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Introducing Interface Designer 🎉


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kuovonne wrote:

Ways to create a new record:



  • in a grid view, the same as a regular grid view (assuming that the filtering allows it)

  • from a linked record field itself (but not in a grid view based on the linked record field)

  • from an automation triggered by a data change in the base


There is no native form view in Interfaces. All data entry needs to be tied to an existing record.


OK, that makes me feel better. I was worried I had missed something very obvious!


Given the level of documentation and the fit-and-finish of the product so far, my expectation is that this will rapidly become a feature-complete UI builder, meaning a form view can’t be that far away… In the mean time I will pine for it. :winking_face:


  • Participating Frequently
  • 26 replies
  • November 10, 2021

I’m astonished !!!


I could easily create interfaces for bases that solved some business cases in a moment with an excellent result. This is a massive improvement and we are super excited to put them to work


THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!!


  • Author
  • Retired Employee
  • 141 replies
  • November 10, 2021
ScottWorld wrote:

Two great videos today, @kuovonne! :grinning_face_with_big_eyes: 🙌


I hope that Airtable can fix that issue of the linked records from 2 child tables away not clearing out when you switch to a different parent record. It looks like it will update linked records from 1 child table away, but not 2 tables away.


@Jordan_Scott1 This would probably be a good issue to share with the developers.


Thank you for flagging - I have shared this with the team! 🙏


  • Known Participant
  • 31 replies
  • November 10, 2021

Exciting times - what would be truly beautiful for the future is if there was a way to share the interface alone without access to the underlying data and if we could create 1 interface bringing together information from multiple bases - now that would be living the dream


  • Known Participant
  • 73 replies
  • November 10, 2021

Just FYI - it looks like the Airtable team added a new section of the forum for Interface Designer!


BobBannanas wrote:

Is there a trick to moving around the elements that I am unaware of? They sort of have a mind of their own and want to snap into place in not-so-good-areas.



The only “trick” that I’ve found is a combination of practice and patience. Especially the patience part. I’m choosing to believe that, as with many elements of this new feature, the interactivity will improve over time.


  • Participating Frequently
  • 6 replies
  • November 10, 2021

Would it be possible to have Elements visible based off of set conditions?

Conditional visibility example… “If {Field X} value is greater than or equal to the number 2, then show Grid Element #1, etc.”.


This would allow me to create more dynamic type of interfaces where I could show more specific elements depending on the type of data needing to be viewed at that time. Picture a Grid to a table where in some cases you only need to see certain fields, and in other cases you only need to see a different set of fields. In my case, it’s checkbox fields.


  • Author
  • Retired Employee
  • 141 replies
  • November 10, 2021
egordin wrote:

Congratulations to the entire Airtable team. This is a HUGE release and I’m so excited about it.


I have a few questions:



  1. Will there be a separate Interface Designer forum category where we can ask questions and submit feedback?

  2. How do we participate in the conditional/branching logic beta test? I didn’t see that in my current automations.


Thanks again to the Airtable team for all of the hard work to get us here!


Hi @egordin - I just created an Interface Designer category so that should be good to go now. In terms of the conditional logic beta, can you send me a DM with your full name, company, job title, and email address? Then I can get you added 🙂


Karlstens
  • Inspiring
  • 601 replies
  • November 10, 2021

Thanks for sharing this new feature @Jordan_Scott1 and Airtable team.



Hoping I’ll have time to tinker some-what this weekend. I noticed that when using a Blank template, that I couldn’t actually achieve the same result as found in “Record Review” template which has a “Record list” element - this “Record List” element isn’t displaying as something that I can insert into a blank template?


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  • Retired Employee
  • 141 replies
  • November 10, 2021
Michelle_King wrote:

Exciting times - what would be truly beautiful for the future is if there was a way to share the interface alone without access to the underlying data and if we could create 1 interface bringing together information from multiple bases - now that would be living the dream


@Michelle_King thank you for this - I have shared with the team! 😍


Databaser
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  • Inspiring
  • 866 replies
  • November 10, 2021
Jordan_Scott1 wrote:

correct, we’re entering beta for adding branching logic to an automation’s actions 😍



WHAAAAAT :exploding_head: 😍 :star_struck: I’m DM-ing for beta!


kuovonne
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  • Brainy
  • 5987 replies
  • November 10, 2021
Karlstens wrote:

Thanks for sharing this new feature @Jordan_Scott1 and Airtable team.



Hoping I’ll have time to tinker some-what this weekend. I noticed that when using a Blank template, that I couldn’t actually achieve the same result as found in “Record Review” template which has a “Record list” element - this “Record List” element isn’t displaying as something that I can insert into a blank template?



Per this (and several other) support pages



The only way to add the Record List element is by selecting the “Record review” layout when initially creating an interface. You can add the Record Picker element at any time from the “All Elements” menu.



