Ability to save email attachments to Airtable

[Henry_Tom]

Hi

I would like to know the pros and cons of using Airtable scripting extension to save emails  sent to either a domain specific mail id (like "someuser@exampledomain.com" ) or to a gmail account. I think there are some extensions in market place which does this job but it has recurring cost. 

For instance if we plan to use gmail account as the mail receiver then I think gmail API can be used to create a custom scripting solution to store emails (along with attachments) into Airtable base. I think the same approach works with other domains as well as long as they share an API to read e-mails. Please share feedback on this approach

Thanks

Henry

[ScottWorld]

If you know how to write scripts and you know how to access REST APIs, then you could use scripting.

Otherwise, the easiest way to do this would be to just avoid coding & scripting altogether by signing up for a free account with Make, which is no-code/low-code automation & integration tool.

[kuovonne · Accepted solution]

Airtable scripting will not be able to access your gmail. Thus an Airtable script is not the way to go.

However, you can use a Google script to add an attachment to Airtable. Have your Google script use the Airtable web API to create the attachment. 

If you do not have prior coding experience, you can expect a steep learning curve for this particular coding project. 

[Daniel_C]

Hi Henry,

If you are considering to read emails from your own email inbox and save them to Airtable, this is possible. However, here are the following challenges:

• A server will be needed to monitor your email inbox
• You need to develop your custom script that works with email inboxes, authenticate with Airtable and also save the data to cloud storage
• You need to update your source code to meet any changes in the Airtable API

We have made TaskRobin that lets you do exactly the same, but you can use it as a service so you don't need to worry about maintaining code or IT infrastructure. You just need to link your email inbox and Airtable to TaskRobin and we will save all the emails you forward to TaskRobin.

You can give it a try for free with our Airtable extension:
https://airtable.com/marketplace/blkolb3ol0hiq7XZE/taskrobin

Regards,

Daniel

Founder of TaskRobin