New Field Type: Button

[David_Krizan]

It would be useful to have a “Button” field type that you could use to trigger an action (e.g., perform a calculation, run a Block, trigger a Zapier Zap, run a script, run small automations, etc.). Even though some of this functionality can currently be hacked-together using other fields like checkboxes in conjunction with Views and Zaps, this is something that has to be explained ad nauseam to new users. So, instead of having a “Submit” checkbox in a workflow that can accidentally ticked, having a distinct “Submit” button would be much, much more clear to novice/infrequent users.

This is a feature currently offered by Coda.

help.coda.io

Overview of Buttons

Learn how buttons can create workflows and an app-like experience in your doc

[BillFrench]

JonathanBowen:

To my knowledge Airtable webhooks don’t exist

Yep, okay. I was hoping there were actual webhooks but had never really found any.

Justin_Barrett:

a means of manually kicking off a process, and do so by clicking on a URL in an Airtable field that passes record-specific data to the webhook

Yep, was aware of that approach too and another one where Slack was used as a proxy for quasi-webhook activity.

[Kamille_Parks]

Buttons would be great for interacting with Blocks. For instance, we could have a button to “show on map”, which could open up the blocks panel and zoom to that record on a Map Block. Or a “open PDF” button which will pull up its Page Designer page.

At the very least, we should have this kind of functionality and I think record buttons are a good way to implement them.

[David_Krizan]

I’d also like other ways to trigger or automate actions in Blocks. For example, I have a personal Expenses base where I log all my receipts. I use the Google Vision Block to OCR scan all receipts periodically in a “No OCR” view (once OCRed via the GV Block, the records disappear from that view).

However, I have to manually trigger the GV Block whenever I want it to run. Granted, I could probably use Zapier webhooks to automate this outside of the GV Block by directly leveraging the GV API, but I’d much rather be able to either A) set the GV Block to automatically run on new records in a given view, or B) run on a set schedule (e.g., daily, weekly). Also, Blocks can’t be accessed or viewed on Mobile, so I have to do view the Web or Desktop app.

[David_Krizan]

I believe he’s referring to the Airtable triggers available in Zapier:

Now what I think would be great is if Airtable could create something similar to what Coda offers in their “Packs” functionality. This could be another block (e.g., Scripting block or Workflows block) that basically offers a visual script builder, much like in Zapier or the various other integration services.

[Kamille_Parks]

Button fields are in beta now. You can sign up for the beta at this link here:

Airtable

Sign up for the button field beta! - Airtable

Fill out the "Sign up for the button field beta!" form quickly and securely on Airtable.

[David_Krizan]

I look forward to trying this out :slightly_smiling_face:

[Max_Joles]

I have a pro account and I’m signed up for the beta, but the only actions I see available for the button are “Open Page Url”.

Am I missing something? How do I access the other actions like triggering a script?

[Kamille_Parks]

If you were in the first batch of the beta, they would have sent you an email with a link to reupdate your account with the new actions. If not, you may have to do a hard browser refresh.

[Max_Joles]

Thanks Kamille. I tried a hard browser refresh, but didn’t see any changes… Any other ideas?

[David_Krizan]

I had to click the link from a computer, as I didn’t work from my phone. Also, I recall it not happening instantly and it seemed like I had to click it 2 or 3 times.