[Solved] Airtable "get value from cell" block returns cached data [June 2022]

[201108sqz]

when I update the new value of an airtable cell, it remains the old one when I retrieves it. why indeed?

[jared]

I’ve seen this before, just. tested and can confirm. I will be filing an internal bug report. thank you

as a workaround, i tested the Get Row Object block which returned updated values as expected. You can use it like this by using the get property of object block. the property will be the cell name (exactly as it is written in airtable)

Test project Here

[tatiang]

Glad to hear you’re filling an internal bug report. The Get Row Object block does seem more consistent but I’ve had problems with it recently, too, so I hope your engineers will also put it through its paces with Airtable and Google Sheets.

Thankable x how can i refresh auto screen all way

I’m having problems with Get Value and even Get Row Object not getting current values from Airtable. I can see the value of the cell in Airtable and when I do a Get Value from three instances of the same project (web app, browser preview, and Thunkable Live), there are different values shown for the same code blocks (Get Value or Get Row Object). For example, I would think these blocks would create a new row in Airtable (they do), set the Game ID value of the new row (they do), find the row # o…

[tristan.bonnotparent]

Hey!
I did some digging and it seems to be a bug that was initially fixed and has recently started again. The “Get Value” and “Get row object” blocks with Googles Sheet Data Source only update if you close the whole app. When you stay on the app, the data remains in cache and does not update.

Do any of you have the same issue?

[muneer]

I just checked and I can see get row block works

These are the blocks that reads the existing values

These are the blocks to change and test

[jared]

There is an open bug for that block

Airtable "get value from cell" block returns cached data [June 2022]

I’ve seen this before, just. tested and can confirm. I will be filing an internal bug report. thank you as a workaround, i tested the Get Row Object block which returned updated values as expected. You can use it like this by using the get property of object block. the property will be the cell name (exactly as it is written in airtable) Test project Here [Screen Shot 2022-06-03 at 10.35.40 AM]

You can use the get row block. Here is an example app showing that use case

https://x.thunkable.com/projects/62d1a408bcf1f100112a7d0b/41aa55eb-6b18-409c-8d80-aaca66beb19d/blocks

[tatiang]

@Jared_Gibb @domhnallohanlon Where are we with this bug? It’s been months now and it seems like it’s still not a reliable block. I just tried to Get Value from a Google Sheet and it kept retrieving a cached value. If I get the row object, it has the correct data but I’d really like to be able to use Update/Get Value blocks as intended.

[simonwriteclubdi]

Hi all,

Ive been having this same issue. Ive tried as suggested and i have used ‘get object’ instead but still using old data not live data.

Im trying to create a multiplayer quiz with answers stored on google sheets, so when some clicks a button that says reveal answers if the answers are not all submitted it will say ‘please wait’ but once answers are completed on google sheets then it will present them. This works the first time you click if all answers are in, but if it fetches answers and then you click again to fetch new data it cannot tell that it is complete as it is using old data.

Any suggestions as to what i might be doing wrong would be very helpful and any work arounds as well would be good.

[tatiang]

I’ve been really hesitant to use Google Sheets or Airtable because of this issue. I’ve spent hours debugging what I thought must have been a coding mistake only to realize that it’s just due to old data values.

I wish Thunkable Staff would give a definitive answer about this bug. I’ve seen it mentioned as being fixed but it’s not. It still happens with both the Get Value block and the Get Row block.

So my solution isn’t great but it’s to rely completely on Firebase. It’s fast and reliable but the learning curve is kind of steep.

[simonwriteclubdi]

Thank you. Yeah, it is kind of a big problem they need to solve. Excuse my ignorance, but does that mean get value/get object works with firebase or that you need other methods with firebase to make it work?

[tatiang]

You need other methods. You don’t use the Data Source blocks at all. You just set/get Firebase values using cloud variable blocks. You can see some examples of that here:

How to create a cloud variable listener for a sub-bucket?

Can you explain by giving an example? There are two different types of each of the variable classes. Cloud variables can be static (design time) or dynamic (run time) Static variables can be declared as follows: [image] Dynamic variables can be used as part of the code, like this [image] or check the value like this [image] I’m not sure if this answers your question but I thought it is nice to know

Replace GET or SAVE Blocks with cloud variables

I just discovered a VERY simple and fast way to get and set Firebase data without using the GET or SAVE blocks (which has all sorts of asynchronous issues). The 2 any button click blocks below return the same data. Just put the GET block KEY variable into the CLOUD variable name and PRESTO. You have a synchronous call to firebase! [image] Similarly, you can set data anywhere in the JSON Hierarchy using cloud variables. Both of the examples below update Firebase, but the CLOUD based solution…

I don’t use the RealtimeDB blocks, I just use the variable blocks with Firebase.

[simonwriteclubdi]

Thank you so much, and i really appreciate your time. I have been looking through all that this morning and starting to make sense to me. Just one last question if you dont mind. When i save data to firebase using cloud variable, will that save to the database linked to the app or will it save to an individual database linked to the whichever user has signed in to the app. Sorry if that is stupid question!

[tatiang]

The way Firebase works is that data is stored in key:value pairs as JSON. Beyond that, you can organize it however you like since it’s not a row/column formatted database.

To allow each user to store their own data, users will need to authenticate (sign in). See this: Email Sign In by Firebase - Thunkable Docs

[simonwriteclubdi]

Great, thank you! That makes sense. Ive set up a sign in for users for firebase already, so will now look into how i save data for app and on individual user accounts as well, as i need users to share certain data, which i will do on main database and keep some private stuff too. Will play around next couple of days.

[slothball]

I have spent weeks debugging my app only to realise, having now read this thread, that the app will read cached airtable values rather than the Airtable value, unless you quit the app and re-start.

Has this issue still not been fixed? I see that this has been an outstanding problem for years. If so, it makes the Airtable connectivity of limited value, and I would expect there to be some warning in the documentation to this effect.

My app reads exchange rate data in columns from a web service and saves these in a table which the app then accesses. The app is pointed to columns labelled with three letter currency abbreviations, and row number. Is there any easy way to replicate this using Firebase, which I understand from @tatiang’s message above, is not a row/column formatted database?

Very frustrating.

[ioannis]

Hello @slothball
Thank you for sharing more information. Unfortunately, with the get value block, this is by design (i.e., we don’t want to refresh the database every time you use the “Get value” block) since all the Data Sources (Google Sheets, Airtable, and Webflow) have limits for the number of times the API can be called.
You could use the Web API and Authorization header for blocks to get the new data.

[slothball]

Hi @ioannis - thanks for this. In relation to the Web API and authorisation header, I thought that Web API and Airtable no longer worked because it had been deprecated? Apologies if I have misunderstood this.

[ioannis]

Hi @slothball , Yes Airtable blocks have been deprecated but we created the Authorization header for block.
You can find more information here: Airtable’s API keys will be deprecated by Airtable - Announcements - Community

[slothball]

Hi @ioannis - thanks for this explanation, but I am now confused!

My app originally used the Web API blocks for my app. I had a question about about this, which you answered here:

Airtable's API keys will be deprecated by Airtable

Hello @slothball The Airtable blocks you have are connected to Airtable via API key at the moment. This means that needs to be replaced with the Data Sources blocks. ​

As a result, I have been reworking the part of my app that relates to using Airtable and then I stumbled across this problem with the cache, which is really problematic.

Am I right to understand that I could actually retain my former WebAPI blocks for Airbase but use this “authorisation header” to make it work? If so, do I have to insert this header before each older Web API blocks to make it work?

Thanks for your help - I have managed to get really confused with this, when it seems the solution to my original problem might be quite easy?