No path back to referenced node

I’m working, on what I thought would be a very simple workflow, but have been lost for hours trying to remove duplicates when comparing a RSS Feed and items in NocoDB.

Describe the problem/error/question

Why can’t I compare the title from the RSS Feed and NocoDB?

What is the error message (if any)?

I can’t seem to connect the 2 original data sources together to check duplicates.

Please share your workflow

Share the output returned by the last node

No path back to referenced node [item 0]

There is no connection back to the node ‘NocoDB - GET - Articles’, but it’s used in an expression here.

Please wire up the node (there can be other nodes in between).

Information on your n8n setup

  • Self hosted using docker
  • Latest version

It looks like your topic is missing some important information. Could you provide the following if applicable.

  • n8n version:
  • Database (default: SQLite):
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main):
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app):
  • Operating system:
  • n8n version: 1.42.1
  • Database (default: SQLite): SQLite
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main): own, main
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): docker
  • Operating system: ubuntu 22.04

I’ve tried a variety of methods (Filter, If, Compare Datasets) and run into the same issue with each one:

No path back to referenced node.

I tried connecting the source node to the comparison node but that didn’t work either.

It seems like a bug or I am just completely missing something I should have configured.

Hi @AlexK1919

Thanks for posting here and welcome to the community! :tada:

I’m really trying but cannot replicate the error you are seeing. So the issue is with the If Node? Can you share a screenshot of the error?

And ideally, would you be able to share your workflow with some pinned test data (make sure it’s not sensitive data).

Hi @ria ,
Thanks for the quick response.

Steps:

  1. Get RSS Feed
  2. Get Articles in NocoDB
  3. Merge both
  4. Remove duplicates based on All Fields except content:encoded, dc:creator, content, contentSnippet, guid, isoDate
  5. Use IF node to see if an article already exists

    ** This is where the error occurs **
    I can’t compare {{ $(‘NocoDB - GET - Articles’).item.json.title }} with {{ $(‘RSS Feed’).item.json.title }}

I’m checking the following:

  1. No Id
  2. Summary is empty
  3. Title does not already exist

These 3 conditions SHOULD filter out existing articles in NocoDB but n8n isn’t allowing me to compare the 2 source data sets

I figured it out…

Went with the Code node and used the following to dedupe:

// Get the existing articles from the previous node
const existingArticles = $items(“NocoDB - GET - Articles”).map(item => item.json);
const newArticles = $items(“Filter”).map(item => item.json);

// Create a Set of existing article titles for quick lookup
const existingTitles = new Set(existingArticles.map(article => article.title));

// Filter out new articles that already exist
const filteredNewArticles = newArticles.filter(article => !existingTitles.has(article.title));

// Return the filtered new articles
return filteredNewArticles.map(article => ({ json: article }));

2 Likes

Awesome! Thanks for posting your resolution :partying_face:

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