Show and Tell

I was thinking about how to add some functionality to a base and, for the base user, how they would trigger this. In most web apps functionality will be invoked by the click of a button - save edits, delete a record and so on - but this button functionality isn’t available in Airtable. But…Zapier provides a webhook component that can be invoked to kick off a Zap. I frequently use Zaps in my bases and they are mostly triggered by the standard Airtable triggers - new record or new record in a view. One downside to this, which this demo gets around, is that a record can only be triggered once (or once as a new record and once in a given view). By using webhooks to trigger the functionality, it can be executed an arbitrary number of times for any record. My demo for this is based on translating content from one language to another. I have some text in English and I want to translate each record of content into German: I set up a Zap that: triggers on-demand gets the EN content translates

Hi All! Last weekend I was involved in putting on the Consciousness Hacking Holiday Party. We were using [MUSE Headbands][(https://choosemuse.com/) for a meditation competition. The headbands measure brain activity and we competed for the highest scores of relaxation and focus. With over 60 competitors we used Airtable to manage the entire competition. Each volunteer recorded the score of the competitor and took a picture of them. All the results were sent to the big screen in a “Keep sorted” Gallery view with the winners at the top and if their score was over 500, colored Green. Here’s a fun chart of results: Questions? Comments? Ideas?

I’ve just added a new post to my blog Online Database Expert which shows how to use Integromat to create Barcodes from Airtable records and then post the resulting barcode (or QR Code) image back into the Airtable record. You can see all of the posts relevant to Airtable (including the Bar-code one) here: Database Expert Blog | Online Database Expert Visit our Blog where we review database and other cloud / online platforms and where you can comment. The site also include a members forum where you can ask database related questions and offer advice (including a specific section for Airtable users).

…but I will. :grinning: I just got a new Badge for viewing posts for 365 consecutive days! Pretty impressive, I’d say. It seems that I am the only one, at this time. I thought I would share this. Mary K

I just wanted to show (perhaps showoff :winking_face: ) one of our latest projects with Airtable. Using multiple Airtable tables our marketing client manages their projects, clients and incoming reports. They require their contractors to upload reports which we are using an AT form (soon to be custom form as client needs extra requirements) to input the data. Each of the customers are using a generated token based on the AT record ID which is part of their link to access the site ie. mysite.com/wo55eiruWERsdhf234 as security isn’t a primary objective they just don’t want “browsers” being able to have public access. These links can be sent out using the Airtable email block, these links are easily regenerated in AT and deactivated using a checkbox as well. Each client gets their unique link and once they connect can only see the projects they are assigned to in Airtable on a custom home page. The site provides an nice view of the data in chronological order and images retrieved from

I was recently lamenting about the lack of a scripting model in Airtable in this discussion concerning actionable buttons and Jonathan Bowen called my attention to a pretty clever way to utilize multiple Zapier components to call out via URLs in fields and update the record (or records) in the table. I wasn’t familiar with this approach and it opened my eyes to a number of possibilities for serverless integration processes. It reminded me of a similar approach that I am intimately familiar with that stems from my deep desire to script processes inside Airtable, even going so far as to create a rudimentary web service that would allow me to easily create script steps in long text fields and then execute those steps against fields via the API using a little thing I call Airdrop which I use pervasively with clients. The idea is simple - Airdrop is a server script that runs every 60 seconds looking for tasks to process. It is guided by an arbitrary base (named Airdrop) that contains a tab

This loops through all the records from a view or search and performs the following steps for each record. It is intended to run after something else triggers it. It returns all fields of the records as well (as long as you include them in your query), so that you can use them as ingredients in the following steps of the zap without having to do a separate lookup. T Here is the code where you can copy and paste it. var settings = { 'method': 'GET', 'headers': { "Authorization": "Bearer <API KEY HERE>", }, }; fetch('http://api.airtable.com/v0/APP_NAME_HERE/TABLE_HERE/?QUERYS_GO_HERE', settings) .then(function(res) { return res.text(); }) .then(function(body) { // body is the raw return from the API call body.toString(); console.log(); var jsonData = JSON.parse(body); var length = jsonData.length; var output = []; for (let i = 0; i < jsonData.records.length; i++){ // This for loop processes each record and adds it to the array output

Hi, folks. Let’s say you have a base with two fields: Pet (single line text) and Fruit (multiselect: Apples, Bananas, and Oranges). Turns out that the comma is used as a multiselect field separator. After much trial and error, the following CSV imported properly: Pet,Fruit Hamster,Bananas Mouse,“Apples,Bananas”

Is there a limit to the number of records I can add to a database?

