Views not included in the template are not working outside the web interface...

[josephhand]

HELP! 

I am new to Airtable. I signed up... chose the lemonade stand template as a starting point, and set about my first base!   Task 1 was getting about 300 rows into the inventory table. My intent is to use this to build shopping lists for my deli. I have maybe 8 suppliers... added a column called "Category" to allow me to sort by things like Produce, Deli Meats, Beverages, etc.... Finally figured out how to import the data. Cleaned it up... and added all the categories.. Now the fun begins. 

I opened the app on my IPad and go to the inventory table and I see "Main View" and "Low Supply" as Views I can choose to look at the data on the ipad. I go back to the web interface, duplicate the Main View into a new view called "Shopping List" and a second called "Order List". Both of these have several filters and groupings. I also added one final column to the Inventory table called "Order" as a Yes / No check box. The workflow should look like open "SHopping List" on the iPad and walk around the store, going from one category to the next, tapping the screen on that "Order" checkbox... for everything I need to order. When done, I would then go to the last view "Order List" that filters out everything without a check mark in the order Checkbox... groups by category, and lists it in alphabet order... One final intent would be to print it, head to the store, and shop. 

So I open the app again on the iPad, once all of the back end stuff is perfect... I click on the views it opens the View selector. The views that were in the template "Main View" and "Low Supply" are black and the two I created called "Shopping List" and "Order List" are greyed out (see Image1)

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When I tapped the one called "Shopping List", I  get the message: "This view can't be displayed in the iOS app yet. Please use airtable.comm in a desktop browser to display and edit it".  Same for the "Order List" view. Same for a Form I created messing around. 

I have looked at everything. There is no switch that says "Only show in the web interface" or "Show in ipad app".  Again, these created views were duplicates. I also tried just duplicating the main view, made zero changes, and went to the iOS app and sure enough, that was off limits too!

Very frustrating. 

But wait... there's more. 

I then tried to maybe figure out how to do a report. Figured out that you need an extension for that... so I installed the extension called "Page Designer".

I installed it and then went looking to see which view I should use to base the report on... Click the dropdown and I bet you know what I saw... (see image2)

Notice the list of Views I see in the extension "Page Designer" while I attempt to build my first report. That list shows only the "Main View" and the "Low Supply" view are available to select. This is the same thing I see when trying to select one of my custom views "Shopping List" or "Order List" which were created simply by duplicating views...

What my take is that any view that came with the starter template base are usable and anything else is not, except in the web interface. Not on my iPad and not in the extension for report building. The question is why?  Is there any way to get help from AirTable? Do they read these posts? Something is going on here. 

Please... Help Me! 

joe, airtable newbie

[Frank_Gannon1 · Accepted solution]

Airtable has very limited mobile functionality, with only a few working views. Accessing Airtable from mobile browser (w/ desktop view) seems to be the most popular workaround, but it's a hassle and definitely not perfect.

If you're looking for a more mobile-friendly experience with airtable, you'll have to look at third-party UI builders like Softr, or at least some sort of form builder for inputs. It seems like Airtable is working to bring their Interfaces product to mobile, but I wouldn't let rumored features sway me.

[ScottWorld]

Another UI builder that I really like is Noloco.io, although it is very confusing & challenging to setup. 

[josephhand]

Thanks for the reply. They do not do such a good job explaining the views. You would think they would let you know when creating the view that is not yet available on other apps, that it is only available on the web… but no.