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Point a table to an API endpoint & Link Rows to it

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Kevin_Gutowski
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

Would be neat to be able to easily input a url for an API and have the response automatically generate an Airtable table. Then I want to manually (or ideally semi automatically) link rows in my other tables to this API data so I can then do other formulas and rollups.

Whenever data changes in the API endpoint, then it automatically updates my dependent columns.

7 Comments
ScottWorld
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

Itโ€™s highly unlikely that that will ever be natively built into Airtable, but you can already do that with several different tools: DataFetcher.com or Make.com or writing your own custom scripts within Airtableโ€™s automations.

Bill_French
17 - Neptune
17 - Neptune

Is there a way to magically create new tables in bases through these (or any tools)?

ScottWorld
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

The Enterprise API allows creation of bases, tables, fields, and collaborators. Interestingly, it does not allow the creation of views.

Kevin_Gutowski
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

Why wouldnโ€™t Airtable consider it? Data isnโ€™t always fixed. Moreover, Iโ€™d like to easily extend my data with other datasets without manually downloading, converting, parsing it all in a tedious fashion.

https://www.superblocks.com is a great example for working with APIs and external datastores. Airtable has a great interface for managing data. Would be cool so see something in between.

Andy_Cloke
8 - Airtable Astronomer
8 - Airtable Astronomer

This is what the Data Fetcher extension is designed to do! Connect to any third-party REST API or remote file (e.g. a CSV file on a server somewhere) and update your base data when the data changes.

It canโ€™t create tables but does create the fields (with suggested types) for you when you set up an API request for the first time.

Kevin_Gutowski
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

Pretty cool! Definitely will try it out for a few different things!

In my specific use case I have endpoints for each record that Iโ€™d like to call and parse which is a little different than what I was describing above.

CleanShot 2022-11-03 at 04.18.20@2x

Andy_Cloke
8 - Airtable Astronomer
8 - Airtable Astronomer

Nice! You can actually reference values from your table in Data Fetcher (even a whole URL), so itโ€™ll do what you need: Use table values in requests - Data Fetcher Help Center

Of course, another option is scripting!