What is the proposed idea/solution?
Provide a mechanism to make it easy for content builders to create temporary fields/columns in an Airtable base, that can expire (be automatically deleted) after a timestamp expires (sort of like a time-to-live or TTL).
How does is solve the user problems?
Many builders will create "temporary" fields in an Airtable base for temporary testing/validation. Sometimes, it can be very difficult for *other* builders to figure out *which* of these fields were used for that purpose. This mechanism helps keep temporary fields more manageable, accordingly.
How was this validated?
I've personally spent DAYS trying to figure out which fields are temporary versus production. Having this mechanism would save WEEKS of headache for me and my team per month.
Who is the target audience?
Content builders.
Notes:
* When a field is created, have an optional setting to allow the creator to specify a time-to-live TTL as a future date/timestamp.
* If TTL is set and once the field is created, provide a visual icon to reflect that the field is VOLATILE and will expire in X days/weeks/months/etc.
* One week before expiration, email the original creator of the field, letting them know the field is about to be deleted.
* Conversely, provide a weak "locking mechanism" on a given field (similar to how a view can be "locked"). If a field is locked, then it can NEVER be auto-expired while locked.
* Perform field-level ANALYSIS in the "Tools > Insights" section of the Airtable UI, where...
- determine which fields have RARELY or NEVER been accessed by users OR by API calls...
- and propose that those fields be AUTO-EXPIRED in bulk...
