+1 on this feature request to allow forms to input data into already existing records

It’s brutal that I would have to use Zapier and make additional automations across multiple services to achieve this.

Thanks for listening to the community!

I am working with senior execs from 2 dozen organizations on a field strategy project. I have a set of data on each of their organizations that I need them to review and update. This is NOT data a junior person can edit. I also want them to only edit their org’s data and not see or experience the others’.

If I send these senior folks a form and ask them to fill it out, they will roll eyes and be annoyed. It will not get done.

If instead I sent them a form with fields at least partially complete with data we have FOR THEM TO EDIT they will 1) feel respected and 2) actually make the edits. Their attitude about engaging in the whole project will be different.

You can create a pre-filled form in Airtable, and give everyone a different link to their own personalized pre-filled form. This excellent app from @kuovonne even helps you create the form URL: Prefilled Forms - Apps - Airtable Marketplace.

However, Airtable forms only ADD new records, so you would have to create some sort of automation afterwards (either through Airtable’s Automations or through an external automation tool like Integromat) to actually do the updating of the original record.

Alternatively, many people prefer to use MiniExtensions, because you are literally editing the actual record through a form, with no additional steps needed:

p.s. If anybody needs help setting any of this up, and you have the budget to hire a professional Airtable consultant, please feel free to contact me through my website at scottworld.com.

I’m baffled that this still does not exist after hundreds of requests and many years.

Simple implementation: For an existing form with URL, let users pass a parameter (e.g., record ID) which simply loads default data into the existing Form (so uses can a. customize, and b. share externally). Obviously, you need to add Update instead of Create on the backend in that case.

$40/mo to an external party (miniextensions) for such a core (CRUD) capability seems unreasonable.

100% agree, this is such an obvious need to implement.

I simply cannot believe that this has STILL not been implemented. How many comments are you going to need to actually DO IT ?

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE AIRTABLE.

But as said numerous times in here, there is a strong NEED for “editable form” view, customizable (i.e. not only row after row, but with possibility to put several fields per line, etc…).

This is what Stacker does but it’s slow and painful.

Stackby is rising, simply because of this and I cannot believe I am now looking for solutions to export my Airtable bases to Stackby, juste because of that. Some of the users of my tables are high level users, and the table view is simply too complicated for them at some stage.

Don’t let people leave Airtable because of that ! Do something !

Nope This just prevents people from editing some fields but it’s not related to a specific view of the data.

Katherine could you not use an automation with the Find Record & Update Record function to do this?

The form could link to the original record ID, you can make a copy of all fields (It could be another Table or a bunch of hidden fields), the Automation would then use the Find Record function to link to the original record, and Update Record to update each field with the new information from the form?

Suggest Airtable has a place for links and profiles to 3rd party products as there are a number of sites I have seen with list of apps for Airtable.

Even this page https://builtonair.com/resources/?cat=product doesn’t have more than a fraction of what I have seen recently floating around as the number has grown over short period of time and the Airtable Marketplace doesn’t seem to cover more than the Airtable apps and the github apps.

MS Access forms are a good example of how view/edit forms should look like, but Access is tedious to build. Ninox (nionx.com) does it perfectly right. I would love it if Airtable had the same feature as Ninox when you can build a form in a couple of minutes by simply drag/drop fields around. Such forms are easy to build and give the ability to view/edit data in a nice customized layout.

Airtable is nice for simple datasets (~10 columns). But when you have lots of colums they don’t fit on a screen any move (neither in the grid view, nor in the exanded view). When you have more fields, then customisable forms is an absolute necessity. We need to have all the information for a given record visible on screen, in a structured and compact form, with view/edit capability.

The MiniExtension solution is inadequate, as it still only allows you to have a single column of fields, so it you have more than 10 fields you cannot see them all in your screen at once. In addition, you cannot organise the fields, like you can in Access or Ninox.

It’s a shame Airtable wants me to spend $39 a month with another company so I can use a form to update existing data in my free Airtable. I love Airtable but their inability to offer this one feature is the reason why I don’t pay for an Airtable Pro account - I know I’m not the only one.

Fillout lets you do all of that for free, and it is widely considered to be the best form software for Airtable.