Hello,
I recently started using Airtable and I find immense productivity within. That said, There is a glaring set of issues that perhaps, either I do not know how to use a certain function eliminating this problem or it is an essential necessity missing from Airtable.
I am using Airtable to manage all of our books and publication releases for my publishing house.
I have a table that has all of our authors and another which has all of our books.
To use these tables in other bases, such as to devise pre-release information, launches, event marketing, etc. I need to export both of those tables (Authors and Books) into each of the above. Essentially, recreating the same tables numerous times. However. In the new bases where I would naturally use the linked records, I have to use a different column because the initial column will not allow me to link to another record…???
It would be a vast improvement if I could simply link to any record from any of the bases in my workspace. Simply adding “Link to record in a different Base” or even the possibility of linking to a record from a base on a completely different workspace, altogether. And for these pieces of information to properly link and update as the originating tables are updated.
I can do this in Excel. by simply typing = and then clicking on a different document and then the tab and cell I wish to use.
Because here, in airtable, I would have to constantly export and import to update those entries. They don’t seem to update or relationally update as new information is created in one.
For example. I have in my Authors table the author, the name of the book they are working on, which is linked to the book table. I have an initial manuscript deadline, final deadline, and planned publication release date. For various books, this information has not yet been added.
So If I export the book table to a launch calendar base to have it linked so I do not need to recreate the listing of books and their associated pieces of information. I have to export and import it again whenever the original table in the print editorial calendar is up-to-date, as it is a living file that changes constantly.
Essentially, forcing me to erase the existing table in the launch base and setting it up again.
This feels like a huge gap in how this should work.
I simply want to expand my bases for various purposes and want to be able to link to the main source of information that is going to be used relationally in other bases for various other purposes.
Perhaps I’m missing how this is doable in Airtable? Any help would be appreciated.
Emanuel,
You are correct. It is impossible to link bases at the moment. This is a huge issue for many of us, and the workarounds are simply not practical.
+1 for sure.
Connecting bases is one of the first things I tried to do, and I’m so glad I found this thread before investing more time setting up tables. Unfortunately, if I want to roll this out to my team, this is a hurdle that I can’t work around.
Emanuel,
You are correct. It is impossible to link bases at the moment. This is a huge issue for many of us, and the workarounds are simply not practical.
Indeed. Adding to that, that the first column of every table is not linkable either, simply does not make any sense.
I was thrown back reading the airtable guides where it literally suggested I link the second column and then use a formula in the first column. I had come to this conclusion to use existing data from one of my bases (specifically the ones in my examples above) and this felt like another huge oversight.
I’m also concerned that they are not addressing this.
linking data and making it relational is essentially the foundation, if not purpose, for software like this to exist.
I can already do it in excel, but not have the functionality that exists here for me to correlate info. Short of putting it all in one convoluted and massive base, much of what is done to keep bases separate makes no sense.
For now, I have enough use out of airtable that it works for us but without the ability to link from other bases, forcing me to continue to export/import CSV’s or copy and paste – which wastes time – I won’t be paying for any of the upgraded services until this is fixed.
Please help to get Airtable Bases linking to each other, thanks!
Yet another +1 for this feature. Would really help clean up and make my base more powerful
+1 for me as well. It doesn’t really matter how it’s done, as long as I can build a system where some but not all users can update info in a base, not just view it or add new entries.
+1 again for this feature. Right now I have 3 bases and in each one I have a contact list - redundant and if there are duplicates they must be kept in sync. Sigh…
It would be nice after 208 posts if anyone from Airtable could give us just the smallest of smallest heads up on this topic. Even if it would take 3 more years or so.
Is this topic or isn’t it on the todo list?
+1 again for this feature. Right now I have 3 bases and in each one I have a contact list - redundant and if there are duplicates they must be kept in sync. Sigh…
I have 12 bases setup and each has either my team or books CSV’s imported. It’s extremely repetitive and wasteful of time for me to have to go back and constantly update. Granted, if I had all of the info available at one time, It would be easy. But business is not easy and the information is not always present at the same time.
I am baffled they’ve yet to answer these questions. I’ve been reading through the thread. It appears to me this is the largest issue and most requested piece of functionality.
This feature is definitely on our roadmap. Unfortunately it’s a pretty big undertaking for technical reasons, and we haven’t had the chance to tackle it yet. We hear and appreciate your feedback on this though, apologies for not acknowledging it earlier.
Hello @Andrew 2 years later… what are the updates? :winking_face:
Any devellopments? ETA?
I understand that this request DOES require much work, but also think that “PROBABLY” AirTable has a HUGE concern about this TREMENDOUSLY POPULAR feature request. Since EVEN the free plan has UNLIMITED bases, you probably think that abuse could happen IF you were to offer base linking.
In my humble opinion, and I invite everyone who agrees with me to like this response, The answer is a very simple and straight forward NO.
Why not?
Simply because if we are at a point that we feel a strong need to link bases, we quite probably are ALSO at a point where we ALREADY have :
- A premium plan
- Tons of data inserted in our tables
- More than one project = different bases
- More than one base using THE SAME TYPE OF INFOS or even EXACTLY SAME INFOS.
