How to identify updated records in Airtable without manual comparison?

Other Questions Airtable
1

I’m working on a project to sync Airtable data with a local file using Go. The airtable package I’m using doesn’t provide info on whether a record has been changed.

When I fetch a record, I only get its ID, data, and creation time. I need a way to tell if it’s been updated without comparing it to old data.

I thought about adding a ‘Last modified time’ field, but that requires manual setup for each record. Not ideal.

I know webhooks exist, but I’d rather avoid that option.

Does anyone know a way to get the last modified time or any other indicator that a record has been updated? I’m looking for a solution that works on a per-record basis.

Here’s a basic code example of what I’m dealing with:

func checkRecordUpdates(client *airtable.Client, baseID, tableID string) {
    records, err := client.GetRecords(baseID, tableID)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    for _, record := range records {
        // How to check if this record was modified?
        fmt.Printf("Record ID: %s, Created: %s\n", record.ID, record.CreatedTime)
    }
}

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

2

Have you considered using Airtable’s Sync feature? It’s designed specifically for keeping data in sync between Airtable and external systems. While it doesn’t provide a ‘last modified’ timestamp directly, it does give you a way to efficiently fetch only the records that have changed since your last sync.

Here’s how it works: You make an initial request to get all records, then in subsequent requests, you provide a ‘sync token’ from the previous response. Airtable will then only return records that have been added, modified, or deleted since that token was issued.

This approach could significantly reduce the amount of data you need to process and compare. You’d still need to handle the comparison on your end, but you’d be working with a much smaller dataset of only changed records.

It’s not a perfect solution, but it might be more efficient than fetching and comparing all records every time. Worth looking into if you haven’t already!

3

Hey there! I’ve been using Airtable for a while and ran into a similar issue. Have you considered using the Airtable Metadata API? It’s not as well-known, but it’s super helpful for tracking changes.

The Metadata API gives you access to a ‘lastModifiedTime’ field for each record. You don’t need to set up custom fields or anything. Just make a GET request to the Metadata API endpoint for your table, and you’ll get the last modified time for each record.

Here’s a quick example of how you might use it in Go:

func getLastModifiedTime(client *airtable.Client, baseID, tableID, recordID string) (time.Time, error) {
    metadata, err := client.GetRecordMetadata(baseID, tableID, recordID)
    if err != nil {
        return time.Time{}, err
    }
    return metadata.LastModifiedTime, nil
}

This way, you can easily check if a record has been updated since you last synced it. It’s been a game-changer for my projects. Give it a shot and let me know how it goes!

4

hey, have u tried using the airtable sync feature? it’s pretty cool for keeping stuff in sync. u make an initial request to get all records, then use a ‘sync token’ for later requests. it’ll only give u the changed records since last time. might save u some headaches with comparisons. worth checkin out!