Can I run an App with a Button

[Jon_Rosen]

I added a timer app to a table. Is there a way to attach it to a button in a grid view record to directly start the timer, instead of opening the app area, running the app and selecting the record? Thanks.

[ScottWorld · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the community, my buddy @Jon_Rosen! 🙂 Great to see you here! 🙂 :raised_hands:

Unfortunately, no. This is one of the many half-baked features in Airtable. Many things in Airtable are disconnected from each other like this.

Buttons are disappointing because they have very limited capabilities & have zero ability to communicate with automations or apps — EXCEPT for the very small handful of apps that are listed in the dropdown menu selection for the button.

Many things in Airtable have to be done on a manual basis only, which can often make it challenging & frustrating to work with the product.

However, 3 cool things that can be done with buttons are:

1. Buttons can trigger custom JavaScripts in the scripting app.
2. Buttons can display a record in the Page Designer app, which is a very limited layout tool that you can print custom layouts from.
3. Buttons can trigger custom webhook URLs in Make. Once you trigger a custom webhook URL in Make, you can perform an unlimited amount of advanced automations in Airtable, and you can also integrate Airtable with thousands of external apps. Any app that has an API can be automated with Make.

However, note that buttons that trigger external URLs will always open those URLs in a separate browser tab. This might be nice if you want to give the user a custom webhook response. However, in most cases, you probably just need the automation to run without any user interaction.

In that case, you can just use a normal single-select field in Airtable to trigger an automation script in Airtable, which then silently runs the custom webhook in the background. More detailed instructions on how to do this here.

There can be a bit of a learning curve with Make, which is why I created this basic navigation video for Make, along with providing the link to Make’s free training courses.

p.s. If you have a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld.

[Jon_Rosen]

Hi, Scott. Thank you for your comprehensive answer. I wonder if I can write a JavaScript to trigger the timer from a button. I’ll have to research that.

[ScottWorld]

Unfortunately, that is also not supported. :frowning:

Welcome to Airtable! :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

[ScottWorld]

BTW, here’s an interesting timer solution that might work for you:

Record timer script Show and tell

Inspired by this discussion, I wrote a script for the Scripting block that lets you instantly start and stop a virtual timer on any record, provided that the table is set up to work with this script. Aside from adding the script into a Scripting block, setup only requires three new fields: A single line text field, which will store the script’s timing data (used internally; may be hidden) A duration field, where the script will store the tracked time A button field, which must be set to trigge…

[Jon_Rosen]

Thanks, Scott. That script worked quite well. The only drawback is that it opens the scripting window when it runs, but I’ll put that on my list of AirTable things to figure out.

[ScottWorld]

Unfortunately, that is how Airtable operates. Whenever running a script via the scripting app, Airtable always insists on opening that screen. :frowning: It is poor user design, I know.

However, you can always run a script via a single-select field or a checkbox field, which can then trigger a normal Airtable automation which runs the script in the background. Here's an example of how to do this.

But yeah, there are a lot of weird behaviors like this in Airtable, and none of them are modifiable by us. Very different from our FileMaker world, where everything is well thought-out & completely changeable by us. Airtable tends to roll out half-baked features once, and then they never go back to improve those half-baked features later. Sadly, they are also not very responsive to user requests, so our voices essentially disappear into a black hole.

[Jon_Rosen]

ScottWorld:

Sadly, they are also not very responsive to user requests, so our voices essentially disappear into a black hole.

Well, that’s something they have in common with Fileamaker Inc. (now Claris). It sounds like it’s a behavior that they can change without too much trouble, when they are ready.

[ScottWorld]

I’ve always found FileMaker to be extremely responsive to their developers, but I suppose that their responsiveness has ebbed & flowed over the years (depending on who was in charge at the time). And now they’re reaching out even more with those bi-monthly Partner ShareVoice sessions, so they’re really engaging developers more than ever now. But yes, hopefully Airtable will start embracing users & developers soon! :slightly_smiling_face: