Troubleshooting an Airtable script for tracking quarterly writing progress

Other Questions Airtable
1

Help needed with my Airtable script

I’m working on a script for an Airtable extension to track my writing progress. It’s meant to:

  1. Add up article counts from a specific view
  2. Figure out how many more articles I need to write
  3. Tell me how many articles per week I should aim for
  4. Show how many weekdays I have for each remaining article

My code is giving me errors and I can’t figure out why. I think it’s something to do with how I’m setting up my variables, but I’m not sure.

Here’s a simplified version of what I’m trying to do:

let articleCount = 0;
let goalArticles = 20;

function countArticles() {
  // Code to count articles goes here
  articleCount = 15; // Example count
}

function calculateTimeLeft() {
  let now = new Date();
  let quarterEnd = new Date('2023-03-31');
  let daysLeft = (quarterEnd - now) / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24);
  return Math.round(daysLeft);
}

function calculateProgress() {
  countArticles();
  let timeLeft = calculateTimeLeft();
  let articlesLeft = goalArticles - articleCount;
  let articlesPerWeek = articlesLeft / (timeLeft / 7);
  
  console.log(`You need to write ${articlesPerWeek.toFixed(2)} articles per week`);
}

calculateProgress();

Can someone help me figure out what I’m doing wrong? I’m new to JavaScript and could use some guidance. Thanks!

2

hey, looks like ur script is on track. maybe add try-catch blocks to catch when quarter ends, and round the articles per week for clarity. check abt airtable API settings too – sometimes that messes things up. keep coding!

3

Your script’s structure looks good, but there are a few things to consider for improvement. First, ensure you’re properly accessing the Airtable API in your countArticles() function. You’ll need to use the appropriate Airtable library and authentication. Second, consider rounding your articlesPerWeek calculation to a more practical number. Writing 2.37 articles per week isn’t realistic. Instead, you could use Math.ceil() to round up to the nearest whole number. Lastly, think about adding some error handling. What if the quarter end date has passed? Or if you’ve already exceeded your goal? Adding checks for these scenarios will make your script more robust and user-friendly. Good luck with your writing progress tracker!

4

As someone who’s used Airtable for various projects, I can share some insights on your script. The code structure looks solid, but there might be a few things to consider:

Make sure your view in Airtable is correctly set up to show only the articles you want to count. Sometimes, filtering issues can lead to incorrect counts. When working with dates, timezone differences can cause unexpected results, so using UTC dates might help. Also, incorporating error handling with try-catch blocks can make your functions more robust. Another point is to consider business days over calendar days for a more realistic schedule. Lastly, verify that your Airtable API credentials and permissions are correct. These adjustments should help increase the reliability of your script.