is … pretty annoying.

Particularly as the documentation is so poor on this.

3

Hi @NigelG,

You’re correct. The best way to set up this flow is to use multiple Find overlap steps.

If the CSV file and Airtable Import have matching data in a shared column using Find overlap, then PATCH an existing record. Your settings should look like this:

Rows match if any of the following are true

Values in {Column A} column match the {Column B} column exactly

If the CSV file contains data that does not exist in the Airtable Import using Find overlap, then PUT or POST a new record. Your settings should look like this:

Rows match if any of the following are true

Values in {Column A} column do not match the {Column B} column exactly

If the Airtable Import contains data that does not exist in the CSV file using Find overlap, then DELETE that record. Be sure your to show all rows from Airtable that match your CSV file. Your settings should look like this:

Rows match if any of the following are true

Values in {Column B} column do not match the {Column A} column exactly

find-overlap
find-overlap1006×1218 178 KB

Regarding your failed flow attempts using credits, please reach out to help@parabola.io with your flow IDs or links to your flow. We should be able to help you out!

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4

Thank you, that is what I had so that is good to know.

I think I could do a further match on all the columns to see if any fields have changed, and ignore if not.

However I am still struggling with the PATCH/POST/DELETE format.

5

Hey Nigel,

What seems to be the issue when making those requests? Out of curiosity, are any fields in your table referencing another table?

If you’re trying to PATCH, POST, or DELETE a reference field, you’ll need to pass the record ID as a value in your JSON body. Passing a string will typically error out.

Let me know if this helps. Otherwise, feel free to send me any errors you’re receiving, and I can look into it further.

6

Sorry for the delay, I stopped going down this particular path for a while as it wasn’t working out. Will have another look today, I have been using Airtable’s API a lot more in the last couple of weeks so I hope to have more success now.

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