Parallel processing with Smartsheet

Questions & Answers
1

Hi All,

Since moving from Integromat to Make we are happy (in general) with the default of parallel processing of scenarios. However in some cases this causes issues with certain Apps (such as Smartsheet) where there are issues with performing multiple update requests in one hit. Specifically the error shown is; ‘Request failed because sheetId {0} is currently being updated by another request that uses the same access token. Please retry your request once the previous request has completed.’. Due to this, many of the Smartsheet workflows now produce this error, more commonly when there are multiple flows happening simultaniously performing updates on the same sheet.

Previously in Integromat this was never an issue as it always ran all webhooks in sequence.

The help guide states that to “fix” this the admin needs to change the scenario to “Sequential Processing”, this does fix the problem but it introduces a new one. The sequential processing option will cause ALL error handlers that are in a “break” state to completly pause the scenario until an admin fixes the problem. Causing future runs of the scenario to not work.

As such the “workaround” for this feature causes its own problems and we cannot find a suitable workaound at present. Either the scenarios will fail constantly due to the parallel processing, or a failed scenario will stop all future processing on the scenario.

Has anybody encountered anything similar and has anyone figured out a workaround to this?

2

Yeah it is a big problem that I have brought up many times. It seems like Make team is working on a permanent solution but it is several months away.

One workaround is to have a first scenario with a webhook and and http module that runs sequentially (and unlikely to fail) that trigger a second scenario, your actual scenario. It’s a pretty ugly workaround but if you have no other option.

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3

Thanks Loic, that is a little horendous but im glad im not the only person that noticed this! That gives me some hope. Did they actually confirm that they were definitely working on a fix for this?

4

The “horrendous” adjective made me laugh, so true. This problem has been a pet peeve of mine for months now. I got the information from a trusted source at Make so I am confident it will happen.

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