Therefore we ALSO ALREADY have the need to DROP our quantity of generated information by linking the tables together, thus permitting us to TREMENDOUSLY DROP the same infos that can be found in 1, 2, 5, 10 , ONE HUNDRED different bases… Yes I’m exagerating, but I’m SURE that there are SOME users here with close to that many, if not more than 100 bases in their profiles :slightly_smiling_face:
Example :
In my different bases I could have :
1 - a phonebook
2 - a list of businesses
3 - an inventory management system used my more than one business (2 )
4 - They (the businesses (2)) use the purchases manager to add their inventory (3)
5 - Once their inventory (3) is entered using the puirchase manager (4), they (the businesses (2)) chose if they want to offer it on the ONLINE CATALOG
6 - Obviously, this will produce SALES, so a sales tracking system will be required.
Now, obviously, NOT everyone will have access to the content of the different bases on the same level. The people with access to the phonebook will not have access to the businesses inventories. — BUT THEN AGAIN… In the businesses infos, there MAY be a link to view its ONLINE CATALOG. but NOT their sales nor purchases.
Why multiplicate same infos when we can link the whole shabang together???
Now I could have added very much more types of bases that can be linked together :
- Countries
- States/Provinces
- Regions
- Cities
- Zip/Postal codes
- Street names
- Reports and statistics on sales
- Demographics
Etc…etc… etc…
I DEFINITELY hope this HELPS our cause, and gives a good push for the progression of this feature which, without it, people will end up migrating elsewhere. :frowning:
Thanks in advance for your prompt follow up,
merlinregis,
The guy that could structure his WHOLE LIFE using tons of bases… IF they were linked together :winking_face: :stuck_out_tongue:
It would be nice after 208 posts if anyone from Airtable could give us just the smallest of smallest heads up on this topic. Even if it would take 3 more years or so.
Is this topic or isn’t it on the todo list?
Exactly. Just tell us what is going on Airtable!
If it takes 3 years, that is ok. At least tell us that it is being worked on.
+1
Really need this feature as well in order to have my organisation switch over here from Podio. It’s the one thing standing in the way.
+1 on that feature. For instance we would like to have a “Companies” table in a base and reference this info from other bases. Otherwise we have to duplicate this info in every base…
Thank you!
Another +1 for linking between bases. Different base/domains can have inherent interlinkages & but important role/intent separations. Think Product Launch Calendar <> Product Roadmap <> CS Feature Requests <> CRM… you wouldn’t want to have all of those as different tables in the same base as they are separate domain areas from an org/user/role standpoint. But they all have common relational entities (customers, features, etc.).
Perhaps I could be convinced to re-frame my thinking, but that would require a far less “claustrophic” / tab-based view of tables within a base i think. …
Hi, I am new to airtable and currently using it as a tool to help me organize better - as well as being a pilot for collaboration solution.
I know this is a very basic question, but as I’m working with bases, I’m trying to figure out if it is possible to link information from different bases? It seems like I’m adding a lot of tables to one base because I don’t want to have information I need in two different places …
My first base is a project management (of sorts) where I have high level task categories that also has action level tasks. It includes contacts etc. I am hoping to use Airtable to manage a grant process (where I will have CSV data to import, that will be the scores from a team of reviewers. I want to be able to import their scores and then manipulate their scores to get averages and such - but I also want to be able to give each reviewer a copy of their scores.
I am hoping the webinar I’m taking Friday will answer some of this stuff.
Is their an amateur’s lounge???
It’s not possible to link bases but it’s one of the oldest and most requested features. Unfortunately, there are no public plans from Airtable on this.
It’s not possible to link bases but it’s one of the oldest and most requested features. Unfortunately, there are no public plans from Airtable on this.
If you could then there would be very little reason to upgrade from the free bases to the more expensive ones.
If you could then there would be very little reason to upgrade from the free bases to the more expensive ones.
@Trent_Meekin I don’t believe linking between bases is available at any price level.
I would love to switch over from our current system (Podio) but, this is the one feature that is stopping us. I’m on my knees…PLEASE give us this feature!
Hi there!
huge +1 to the feature. @Airtable_Support @Katherine_Duh - as for me this is a critical future to make healthy structure in any project.
@Airtable_Team @Katherine_Duh @Howie @Howie_Liu Please clue us in
+1 YES to all the comments above. This is a critical feature for airtable to really work for businesses. It is crazy to have to copy contact lists over to new bases for new projects/clients (particularly because we can not hide tabs within bases from editors, ie clients).
Also, we need this functionality from a timeline production standpoint. If you have several bases for several separate projects the calendar function is not nearly as powerful or helpful as it could be because a company can never visualize everything on their multiple calendars at once (without a lot of copying and pasting).
PLEASE give us an update @Patricia_Li @Douglas_Forster
Another +1 for linking bases. I scrolled through the whole post here and dont see a response from Airtable which I find very odd.
Another +1 for linking bases. I scrolled through the whole post here and dont see a response from Airtable which I find very odd.
I just did the same thing: I read through every post for something from Airtable. It’s very frustrating: I can’t decide if I should dump Airtable for my company.
Adding my +1 for this feature – right now, the lack of this feature is making it tough to champion Airtable for our company. While I’m seeing teams adopting it for their own tables, what would make it SO powerful for us is the ability to link between our bases. Bases are owned by different teams within our company, and the ability to link and connect to each other’s bases would save SO much on work, duplication of efforts and allow each team to maintain their ownership while still getting the connections needed to work cross-functionally.
This is a must have for teams IMO. Everything cannot remain in one base to be effective when cross-functional teams are working together.
