How to identify changes in Airtable records without manual comparison?

Other Questions Airtable
1

I’m working on a project to sync Airtable data with a local file. I’m using Go and an Airtable package, but I’m stuck on how to tell if a record has been updated.

When I fetch a record, I get the ID, data, and creation time. But there’s no built-in way to see if it’s been changed since then. I don’t want to compare the old and new data manually.

I thought about adding a ‘Last modified time’ field to all records. But that’s a pain to set up through the API and not user-friendly.

I know about webhooks, but I’d rather avoid that if possible.

Is there a simple way to get the last modified time or any other clue that a record has changed? I need to be able to pinpoint which specific records were updated.

Here’s a basic code example of what I’m trying to do:

func checkForUpdates(client *airtable.Client, baseID, tableName string) {
    records, err := client.ListRecords(baseID, tableName)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    for _, record := range records {
        // How can I check if this record has been modified?
        if isModified(record) {
            updateLocalFile(record)
        }
    }
}

Any ideas would be super helpful. Thanks!

2

Having worked extensively with Airtable, I can suggest an alternative approach that might suit your needs. Instead of relying on a last modified timestamp, consider implementing a versioning system within your records. Add a ‘Version’ field to your Airtable base and increment it whenever a record is updated.

In your Go code, store the last known version for each record locally. When fetching records, compare the stored version with the current version in Airtable. If they differ, you know the record has been modified.

This method is more reliable than timestamps, as it accounts for rapid successive updates that might occur within the same second. It’s also less resource-intensive than calculating hashes for large datasets.

Remember to update your local version number after processing changes to ensure accurate tracking in subsequent syncs.

3

I’ve faced a similar challenge with Airtable syncing before. One approach that worked well for me was implementing a ‘hash’ system. Essentially, you’d calculate a hash of the record’s data when you first fetch it, then store that hash locally. On subsequent checks, recalculate the hash and compare it to the stored version.

Here’s a rough idea of how it might look in Go:

import "crypto/md5"

func isModified(record airtable.Record, storedHash string) bool {
    currentHash := calculateHash(record)
    return currentHash != storedHash
}

func calculateHash(record airtable.Record) string {
    // Concatenate all field values into a string
    data := ""
    for _, field := range record.Fields {
        data += fmt.Sprintf("%v", field)
    }
    
    hash := md5.Sum([]byte(data))
    return hex.EncodeToString(hash[:])
}

This method avoids manual field-by-field comparison and doesn’t require Airtable schema changes. It’s not perfect (e.g., won’t catch reordered fields), but it’s been reliable in my experience for detecting most changes.

4

hey, have u considered using a checksum approach? i’ve used it before and it works pretty well. basically, u generate a checksum for each record when u first fetch it, store it locally. then when u check again, recalculate the checksum and compare. if they’re different, u know the record changed. it’s simple and doesnt require changing ur airtable structure.