Is It Possible to Automate Table Creation from a Template in Airtable?

[Ste_H]

Is it possible to fully automate the creation of new tables in Airtable from a template, via external tools like Make.com or Zapier? Like the Google Sheets "Create Spreadsheet from Template" module in Make.com. 

I’ve successfully created tables manually using the Scripting Extension, which duplicates a template. However, it seems this process can’t be triggered automatically through Airtable automations or external platforms.

Is this a limitation of Airtable, or is there another approach to achieve this?

If it’s not currently possible, are there plans to introduce this feature in the future? Automating table creation from templates seems like a critical function for workflows, especially compared to competitors like Google Sheets.

Thank you for your insights!

[ScottWorld]

Airtable is a database program (not a spreadsheet app), so it is never a good idea to continually create new tables.

That is a spreadsheet approach, not a database approach.  

If you find yourself in a situation where you are continually creating new tables, then it is typically a sign that there is something wrong with your database structure.

The idea of a database is to normalize data and reduce redundancies to create powerful apps, which cannot be accomplished if new tables are continually being created.

Databases are much more powerful than spreadsheets, but only if the data is structured properly.

It would be best for you to explain what you are trying to do in Airtable, so we can tell you how to properly set it up as a database.

Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld 

[Ste_H]

Hey,

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your perspective and the clarification regarding database structure. Let me explain my objective:

I'm working on an MVP that requires the creation of a dynamic database for each new customer upon form submission. The goal is to automate this process entirely, integrating it with other automations to eliminate manual input.

I understand Airtable's strengths as a database tool, and I’d like to leverage its features for this project. While there might be other platforms that can achieve this, I’m more familiar with Airtable and its capabilities, so it would be ideal to have this functionality available.

Let me know if there’s a recommended way to approach this within Airtable's framework or any potential workarounds.

Thanks

[ScottWorld]

That's exactly what Airtable's portals and interfaces are designed for — to create a dynamic database for each customer.

But instead of creating a separate table for each customer's data, ALL of the data for ALL of your customers would live in one unified table.

And then interfaces & portals would ensure that each customer is only allowed to see their own data, without them seeing any other customers' data.

This is done by filtering the records. You would filter the records to only show the currently logged-in user their own set of data.

So even though all of the data lives in one unified table, the data is filtered to only show each person their own data.

Read-only users are always free (i.e. where users aren't allowed to edit their data). But users with editing access will cost you money.

You can learn more about portals here. And you can learn more about interfaces here.

One of the primary differences between interfaces and portals is the cost for editable users. Also, interfaces require users to signup for an Airtable account.

Alternatively, if you want to save money but still allow your users to edit data, you can turn to 3rd-party portals that communicate with Airtable on the backend and are cheaper than Airtable. Here are some options:

1. Fillout: For each record in Airtable that you want your read-only users to edit, you could give them a button or a link that would open that record in Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable, which allows you to update Airtable records from a form. Fillout is 100% free, but it's not a traditional portal experience.

2. Other popular portals: For a more traditional portal experience, the most popular portals that are currently available for Airtable are Noloco, JetAdmin, Softr, Pory, and Glide. I gave an entire one-hour webinar on Noloco called Building a Client Portal on Noloco powered by Airtable. 

Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld