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Hiding tables within base for a specific subset of users (e.g. based on permission)

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Ryan_Watters
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

I’ve seen multiple threads on the discussion forums but no real solution around this. Here’s the use case with some qualifications in hopes of making my ask clearer:

  • I work for an agency where we are using an AirTable workspace with multiple bases to work with a client.
  • For the primary base both teams are using to collaborate, my team are all Creator/Owner level, and the client is all Editor level.
  • The base has dozens of tables where my team is doing their work. That said, the nature of our work is such that we do not want to necessarily show the work to the client until the table is presentation-ready.
  • I would like to be able to hide a table from the client team until I’m ready to share it and solicit feedback.

My current approach is to just duplicate the entire base and keep it on a separate staging workspace, then once it’s done, I just copy and paste the records into the client-visible table. For obvious reasons, this can take away from the real-time collaborative benefits of operating from a single base.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I believe there is also a new app that allows you to sync specific tables across bases? If so, is it possible to have these synced manually rather than automatically? So, for example, I could develop the information in my staging base table and then click to have it updated in the corresponding table in the client-accessible base?

I think an ideal feature would be more like being able to say:

  • I have a base with 10 tables, A through J
  • I would like for Creators and Owners to have access to A through J
  • I would like for Editors and Read-only to have access to A through E until I have F through J ready to be presented, in which case I will make those tables available to them piecemeal.

Thank you to the community and to @Airtable_Admin1 / @Airtable_IT ahead of time for the help. Cheers!

1 Reply 1

It is possible to sync tables across bases. However, it isn’t clear if this feature will work for you or not.

  • Syncing tables is a feature of sharing table data; it is not an app. Syncing tables is also a bit of an overstatement because you are actually syncing a view. When you perform the sync you only get the data in the specific view–you don’t get any of the other views for the table that you may have created. Cross table links are also converted to text.

  • It is possible to sync the data in tables manually, but the receiving end controls when the sync happens, not the originating end. The originating end controls who has what data by controlling the filtering for the view.