I’m building an app that syncs Airtable data to my local storage using Go. I found a Go library for Airtable API integration but I’m stuck on one thing.
When I fetch records from my base, I get back the record ID, field values, and creation timestamp. However, there’s no indication of when the record was last changed. I need to know which records have been updated since my last sync without downloading everything and doing manual comparisons.
I tried adding a “Last modified time” field type to my tables but this requires manual setup for each base and can’t be automated via the API. This creates a poor user experience for my application.
Webhooks exist but I’d prefer not to implement that complexity right now. Are there any other approaches to detect record modifications or access update timestamps through the Airtable API?
There’s another approach - use filterByFormula with the LAST_MODIFIED_TIME() function. Just add filterByFormula=IS_AFTER(LAST_MODIFIED_TIME(), '2024-01-01') to your API call. Perfect for incremental syncs and you don’t need any extra fields. URL encode the formula in Go or you’ll get errors.
The Airtable API has modification timestamps, but they’re hidden by default. You need to explicitly request the Modified Time system field by adding it to your field selection when making API calls. In your Go code, just add fields[]=Modified Time to your query parameters. You’ll get back a modifiedTime field with an ISO timestamp showing when each record was last updated. Since it’s a built-in system field, you don’t need to set up anything manually in each base. I’ve used this in production for incremental syncing. Just store the latest timestamp from your last sync and use it as a filter in your next request to only grab records modified after that point. No more full downloads or manual comparisons - keeps things simple.