Is there a simpler way to get Cloudinary URLs from Airtable?

Questions about Thunkable
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I need to store images in Cloudinary, then store their URLs in Airtable, then I need to read the URL back from Airtable and set a picture to that URL. The process is straightforward enough until I add a necessary twist.
The straightforward process is:

  • create a new row in Airtable with the “Photo URL” and other properties (eg image description) and a formula field that shows the Rec_id
  • Store the Rec_id in Thunkable
  • find the row in Airtable by downloading and searching the Rec_id column
  • get the row and set the image to the property “Photo URL”

The necessary twist is that I write the Photo URL to one table in Airtable, and read it back from a different table that uses a lookup field to find the “Photo URL” in the first table. In Airtable the field containing the URL shows the URL as normal. However, when I get the property “Photo” of the row and set the image to this, it doesn’t work. After a bit of digging I worked out that the property that comes back is not simply the URL, it is an array, with one item in it - the URL. To set the image I came up with this workaround:

Screenshot 2020-08-28 at 17.15.56
Screenshot 2020-08-28 at 17.15.56898×138 17.2 KB

Similarly I noticed that to search for a linked Name (actually a Rec_id) in a list of Rec_ids I had to convert the ‘list’ (an array with one item) to text like this:
Screenshot 2020-08-28 at 17.17.13
Screenshot 2020-08-28 at 17.17.131330×130 19.8 KB

Is there a more elegant and/or reliable solution than this?
I have lots of data that is saved and searched in a similar fashion. When it’s just text this workaround is needed.
Any suggestions appreciated.

2

The complexity of working with data depends on the type of column. Try making the column type as Single Line Text, which is the easiest to work with.

1 Like
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to access a list with one item, you can simply use “in list _ get #1” block. not sure what “Making text from list” will yield. But actech is right, need to understand what type of column you defined. Easiest is simply Single Line Text.

If not single line text type, It is worth loading response value onto a label (possibly using “generate JSON from object” to understand what you are dealing with before trying to access it.