Updating Live Item Collection with Multi-Reference using Zapier

I have a form on Webflow for adding new items to a multi-reference live collection field.
My field had 4 entries initially and I was able to replace it entirely with the new one, but I want to append it instead.

To exemplify what I want to achieve:

  1. I have a collection called Colors with a multi-reference field with 3 entries [red, blue, green]
  2. My form should sends yellow
  3. Collection should be [red, blue, green, yellow]

I have tried webhooks using Webflow Update Live Item and webhooks… and briefly tried Zapier Code (without understanding much what I was doing). (And I’m still familiarizing myself with Postman)

Can anybody point me the direction?

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If anybody is having similar issue, this was my workaround:

Don’t forget to add content-Type: application/json to the Headers, took me hours to figure that part off.

That was a tough battle but thanks to Mackenzie Child I got it to work! :blush:

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@vanpaio I just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to share the solution you found - this solved a problem that I’ve been having. I have to say I followed Mackenzie’s video closely but I did refer to your screenshots as well.

Super helpful, thank you!

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I’m so glad to hear I helped someone :hugs: I got stuck with this for a whole day or two and was about to give up when noticed the right syntax. Thanks for the feedback!

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If possible, could you please also share your whole Zapier/Zap?
I’m very interested and have plans many(!) more things with Zapier. (already on 18 zaps and counting).

But doing checks for duplicate content or new or update events, is something i still struggle with. Hope you can help me with some more puzzle-pieces! :slight_smile:

Glad to help, I know Zapier can get very annoying sometimes: https://zapier.com/shared/011f6378270f247dd89687915277562a1c28e9ea

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Awesome! So you’re using:

  1. Get data from (webflow) form
  2. Use Webflow API request to make it JSON
  3. Find/Create Airtable record
  4. Create (new) Live item in Webflow
  5. Add something extra to Webflow?
  6. Reformat to fix the multi-ref quotation problem
  7. Send data away to other system?

I was about to try one of my last ideas, and that would be Airtable (which i’ve tried before but i found it pretty complicated somehow). But Airtable is crucial in this workflow?

And what exactly are step 4, 5 and 7 for if i may ask?

I’m using multi-reference collection, that made it a bit more complex.

  1. Get new form submission (it contains a category)
  2. Ask webflow for more information about database (we are looking for ids)
  3. Lookup said category in airtable - if does not exist then create a new one
  4. Add entry (from webflow form submition) to database (it’s a live item so it can be updated in the future)
  5. Add item ID - automatically generated by webflow on step 4 - to a field called ID. This looks wrong/dumb but it seems it’s the only way it seems
  6. Format data to be added on step 7
  7. Add new category (its ID actually) to the multi-reference field, because I needed more than one category per entry
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Thanks for the insights.
I’ve been working on this, and it seems like an extra field in an table/Google sheet, is very helpful to get it anytime you want, or for me f.e. it’s also to verify if data has been processed completely.

Can you say anything else about airtable?
Is it an extra (editable) table/database, needed as an ‘in-between’ to make this work well?
And is airtable the best solution in your opinion?

Side Question: Would you happen to know anything about getting XML data into zapier and filter it’s content there?

Currently i’m getting pretty far with integromat, but it’s costly for many ‘items’ to process, which i want to do each day (cross-check if item exists)

Sorry mate I missed this message but wouldn’t be able to help you with XML anyway. I hope you figured it out.

Thanks for replying. I’ve gotten most of it to work with Integromat.
Project will get a greenlight this week or the next - then we will have to figure out a way to (definitively) get this right. So i’ll get back with (hopefully) good results.

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Did you ever get this figured out for Integromat?

Not yet with multi-reference fields, but that has been done before - i believe with the help of Airtable (to store/link the right multi-items). So it is possible.

I was able to get this working using Integromat and an Integromat Data Store, no Airtable needed. :grin: If anyone wants some screen shots let me know and I can post them here.

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I would be really interested in Integromat Data Store since i planned on trying that out as well! That would/could save a lot of time on projects that don’t otherwise need Airtable!

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Ok - will do! I’ll put up a reply to this post in a little while and try to explain what I can. :+1:

Hey all I’ve got an alternate solution to updating a live item multi-reference field. My goal was to simplify the process and use an Integromat Data store instead of involving another app like Airtable.

I’m using a data store to hold ID’s of items for a specific member. Then I can search that data store and retrieve all those items.

I am then using a text aggregator to pull all the item ID’s into a single string and I add double quotes a comma and a single space in that step.

Then using a set variable module with a formula on the text string to create a properly formatted set of ID’s that I’ll pass into webhook and send to Webflow.

That formula is really important because it takes off an extra comma and space at the end of the last item so that it can be accepted by the webhook.

I can now do a direct update of a multi-reference field in webflow using Integromat only, no need for Airtable. At this point the idea I’m working on is to allow my membership subscribers to “like” or “favorite” an item and have those items appear on a dashboard.

Resources:

  1. Ben Parker - https://youtu.be/ujBXAiSVpkU?t=1123
  2. Mackenzie Child - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIbSEa6KqYI
  3. Pixelgeek and Aron Korenbilt - https://youtu.be/cYvnUI4UcHs
  4. Integromat - substring() - String Functions Help Docs | Integromat Help Center
  5. Integromat - text aggregator - Tools App Help Docs | Integromat Help Center
  6. Chris Drit - https://youtu.be/QwBrH5Lq11k

Hope this helps someone! Will be happy to post or reply with any details if needed.

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Nice work @johnematias! Thanks for sharing your walk through :+1:

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Hello, great thread on this topic! I’ve watched the videos and tried setting this up in both Integromat and Zapier but keep getting a Validation 400 Error stating that:
“Your Zap is likely to be missing a required field, or a field value wasn’t in a recognized format. For example, if a field in your action step is expecting an email address, but the value given is a name, the app may return a 400 error.”

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong?
I’ve tried updating a regular text field through a custom webhook patch and that worked fine.
I’ve included some screenshots for reference.

I created a separate column in Airtable to structure the Webflow ID’s as an Array, and am trying to pull those through in the Zap to update Webflow.