Add Daily Image from Pexels or Other Free Image Site

Ed_Hohlbein · ‎Jan 02, 2023

Hi good people. I'm building a base to track my handstand progress. I'd like the base to go to Pexels (or another free source for images) each morning, grab a picture of someone doing a handstand, and add it to "today's" record. Can anyone head me in the right direction to build this automation? Or have some advice/insight on how to make this happen? Appreciated in advance. 😁

itsmike · ‎Jan 03, 2023

Hi Ed,

Is the goal to simply pull in a random image of somebody doing an handstand for each of your newly created rows?

If so the best bet is an automation that triggers a script when a new record is created. The script calls the Pexels API and returns an image which is then added the record.

The automation documentation is here: https://support.airtable.com/docs/when-record-is-created-trigger and https://support.airtable.com/docs/run-a-script-action
And the Pexels API documentation can be found here: https://www.pexels.com/api/documentation/?language=javascript#photos-search
You may also need an additional step to convert the retrieved image URL to an attachment, that's covered here: https://community.airtable.com/t5/show-tell/native-url-to-attachment/td-p/116584

If you're familar with Javascript it's just a case of following the docs and conforming to Airtable's API. If not it may be more of a challenge, in which case it may make more sense for somebody to build it for you, but this is where I'd begin.

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itsmike · ‎Jan 03, 2023

Hi Ed,

Is the goal to simply pull in a random image of somebody doing an handstand for each of your newly created rows?

If so the best bet is an automation that triggers a script when a new record is created. The script calls the Pexels API and returns an image which is then added the record.

The automation documentation is here: https://support.airtable.com/docs/when-record-is-created-trigger and https://support.airtable.com/docs/run-a-script-action
And the Pexels API documentation can be found here: https://www.pexels.com/api/documentation/?language=javascript#photos-search
You may also need an additional step to convert the retrieved image URL to an attachment, that's covered here: https://community.airtable.com/t5/show-tell/native-url-to-attachment/td-p/116584

If you're familar with Javascript it's just a case of following the docs and conforming to Airtable's API. If not it may be more of a challenge, in which case it may make more sense for somebody to build it for you, but this is where I'd begin.

Ed_Hohlbein · ‎Jan 03, 2023

Hi @itsmike ! Yes, the goal is to simply pull a random picture of someone doing a handstand and add it to a record. This is so incredibly helpful. THANK YOU! 👍💪

I've built out the whole year of records already. If I added a button to each record (which are the days of the year), would that work. Wouldn't be as automatic, but feels like it would work. So, each day as I'm planning my workout I press the button and the random image is pulled into the record. Thoughts?

You're the best! Appreciate you!

e

Ed_Hohlbein · ‎Jan 06, 2023

Thanks again for this info @itsmike !

For now I've decided to use the Pexels extension and search/add an image manually each day. Works like a charm. I'll do this while I work on the automated options you shared.

Thank you. Enjoy your day!

e