Zap to time duration field

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1

I created a Zapier automation that sends a Savvycal event (Calendly like) to a database.

The field created receives the duration of the event, available in the Savvycal Zap in minutes. Strangely enough, a 60 minute event is transformed into a 1 minute event on Baserow. I’ve tested the same Zap in parallel on Airtable and there’s no problem, 60 minutes is correctly interpreted as an hour.

I don’t understand what’s wrong with Baserow.

2

Hi!

Can you tell which duration format you’re using for the field in Baserow?

4

I am using h:mm format

5

Thanks.

Could you provide a sample of values you have in Baserow?

6

https://baserow.io/public/grid/l92epD6qZmWufCiR5y4rV7N3nkAv3Vtjn-8aAhcTCQc

You will notice a record with only 1 minute duration, this is the one created from Zapier with Savvycal.

Savvycal send duration of 60 minutes but Baserow turned it into a 1 minute event.

7

Thanks!

Were other values in the table also created with this integration? Is this misinterpretation spurious or a constant behavior? Was it working correctly before or was the duration misinterpreted from the start?

8

There are currently 3 records in the database with this problem. These are the 3 records created with Zapier.
All the other records have been imported from Airtable.

So I’d say that this is constant behaviour and that the system has never worked properly.

(I’m in the process of migrating from Airtable to Baserow, so I’m testing the automations)

9

Ok. So, the question now is what value is sent from Zapier. Are you able to track specific payloads sent from Zapier to Baserow?

A strictly numeric value (like 60) is understood by Baserow API as a number of seconds. Duration field also accept strings with formatted interval, like 1h or 1:00:00 which will be parsed to proper duration values.

There’s API documentation available for each database:

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10

If Zapier sends duration value as a number of minutes, and you can’t change that in any way, then you may want to try following workaround:

  • instead of duration field, use numeric field, just for the integration
  • create a formula field and use toduration(field('numbder_field_name' * 60)) formula to create a derived value.
  • numeric field can be hidden, use formula field to operate on duration value
11

Ok so I understand the bug. Savvycal provied a duration in minutes : 60 mn. But weirdly Airtable understand correctly that.

I will reach Savvycal support so that they update their duration format.

12

I’m not very familiar with Zapier, but maybe you can process duration value there as well with formatter’s math operations?

See https://community.zapier.com/featured-articles-65/formatter-features-math-operations-11193

13

Yes, of course. In fact, it’s not a bug.

What’s strange is Baserow’s choice to use seconds as the entry for the duration field. I think minutes would have been more logical. Typically the api of booking tools like Calendly, Cal.com etc send durations in minutes.