No More Static URLs for Attachments?

[VillageCo]

This post is in response to the 4/4/2022 email announcement titled “Changes to Airtable attachments” which announced that static URL’s will be going away.

This has a HUGE and sadly dramatic affect on my application. I’m using Airtable to crowd-source content for a weekly email - each member submits a form with their content, and I use formulas to roll together all the content into an automated weekly email, including images. It seems with this change that using static urls (as obtained via a formula and embedded into HTML tags) will no longer be possible.

I’m not sure how else I can embed photos into the emails I send out. I’m hoping someone can help think this through. A HUGE part of what I’m doing is about automating the compilation of multiple contributors into one email… it’s been working brilliantly for years… I’m so sad about this. I don’t know what to do…

[kuovonne]

Welcome to the Airtable community!

Yes, this is a big change. Thankfully we have been given several months notice to figure things out.

I am hoping that Airtable will provide more information about how attachment urls will work, especially

• will all urls will be “viewer” urls versus urls to actual files?
• how long will it take for urls to expire (minutes, days, weeks, hours?)?

You can include attachments in automated emails. That should still work, as it creates an actual email attachment versus a link.

[ScottWorld]

Yeah, it’s weird that they would remove this capability, since many people depend on it.

And attachments won’t work if you’re trying to embedding images inline via HTML tags.

My guess is that your solution will involve uploading your images to a cloud drive somewhere (Box.com, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and then using their public URLs in your email. And you will most likely need to use an external automation service like Zapier or Make.com to handle all of this.

[quaint_irene]

I feel your pain!

This will have a huge impact on multiple workflows for me. I sort of can’t even wrap my head around it right now. This is an enormous loss of functionality. I guess I know how I’ll be spending my summer.

[Portfolio_Pet]

I can almost understand this announcement being about security when it comes to files other than images. However, I assume static URLs to attachements is used overwhelmingly by users who link to image attachments.

It’s truly devastating.

[Tom_Keysers]

Very worrying news here as well. We use thousands of records and their image attachments as the base of a huge product catalog on our website, using the Airpress plugin.

This change is giving me headaches.

[kuovonne]

@Jordan_Scott1

Discussion about this topic is spread across several different threads. It would be helpful if Airtable had started an official community thread for this topic in order to avoid this splintering of the conversation.

[VillageCo]

Thanks Scott - yup, this is exactly my fear. Until now we’ve been able to do everything just using Airtable - with this change it will require huge changes to our processes, more coding and API’s. It’s just devastating… I’m so sad they are doing this. Is there any way we can appeal this?

[VillageCo]

“Can’t even wrap my head around it” is exactly where I am. I’m in shock they would do this.

[ScottWorld]

I would send an email to support@airtable.com about this. Also, if they publicly announce this in the #announcements topic in these forums, you can publicly comment on it there as well.