At the moment the form only allows input of new data. Can we have a form for editing existing records? At the moment we can only edit in the table meaning I can’t present the records the way I want. Can’t even hide columns on mobile, meaning the users are free to wreak havoc on the existing data :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:
I work at a school & all the contact information from parents could be managed indefinitely with editable forms. One time forms make it impossible and rather useless for any similar use case.
I really need this feature to be implemented. Google Forms has the ability for individuals to edite their previously submitted forms.
Any update from the AirTable team on where we are on this feature?
Hi Peter. Would it be an option to fix the granular permission issue with a couple of hacks?
a) add a new type of field, called “record owner” (the person who created the record)
b) add the option to share views to a particular email in edit mode (not only view)
In this way, an administrator could create a separate filtered view for every user of the database, filtering only the records belonging to that user. Then, it would share it with them in view & edit mode.
Update forms would indeed be an awesome way to integrate Airtable into existing workflows.
It’s not feasible to provide full table access to all of the people we need to update data in it, and we’re lacking self-serve access to a validating front end that can (a) pre-populate fields with lookup data similar to the create record form, and (b) sanity check the fields that are submitted.
We can sort of work around this with Typeform and Zapier, but gross doesn’t even begin to describe this process.
While you study how to implement a flexible and sophisticated granular permissions feature for editing tables, views and so on it would be very useful a simpler solution for editing a unique record through a filtered link to edit that single record just from the web.
Just create the form and generate a link from a concrete record to edit it. Simple, isn’t it? I love Airtable but this feature is absolutely a must. Thanks for being there!
Jessica, I have this exact same problem too. I’m trying to figure out a way for existing users to fill out a second form that will then amend their details from the first form that they filled out.
If anyone knows a way around this I’d be keen to know!
Basic use case here… updating an address or phone number.
Whether employees, sales contacts or whatever, I would love for people to be able to just submit the updated address or phone number.
As it is, I have new employees fill out a handy airtable form with all sorts of stuff when they are hired, but after that, they literally have to email me to update their info.
Would be great to be able to be able to scan a barcode of equipment and have the form auto populate with the details and the user simple check out or check with minimal updates. As opposed to risking them checking in/out the wrong item because of fingers and touch screens.
Also being able to set multiple forms to start and continue data entry and simplify what could otherwise be a very lengthy form.
There’s lots of applications where this feature would be very useful.
New to this platform - it sounds like you can’t use a form to add data to an existing row and if not, is there a way to automatically link the new data to an existing row? thanks -
You can use expanded record view to edit existing data - which is essentially a form. However, I expect you are talking about web forms?
If this is the case then, in common with many similar platforms, you can’t provide record editing through forms published online. However it’s possible to capture new records into a table this way - which can link to an existing record (but this would mean the person entering the data would have to see the look up table value which may be a security issue). If this is all you need then you can have the additional fields in a seperate table with a join to the main one.
But, if you want to update information in the main table then you need a way to take data from the table to which the form enters it and then move it to the table you want to update. Unfortunately, there are no tools in Airtable to do this - but it can be done with Zapier (which I find an essential partner to Airtable - it really brings it alive).
The technique would be to have a Zap which triggers when a new record is added and then uses a Find step to locate the record to update - and then either create a new record if none is found or updates the found record. You can build some quite complex logic into a Zap (including Javascript) to deal with many use cases.
The downside is that Zaps with Airtable are not (currently) Instant and so you have to wait until they run (5 or 15 minutes depending upon your Zapier account) and you need a paid Zapier account as they need to be multi step Zaps.
Hopefully, soon, Airtable will implement Webhooks (and Instant Zaps) which will enable Zaps to run immediately - this would hugely improve the platforms capabilities in my opinion!
