In Google Spreadsheets, using the Importdata function, I am able to have a sheet update constantly with new data from my database (via a Metabase link or a Heroku Dataclip link). I would like to be able to do the same in Airtable. The links used by Google Spreadsheets end with .csv but instead of a 1-time import of the table, it synchronizes. Is there any way to do that in Airtable yet?
No. Ideally, there should be, but no such capability. Oddly, though, you could use the Airtable API with Google Apps Script to achieve an automated “push” of CSV data into your base, but this requires code and it’s not simple.
Alternatively, you could also use the new Airtable Script Block to pull CSV data in, parse it, and push it into tables as updates, but this requires manual attention and – well – more code.
If you’re looking for something similar to Importdata function in Google sheets, we’ve built an extension that allows you to import CSV data in Airtable and sync it automatically.
For anyone arriving here from Google, this is super easy using the Data Fetcher extension. It’ll also suggest and create new fields in your Airtable base based on the CSV data. e.g. fields with emails in will suggest email fields:
