Email notifications when user makes a comment on any record

[Vineet]

Since manually adding a comment doesn’t go into any existing “fields” of the table, I can’t use trigger to automate this.
Can this be achieved using scripts instead?

[JonathanB · Accepted solution]

If you use @[user] in a comment box for a record they will receive an email notification. Or it’s non-users you want to notify, you could try using a field that is hidden from general view for people to add comments, which then triggers a notification. If you do this you’ll want to put some kind of time delay on the notification though, because the trigger fires automatically as soon as the user starts typing, so you tend to get a notification with just the first letter of their comment!

[Vineet]

Thanks! So tagging triggers an instant notification without using any automation. That’s nifty.

Adding a custom field to take comments can work, except, my requirement is to share a “Comment Only” view of the Airtable with someone. And I would like to be able to get an email notification when the user puts a comment. So they would have no access to any custom fields. I hope I am able to explain.

[JonathanB]

Create a new view that just shows the comment field. Hide all the other fields. Now create a shared link for that view. Each record in a table has its own URL, so you can use that URL in a notification email to take the user to the record to read the new comment.

[Vineet]

Thanks JonathanB.
Each record having it’s own URL is a great thing. But that doesn’t seem to be a solution for the feature I want to build.
I want to be able to give only “commenter” access to a base. And I would like to get an email notification when someone comments (in activity pane). But since that comment field is not actually a field of the table, I am not able to use trigger on the same to generate the email.

For now, tagging the person is a good way to get email, so thanks for giving that idea.

[ea]

for the record: this doesn't work with users who have interface access only. It only works with users with full base access 🙃