Is there any way to use the API response after an API Export action?

Ask a question
,
1

NOTE: I think the right answer in my case is to break the initial update into one Run, and everything else into another, and chain them together, but I’m posting anyway in case there’s any more insight out there.

I’m adding bulk records to Airtable, but then I need the record ids for each newly created record to create a reference to them in other tables that I’m adding records to later in the Flow. The API response includes those record ids, but apparently I don’t have access to the response. Is that right?

If not, I guess I’ll have to figure out how to query the table again after I add the records, but how do I trigger a new request in the middle of a Flow?

  • It doesn’t look like API Export can be used for GET requests.
  • I can’t start an API Import in the middle of a Flow.
  • API Import enrichment with Airtable on a record-by-record basis needs the record id, and would be rate-limited - defeating the purpose of grouping up into a bulk record creation.

Thanks!

2

Hey Mike!

I do wish that this was more possible. This pattern comes up a fair amount, and there is not a great way to do it.

All of your conclusions are correct.

Could you use the API Enrichment step to create the records? That can send a POST request, and it will get the response back!

3

Thanks Brian.

Yeah i looked at using API enrichment (I typed “API Import enrichment” above, but that was a mistake), but then I would need to query every row individually, and then I’m facing the Airtable API rate limit. I went to the effort to batch the initial records loads to API Export to cut processing time 10X. It would be a shame to add back 10X processing time after this step.

So, I just went with a separate flow that I trigger at the end of this flow and I use a normal Airtable query at the front end to get the data.

4

Hey Mike,

Understood.

I do want to clarify that the API Export makes its request one at a time as well, and goes row by row. In order to take advantage of a bulk endpoint, you would need to group your data up into a single row that has the array to be sent to the API already built out into a cell.

If you are doing that for the API Export, then you can do the exact same thing for the API Enrichment!

If you are not doing that, then your API Export is running at the same rate as an API Enrichment would.

5

Yeah, if I remember correctly the issue was that it started to get a little complex on the Airtable API side if I wanted to filter the records I’m pulling. I suspect there’s a solution in there anyway, but then I also decided that breaking the two steps up might have other advantages down the road, so I definitely didn’t explore all the options.