I’m using the API and I have a real estate site with 30-40 listings displaying. I need to keep the CMS data synced with MLS data. On any given day any of the listings could change (price change, description change, photo change, etc) or the listing could be removed or new listings could be added.
I am wondering what makes the most sense - using the Update call on every entry or deleting all entries and using Create Item to put them all back in.
Will the Update add new records if it doesn’t exist? And how would I handle a listing that no longer is in the data feed?
Chris over at Xano sent me a link to a post on the Webflow Forum which is not very encouraging.
Hey, David. This is apparently a long-running problem on Webflow’s side, and I’m not sure there is any intention to change the behavior. Currently, the “delete” does nothing more than set it as a draft, which is less than helpful. See this thread on the Webflow forums.
In that same thread, there is a workaround suggested, which is as follows:
“Our workaround was to set a switch field on each item, and then instead of deleting the item we live update the switch to false. Then in our presentation view we just filter the collection for switch = true.”
I know that’s not an ideal option, but the only other thing to be done is to reach out to Webflow support regarding this issue.
That is the word on the street so to speak. I’m just a tail wagging a dog here. But it does seem like this is a chronic issue at Webflow - the failure to address legitimate needs of your clients / customers.
There are numerous possible workarounds to this issue:
I could update the CMS item and set the ‘_archive’ flag to true but that does not really get rid of the item either. I’ll hit a wall when I reach 10,000 items of which 5,000 might be user errors I can’t get rid of. Hmmmm.
I might download the CMS in a CSV file and sort items in a spreadsheet deleting those flagged for deletion the upload again into the CMS. But Webflow doesn’t provide support or take responsibility for issues if the upload goes south (according to the Forum)
Webflow does not provide a means of website owner maintenance of the CMS which is rather bizarre as a policy or practice. For instance there is no means to sort or filter the CMS in the Designer environment - where CMS items CAN in fact be deleted. WOW! Now there’s an opportunity for your engineers. Offer sorting the CMS in the Designer environment to where items could be flagged and deleted in bulk or 20 at a time.
I could take my business elsewhere
In my discussions with others in the emerging no-code space, it has been clear that there is NO platform that offers a stellar product serving everyone’s needs. Back end, front end, security, e-commerce. Webflow does not offer the ability to process subscriptions which forces me to look elsewhere for payment processing. And security. And Zapier HAS a business providing integration tools because the no-code space does not always speak the same language. But Zapier is and will always going to be playing catch up as the industry advances or changes.
Where Webflow fails to respond to the customer - they will lose business. Where they do respond to the customer, the opposite will be true.