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Records per base confusion

  • August 21, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 39 views
A

Hi,

I’d like to use airtable for a Chat messaging app but when i see the pricing page and it says 5000 records per base i am wondering how to set up the base and tables to ensure i don’t go beyond the limit.

As chat messaging between members will be very frequent it will keep adding the comments as rows. Is there any way to insert the new comments/chats in a more optimal way to ensure we don’t hit the limit soon? Any tutorial link for Chat/message oriented app?

Anothr question i have is if we use a filter date (say records > 30 days), the filtered table shows lesser number of records. So, does Airtable treat the current records after the filter is applied or will it consider the unfiltered records?

3 replies

ScottWorld
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  • ScottWorld
  • Genius
  • August 21, 2020

Airtable allows you to chat (i.e. make comments, tag each other, etc.) in the Activity Feed for each record. I don’t think that there’s a limit to the chats there, but I’m not sure.

However, if you’re trying to use Airtable as a messaging app, I personally think that’s a really bad idea. That’s not what Airtable is best suited for, and it’s not even what Airtable is designed for.

That’s what an app like Slack is designed for, and you can even integrate Airtable with Slack in a variety of different ways.

Airtable has 2 Slack integrations built into it: one and two. And you can further integrate Slack by using Integromat or Zapier, or by writing your own custom JavaScript to communicate with Slack’s API.

No, you can’t hack the record limit by filtering records.

Again, I would highly recommend against you using Airtable as a chat app. It’s a poor use of Airtable.

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A
  • ahan_viv
  • Author
  • New Participant
  • August 21, 2020

Airtable allows you to chat (i.e. make comments, tag each other, etc.) in the Activity Feed for each record. I don’t think that there’s a limit to the chats there, but I’m not sure.

However, if you’re trying to use Airtable as a messaging app, I personally think that’s a really bad idea. That’s not what Airtable is best suited for, and it’s not even what Airtable is designed for.

That’s what an app like Slack is designed for, and you can even integrate Airtable with Slack in a variety of different ways.

Airtable has 2 Slack integrations built into it: one and two. And you can further integrate Slack by using Integromat or Zapier, or by writing your own custom JavaScript to communicate with Slack’s API.

No, you can’t hack the record limit by filtering records.

Again, I would highly recommend against you using Airtable as a chat app. It’s a poor use of Airtable.


Thanks @ScottWorld for the reply.

I am trying to build an app using Bubble as frontend and Airtable as the backend via its API and hence this question.

What will the app do?

  1. Just like forum, users will create a topic and other users will be able to comment on it

I see the Activity Feed wit commentators now. Looks like if the users are given commentators permission, the 100s of comment under each Topics may not add rows

I am not sure how complex the commentator permission is and how much it can be manipulated to allow different set of permission levels.

ScottWorld
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  • ScottWorld
  • Genius
  • August 21, 2020

Thanks @ScottWorld for the reply.

I am trying to build an app using Bubble as frontend and Airtable as the backend via its API and hence this question.

What will the app do?

  1. Just like forum, users will create a topic and other users will be able to comment on it

I see the Activity Feed wit commentators now. Looks like if the users are given commentators permission, the 100s of comment under each Topics may not add rows

I am not sure how complex the commentator permission is and how much it can be manipulated to allow different set of permission levels.


The activity feed is not accessible via the API, so you wouldn’t be able to use that as a backend for another system.

Are you talking about bubble.io? They have their own database that you should be using for your bubble apps instead of Airtable.

If you still want to use Airtable, you’ll be limited by the record limits of your current pricing plan.

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