Can I export a view to an HTML format?

[Mark_Fleming]

I see that if I upgrade to the Pro plan (I’m on the $10/month plan), there is something called Page Builder that will let me design and create a PDF file. I’m wondering if there is something similar that would let me design and create an HTML file from a view that could then be used as part of a web page.

Thanks!

[Mark_Fleming]

Thanks so much for those links! I will give them a deeper look today. :slightly_smiling_face:

[Mark_Fleming]

Well, I checked out both pory.io and miniextensions.com. Neither will work for me.

Pory, while a cool concept, limits you to one of a half dozen barely customizable templates. There is no way to simply select the fields you want to display and include them in your display unless you can map some of the fields to a preselected format.

Miniextensions’ View Editor does not seem to allow the user to sort or select on any fields.

[Bill_French]

Mark_Fleming:

Neither will work for me.

Brick walls all the way up. This is why we have a 3 month backlog of integration work.

You might take a look at this (make sure you read all the way through).

[ScottWorld]

Mark_Fleming:

Miniextensions’ View Editor does not seem to allow the user to sort or select on any fields.

I was referring to this on the MiniExtensions.com website:

miniExtensions

Embed Airtable Gallery on Your Website - miniExtensions

Display Airtable records as if they're part of your site. Generate a gallery of records that blends into your site. It adjusts its height based on the content

You can also check out Stacker.app.

If none of these work for you, then it seems like your only option is to custom-code your own code on your website using Airtable’s API.

[Mark_Fleming]

Thanks ScottWorld. I hadn’t seen that one. So I went and looked at it and it does allow selection. But there’s no sort. But I’ve contacted the developer to see if either i’m missing something or maybe if he wants to add that.

Appreciate your input!

[kuovonne]

Mark_Fleming:

But the warning “This plugin hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress” gives me pause.

It is smart to be cautious about investing in dead code.

Something to note is that the Airpress plug-in does not have a paid “premium” version that generates income for the developer. Thus, he does not have an incentive to update or test the plug-in, or to answer support questions.

On the other hand, the developer has replied to some support questions within the past few weeks and he has updated the plugin five months ago. His website also lets you book Airpress support consultations.

---

I’ve also used rollups and formula fields to create HTML from Airtable data. I then push the html to my WordPress site using a custom block that I created specifically for the purpose. The data doesn’t auto-update the way Airpress or another integration would, but my data changes infrequently enough that a manual update method works for me. From a search ranking point of view, the data is just like any other WordPress post.

[Bill_French]

kuovonne:

From a search ranking point of view, the data is just like any other WordPress post.

And @Mark_Fleming, this means that the content is generated as HTML and cached-forward into the Wordpress site. This creates a latency that is often not an issue and most important, search crawlers can see and digest the content.

It’s important to realize that this is not necessarily how every Wordpress plugin works. Most perform server-side transformations to generate dynamic HTML that crawlers digest. However, some perform client-side transformations that use DOM tricks and such to render the content in ways that are no different from iFrame as far as search crawlers are concerned.

And if they perform dynamic (live) transformations of Airtable content, that approach also comes with another risk that web site requests - if popular - will possibly swamp the Airtable API limits. And by requests, I mean - ALL requests - even those from search crawlers and other bots attacking your site looking for security flaws. Without a content cache defending your back-end Airtable resources, you may create visitor dissatisfaction when API requests into Airtable are overwhelmed. Humans are pretty slow with requests, but machines operate at a much more aggressive rate.

[Mark_Fleming]

@Bill.French Bill, you are a wealth of knowledge! Thank you again.

[Bill_French]

Mark_Fleming:

you are a wealth of knowledge! Thank you again.

Only because I’m really [really] old. You’re welcome.

[kuovonne]

In case it wasn’t clear, in my post I discussed two different methods: (1) the Airpress plugin, and (2) my method of creating the html in Airtable and pushing it to a post using my custom block.

In method (1) the Airpress plugin, there is some caching, but obviously not everything is always cached. There definitely is a latency for data that is not cached. It is also possible to overwhelm the Airtable Standard REST API depending on the volume of requests of different data. The Airpress plugin caching system will not overwhelm the Standard REST API for repeated requests for the same data from different people. The trade-off is that if your data is particularly time-sensitive, your users might be served old data.

In method (2), there is no extra latency because the post behaves exactly like the other content in a WordPress post because it is regular post content created through the WordPress API. The content of the post is not retrieved via a plugin. There is also no issue with Airtable API limits because it does not use the Airtable Standard REST API. The WordPress data is only updated when the user clicks the button in the Airtable custom block.