New: Record templates

@Helen_Zeng 

The FAQ’s on that support article seem confused.

FAQ #3 says this: Enterprise plans - 500 record templates per base (across all tables)

FAQ #4 says this: For Enterprise plan workspaces, each base can have up to 2000 record templates (across all tables)

Thanks for posting about this new feature @Helen_Zeng , I'm keen to see how it all works.

May I ask about the reasoning behind limiting Pro users to 100 templates? Considering that one Template itself can consume multiple template slots - I now worry that base admins may hit this limit fairly quickly - and then become stuck between a rock and a hard place.

By the very nature of templates, they are typically an all-or-none affair. By this I mean, say for example, what if I needed 128 templates to make my idea work, but ... I'm limited to 100? So now I have zero reason to gear any templates and I may as well just ignore the feature entirely.

From a user point of view, the limit seems very finicky due to one template being able to consume more than just one count of the limit. It punishes the user in a way where they'll need to steal from Peter to pay Paul when it comes to configuring their templates with sub-templates as each sub-template consumes from their 100 cap.

I guess I'd be a little more forgiving if the 100 template limit was only applied at the master/top level - but now users have to tip-toe around how many sub-templates each template consumes - just doesn't feel right at all.

Perhaps I'm over thinking this feature limitation, and it won't be a problem in practice. But 1 Project template with 9 sub-templates = 10, so that's a max of 10 Project templates for my base, which could have dozens of tables... 100 templates per table I could understand, but 100 per base?

Administrators will need to get their calculators to understand the potential for breaching this 100 limit before transitioning their previous Single Select field and Automations (that mimic template behaviour). My guess is many may not see any use in Templates due to the hard limit of 100 per base.

@ScottWorld: Thanks for catching that! We fixed the typo earlier this morning

@Karlstens: We had typically seen that level of advanced template and tables usage with Enterprise workspaces, whereas Pro workspaces tended to have more straightforward and slightly simpler cases -- hence the lower limit. Thank you for your feedback about the template limits for Pro though and how it impacts your use cases though, it's something we'll take under consideration. 

Hey @Helen_Zeng, 

this looks like a very useful feature. We are on a Pro plan, but for some reason it is locked to us. Are you progressively rolling it out or is it available only to specific Pro plans?

@Helen_Zeng, being to set a "relative date" (when creating a "new record") is a very useful feature. Are there any plans on adding this to the automation features or perhaps even as an extra option under the date field type?

@Helen_Zeng, we are having the same issue as @demi12. We're on a pro annual plan, but we do not have access to the record templates. It tells us we need to upgrade to Pro. I've tried reaching out to Airtable support multiple times via the chat bot, but can't get a human to respond.

@Helen_Zeng, When using the record templates, is there a way to add links to existing records rather than create new linked records in the linked table?

@Ruth_Nelson You should be able to specify that linked record field should link to existing records by hovering over the field's dropdown menu and changing it to "link an existing record to this field" instead!

Hi @Helen_Zeng, I'm really interested in this feature for a project I'm working in with enterprise license and before I knew it was coming was manually building out very similar functionality using special records marked as templates via single select options and using automations looking for that to pull data from them and link to parent project through automation hook ups. 

This feature seems tailor made to do what I was trying to accomplish and more, however it doesn't work in the directional flow I want in our base and I cannot discern why from the support documentation. I have a project record in my main table and want to make a template for it to create sub-tasks in the adjacent table. But only some linked record fields allow creating new records, and others can only connect to existing records, and is a small icon indicating allowed sub-record creation. Why some can and others can't isn't explained, and in the case of the base I'm working in task record templates can create new projects, but not the other way around which is backwards from what I want, a task can also create one other type of record that exists above project level which is again backward from intended flow. I saw you can make templates from lists, so I built a list forcing hierarchy to put project record above related task, but attempting to produce a template from that relationship produces an invalid relationship error message and does not get created. 

I thought possibly which table made the link first maybe mattered for which can be parent, but creating new linked record fields didn't seem to correct issue. Is this a bug or is there something I'm not understanding about why template sub-record flow is restricted in some cases and not others. 

