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Jul 14, 2023 09:14 AM
Hey everyone!
I've been learning to code and working on developing some apps. For my first, I decided to solve my own problem.
It seems there's no easy way to download all the tables from an Airtable at once (you have to export them one by one).
So I built 👉 exportmybase.com
Hope it's useful to someone. Feedback welcome 🙂
Jul 16, 2023 12:44 PM
I think you may have issues getting people to trust an unknown person with an unknown app requesting access to the whole of your Base, and (I am guessing) copying that to a server or servers that you control, where you could (not that I am suggesting you would) keep a copy of those bases forever.
As feedback, a declaration on what you are storing where for how long together with links to your Linkedin or other route to verify who you are may help people decide whether to use your service.
But Qudos to you for coming up with a feature that AirTable should include in their product offering!
Jul 17, 2023 12:47 AM
Basically I would use the premium version of Excel-Exporter. There is a freemium version and a premium version with a 7 day free trial. You can also ask them custom tools if you have a very specific need. And as @Jon_Stephenson mentions about the privacy of data, here it doesn't have acces to the data and it doesn't go through any server.
Jul 17, 2023 03:53 AM
Thanks @Jon_Stephenson & @bibiczh - I really appreciate the kind words and detailed feedback.
I think with any archiving/downloading app like this, security is a major issue.
Apart from using OAuth and getting only read scopes, I've set it up so that OAuth sessions are cleared after 5 mins of no activity and that CSV files are deleted from the server as soon as they are either:
a) downloaded
b) 5 mins have gone by after generation without them being downloaded (to cover anybody that drops off)
... so essentially the app doesn't keep access or data for any longer than needed.
I'm going to update the page to make all these points clearer as well.
Overall this was more of a learning project for me - and a fun one! - so if it doesn't get used much for this reason or others, I'm still happy with it.