Shorten URLs using scripts?

Esfandiar_Khora · ‎Sep 30, 2020

Hi There,
It seems that there is no way to call directly an external API to a record on Airtable.
My goal is to be able to shorten URLs (using Bit.ly API) in my database.
I was wondering if there is a way that scripts might be able to help?

Here is Bit.ly API reference : https://dev.bitly.com/api-reference

I appreciate any help on this subject.
Thanks

ScottWorld · ‎Sep 30, 2020

Yes, you can call APIs by writing a custom script with JavaScript (and it can even be automatically triggered with Airtable’s automations).

Or, if you don’t want to dive into JavaScript, you can also easily automate this with an automation platform like Integromat, which is a no-code platform.

Esfandiar_Khora · ‎Oct 01, 2020

Thanks so much for your input.
I’m trying to stay inside Airtable as much as possible (thanks to the new button and automations features) and to be less dependent on third party integration (zapier, Integromat, etc…) unless absolutely necessary.

I don’t know how to write a script though, If anyone is interested to provide the script for the community that would be awesome :- :slightly_smiling_face:

Cheers

Pierre_Delannoy · ‎Jun 20, 2022

Hey there,
I hope you’re doing well!

I am coming back on this subject as I am trying do to the same thing but couldn’t manage to set up the Airtable Automation with Zapier! Do you know if we are able to create this in-app now ?

To give you some context :

People have pre-registered to my service
Now is time for subscription and I would like to send a new form (linked to another table) that would be prefilled in order to ease the customer journey.
The prefilled link is however too long to work in my emails so I’d like to shorten it before sending it

Do you know how I can do that ?
I don’t know if I’m clear…Thanks a lot for your help
Pierre

ScottWorld · ‎Jun 20, 2022

I don’t know scripting, but Bitly is a popular link shortening service, which you can automate in a no-code/low-code way using Make.com. I find Make more intuitive & more powerful than Zapier:

Also, not sure if this would work for your purposes or not, but another option instead of sending lengthy prefilled URLs would be to use a portal service like MiniExtensions.com. Then, people can log in to see their own record, and edit their own records directly in their web browser.

kuovonne · ‎Jun 20, 2022

Can you explain why the prefilled link is too long? Are you trying to prefill long text fields?

Pierre_Delannoy · ‎Jun 21, 2022

Hello @kuovonne and @ScottWorld,
Thanks a lot for your answers!

I tried the automation and realized that my issue is not linked to the length of the URL but rather to the fact that some of the fields I want to prefill (example : Type of use) have answer that are in more than one word, which breaks the formule when I want to turn it into an URL (cf picture)

I tried to add a substitute (“”, “+”) in my formula but it doesn’t seem work…

Do you have any idea on how I can process to avoid this?

I have tried to create a button and it works well but I need to put this link into an email…

Thanks a lot!
Pierre

ScottWorld · ‎Jun 21, 2022

It doesn’t look like your URL is properly encoded.

You may want to use @kuovonne’s Prefilled Forms app to help you with that. This app doesn’t support hidden fields, but it doesn’t look like you’re using hidden fields:

Pierre_Delannoy · ‎Jun 21, 2022

Oh nice, it works perfectly thanks a lot!
I tried to encode it and it worked in the database but I guess I had some other issues when it came to the email!

Thanks a lot for your help !
Pierre

Isaac_Tanner-De · ‎Apr 20, 2024

Hi Pierre,
This is the solution I am solving for aswell, what did you do in the end? I saw that zapier has a ur shortener but there are 4-5 form urls per contact record so using this fuction would quickly create alot of events in Zapier