Ability to Hide Tables

[dfogg]

I know this topic has been brought up before but I haven’t seen any topics about it post-table syncing implementation.

Would really like the ability to hide tables in bases - specifically tables I have syncing. For the most part, I’m syncing the table and then using some automations to find and match to existing records and then using lookups to pull in the information I need. The synced table really isn’t providing any value except for the specific fields I’m looking up. So, if there was an ability to hide these tables it would lessen the cluster of unnecessary tables in a base but still allow for specific information to be pulled in, matched, and synced.

[Ben_Young1]

Hey @dfogg! Welcome in!

You can functionally achieve this by playing around with your data modeling.

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If You Have An Enterprise Org.

Create a workspace that is designated for your “development/backend” needs.

I tend to keep a few bases in mine. Some examples include a sandbox environment that I use to test schema changes and field adjustments against my other sandbox environments in systems such as Salesforce or Jira.

In this base, I have a base that is designated as an external sync hub between Airtable and all my external systems. All external sources sync to this base, and from there, I use internal syncs to send that data to the bases that require it.

This allows me to change the data that comes through to each base by creating a view that contains only the fields I want to appear in the sync to that given base.

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If You Are On A Pro Plan

If you’re on a Pro plan, you can take the method for the enterprise org. and simply do it all within the same workspace.

The problem that you risk running (depending on your use case) is that you will not be able to control whether or not collaborators will be able to hop into the originating base and view data directly from there.
For most people, this is totally acceptable and doesn’t matter, but if you’re trying to manage user access to data or you’re trying to tailor a specific user experience by making only applicable data available to users in order to reduce what appears to be data clutter, then you don’t really have room to maneuver here.

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Hopefully, these options will provide you with some insight into how you can play around with your data model to create what you’re looking for.

[dfogg]

Thanks for your suggestion. Yes, I understand this and already currently do it. What I would like is the ability to do is not even show a synced table in a base - regardless if I just have the fields I need syncing in. A function just like hiding columns. This way I can have the data syncing in in the background without another table being visible in the base.

[kuovonne]

I believe that Airtable is very much aware that users would like the ability to hide portions of a base from users. However, the software engineering to do this in a responsible manner is very complex. Airtable has dropped hints that they are working on ways to provide access to a base without exposing the entire base, but there is no information on when this might be released or how it might be implemented.

[Andy_Lin1]

If all you’re after is the cosmetic effect of hiding the table, you can achieve this with a little bit of CSS. (You’ll need an browser extension/add-on to apply the CSS. I personally use Stylus, which is available for Firefox and Chrome.)

#tableTab-{Table ID} {
    display: none;
}

To get the Table ID:

1. Click on the table whose tab you want to hide

2. In the location bar, look for tbl. If you can’t find it, start from the beginning; the URL structure should look like this:

   • airtable.com/ or your domain
   • app(...)/ this is the base ID
   • tbl(...)/ this is the table ID, and is the thing we want
   • viw(...)? this is the view ID
   • other parameters may follow, such as blocks or date

3. Copy the part of the url that begins tbl and go up to, but don’t include, the following slash, e.g. tbl1a2b3c4d5e6f7g. (You can double-click on that part of the URL to select just the portion between the two slashes.)
   

4. Add #tableTab- to the front and that gives you the selector for your CSS rule, e.g. #tableTab-tbl1a2b3c4d5e6f7g

[dfogg]

Thank you, Andy. This is very helpful but unfortunately would require my team to have to do the same.

However, this is good info I may use for other personal purposes.

[Andy_Lin1]

Haha, I feel you – it can be tricky to walk people through. If it helps, Stylus has an auto-update feature, so in theory, if you have a shareable direct link to the stylesheet file, you’d only have to get everyone set up the first time and then you can update the shared file as needed.

[dfogg]

This good to know! Thank you, @Andy_Lin1!