Make.com: Field name changes break scenarios
Y
Yari Schutzer
In make.com, if I create a scenario and all works, it will definitely break if I change the name of the field at a later time in SmartSuite. This is unusual behavior compared to competition like AirTable where it checks the name, and if it doesn't match, it updates it based on field ID.
For a simple example, in SmartSuite I'll have a field called "Project Name". I'll create a make.com scenario and have a module look at "Project Name" and use it to move data. However, if I decide that in SmartSuite the column "Project Name" takes up too much width, and just "Project" is a better name, my make script will now break. I'll find out because my scripts will get errors and/or gaps in the information. If this were just 1 module I fix by hand in one scenario, no big deal. However, if I use that field in multiple places in a single scenario as well as multiple other scenarios, its a problem.
In AirTable, when a field's title no longer matches, make.com has the correct programming to query AirTable and get the updated name, so a rename of a column is dynamic.
C
Colleen Deal
Another part of this is that if you add additional fields after setting up a scenario, the scenario won't be able to find them and you'll have to re-create the scenario from scratch to include the new fields. I have a form generator that creates a Google Doc with 80 data from different fields. However, I've added 5-10 fields since then and I can't include any of those new fields in the form generator.
Donald Mitchell
In Make, when you select a field name from a list of fields, you select the name while Make stores the id/slug. Changing the name of a field should not affect the Make scenario because the underlying slug does not change.
I’d be very curious to see exactly how your scenario is configured and which modules it is using that results in such a failure by changing a field name.
Jon Darbyshire
Hiya Yari Schutzer, thanks for sharing with us! Following up on this:
- Can you provide more details about the impact of this issue on your workflow?
- Are there any specific scenarios where this issue is more prevalent?
- Do you have any suggestions on how you'd like this issue to be resolved based on your experience with similar platforms?