Give a unique ID to find where a form was clicked on from

[Alec_Kap]

Hello! I am trying to figure out how to apply a unique ID when entering a form so you can see where it was clicked from. I have a store where each row in Airtable posts a new object for sale. I want the ‘purchase item’ button to lead to a form where they can fill in all their information but I can’t figure out how to assign some sort of unique ID so that I can correlate the item they want to buy to the information they put into the form.

Is anything like this achievable or is there any advice? Thanks so much for anything and everything!

[Bill_French]

Alec_Kap:

I can’t figure out how to assign some sort of unique ID so that I can correlate the item they want to buy to the information they put into the form.

Okay, so let’s review the requirements:

1. There’s a web page (somewhere) that has an item for sale on it and a purchase button.
2. When the purchase button is clicked, you want a web form (presumably an Airtable form) to prompt the buyer for their details.
3. In the process of providing the buyer’s details, you want the Airtable form to also capture the item’s unique ID (like a SKU) and perhaps analytics such as the web site where the purchase button was clicked.

Is that what you’re asking?

Observations…

• The web page displaying the item for sale should include at the very least, a hidden field containing the SKU.
• The purchase button should be smart enough to read the hidden field where the SKU is stored on the web page.
• Conveying the SKU value when linking to the Airtable form is achieved through a form field that is pre-populated via the form’s URL (this is a standard feature in all forms tools including Airtable).

I don’t typically build e-commerce systems with Airtable, but I’m pretty sure these are the mechanics required to capture purchase data including unique product codes and such.

[Alec_Kap]

Hey Bill! Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out. What you’re saying with the hidden SKU sounds like a good idea but let me layout my situation to see if I could still apply it.

• I have a webpage built around AirTable that loads each record in my base but all on the same home page. So when I update the base with a new record, it updates the page. There is only one page, each product doesn’t load into a unique page

• I have a button to press to purchase the item on each line. The button is linked to a link field in the record. So I can put unique web address for each record in the base, so whenever they press that purchase button, it has the ability to go to any webpage for each record.

So I guess what I’m trying to do it make it so I can have an Airtable form that populates a unique web-address into the link field of each new record, so that I can see which item on the page they are specifically buying.

Do you think your suggestion above would still be a good solution that I should dig deeper into? I’m also open to any other solutions within Airtable that I might be overlooking or using Zapier to move data around. Thanks again for helping out!

[Bill_French]

Alec_Kap:

The button is linked to a link field in the record.

More clearly, I think you mean the button is instrumented in a way that it executes the URL in the link field, yes?

[Alec_Kap]

Exactly right! It is just for executing the URL in the link field.

[Bill_French]

Alec_Kap:

so whenever they press that purchase button, it has the ability to go to any webpage for each record.

And where [exactly] do these links send the buyers?

[Alec_Kap]

So in theory I want them to go to my Airtable form so I can collect the information and have it update my base that this item is no longer available.

[Bill_French · Accepted solution]

Alec_Kap:

I want them to go to my Airtable form so I can collect the information

Okay - so… the URLs that the buttons will execute are all the same except for one important difference - they each need to be instrumented to include a parameter that indicates the item number or ID of the product they represent. This is known as pre-fill parameters.

[Alec_Kap]

Oh my goodness Bill! You are the best! That’s exactly what I’m looking for!!! Thank you so much for helping me work through that! I owe yah a beer!

[Bill_French]

Alec_Kap:

You are the best!

Not really. I’m almost certain Airtable is 95% to blame for making me look smart.