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Creating non-collaborator, Client Specific Forms

  • May 4, 2020
  • 6 replies
  • 57 views
A
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I manage online content for multiple companies. I need a way to get feedback on content revisions from my client, but don’t want them to see any tables or data that is not specific to their company. For example:

Company A has 12 items. I have a view in a table that is specific to this company’s items.
I have edited two fields: 1. Title and 2. Description
I need to give them visibility to these fields, in addition to about 6 others that are reference only and static, but I also want to give them the ability to give feedback in a “Client Comments” field.

A shareable URL does not allow them to add “Client Comments”.

I think I could do it in a form, but am not sure how to filter it such that the form is ONLY Client A and the items/fields/values that are displayed (Title and Description) are ONLY for Client A.

Best answer by ScottWorld

2025 Update:

If you need them to see an entire table of their products, you can use a 3rd-party portal like MiniExtensions.

However, an even easier & simpler way of doing this is by using Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable, and just sharing individual links to each one of their items.

Fillout is 100% free, and it offers hundreds of features that Airtable’s native forms don’t offer, including the ability to update Airtable records using a form, display Airtable lookup fields on forms, control access to a form via SSO or email domains, perform math or other live calculations on your forms, accept payments on forms, collect signatures on a form, create multi-page forms with conditional paths, create new linked records on a form, and much more.

Fillout will give you an Airtable formula that generates a unique URL for each item in your base. This unique URL will enable your clients to update that item in Airtable by using a Fillout “update form”.

You can see how to set this up in my video below, which also shows off many other advanced techniques using Fillout:

Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire the best Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld

6 replies

ScottWorld
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  • ScottWorld
  • Genius
  • 9780 replies
  • Answer
  • May 4, 2020

2025 Update:

If you need them to see an entire table of their products, you can use a 3rd-party portal like MiniExtensions.

However, an even easier & simpler way of doing this is by using Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable, and just sharing individual links to each one of their items.

Fillout is 100% free, and it offers hundreds of features that Airtable’s native forms don’t offer, including the ability to update Airtable records using a form, display Airtable lookup fields on forms, control access to a form via SSO or email domains, perform math or other live calculations on your forms, accept payments on forms, collect signatures on a form, create multi-page forms with conditional paths, create new linked records on a form, and much more.

Fillout will give you an Airtable formula that generates a unique URL for each item in your base. This unique URL will enable your clients to update that item in Airtable by using a Fillout “update form”.

You can see how to set this up in my video below, which also shows off many other advanced techniques using Fillout:

Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire the best Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld

M
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  • Moe
  • Inspiring
  • 368 replies
  • May 5, 2020

Welcome to the community!

You wouldn’t be able to combine all of that together with the built-in features of Airtable.

Built into Airtable: you can create different filtered views for each one of your clients, and then share with them a read-only link to that specific view. So that would enable you to give each client read-only access to their items.

However, there is no built-in ability for them to update fields in their existing record. A quick & easy tool that was created for this task is Single Record Editor for Airtable, which gives you a unique URL for each one of your records — and then that unique URL will take your client into a form to update record. You can choose which fields will show up on that form — but all the fields will be editable, not just the one “Client Comments” field.

To combine both of these features together, you might want to check out Stacker, which creates a new web interface to your Airtable database that lets you choose which records each client can see, and which fields each user can edit. It’s pretty cool.

There are lots of other paths you could go down as well, such as creating a custom form using Integromat & Formstack.


Thanks Scott! but I just would like to point out a workaround for this. If you would like to prevent users from editing specific fields -but you still want those fields to be visible- you can make a read-only copy of them by using formulas. That way they’ll become uneditable.

ScottWorld
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  • ScottWorld
  • Genius
  • 9780 replies
  • May 5, 2020

Oh, nice! With the built-in Airtable forms, you can’t put formula fields onto your forms at all! So that’s another great feature of your extension! Add that to the features list! :winking_face:

 

ScottWorld
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  • ScottWorld
  • Genius
  • 9780 replies
  • May 5, 2020

@Moe, what is the difference between these 2 extensions? It seems like both of them will allow you to edit a single record at a time, based on the URL for that record:

 

9760i96FB231FC67F19A6.pngminiExtensions

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Update Existing Records with Airtable Forms - miniExtensions

This tool uses Airtable's native form and allows users to see existing data before editing. It doesn't require setting up a mirror table nor using Zapier.

 
 

9766iABC88BC4212C27A3.pngminiExtensions

34d1b4930cb2659e1a5890e63f3511c4a611e1af_2_690x345.png

Single Record Editor for Airtable - miniExtensions

Allow anyone to edit a single Airtable Record with this editor. Generates a unique URL for each record in your table.

 
 
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  • Moe
  • Inspiring
  • 368 replies
  • May 6, 2020

@Moe, what is the difference between these 2 extensions? It seems like both of them will allow you to edit a single record at a time, based on the URL for that record:


The 1st one
:heavy_check_mark: Supports all field types
:x: Requires adding a new temporary record (which effects autonumber)

The 2nd one
:x: Field types support is limited
:x: Doesn’t support uploading attachment
:heavy_check_mark: Supports showing attachments
:heavy_check_mark: Supports showing formulas

These are the main differences, but the most important difference is that one uses Airtable’s nice features and UI and the other one doesn’t. Most people use the first one since it’s crucial to support linked records, single/multiple select…etc.

ScottWorld
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  • ScottWorld
  • Genius
  • 9780 replies
  • May 6, 2020

Thanks for the explanation, Moe!

 


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