Add row via automation and copy some of the original data

User Talk Automations
1

Hi there,

I am trying to set up an automation that will do the following:
As soon as the deadline equals today, add a new row with the deadline being in 7 days from now - however, keep some of the data from the original row the same. I know I can define what the new row should look like, ie which team in the single select will be added etc. But is there a way to set it up referring to the data of the original row, so for example: “selected team in new row equals selected team in original row”? Or is that something I would need a script for?

Thanks so much!

2

You can just add a new column, e.g. single select in the original row, which will be updated by automation by your time frame.
Just add different views in the app for different users.

3

How do I define the original row for the automation of the new column?

Just to figure out a different approach: How would you go about creating tasks that repeat themselves weekly without the old task being deleted or updated? The automation only allows me to “add a row”, I wish I could duplicate one while updating the date column.

4

Hi @amelie.g,
I’m afraid you can’t easily do what you want with the Seatable built-in automation process, but for sure n8n can achieve what you want. As far as I tested, here are the steps of the automation in n8n :

  1. Trigger : updatedRow > I added a formula type column DeadlineIsToday displaying the result of the test deadline equals today, so this column updates itself from false to true when it’s time to create the new line
  2. Filter > I check if DeadlineIsToday is true to be sure to get only the wanted lines (in case you created a new line)
  3. row : create > I created a new row with the Auto-Map Input Data to Columns option for Data to Send and my deadline column as Inputs to Ignore
  4. Finally, row : update > I set the deadline column of the new row (I didn’t really figure out what date and time format I should use to get it right in my date type column, but you got the idea)

Be aware that with such an automation, you will have to be sure that the poll time of your trigger is every day : if you polled it more often (every hour or every minute for example), you will have to modify your original row to indicate that the new row has been created, otherwise several new rows will be created…

Hope this helps !
Bests,
Benjamin

1 Like
5

There is no built-in feature to meet this requirement yet. But we have a plan to better support task management in SeaTable in this year.

6

I like that you are already such familiar with n8n. I think you can agree that SeaTable and n8n is a great and powerful combination - especially if you have multiple software products.

7

I agree with you : I sometimes use Airtable on some particular project, and they manage automations this way: for each parameter, you can choose if you want to use a static (hardcoded) or a dynamic value (coming from a previous step). If it’s nice and clear on paper, it’s actually a bit messy and therefore tricky to use…

I think that offering such features necessarily entails a certain complexity that it’s better to assume (as in n8n), because trying to make such features completely easy to use and without the need to think leads to an in-between that isn’t necessarily convincing !

8

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