Automation Step 1 result issues for Google Calendar

Hi there,

I have a table set up to sync my Google Calendar like so:

and I set up my automation to listen for row changes, whenever the start time of an event changes, it triggers the automation:

image

As you can see, the step 1 result shows the changed row.

However, moving on to the THEN section, it seems to have lost track of the step 1 result

As you can see, here the step 1 result is blank, resulting my filter function to fail.

image

Anyone know what went wrong in the process?

Hey there @Chen_Zhong! Jen here from Coda. It looks like you’re on the right track here. What are you hoping to do in the last step? I can’t fully tell from what you shared. Feel free to expand a bit more and we will see how we can help or someone else can pop in to support.

Thanks Jen!
So here’s what I’m trying to do:

it takes the information in the step 1 result, locate the task with the same name in the task table, and set the time and name according to the new value of the step 1 result.

However, what’s baffling to me is the fact that I can see Step 1 result has the correct row information, but later in the then section, step 1 result became blank, as shown below here:


Typing Step 1 result in the custom filter reveals the blank value.

obviously blank would not get a match in the Task table.

Hi @Chen_Zhong,

I have taken a look at your info above and there are some things wrong with your formula and automation filter.

Your formula is as follows:
ModifyRows(Filter( Tasks, Name.con Event. Summary), Tasks.When, Step 1 Result.event.Start.ToDate(), Tasks.Name, Conctatenate( Step 1 Result.Event.Start.ToTime(), " ", Step 1 Result.Event.Summary)

In bold you can see that you have Name.con and I think that you were aiming for Contains however this will not work, both in the format you have (con does not exist as a formula) if it were used as intended. An alternative to this is to use Find as demonstrated below.

WARNING!
Using a search method like this is not infallible and will lead to problems with both inaccuracy and performance. For example if you have more than one task row that contain the summary text being searched on then all found will change potentially breaking other tasks. If the event summary is changed on the Google Calendar then this would instantly break the update process as the associated Task would have a different summary and therefore never be found via search.

I would question why you are using a search filter in this way instead of having lookups where you can just point to the associated row. Tasks would have a lookup back to Events and vice versa. It all depends on how you create tasks from events but would certainly be doable.

Finally your automation filter is incorrect.

You have put Step 1 Result as the custom filter for the tasks table. This needs to be a filter such as this:
image

Again this is a search and not best practice.

Here is the result of the test button:

I hope that all of this is useful and understandable.

Please let me know if not or if you would like help to further explore linking the table rows together and using them to change values.

All the best

Dale

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