  • Author
  • Retired Employee
  • 141 replies
  • November 10, 2021
Karlstens wrote:

Thanks for sharing this new feature @Jordan_Scott1 and Airtable team.



Hoping I’ll have time to tinker some-what this weekend. I noticed that when using a Blank template, that I couldn’t actually achieve the same result as found in “Record Review” template which has a “Record list” element - this “Record List” element isn’t displaying as something that I can insert into a blank template?


@Karlstens LOVE seeing what you’re working on 😍 I’ve got some serious plant envy. Right now, you can access elements like Record list from the layout that is built to support that workflow. As we continue to build this feature, we’ll provide more flexibility in how you can set up your interfaces to make sure you can build exactly what you need! Thank you for sharing that this would be useful for you!


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  • Retired Employee
  • 141 replies
  • November 11, 2021
BobBannanas wrote:

Is there a trick to moving around the elements that I am unaware of? They sort of have a mind of their own and want to snap into place in not-so-good-areas.


@BobBannanas thank you for sharing that this experience could be improved, we will pass it along to the team! Ideally, that is as seamless of an experience as possible. 🙂


  • Author
  • Retired Employee
  • 141 replies
  • November 11, 2021
Abraham_Bochner wrote:

How can I get access to "beta for adding branching logic to an automation’s actions


Please send me a DM with your full name, company name, job title, and email address and I can get this taken care of 🙂


  • Author
  • Retired Employee
  • 141 replies
  • November 11, 2021
Jason_Curtis_Dr wrote:

There seems to be a bug with the Timeline feature when it is connected to a record list. At least in one of my bases.


When I create a Timeline Element and set the Source as the ‘Record list’, only a small number of Fields are available. It seems to be the Fields that are linked to other tables in the bases. Then, when trying to set the ‘Date setting’, nothing is available to select, even though the tab has multiple date fields.


Maybe I’m just not understanding how this works?


Welcome to the community @Jason_Curtis_Droboth - We are so glad that you’re here and thanks for your patience in getting you an answer.



  • essentially, you have table A with all the schedule-able records, with a start and end date field, and table B with a multiple linked record field that links to table A

  • a record list on table B should allow you to select a record on table B, and pass the records in the linked record field to the timeline (these are records of table A)

  • the date options for the timeline should now reflect fields that can be picked on table A , not table B, which may be where the confusion is coming from - because it’s linked to table A, it uses table A’s date fields


I hope this helps 🙂


  • Author
  • Retired Employee
  • 141 replies
  • November 11, 2021
Esabatad_Daeh wrote:

Would it be possible to have Elements visible based off of set conditions?

Conditional visibility example… “If {Field X} value is greater than or equal to the number 2, then show Grid Element #1, etc.”.


This would allow me to create more dynamic type of interfaces where I could show more specific elements depending on the type of data needing to be viewed at that time. Picture a Grid to a table where in some cases you only need to see certain fields, and in other cases you only need to see a different set of fields. In my case, it’s checkbox fields.


Thank you for sharing this @Esabatad_Daeh - this is definitely on the team’s radar and I will make sure this feedback gets passed along!


  • Author
  • Retired Employee
  • 141 replies
  • November 11, 2021
Y_K wrote:

Suggestion: Inconsistent text boxes on interface.

An empty single-line text field shows an empty text box on interface

An empty multi-line text field shows “Start typing…” in the text box on interface.


Would be nice if the two are consistent (i.e. don’t show Start typing…)



Thank you for sharing, I have passed this feedback along to the team!


  • Author
  • Retired Employee
  • 141 replies
  • November 11, 2021
Bill_French wrote:

Great to see that the team has a long horizon concerning accessibility to custom interfaces and a big THANK YOU to the team!


Another aspect of agility is the reusability of interfaces that users create. I assume an interface is bound to a specific base - i.e., the base it was created it. Are such interfaces portable to other bases? Or, are they bound to the data? Slightly relevant…





Thanks so much for your thoughtful responses @Bill.French - Interfaces are tied to bases, but have shared this feedback with the team!


  • Author
  • Retired Employee
  • 141 replies
  • November 11, 2021
Olpy_Acaflo wrote:

Hello @Jordan_Scott1


I am AIRTABLE Pro paid Plan and the only Editor of my Bases.


Here’s my Original Table & Content : text & pictures as usual in my AIRTABLE most frequent use cases…



I made my tests by sharing my first interfaces attempts in readOnly mode with my spam email address as one says on certain social networks Apps 🙂


This user (it is me too) previously unknown of AIRTABLE opened my email, clicked on my link of interface sharing and obtained it in his workspace



after having made a SignUp towards a new AIRTABLE Free Tier, which is in fact a trial of 14 days of a Pro Tier.


All this works very well : very better show UX than ever got from some third-part Grids, Galleries interfaces I tried before learning html/CSS/js by the hard way (Work In Progress).



except that this User can see all my Base, all that it contains, because of 2 links to reach this Base present in the new AIRTABLE Interface UI




and



I would like these links and SHARE button never exist in that shared Interface real estate (subsequent to REACT Components reUsability ?) but it is out-of-scope of this message.


