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Whaaaaat?! :open_mouth:

image

18 Replies 18

Hi @Databaser ,

It looks like an Airtable’s Workflow missing (third)part,
long awaited I guess,
but google doesn’t know anything about where to heck find it ! ! !
Neither by words nor by screenshot itself !

Do you have some URL to share ?

Regards,
oLπ

Chintan_Savali1
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

@Olpy_Acaflo

Product Details Page: Here

On every bases you could see this option:

CleanShot 2021-11-09 at 16.37.03@2x

Oh ! ! ! :grinning_face_with_big_eyes: surprised Definitely Amazing ! ! ! @Jordan_Scott1

This reminds me of Community’s 1st-Class Expert predictions, and then the acquisition of a specialized DEV team in data visualization by Airtable !

Thank you @Chintan_Savaliya !

It would be really cool if we could make these interfaces accessible for external users. One of the benefits would be, not needing Stacker (€ 1.500 a year or so) anymore!

That I agree with you @Databaser !
Well, there are cheaper and sexier than Stacker when you want to exhibit / share something other than strictly tabular tables, more looking from a “Document As An App” to some kind of WEB App or Site UX, but this kind of supplement seriously increases the annual bill that is added to the rental of Airtable!

J_Jones
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

Would be great if we could share an interface with specific users without sharing an entire base. Not that practical for us otherwise. Any plans to do so?

As I predicted about a year ago, the aftermarket erosion had began (way back here) and is now in overdrive. Typically, aftermarket providers are one step ahead of the primary vendor, but in this case, the Interfaces feature targets specifically the Stacker value proposition and likely many others:

Stacker: Give Your Table a UI - Beautiful UI For Your Base

They need a bigger boat.

But I digress because as @J_Jones makes clear, Airtable has fundamentally erred [in the short run] by locking design with data. This is not the end of the world and other aspects of Airtable (like script actions) are also bound by the base - clearly not ideal. But like automations, scripting, and custom apps - Interfaces will be a huge hit for the largely no/low-code users who came here looking for – wait for it – a cool UI that makes them more productive with data.

Faculty_Schedul
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

It would be amazing if they had a way to let you add in a block with a script or something similar. I think we are going to find some good uses for this. Always been wanting a nice overview/dashboard view.

I think this is inherently possible as designed. I defer to @kuovonne because she’s the only human on the planet who knows the most about Interfaces at this time, but if you consider…

  • Objects and data in an Interface are Airtable objects.
  • All data objects in Airtable are accessible through script blocks.
  • Script blocks can be triggered based on data changes in Interfaces.
  • Interface UIs will react naturally to changes in the underlying data.

Am I missing a use case that cannot be met through indirection external to custom Interfaces?

You can trigger automations from an interface with data changes, the same as you would from a grid view or a portal. This is what I have done in my videos. However, with the limits of 25 automations and 50K runs, this method has scalability issues. Native support for locally run scripts/automations/actions from an interface without limits would be great but does not exist yet.

One of the design issues with running scripts from an interface is that many scripts need a place for input/output. That involves complex design choices that Airtable did not want to tackle in this first release.

Good to know.

Perhaps it goes without asking but can you modify the data in an Interface using script blocks or script actions, or custom apps that are operating completely external to the Interface itself?

Interfaces currently have no access to Scripting app. They currently have no access to any apps, custom or otherwise. However, the interface does reflect data changes created outside of the interface, although there are a few update bugs that I experienced in my video when I had to force a refresh to see changes.

That’s not the question.

Bingo - that’s the question. Circling back to @Faculty_Scheduling, there should be few issues – if any – to using script to effectuate influences upon Interfaces as I mentioned here.

Thanks for the answer. Yea that makes sense that some scripts can still run to effect change based on the data from records.

I guess for me I was thinking more about the input/output being on the interface so that we could create custom ways to view the data if that makes sense.

Yes, I noticed that too and it has dampened my initial excitement about Interfaces a little. I am still excited and totally understand that this is a feature right now that is only two days old. But at the moment, Interfaces looks to me almost like another app with a specialized function — say, an interactive version of the Page Designer — rather than being a comprehensive replacement for Softr or Stacker or even MiniExtensions. The great thing about those third-party apps has been and still is that they allow the developer (me) to keep end-users completely out of Airtable.

I find that my enthusiasm for Interfaces has actually grown over the past
couple of days. The current feature set makes implementing some functionality
more challenging than I would like, but the I find the possibilities even greater
today than I did two days ago.

A comprehensive replacement for a portal system requires an overhaul of the pricing model.
I do not expect such a system from Airtable without a pricing redesign.

Security is always an issue. Given that Airtable’s emphasis is on larger business, as stated in this interview, Airtable is undoubtedly hard at work on improving security/permissions. I expect that they have been working on it for a while. Over a year ago, I noticed that Airtable was looking to hire people who specialize in security. I suspect that they found great people who have been hard at work at this very complex issue.

I got this answer:

We do hope to develop ways to share Interfaces externally, but we’re just not quite there yet in the beta!

And I have been thrilled by the very recent improvements in control over sharing privileges. That change — just a month or two ago — has finally allowed me to go forward with some projects that previously I just couldn’t do in good conscience.

And I’m encouraged by your enthusiasm for the Interface Designer. You’ve spent more time with it than I but I hope to dig into it more deeply soon.

William