Forum Discussion

JamesCarr's avatar
JamesCarr
Qrew Assistant Captain
10 months ago

Do Bulk Records Pipelines Make Simultaneous Updates?

When bulk records are handled in a pipeline, are all of the applicable records updated simultaneously? Will they have the same modified date and time? 

I have notifications setup to be triggered when a date field is updated. I have a formula checkbox field used to identify the most recent record associated with an email address field value. The most recent record may not be the one that gets updated along with other records with the same email address field value. I don't want the email notification being sent before other associated records are updated. I am looking at using Bulk Record steps to reduce the number of pipeline steps I am currently using as well as handle everythingmore efficiently. I just need to know if I would be safe having the date field updated on the most recent record with the other potential changes without worrying about the email being triggered before all applicable updates are made.

Thank you, in advance for any input. Let me know if I need to provide a visual and/or more clarification on what I am looking to accomplish.

Pipelines

4 Replies

  • Maria's avatar
    Maria
    Community Manager
    10 months ago

    Hmm... this is an interesting one. I don't believe we can rely on the timestamp to be the same for all the records. The records each take some time to process, and we also can't rely on them getting updated in order, so the timestamps will definitely be off by seconds, if not minutes. 

    Have you considered adding a step to the end of this pipeline to tick a checkbox that triggers the notification? That way it's the last thing done by the pipeline. 

  • JamesCarr's avatar
    JamesCarr
    Qrew Assistant Captain
    4 months ago

    Looking back on this post, the answer is, yes.  Bulk record steps are for updating multiple records simultaneously.  Thank you for chiming in and trying to help, Maria.  Sorry I never responded.

    • JimHarrison's avatar
      JimHarrison
      Qrew Champion
      4 months ago

      To be a little more precise. Even bulk record upserts are limited to the number of records that can change at a time. There is a QB Help article on limitations I recommend referencing, use the help to look it up. Because of this limitation, there will be differences in timestamp data on larger data sets. 

      • JamesCarr's avatar
        JamesCarr
        Qrew Assistant Captain
        4 months ago

        Acknowledged.  To your point, I have noticed with a larger set of records that there might be a slight difference in seconds for some records when looking at the date modified. It's still awful close and good enough for me for now.