Does the visibility of my Interface generated from my Pro Plan Account but shared with an email address that just opened an Airtable Free-Tier account to enjoy it in Read-Only mode get an unlimited LifeTime or will it disappear after 14 days, at the end of the 14 days Trial of the new Free Tier involved in this test?


How long will I be able to share some new Interfaces with that AIRTABLE Free Tier as I’m publishing from my Pro Plan AIRTABLE account ?


I totally agree to spent more money involving my present Pro Tier to AIRTABLE in a future end of BETA time, but I would continue to share free ReadOnly interfaces to Free-Tiers as I’m already doing that with my shared & embedded VIEWs, from a long time, and outside of any AIRTABLE workspace, Free or Paid Plan : WEB Browser is enough to take a look at any of my shared readOnly VIEWS.

But new AIRTABLE Interface Designer is such better than any existing GRID, GAL, KANBAN existing VIEW that I definitely prefer continue building new Airtable Interfaces !


Regards,


olπ


Thank you for sharing this @Olpy_Acaflo - your interfaces look awesome! To clarify, we will not restrict use of any interface you build, regardless of your Airtable plan. You will be able to view, edit, and use any interface you create during the beta period, even once we move into GA. You should feel free to create and use interfaces without concern that those interfaces be subject to clawbacks or restrictions.


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  • Retired Employee
  • 141 replies
  • November 11, 2021
Chef_Rude wrote:

When trying to build some interfaces, Its nice that I can for example “count the number of unchecked” records. But I would love to be able to count “checked” ones too.


Being limited to “percent of checked” is not that helpful when it says “6%” but the actual count is “2”. In my use case “2” is much more useful number than 6% and its forcing me to omit data points in the dashboards because I dont have valuable data points that are clearer for my purposes.


The same holds true for other fields, see image, I can do “empty” and “unique” but not “filled”.



Thank you for sharing this feedback, it’s super helpful and has been shared with the team.


  • New Participant
  • 2 replies
  • November 11, 2021

Thanks for the announcement … I had noticed the little magic new button and immediately tested it.


If I understand correctly, the big news is that now you can create an EDITABLE form without using complex methods or external plugins, is that correct?


I also noticed that by sharing an interface my collaborator have now access to ALL MY BASE TABLES! Doens’t sound good. Is there a way to only share the interface?


Thanks!


Dario


  • Inspiring
  • 251 replies
  • November 11, 2021
Jordan_Scott1 wrote:

Thank you for sharing this @Olpy_Acaflo - your interfaces look awesome! To clarify, we will not restrict use of any interface you build, regardless of your Airtable plan. You will be able to view, edit, and use any interface you create during the beta period, even once we move into GA. You should feel free to create and use interfaces without concern that those interfaces be subject to clawbacks or restrictions.


Thank you for your answer @Jordan_Scott1 !

It’s AIRTABLE DEV Team that we have to thank for this beautiful interface because it’s one of your templates ! 🙂

On the other hand it suits perfectly to my use case :

I had not experienced such UX / UI in solutions of GRID or GALERIES proposed

“built on top of AIRTABLE’s public REST API” because in any case, my Image was never seen in a full true responsive way, so in this use case, I’m already very happy without any other settings!


I will continue to give you feedback when the opportunity appears but in the specialized section:



Regards,


oLπ


ScottWorld
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  • Brainy
  • 8705 replies
  • November 11, 2021
Dario_Rota wrote:

Thanks for the announcement … I had noticed the little magic new button and immediately tested it.


If I understand correctly, the big news is that now you can create an EDITABLE form without using complex methods or external plugins, is that correct?


I also noticed that by sharing an interface my collaborator have now access to ALL MY BASE TABLES! Doens’t sound good. Is there a way to only share the interface?


Thanks!


Dario



Interfaces are only accessible to collaborators at this time. Collaborators have always had access to all of your base tables.


In other words, interfaces is not a “security layer” in Airtable. It’s just a new “design layer”.


  • Inspiring
  • 3264 replies
  • November 11, 2021
Jordan_Scott1 wrote:

Thank you for sharing this @Olpy_Acaflo - your interfaces look awesome! To clarify, we will not restrict use of any interface you build, regardless of your Airtable plan. You will be able to view, edit, and use any interface you create during the beta period, even once we move into GA. You should feel free to create and use interfaces without concern that those interfaces be subject to clawbacks or restrictions.



For those of you who appreciate this warrantee of access to your Interfaces into the future, know also that Jordan is obviously very-well versed in the risks associated with beta launches. Her use of the term “clawback” in this context would only come from a professional steeped in the challenges of managing customer expectations. I love the subtle insights about the team that is emerging at Airtable. Impressive tech, and impressive people.


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