How do I create a "sign up" form?

[sorapool]

Hello. I'm brand new to airtable. Less than 2 days. I'm struggling a lot. I have a table with basic member info in it (member id, first name, last name, email, etc).  Now, I want to create a form, let's call it "sign up for party". I want the results of this form to populate another table, but be linked to the data in the main members table.

When I create a linked field in the form, it shows EVERYONE in the table!! That's a huge security issue!! I want people to enter their member id into the form and have that id validated that it exists on form submit. When they submit, the record should be created in the new 'signups' table, linked to the main table.

how do I accomplish this? This seems fairly simple/common, yet I've spent 8hrs trying to figure it out.

[dilipborad]

Airtable + Website Builders for User Signup/Login

Airtable itself doesn't handle user signups and logins like a traditional website. However, you can achieve this by combining Airtable with website builders:

How it works:

• Airtable as your database: Airtable stores your member information (usernames, emails, passwords, etc.).
• Website builder as the front-end: Softr, Webflow, or others let you design the actual login pages, signup forms, and member areas.
• Connecting the two: The website builder communicates with your Airtable database to:
  • Check if a user's login information is correct.
  • Create new user accounts during signup.
  • Show content only to logged-in members.

Benefits:

• User-friendly interface: Website builders offer more visual tools for creating a great login experience.
• Security: Properly implemented, this can be more secure than just using forms within Airtable.
• Customization: You have more control over the look and feel of your signup/login areas.

Popular Options:

• Softr: Very Airtable-focused, making it easier for beginners. Offers built-in features for memberships and user management.
• Webflow: More flexible for design, but requires a bit more technical knowledge to connect with Airtable.

Important Note: Setting up a secure login system involves some technical complexity. You'll likely need to use tools like Zapier or Integromat to connect the pieces, or be familiar with a bit of coding.

Note:- Some of content is AI generated but that's OK if it's solve the purpose.

Give 👍

[ScottWorld]

@sorapool 

When you are creating a sign-up form, you don't want people to choose themselves from a list of members, because then they'll see all the other members as well.

Typically, your form would feed into your EVENT RSVPs table, and it would include a field for an email address, and you can also give them a list of events to choose from, which is pulled from your EVENTS table.

The form would feed into your EVENT RSVPs table, and then you would use an automation to link the event RSVP to that member in your members table (based on their email address).

Otherwise, if you want the member to view their previously-attended events, and/or if you want them to add new events to their own user record, you would need to use a customer portal tool like Fillout's Advanced Forms for Airtable or Noloco's Customer Portals for Airtable or JetAdmin's Customer Portals for Airtable to do that.

p.s. If your company has a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Linked fields in forms only display the primary field, so if the member IDs don't contain anything identifiable (e.g. M001 or whatever), and you're alright with everyone seeing everyone else's member IDs only then you could probably just leave it? 


If not, I would suggest you just make a text field for users to key their Member ID into, then you could make an automation that'll trigger when the form gets submitted that'll link the form submission to the main members table via the member ID.  Airtable has a guide for this you can find here: https://support.airtable.com/docs/linking-existing-records-using-automations

You'd lose the validation bit with this method though, and so if users typo their own member ID you'd need another way to deal with that I'm afraid

[sorapool]

>  you're alright with everyone seeing everyone else's member IDs only then you could probably just leave it?

The problem with this is that it does not prevent member A from picking member B's ID and signing up as them.

> You'd lose the validation bit with this method though

This is what really sucks about AirTable. I took over this website management last year and I'm discovering all kinds of shortcomings with AirTable.

[HannesK-ME]

Hi there! Hannes here from the miniExtensions team! 

We have a couple of different ways we could help you in this scenario. 

1. Our Portal would allow your users to log in and see their past event registrations, as well as register for new events. It also offers different ways of authentication, for example with a username/password or email verification, to ensure that people can only log in as themselves and not impersonate somebody else!

2. Our powerful Form can also be used for this. It features a similar login feature to our portal (including the security features I mentioned), where a user could essentially look up their own record and then register for a new event!

Let me know if you have any questions about this, I'd be happy to provide some further guidance!