Please Add Hyperlink Formula

[George_Conlow]

Google Sheets has a formula called Hyperlink.
HYPERLINK(url, [link_label])
Example
HYPERLINK(“http://www.google.com/”, “Google”)
Where url is The full URL of the link location enclosed in quotation marks, or a reference to a cell containing such a URL.

and link_label - [optional] is the text to display in the cell as the link, enclosed in quotation marks, or a reference to a cell containing such a label.

It would be helpful if airtable could do this too.
My use case: Zapier finds new google docs in a special folder and adds records to an airtable which includes TITLE and URL. I have a view of that table that is embedded on my internal google site so that all new content in that folder (medical protocols) are available to my staff. It would be quite nice to have one field (a clickable link) rather than two - the title and an ugly url.

Please like this post to help it raise to the top!

[George_Dean]

Love this!

“Airtable Pretty” Links

[Justin_Monnig]

a suggestion for the button, make the label a formula field too.

[jn08]

Would be great to make the label a formula field too. Also I’m wondering how the data is stored in that field. I’d love to be able to copy and paste it as a hyperlink to other apps. (My use case is that I send a pre-filled form link to users via email and the actual URL is quite long - I usually hyperlink some text and paste the URL from a formula field into that. It would be much easier if I could just copy a field and paste it directly into an email without having to fuss about with hyperlinks in the email program. A hyperlink formula would achieve the same thing, I think.

[Edward_Grenzig]

I would like to create a new field which has a hyperlink (URL address plus the text )(Only the text will be visible )
the URL will come from an existing URL field, and the text will come from an existing short text field.
How can I do this in airtable? Combine the 2 fields into one URL?

Note: It seems like the new button field comes close, but it does not seem to allow the button field label to come from an existing text field ?

[Justin_Barrett]

This could be done using an automation to update a long text field with rich text enabled. The rich text markdown for building a clickable link is:

[Link text here](URL here)

Make a new automation that runs when either the text or URL fields are updated. The only action step that you need is “Update record”, where you combine the contents of those fields into a long text field with rich text active, wrapping the brackets/parentheses around the appropriate pieces:

The important thing to note, though, is that the URL can’t be “abbreviated”. I ran a test using just “www.justinsbarrett.com” in the URL field, but it led to an error trying to open the site. You’ll need the full “http://” prefix in front of the URL for it to work.

[Edward_Grenzig]

Justin
Thanks for your rely.
I did get this method to work, just took a little extra time because this was my first automation!

It just seems like a very complex method of performing an operation that seems so basic and common. Since I currently have about 1000 records in the table, I have to somehow edit all of these to get the automation to run. Is there anyway of just commanding the automation to run on all records at once? It also looks as if under the free plan I am limited to 100 automations per month!

As a side note , it seems like this should just be a simple formula to enter in the field formula, to accomplish this same task. Do you know if there has been any talk or development for a simple solution like this?

Thanks again…Ed

[Justin_Barrett]

Edward_Grenzig:

It just seems like a very complex method of performing an operation that seems so basic and common.

My guess is that it feels “so basic and common” to you because it would be an asset in your particular use case. :slightly_smiling_face: I feel the same way sometimes. The moment I need something that doesn’t exist, it’s easy to feel like it should have been there all along, but I remind myself that what’s important to me isn’t necessarily important to everyone else.

Edward_Grenzig:

Is there anyway of just commanding the automation to run on all records at once? It also looks as if under the free plan I am limited to 100 automations per month!

There are ways to batch-trigger automations. However, with the limits of the free plan, your monthly automation allotment would be exhausted in seconds. The only other option coming to mind at the moment is to design a script for the Scripting app that could process all records, but the free plan doesn’t allow use of the Scripting app.

Edward_Grenzig:

Do you know if there has been any talk or development for a simple solution like this?

While it would be nice if the Airtable dev team (which isn’t that large) could add every possible nice-to-have feature, they have to carefully prioritize their efforts, and so far they haven’t been forthcoming in divulging what drives their priorities. In the meantime, we wait. It’s all we can do.

[Edward_Grenzig]

Justin…Thanks again! Yes I want it ALL!! lol…but you make some good points!

So, If I sign up for the plus plan and increase my allowable automations, how would I actually batch trigger the automation to go through all of my records the first time?

Airtable has been very good to me with a free plan, so maybe it’s time I spend some money with them!

Ed

[kuovonne]

Justin_Barrett:

The only other option coming to mind at the moment is to design a script for the Scripting app that could process all records, but the free plan doesn’t allow use of the Scripting app.

Actually, Scripting App is free until March. So, you have a few months to experiment with a Scripting app solution before deciding if you want to pay for it.

Processing all the records at once in Scripting app is also probably a better choice than using automations, because it is still very easy to run out of automations, and there is currently no method to purchase more automations before the end of the month.

Even if you want to use automations, you cannot use scripting in automations unless you have a paid pro plan (not just a trial). Thus, you cannot realistically have a single automation batch update multiple records on the free plan.

@Edward_Grenzig If you have 1000 records to update now, but will have only a handful of records to update on an ongoing basis, you might be able to use a combination of Scripting app for the initial conversion, and then automations for ongoing edits.

[Justin_Barrett]

Great points made by @kuovonne, especially about the Scripting app availability for free plans until March (a point that I keep forgetting)

Edward_Grenzig:

So, If I sign up for the plus plan and increase my allowable automations, how would I actually batch trigger the automation to go through all of my records the first time?

If you still want to go this route (not necessarily with this use case for the reasons that @kuovonne described above, but perhaps for other use cases), the process is pretty simple: select the entirety of one of the two fields driving the automation trigger, delete the contents, then undo. The data coming back into those cells as part of the undo operation will trigger the automation once for each record.