Hi, I know that there are many questions in this community about Slack integration. I have built a Private Slack App that allows us to do some basic operations using the Airtable API. Here are some screenshots of the slack app: It is available as /slair . You have to configure your API Key and Application ID . Currenty supported Airtable integrations . Sample Add Record (All fields will show up as Text field :frowning: ) If there is interest from the community I will make the Slack App public.

If you are like me and want to use your iPad with Airtable (not the almost useless app but the web interface) this si what I have discovered; BLOCKS are working and you can even print from page designer block! The Send Grid Block works! Print view is not working, you get a blank document… too bad but as Airtable constantly remember us “you can create you own print layouts with page designer block”… The Icon of “open in the Airtable app” will come and go on the top of your page even when you have requested Desktop site from setting. (Safari settings) Views under tables are not always scrolling properly but you can bypass this limitation by typing the name of the view you are looking to display. (I use this “shortcut” quiet often on my Mac) Same with side scrolling… you just have to open the record you want to see (too bad if you wanted to see more than one record or a full set with SUM or AVG calculus) you can move on the right or left by clicking the edge of the screen making the fiel

Below is a Form link to vote on Airtable features! Thought I would (quickly) throw this together and see if other users would be interested in something like this, or, find it useful to track interest in the top Feature Requests of the Airtable Community. I only added a few to get it started. If not, maybe I will make it a Universe base for others if useful. Here is a form to submit your own votes. Feel free to submit feedback in the form or here! Poll Entry Form Poll Results: I am open to suggestions for improvement as well! Eventually I would want to add some more robust features / try to present the data more elegantly, but we shall see. -Alex P.S. I am a normal Airtable user so any results of this poll would hold no extra bearing on Airtable’s likelihood of implementing them!

Hi everyone, Originally I started making this for my wife, but she decided to use another app instead so I figured I would finish it out and share it. https://airtable.com/shrXDCU2NXyGNLVV5 Summary This base is designed to hold recipes and then use those recipes to schedule meals and create shopping lists using the IFTTT applet with the trigger “When a new record is created in view”. It’s a great way to keep track of recipes you like. The meal planner uses a simple form view so that you can choose existing recipes and then the date on which you want to make them. The shopping list view takes what meals you have scheduled and looks up the ingredients. This view only shows what meals are within the next week, but if you shop more or less than once a week, you can adjust accordingly in the filter. While the shopping view shows the ingredients for each recipe, you can use IFTTT or Zapier to create a shopping list using ToDoIst or other listing app to create a compiled shopping list. T

The Computer Museum of America (Roswell, Georgia) is using AirTable to make a timeline of the digital revolution. Thanks and a tip of the hat to DragonDrop—found on the AirTable Community Forum— for assisting in the export. The photograph shows just one decade of what will eventually span from the Abacus to AI & ExaScale computing. IMG_9497|375x500

I’ve been working on a search concept for Airtable that has kept me awake a few nights. One of the [many] problems with universal search (i.e., a search that spans multiple bases and multiple tables) is the complex types of fields and content you’ll find when the entire galaxy of data possibilities will be encountered. You have to embrace all that Airtable could ever store and in a way that is not only findable but indexable in a reliable and compressed manner. Another problem; Airtable is fun to use. Users don’t want to search in a completely disengaged web page away from their data. If you’re at all like me, you probably want your search results displayed like any other information objects are displayed in the platform you’re searching. I struggled with many aspects of an open (but secure) and easy-to-understand architecture. One of the biggest aspects of this was answering a basic question - if you had an index of all your data, where would you feel comfortable storing it? The answe

I was asked recently by a client if it was possible to send people who’d booked onto an event a Calendar entry (so they don’t forget) in response to their booking. In the blog post linked below, I show how you can do this with Integromat: Send a Calendar Entry to confirm a booking There are ways to link Airtable calendars with other calendars - some covered in here - but this deals with sending a calendar entry to an outside person booking onto an event (of course the process could apply to any date/time based records). I hope people find this useful - feel free to comment on the post I you wish.

I’ve just published an article on Online Database Expert about sending VCard files from a database using Integromat: https://www.onlinedatabase.expert/post/send-a-vcard-from-a-database-with-integromat Check it out if you want to know more!

If like me you are looking how to filter data submitted by a web form and other data on the same table, I found that the best solution was to put a mandatory checked box on my webform with something like “contact me back” or “Agreed to submit form” … Like that I can filter the data submitted outside Airtable.

For those of you that enjoy playing with Airtable’s API, I made a simple page that displays data from your base. Edit any entry and it immediately syncs with your Airtable base. I’m new to this and so am having a lot of fun with it. Hopefully someone will find it useful. Airtable Wrapper

Hey all, I’d love your feedback on a tool we’re working on, called Scripts. What is it? An extension that embeds an onsite code editor into your bases. Why would I need that? If you’ve ever used Google Scripts or VBA for automating spreadsheets, this is the same for Airtable. It makes it easy to build custom alerts, automations, workflows, reports, and integrations for your bases, using short Python scripts. The extension handles API calls behind the scenes (even as the Airtable API is quite limiting), OAuth with other apps you’re integrating with, hosting, and more. Who is it for? It’s designed for power users with a bit of Python experience, automation geeks, or API developers. What’s the ask? Take the extension for a spin, reply back with your feedback, and don’t share too broadly just yet… we haven’t yet launched! Paul PS - here are some cool use-cases Build an Google Sheets Export/Import integration in 60 seconds Setup mail merge in Airtable

I wrote a blog post about the idea of iterating on apps with Airtable. Airtable is, to me, a way to allow anyone to create apps—not just programmers. But even for programmers, it’s a gem to iterate and prototype faster, and to build the apps that don’t deserve to be written from scratch. I hope some of you find this useful!

I’ve long had grumpy thoughts about how Airtable’s VALUE() function deals with conversion of malformed numerals. For instance, VALUE('96t7 4B.32') returns 9674.32; personally, I’d be happier if it returned #ERROR!. A couple of months ago, I fat-fingered a value and received a completely unexpected reply. Hoping it might indicate undocumented support for non-base₁₀ values, I began a long trudge through VALUE(), looking for breadcrumbs. Alas, the function doesn’t magically support hex values or anything else comparably valuable — but it does support some unexpected and potentially useful quirks. In brief, VALUE() does watch for a handful of non-numeric characters when working its conversion magic. Most translate correctly only as the last character of a string; otherwise, they are ignored or, in a few cases, trigger a NaN (‘not-a-number’) error. The one character that has significance within a string is the colon (':'), which Airtable reads as indicating hours, seconds, or minutes, depen

I’ve written a blog post (in 2 parts) about using Process Street to build an employee on-boarding process and then (in part 2) linking this to a database to a) trigger it when a new record is added and b) updating the database when the checklist os complete… https://www.onlinedatabase.expert/post/employee-on-boarding-with-process-street-part-1 I’ve used a different database in Part 2 but the basics are exactly the same with Airtable (I hope AT don’t mind - most of my examples are with AT!!).

Rock Paper Airtable Airtable Rock Paper Airtable - Airtable Universe Rock Paper Airtable This formula was the Airtable contest winner for April. ​ For a video demo and some information about myself check out my interview... This base contains a formula that was the Airtable contest winner for April. Watch my just released interview with @Zoe_VanDerPloeg on Built on Air, an @openside podcast. overview: This is a playable “Rock Paper Scissors” game against Airtable. The game play is best using a public form view which allows anyone to play regardless if they have an Airtable account. “AI” design: Airtable’s choice is based on a sudo random number generator: IF({Human_Choice}, SWITCH( MOD( VALUE( DATETIME_FORMAT(CREATED_TIME(),'s') ),3 ), 0,'🗿', 1,'📜', 2,'✂️' ) ) What it’s doing is choosing based on the time of record creation. It’s a clock that just happens to only have only

Hi Everybody, I’m new to this community and Airtable. So far, I’m loving the product. Just figuring out how to do things in Airtable. I’m not a computer programmer, but I’ve managed to hack together some fairly complex databases using VBA in MS Access over the years. Trying to get our company’s processes automated and cloud based after getting multiple software companies to unsuccessfully bid to make us custom software (unacceptable in both cost and development time). First challenge, I wanted to make an automatic invoice generator. Pretty simple idea right? Just about every company has some sort of auto-invoice with basic info such as customer, PO#, and an itemized bill of materials. Since I’m used to Access, I thought it would be as simple as making a form and subform, then spit it out in a custom report. Well after twiddling with Airtable and combing the Airtable community posts for a couple weeks, I realized that it wasn’t going to be as straightforward as I naively thought. There