@Helen_Zengmy initial feedback on templates - this drop down that's used to selected pre-existing records needs to be made way more obvious.

@Helen_Zeng 

Is it possible to apply record templates through interfaces, apart from the plus button in the scrollable section of the record review view?

For instance, can I set the 'Add Record' button of one of my related tables to pop up with the record template options? 

Settling on some final feedback for now after further exploring - what we're needing is a cleaner Automation trigger that executes upon a template being used to create a new record.

This idea below works, but it's not as tidy as an official trigger for "When Record Created By Template" could be.

If revising Automation triggers is on the development roadmap, we're also needing others that have been previously discussed, such as trigger on Record Duplication, etc.

One thing I'd like to commend, is the ability create records via the "Create Record" action - that's great, I'll have to explore that further. 🙂

@Helen_Zeng 

Just reported this bug, but posting here because I forgot to include the pics in the bug report and was hoping someone may be able to get to this faster.

My base is set up where subtasks are nested in the same table as tasks. I am unable to link my subtask template to task template. When I try to click "choose template" to link the 2, the search results bar pops up, but no task templates are there, even when searching for them by name. I have attached some pics to demonstrate.

Great feature! How can users add a record template from interface?

Request: Create a template from record. Stick it right under "Apply template" to record.

I second @Andrew_Petrus idea about creating a template from an existing record. 

Additional problem we are running into is when creating a template based off a record with a date we can select "Set relative date for [FIELD]" but there is no option to choose what the time should be on creation. 

For example if we create a template for a schedule we are building out, we want the template records to all have a predefined start and end time (Record 1 starts at 10am, Record 2 starts at 11am, etc), and have the Month/Date/Year be set to be relative to the linked record. 

Hi @Andrew_Petrus and @COMVproductions !

You can convert existing hierarchical records into record templates in List View. Currently, templates can only be created from a list view within the base. This can be done by right-clicking on the top level of the record and clicking Create record template. This will create a record template for each record in the hierarchy and copy over field values. These fields can be edited further before the template is saved.

Note that list views need to be created at the most granular level of your linked record hierarchy. So for a set of linked Projects > Tasks > Subtasks tables, the list view needs to be created at the Subtask level within the base. 

I hope that's helpful!

Hello! 

Just jumping to second @COMVproductions comment to set a time, but leave date relative. I'm also wondering if its possible to set a 'relative date' from within a top-level template, rather than only from child templates. 

I would like to use templates for our staff schedule - create a series of templates for each staff role, and containing standard times per our operating hours (12-6, 6-10pm etc), with the actual date relative - say, if I'm in calendar view on a certain date and create a record with one of these templates it automatically sets the shift start/end times fields to the date the record has been created, with the shift times prefilled with standard hours. 

The tool is super helpful, especially for small companies. We need to define all kinds of processes in record templates, but the limit of 100 records is way too low. How can the limit be increased without going to Enterprise license? 

@Yonatan_Langer- those have been my thoughts too. A workaround of an automation triggered by the user of a template can be used to create dependant records - rather than absorbing multiple templates to create linked records - such as, 1 project and 5 starter tasks consuming 6 templates... which simply isn't right when working within a max budget of 100 templates. With the workaround, simply have your project template trigger off a script to create the other task records, the catch being that one automation is now spent for what should be a user workflow.

Hi--was wondering if there's a way to add "Apply template" as an option when viewing an expanded record in a base (i.e. in the options pop-up in the top right corner—see screenshot). Would save me some cumbersome clicking when creating new records from a Linked Record column!

Agree with @Karlstens, the hide field button from the edit template form needs to be made more obvious. ALSO, some kind of documentation explaining why dependent fields are not able to be added would be encouraged for users new to the feature.

I came across this post and I am wondering:

- If you right click on a record in a grid in the data layer, it give you the option to "Apply template". Can this be done in a list view or grid view in an interface?

- The template feature does not offer alot of customizability as far as layout in the data layer or in the interface, is there a way to move the fields around on a template?