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Re: Public Users Update A Record

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SparKey
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Hi there,

I think I already know the answer to this but thought that I should ask. 

Is there a way for a user who has filled out a public form to edit the data that they submitted in the past? For example. If I have a form that invites people to provide information about their product which they do, is there a way for me to allow them in the future to "Edit" that information later if the price of description of the product changes?

Thanks in advance. 

S

2 Solutions

Accepted Solutions
TheTimeSavingCo
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

Kind of, yeah.  Airtable has a guide on how to do that here: https://support.airtable.com/docs/use-case-update-records-via-a-form

Probably easier to just use Fillout.com though

In either case, you'd need to get a specific form link to the people involved so they could edit their submission, so you'd probably use an automation to send them said link after the form was submitted I reckon

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ScottWorld
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

It is not usually a good idea to attempt this with Airtable’s forms, because of a variety of different reasons.

For starters, the URL needs to constantly change, so you have to constantly send people a new URL after each update that they make.

Furthermore, if the user accidentally uses the old URL, they will be presented with completely outdated information, which is a very poor experience for the user.

Also, Airtable’s prefilled forms can’t handle attachment fields nor rich text fields.

Not to mention that prefilled URLs are restricted in length.

Additionally, you need to create an automation that will take all of the data from the newly-submitted form and overwrite the old data.

Instead of dealing with all of the hassles that I listed above, the easiest, simplest, quickest, and most effective way of updating an Airtable record from a form is to use Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable.

Fillout is 100% free and offers hundreds of features that Airtable’s native forms don’t offer, including the ability to directly update Airtable records from a form.

Fillout will give you an Airtable formula that you add to your base, and that formula will generate a unique URL for each record in your base.

Then, you just email the person the URL for their record, which they can use to update their record at any time.

Fillout will also allow them to update ANY type of Airtable field, including attachment fields.

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

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6 Replies 6
ScottWorld
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

@SparKey 

Yes, if you want people to update their own Airtable record, you can do that with Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable.

Fillout is 100% free and offers hundreds of features that Airtable’s native forms don’t offer, including the ability to update Airtable records from a form.

Fillout will give you an Airtable formula that you add to your base, and that formula will generate a unique URL for each record in your base.

Then, you just email the person the URL for their record, which they can use to update their record at any time.

Fillout will allow them to update ANY type of Airtable field, including attachment fields.

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

TheTimeSavingCo
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

Kind of, yeah.  Airtable has a guide on how to do that here: https://support.airtable.com/docs/use-case-update-records-via-a-form

Probably easier to just use Fillout.com though

In either case, you'd need to get a specific form link to the people involved so they could edit their submission, so you'd probably use an automation to send them said link after the form was submitted I reckon

ScottWorld
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

It is not usually a good idea to attempt this with Airtable’s forms, because of a variety of different reasons.

For starters, the URL needs to constantly change, so you have to constantly send people a new URL after each update that they make.

Furthermore, if the user accidentally uses the old URL, they will be presented with completely outdated information, which is a very poor experience for the user.

Also, Airtable’s prefilled forms can’t handle attachment fields nor rich text fields.

Not to mention that prefilled URLs are restricted in length.

Additionally, you need to create an automation that will take all of the data from the newly-submitted form and overwrite the old data.

Instead of dealing with all of the hassles that I listed above, the easiest, simplest, quickest, and most effective way of updating an Airtable record from a form is to use Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable.

Fillout is 100% free and offers hundreds of features that Airtable’s native forms don’t offer, including the ability to directly update Airtable records from a form.

Fillout will give you an Airtable formula that you add to your base, and that formula will generate a unique URL for each record in your base.

Then, you just email the person the URL for their record, which they can use to update their record at any time.

Fillout will also allow them to update ANY type of Airtable field, including attachment fields.

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

Yeah, sorry to hear you've had such bad experiences with it.  Works pretty well in my experience and for users who can't or don't want to pay for a third party service it's a viable option!

ScottWorld
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

Oh, I haven’t had any bad experiences with it, I just try to guide people towards the best solutions that don’t have any problems or downsides, and I try to guide people away from solutions that create unnecessary work for them.

As you may have seen from my list above, there are a lot of issues when trying to use Airtable to update an existing record.

Also, Fillout is 100% free, so nobody has to pay for it unless they have more than 1,000 form submissions in a month.

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

SparKey
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Thank you both for your opinions.

I appreciate that there could be more than one way to make this work and that lots of people have their own opinions on what the "Right" way to do something is. It gives me some options for both solutions to see what best fits my needs. 

This should be a fairly infrequent occurrence in the first instance, so I need to understand the consequences of both on my particular solution. 

All the best.

S