I am looking for suggestions of available front-end interfaces for Airtable. There are a few limitations of Airtable’s own form view are:
no customization (can’t have description (e.g “i” next to the field name to the expand the description info), can’t change layout of the fields…)
[[POSTEDIT: can’t have custom names for fields… incorrect, you CAN have this in the Airtable Form View.]]
no record edit function (just new record … yes I can do some tricks with Automation and linked fields to lookup field in the background but it would be ugly plus the linked field picker in the form view is limited… see my point 4)
formula fields not showing (as view-only formula fields; I want to show the results of the a formula based on values I am entering in the form + if editing existing record, the values may be based on existing values for the record already saved in Airtable
Linked field - record selection list - the list of records only shows the 1st field of the record once the form is deployed (when editing the form, the record snippet shows 4 fields including a picture);
4a) No lookup field - related to previous point.
Details for 4) I am trying to lookup or get the highest used number in a field so that I know what’s the next free number I can use. (Auto-numbering will not work for me).
The approach I take is using a Linked field to a view showing the record with the highest number.The issue is however, in Airtable Form, the lookup field list only shows the 1st field and that is too truncated.
I can solve it by concatenating the 1st table field to include the SKU number and then would see in the linked record search list… however, this solution is rather ugly… to show the SKU number at the beginning of the field because the field gets truncated in the field picker list.
Any suggestions for suitable web-form apps able to solve the points 1-4?
All I need is to create a simple and single web-form, creating maybe 500 records per year. No other requirements. Some of these solutions offer bells and whistles like storefront, payments integration etc… I don’t need all of that.
I believe of those 4 points above all would be valid features that Airtable should offer with their form and there would be no need to look for outside solutions…
Here is a list of 7-8 web-apps I looked up but haven’t tested them, some require signing up for a quite costly subscription even before I know it works the way I need:
I don’t do a lot of elaborate stuff with forms, so Airtable’s built-in forms are usually good enough for my needs, and I don’t have a lot to offer to your questions. However, I will make a brief comment on this point:
You can customize field names in Airtable forms. Click on a field name in the form view and change it to whatever you want. The original field name is left untouched. This allows you to keep your actual field names short, but use something more descriptive when getting input for those fields from an Airtable form.
I see, didn’t know I can change the name. That’s really helpful if the form is shared with others.
I am surprised none of the companies selling add-ons for Airtable I mentioned above haven’t picked up this post. This would have been a great way for them to introduce their wares. Not a single one commented (except for softr.io founder who did show up in another post recommending the platform,… . but as I commented there, that tool requires to subscribe to the most expensive level to even have the ability to edit existing record in Airtable… )
Again, I am surprised there are few comments in general. I could imagine taking Airtable to a completely new level if I was able to integrate it interactively with online forms… the sky would be the limit. (How about multiple tables or databases in a single form, that would be unbeatable…)
Since I am eager to hear from the aforementioned 3rd party solution providers, I will send out invites to see who is interested to respond and share with others here.
I can give some guidance on On2Air Forms.
First, it is an integration into Jotform, so it does require a subscription (or free plan) to Jotform to use it. that is a downside in that it requires another tool, but the upside is you get the benefits that come with Jotform, which are many.
With On2Air forms, you can:
Configure it to edit existing records
Display values from computed fields (i.e. formulas)
Show other fields besides the primary key as the display field, as well as what fields are used for searching
Customize the label names and layout
It cannot display formula fields for the current form as you’re typing. But you can use Jotforms Calculated fields to create a formula using current form field values. Its not as straightforward as I’d like but is doable.
We are working on some big changes to the forms product I can’t share just yet but exciting changes are coming from On2Air Forms, so if its not yet what you’re looking for, be sure to check back in near future.
You can use the free version of Jotform, and a free trial to On2Air to see if it works for you.
@openside@Michael_Skelly Thank you for taking your time and responding here. I am grateful becauser it saves me a ton of time and I am sure others will appreciate, your answer here will give you exposure to more users. I will definitively test both solutions although one area where it will fall short right now is live computed fields, but hey, I understand now this is not a limitation of your solution but because of how things are processed with Airtable being a database so now I will need to think of some work-rounds around the live computed fields, I’ll look at JotForm. I appreciate.
Hello! I’m Enrique, creator of Airvues. Our pro version lets you request a custom template which should be able to take care of everything you need here. If you need more information or have further question, feel free to reach out at info@airvues.com
At the moment as a small no-code Airtable integration service, we are working on creating more templates and customizations to be able to edit records and have more responsive forms.
To provide more information about question #3, since a record does not exist until the form is submitted, any formula fields won’t know what it’s variables are until the form is submitted. The way that Airvues can solve this is by replicating the formula in the front end so that it can update as you type in answers to the form.
That is great news. I am looking forward. I am a non-programmer, so only in the hindsight I realized the point #3 (where I am asking to have formula results showing real time as I fill in the form fields) … is a bit unrealistic to achieve within this framework.
But hey, since it may be possible to solve it, it would be great.
Here is an idea of what I was intending to do:
I created a sourcing-estimating tool for ecommerce by taking into consideration 100’s of parameters and one of the ways I would like to use it is to have a form, by entering some values and getting the profitability analysis.
I understand I am asking for too much but I am learning a lot by doing. A year ago I had no idea where this will go when I started.
Airtable is like a Lego, it enables small or big to build something, whether it’s just a toy or a proof of concept.
