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Airtable Importer: Google Spreadsheets add-on

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Andrii_Azimov
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

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Hi all,

We discovered Airtable as awesome organizational database tool and started to use it extensively. We loved it for the way it’s organized and well-thought.

But what we really missed there is “Google Sheets magic”:

  • Being able to do advanced calculations
  • Data blending
  • Filtering
  • Allowing someone to use data from Airtable without even knowing Airtable exists

With that in mind, we developed an Google Spreadsheets add-on as a missing link between Airtable and Google Spreadsheets.

We made it to solve particular issues within our company and for internal use only. But we thought that this add-on can help other people to make their lives better by combining powers of two great database tools: Airtable and Google Spreadsheets we shared it with other people. So anyone is welcome to give it a try.

Webpage:
http://railsware.com/case-studies/airtable-importer/

Download: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/airtable-importer-by-rail/kngidnifbonbaembhpnjlpeefhmjpegb

Thanks.

35 Replies 35

Solved! Thanks a lot Dmitry. I don’t know why but I had to sign off from my Google account and re-login. All fine!

K

Philip_B
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Fantastic! Thank you!

Larry_Price
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

@Dmitry_Pliska I’m getting an issue with the add on. It gives me the following error:

Error: Request failed: https://airtable-proxy-server.herokuapp.com/?sharedUrl=https://airtable.com

It doesn’t matter what base I try to use it from, so I cut off the rest of the sharing link there, but I do give it a full valid link. Please advise.

Hi Larry,
Sorry for inconvenience, sometimes server goes down. Just restarted it, should work fine.

Raymon_Geis
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Hi @Dmitry_Pliska!
Thanks for this awesome Add on.

Question, is it possible to have Airtable only update the columns that are actually in Airtable? Meaning, if Airtable only has 3 columns, and I have 7 columns in Sheets, whatever is in column 7 will still get erased upon update from the Add on, even though there is no 7th column in Airtable. Is there a way to protect data added in Sheets so that it doesn’t get erased when the update goes through?

Thanks!

Hi, no, add-on just re-imports Airtable data and overwrites the whole sheet.
As a solution, I would suggest you to follow approach we are using in the company:

  • all sheets that are filled with Airtable imports are left “as is”, so called “datasource”, with no formulas etc.
  • at another sheet use references like =datasource!A1:L38 and use this sheet as you want since it’ll never be overwritten by Airtable Importer

Hope it helps :slightly_smiling_face:

Umut_Cankurt
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

google spreadsheets is able to export (export) airtable data with this application

Jason_Hawkes
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Hi,

Just installed this today.

It pulled the data for the first time and since has show the following error.

Script Error - No item with the given ID or you dont have permission.

Jason…

Thank you, Jason for your interest in our add-on! We’re in touch in support tread. Hope you’ll get the issue resolved soon.
Pavel Pavlovsky
Product Manager at Railsware

Albert_Dempsey
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

We use Google Sheets with several tabs, formulas, vlookups, and links to data in other tabs. A .csv import into Airtable won’t capture all that complexity. Can your add-on do it?

Once we’ve imported everything, we won’t use Google Sheets anymore.

Google Sheets and Airtable follow two very different… well, ‘world-views’ is probably not far off. In Airtable’s case, the spreadsheet analogy is perhaps best thought of as the ‘elevator pitch’ for the product; a spreadsheet-based application design cannot be easily ported. Your best approach would be to strip the Sheets app back to functional requirements and reimplement the application under Airtable. If that’s more than you’re willing to take on yourself, there are a number of Airtable-savvy consultants and integrators available to help.

hugobarauna
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Awesome work, congrats!

One question though, what about security?

Can the developers, devops or someone from Railsware see my data?

Optimi
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Thanks Railware for sharing this awesome add on with the Airtable community and for making the basic tier free to use. We’ve mentioned you in a blog on how to connect Airtable to Google Data Studio by using your add on! https://medium.com/@optimi/you-too-can-make-dashboards-how-to-visualise-your-airtable-data-in-google...

Olga_Rusnak
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

for all who have been watching and commenting on this topic:

I would like to invite you to contribute to this topic “Coupler.io add-on to pull data from Airtable to Google Sheets” where we announce the launch of Airtable Importer’s brother product, a more powerful Coupler.io.

You are most welcome to join us on this journey now!

jameswalk
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Hi,

This Rails sounds like a great tool! It's always helpful to have different options and tools available to make work more efficient and effective. I hope your add-on helps many people who use both Airtable and Google Sheets. Thanks for sharing it with others!

In my personal opinion, the best & easiest way to communicate between Google Sheets and Airtable is to use Make's Google Sheets automations & integrations.

There is a small learning curve with Make, which is why I created this basic navigation video to help. In that thread, I also provide the links to a few other Make training resources there as well.

p.s. If you'd like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld