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Re: Use SMS Extension in interfaces

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Carly_Hubbard
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

I work for a small private adult education institution. We have about 180 students in 10 class groups. We need a way to send those class groups important time-sensitive messages and updates (ie: class cancellations due to inclement weather). We want to do this via text message to the students phones. They have all agreed to be contacted in this way for these purposes. 

I am in the process of building a database environment in Airtable for the institution to manage our contact lists, student files etc. I have started building an interface to access this database because our faculty is not very tech savvy and needs a user friendly visual design. I am aiming to keep them out of the actual bases all together.

Within my master contact list base, I have added the Send SMS extension and connected it to our Twilio account. I've set it up to create contact list groups. I've tested it. It works. 

Is there any way that I can have that feature - the ability to Send SMS through the table I have set up to do so, from the actual interface? 

 

I have tried embedding the grid for the table it is set up on, but the column with the button/link that says Send SMS with Twilio is disabled. I've tried setting it up as a form, but the form just adds a new record to that table and doesn't trigger the message send. I've tried adding a button within the interface, but I can't set the button up to trigger the send either. 

 

Can anyone suggest a way to actually be able to use the Send SMS extension within the interface? 

1 Reply 1

Unfortunately I don't think you can access Extensions via an Interface.  You might need to look into a third party service like Zapier or Make that can help you send said SMSes based on records entering a view or something, and in the Interfaces users would be making changes to cause records to enter said views