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2 Way Sync with Google Sheets & Guest Editing

  • October 22, 2020
  • 4 replies
  • 69 views
A
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Hi all,

I am wanting to understand if the following scenario is currently achievable and if so, what “add ons” would be required:

Ideally I would like to be able to share a “filtered” view with a clients that only shows information relevant to them for a updating various aspects of a project, while the remaining fields which are for internal purposes are hidden. Obviously this can be done by setting up a view and hiding the relevant fields. Only issue here is that when sharing this view a guest can view it and not make any changes (I am amazed that this feature is still yet to be implemented having seen discussions on this topic go back quite a long way).

So, the only option is to send this information to Google Sheets (I am aware of various tools such as Airtable Importer, Coupler, Integromat etc that can do this one way). Now that the info is in Google Sheets, it can be shared with a client (either the full set of data and hide various columns and restrict editing access or importing a revised view from AT).

Once the client update the relevant fields in Google Sheets, is there any way of syncing this info back into Airtable so that the Master table is always updated and synced with the latest information and updates?

Appreciate any help or suggestions.

Cheers

    4 replies

    ScottWorld
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    • ScottWorld
    • Genius
    • 9808 replies
    • October 22, 2020

    Yep, it’s surprising that Airtable has never implemented shared views with editing capabilities yet, although I’m certain that it has something to do with their revenue model. Shared views are open to the public, who don’t provide any revenue to Airtable.

    You can very easily do what you’re looking to do with Stacker, which provides a completely customizable front-end user interface to Airtable. However, Stacker has some very serious limitations that you need to know about — for example, it only syncs data from Airtable every 15 minutes, and it doesn’t have full support for many field types. So there are definitely problems with Stacker, but you can be fully up & running within a few hours at most.

    Otherwise, if you want to do this with Google Sheets, you already noted the answer above yourself. You would need to set this up with a tool like Integromat, which could sync your Google Sheets updates to Airtable. This would be somewhat tricky to implement & setup everything appropriately (and you can hire a professional Airtable/Integromat consultant like myself to help you with this), but note that there are also limitations with this approach as well. Due to Google’s API limitations, you can only send back certain types of updates back to Airtable. For example, you can send back an update that takes place in an existing Google Sheets row, but you can’t insert a brand new row into the middle of a Google Sheets spreadsheet and then send that row’s information into Airtable. If you add a new row to the bottom of a Google Sheets spreadsheet, that information CAN be sent back to Airtable.

    I am a professional Airtable consultant and a Registered Integromat Partner, and the Integromat link above contains my personal referral code.

    A
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    • Andrew_Bull
    • Author
    • New Participant
    • 1 reply
    • October 22, 2020

    Thanks Scott, appreciate the reply.

    It is frustrating re AT’s stance on this - at least have a revenue model built around it so you give users the option. Miro has done it well - they have the user subscription and then offer a discounted “Guest” subscription/Guest Passes which you can allocate as you see fit. It is discounted to recognise the fact they the “Guest” has limited user rights (i.e. update and insert) specific to a particular board/table/view. It is supposed to be a productivity-based tool!

    There must be a number of users out there trying piece a together a solution that works, spending countless hours and money trialling things out to end up paying for something which, while it may work, its clunky and sub-par. AT instead could be coming to the table with the “optimal” solution for these use cases and monetising it (while recognising this type of user is not a “full” user and therefore makes sense that the cost associated with this is discounted to reflect this).

    At least provide the service first, monetise second. I would not imagine that implementation of this is difficult (the foundation is there, they just need to add a filter as to which fields can be edited or not - in the same way, that Google Sheets and Excel have successfully done it).

    Anyway, rant over, thanks again. I might explore the Google Sheets option. The only changes being made in Google Sheets relates to updating existing records (and the existing records in GS have been created by ongoing 1-way sync from AT into GS). Where I am still a bit in the dark is how to get the update of existing records in GS back into the master table in AT).

    Cheers
    Andrew

    O
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    • Orin_Hutchings
    • Inspiring
    • 21 replies
    • November 5, 2020

    Thanks Scott, appreciate the reply.

    It is frustrating re AT’s stance on this - at least have a revenue model built around it so you give users the option. Miro has done it well - they have the user subscription and then offer a discounted “Guest” subscription/Guest Passes which you can allocate as you see fit. It is discounted to recognise the fact they the “Guest” has limited user rights (i.e. update and insert) specific to a particular board/table/view. It is supposed to be a productivity-based tool!

    There must be a number of users out there trying piece a together a solution that works, spending countless hours and money trialling things out to end up paying for something which, while it may work, its clunky and sub-par. AT instead could be coming to the table with the “optimal” solution for these use cases and monetising it (while recognising this type of user is not a “full” user and therefore makes sense that the cost associated with this is discounted to reflect this).

    At least provide the service first, monetise second. I would not imagine that implementation of this is difficult (the foundation is there, they just need to add a filter as to which fields can be edited or not - in the same way, that Google Sheets and Excel have successfully done it).

    Anyway, rant over, thanks again. I might explore the Google Sheets option. The only changes being made in Google Sheets relates to updating existing records (and the existing records in GS have been created by ongoing 1-way sync from AT into GS). Where I am still a bit in the dark is how to get the update of existing records in GS back into the master table in AT).

    Cheers
    Andrew


    Hi @Andrew_Bull,
    As a solution for this, you can use zzBots to sync both new and updated rows 1-Way from Google Sheets to the corresponding record in Airtable.

    Like you said, there are a lot of options for the 1-Way Sync for new records to sync as new rows in Google Sheets, but there is no way to sync updated records over as updated rows.

    As far as I know, this full 2-Way Sync isn’t yet possible from Airtable to Google Sheets due to the way Google Sheets’ API is set up.

    But like I said before, you can use zzBots to sync both new and updated rows from Google Sheets over to the corresponding records in Airtable.

    You can get it set up here: https://www.zzbots.com/store/PZcihgaRgi5hsJzsr

    D
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    • digiwise
    • New Participant
    • 1 reply
    • August 15, 2024

    In the past 4 years, has there been any progress on this issue? 

    Sharing / Mirroring data between Airtable and Google Sheets?

    Is this capability offered in another plan / subscription tier OR a 3rd party software?

    Thanks!

    - Randy


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