Automate io & Deleting Data from Smartsheet

Alex Lubow · 07/27/20

I just recently started using automate io and just recently ran into some major issues. Automate io allows you to create a bot with the trigger of 'New Row' so anytime a new row is created on a sheet, it will trigger the bot. Soon after setting it up, my bot stopped triggering, every time I created a new row (using a smartsheet form) the bot wouldn't trigger. Automate io looked into it and got back to me.

Basically what they told me, is that I should not be deleting data from my sheet. They told me that every time a row is created it is given a 'created at' stamp in the API. When I delete a row from my sheet, the row disappears but it never loses it's 'create at' stamp in the API. Therefore if I make a new row, and the new row was one that was previously deleted, the API gets sent to Automate io with it's existing 'created at' stamp and therefore the bot sees it not as a new row but as an updated row.

This was pretty frustrating to learn, for not being able to delete a row from my smartsheet is an impossible ask; especially when my smartsheet caps at 5000 rows.

Can you confirm that what they are telling me regarding the API and the created at stamp are correct?
Do you have any better suggestions on how to remove data from a sheet and by doing so also deleting the created by stamp?

I look forward to your reply.

Andrée Starå · 07/29/20

Hi @Alex Lubow

The limit for the number of rows has been raised recently to 20 000.

Would that help for your process?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Alex Lubow · 07/29/20

Hey Andrée,

The number of rows now being 20,000 helps the problem, but is certainly does not solve it. I physically cannot delete a row from my sheet until this issue is solved with Smartsheet's API. Again if I delete a row from my sheet, the API does not remove the created at date of the row in the API so then if I add a new row, it's technically not seen as a new row because the created at date still exists.

This is screwing up all of the bots that I have set up in automate io to trigger when a 'new row' is created. Again, unless smartsheet can change this in their API, I cannot use this trigger in automate io if I plan to delete rows on my sheet (which I definitely need to do!)

Does this make sense? I am already in communication with Automate IO and they are willing to discuss fixing this integration with someone at smartsheet, I just need to see if this is something Smartsheet would be willing to troubleshoot with us.

Until this issue is fixed, Smartsheet does not work seamlessly with automate io.

Andrée Starå · 08/01/20

@Alex Lubow

Yes, that makes sense.

If you haven’t already, I would recommend that you reach out to the Smartsheet Support Team.

Alex Lubow · 08/05/20

@Andrée Starå - Yes I did reach out to Smartsheet Support, they are just very slow at getting back to me.

Andrée Starå · 08/11/20

@Alex Lubow

How did it go?

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Rich Coles · 06/12/21

Hi @Alex Lubow and @Andrée Starå - I appreciate this is an old thread but I’ve been looking at the same question.. I am going to trial a potential solution using Data Shuttle.

My thinking is that I can automate an export of the data from the sheet using the Offload workflow, then set a schedule to run after download to re-upload but filtering out the data I no longer need using the filter function on the upload.

Did you find a solution without too many other interventions?

Rich

Rich Coles · 06/14/21

Just tested my suggestion with a basic data set and is working on manual. To make this work properly, I will set a schedule to download when the data is not changing (ie 3am) and then upload filtered data an hour later (ie 4am)

Automate io & Deleting Data from Smartsheet

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