New WeWeb-backend - updating with action

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1

Hi,

For a new very simple project, data will be made available (from someone else - exported from a website) as an Excel-file (or as CSV) with weekly updates.

I can create a Weweb-backend (table) with the structure if the Excel/CSV-file.

But is it possible to build an action (linked to a button in my (frontend-app)) to replace the existing rows in the Weweb-table with the rows of an updated Excel/csv-file?

Help with some screenshots would be nice.

Wim

2

Hey @WimDC :waving_hand:

Let me see if I understand the use case:

  • Let’s say you have a csv file and a weweb with three columns: name, description, last_updated
  • On Monday, the values in the WeWeb table are [{name: “apple”, description: “fruit I don’t like”, last_updated: “2026-04-13”}, {name: “banana”, description: “much better”, last_updated: “2026-04-13”}]
  • On Tuesday the values in the csv are different and, when the user clicks on the button in WeWeb, you want the new values of the csv to be reflected in the WeWeb table, for example: [{name: “apple”, description: “actually they’re not so bad”, last_updated: “2026-04-14”}, {name: “banana”, description: “a little better”, last_updated: “2026-04-14”}]

Is that right?

3

Hi @Joyce ,

That’s almost correct, but…

  • new lines (records) from the csv-file must be added too
  • it’s (in my case) not necessary to really “sync” both the weweb-table and the csv-file. If the action-button could replace all records in the Weweb-table with all the records from the (new) csv-file that would be very good.

I hope this can be done with a weweb-action. :crossed_fingers:

Wim

4

Hey @WimDC :waving_hand:

We don’t have a “replace all records” in the weweb table at the moment but you can achieve the same result with a loop.

Here’s a short video walking you through the process: https://www.tella.tv/video/parse-csv-and-update-table-1-8y14

Let me know if that helps or if anything is unclear :slight_smile:

5

Thanks for the suggestion and I will try it later (now on holiday)

Wim

6

My pleasure :slight_smile: Enjoy your holiday !!

7

Hi Joyce,

The past days, I watched your video 10+ times trying to reproduce it with my csv-file. Trying but not succeeding…

The problem is the split-action to determine if a record already exists. (I even tried with the build-in AI-assistent to find a correct formula)

  1. API-workflow

Maybe I’m wrong but in your example, the csv-file seems to have an ID-field and updating/inserting rows depend on a (not-) empty ID-field.

But in my case, the weekly updated csv-file is generated from scratch and has no ID-field. Below a screenshot with part of my data.

Screenshot_20260426-122118
Screenshot_20260426-1221181080Ă—2246 122 KB

So on update, Weweb should check for every value of “Fietsnr” (row) in the csv-file if that value (record) already exists in the Weweb-table. I tried with a loop within a loop but without success.

  1. File Upload

How do I link the uploaded csv-file (from my interface) to the function and api-workflow ?

Thanks a lot for helping !!

Wim

8

Hey @WimDC :waving_hand:

If you’re struggling with this, I’d suggest a few options:

  1. sharing a video on here showing us the exact steps you took, how things are setup and when you get the error. alternatively, you can share that in the support chat if you’d rather keep things private and want the team to be able to open the project directly
  2. attending one of our Tuesday office hours to get in-person hands-on help
  3. booking a private coaching session with someone from a WeWeb expert. Those are paid but can work wonders for quick upskilling

Can you share more about what you tried and where you’re stuck?

9

Hi @Joyce

  1. Linking the csv-file to the API-workflow now works = OK
  2. Updating > I changed the workflow so it first deletes all records in my table and then (loop) adds all parsed rows from my new csv-file.

Wim

10

Hey @WimDC :waving_hand:

Ok cool, nice workaround!

If you want to improve the flow a little bit and avoid deleting everything before recreating all records, here’s a video detailing how you can update single records even if you don’t have IDs in your CSV:

Let me know if it helps :slight_smile:

PS: I’d recommend duplicating your workflow before attempting any change so you don’t lose what’s already working!

11

Thanks for the suggestion; I will keep it in mind if something gets wrong with my current workflow.