Save the date! Join us on October 16 for our Product Ops launch event. Register here.
Feb 02, 2023 07:00 AM
Hi!
Before the existence of the "sync between bases" feature, I started developing a rather complex base on Airtable, that had been working wonderfuly and used by different users and teams. So for every project that we start, I create another base based (no pun intended) on the "main" one, that I keep improving on functionalities.
But for that base, that contain roughly 40 tables, I wanted that a couple of them were in fact synced tables, as now it makes sense that some records are taken from a synced base managed by a single person, while the projects and teams are still restriced for each different project.
One could ask me why can't I register all the projects on the same base, so the sync would not be needed. But given the complexity of managing permission and the additional development effort, and mostly the visual and usability aids that Airtable give us to choose among views and filters to distinguish relational different projects, it makes much (MUCH) more sense to me to keep creating / archiving new and old bases for projects that start and complete.
But... It does not seem to be nowhere near simple to create another synced table, replace manually each linked records (they are a lot, also), manage again every single formula and so on.
So... is there any functionality that I'm missing that helps me to "replace my old-fashined, static local" tables to synced tables?
Thanks!
Feb 02, 2023 08:04 AM
Hi Eduardo, I have the same question as a new user to Airtable trying to determine the best way to set up Bases and Tables with multiple teams, all with different roles. In your experience, was it better to have one Base for everyone (e.g. 50 people) and then set up Views for the different teams so they are only seeing what is relevant to their area of expertise? Or, I've also heard I could set up different Bases by department and then sync, but that seems more cumbersome to me for automation and sharing of data. My ultimate goal is that everyone, regardless of their role (marketing, sales, finance, asset management), is looking at the same source of truth. Intuitively, it seems like one Base would be the best approach, even if it had like 50 Tables, because I can create Views with filters. But I'm new so would love hear your perspective.
Feb 02, 2023 08:10 AM
It's difficult to determine the best approach for your case because it will mostly depend on the funcionality of the base and how is each user going to demand and input data.
But, as a general rule, I understand that multiple bases is the way to go.
Feb 02, 2023 08:17 AM
Thanks. I suppose it's because there is more control over permissions and having many Tables could become unmanageable.
Feb 02, 2023 09:18 AM
If the Linked Records on the "static table" have the same name as the new Synced table and the records match 1:1, couldn't you just copy the enter column of values from the old Linked Record field and paste them to the new Linked Record field?
My brain is still waking up and I may be misunderstanding the question/problem.