Obstruction Identifier
Identifying all locations that overlap based on their latitude and longitude
View the solution base hereBase Details
Locationstable- A list of locations, each record containing latitude and longitude coordinates
- A list of locations, each record containing latitude and longitude coordinates
Submissionstable- Tied to a form where users can submit new locations with their latitude and longitude coordinate
- Tied to a form where users can submit new locations with their latitude and longitude coordinate
Scope
Upon submission of a form with latitude and longitude coordinates, we needed to identify all records from the Locations table that could possibly have an overlap and link these records to the original submission record.
The Solution
We first created a few formula fields to calculate a tolerance zone around the submitted point. Any Location records that fell within this tolerance zone were considered to possibly have overlap.
For this example, we used a tolerance zone of 40 feet in each direction. We converted 40 feet into latitude by dividing 40 feet by 364,000 feet (one degree of latitude), and 40 feet by 288,200 feet (one degree of longitude)
We then added and deducted these amounts from the submitted cooordinates to get the tolerance zones around them.
We then created an automation that would run on form submission, that would do the following:
Find records from
Locationwhere the record's latitude AND longitude coordinates fell within said tolerance zone
Link the records found in the previous step to the original form submission record
This allowed the client to pull data from the affected Location records directly via lookups and rollups.
"
I work for a small pipeline company, and we needed a way to be able to input a latitude and longitude (lat/long) into a new Airtable record and lookup against about 45,000 records (joints of pipe) to provide a cross reference between the records that were in very close proximity.
Simple enough question, but the solution eluded my talents with Airtable.
I posted the problem to the Airtable Community, and Adam replied within hours to let me know that he thought he could solve it.
Once we got together via Zoom to review the challenges, he was able to solve this thought-provoking problem using Java Scripting initially, but eventually applying Airtable’s built in automation tools to create the final solution. I was grateful that he had gone through each level of the solution process with me because it provided a solid understanding on why using automation over scripting was right for our challenge.
Adam’s help with our project will ensure not only that our company will save time in using the Airtable, but that our data applications will be of much greater fidelity than our current process.
He was friendly, engaged and focused on the problem, knowledgeable and dedicated to helping me find not just the quick answer to my coding challenge, but ensured that the solution we arrived at was the right one.
In engaging in the solution process with me, Adam proved to me his high level of proficiency with both Airtable and Java Scripting.
I will be reaching out to The Time Saving Company in the future with any new challenges I face in this realm.