I’m setting up an automated workflow in my Airtable base that needs to fetch live currency exchange rates. My automation calculates financial totals and requires current USD exchange rates to work properly. I’ve been trying to figure out how to make HTTP requests to external APIs from within the automation script but can’t seem to find the right approach. Does anyone know the proper way to call external REST APIs when building Airtable automations? I need to pull data from a currency API and use that information in my calculations. Any code examples or guidance would be really helpful since I’m new to working with APIs in this platform.
The fetch API works great for API calls. Just check your base’s automation limits first. I’ve built similar currency workflows - timing matters since exchange rates change all day. I switched from free APIs to paid ones like Fixer.io for better reliability with financial calculations. Watch out though - some currency APIs serve cached data on weekends, which screws up your calculations. If you’re making frequent calls, store the rates in a table with timestamps. Cuts down on API usage but keeps your data fresh enough.
fetch() is definitely the way to go, but watch out for CORS issues. Some APIs block browser requests - I’ve hit this with currency services before. If that happens, use Airtable’s webhook feature as a middleman to call the API for you. Also, most currency APIs need API keys in headers, so don’t forget the headers parameter in your fetch call.
Use fetch() in your automation script - it works just like regular JavaScript fetch. Make sure your script action handles async operations properly. I hit this exact issue building currency converters for clients. Here’s what worked: create a script action, then use let response = await fetch('https://api.exchangerate-api.com/v4/latest/USD') and let data = await response.json(). Error handling’s the tricky bit - wrap everything in try-catch since API calls fail randomly. Free currency APIs often have rate limits, so cache results in a field if your automation runs a lot. Fetch works with most REST APIs unless they need complex auth headers.
Been through this exact thing building invoice automation for international clients. The biggest pain was API response times - currency APIs are often slow and will timeout your Airtable script. Set timeouts in your fetch options or you’ll get hanging scripts.
Another gotcha: different currency providers use totally different response formats. Some nest rates in objects, others use flat arrays. Parse the structure first before grabbing exchange rate values.
I cycled through three currency APIs before finding one that consistently responded under 2 seconds. Also, run your currency updates as separate scheduled automation instead of inline with calculations - way more reliable when you’re processing big batches of financial data.
Built something similar last year for expense tracking across multiple offices. One thing nobody mentioned - wrap your fetch calls in error handling that actually does something useful.
When currency APIs go down (and they do), your whole automation breaks. Learned this the hard way when our monthly reports failed because the API was having issues.
Set up a fallback system. Store your last successful rate in a field, then use that if the API call fails. Just check if the response status is 200 before parsing the JSON.
Also, don’t call the API every time your automation runs. Currency rates don’t change every minute. I cache rates for 30 minutes in a separate table with a timestamp field. Saves API quota and makes everything faster.
For financial stuff, always validate the data you get back. Some APIs return null values or weird formatted numbers that’ll break your calculations.