Pipe of the Week: Airtable

Is your business using multiple platforms, including Airtable, to structure and analyze data?


Do you have a hard time managing data between Airtable and Tadabase?


Do you need to share and restrict your Airtable data with multiple users?

If you answered yes, I would encourage you to fully commit to using Tadabase as your only platform. Here's why...

1. Build your database to power and deploy full-fledged applications with users, user roles, and permissions.
2. Manage and control incoming users with components built specifically to handle access to your application.. Control the flow of users and data through your application by setting permissions on pages, components, and more.
3. Build and design to your specifications without any limitations. Over a dozen custom themes to choose from and anything that can be done in Bootstrap can be done here. Easily.
4. Tadabase has over 30 components to ensure your data can be viewed and designed based on your specific needs.

HOWEVER...

If you still want to use Airtable for it's benefits - I get it - and Tadabase has a solution.

Enter the Tadabase Pipe for Airtable

By utilizing the API functionality of both Tadabase and Airtable, you can easily manage data between these two platforms using Tadabase Pipes.

I'm going to use this Airtable template app for demonstration. Feel free to install it to your workspace to follow along.

Project Tracker Template - Free to Use | Airtable

 

Managing multiple projects with countless deadlines and many stakeholders is a challenge for even the most talented project manager. This project management...

Airtable

Installing and enabling the Pipe is quick and easy. Load up one of your Tadabase apps in the Tadabase Builder. In the left hand menu, navigate to the Pipes section. You can search for Airtable in the upper right hand corner or scroll through the list until you find it. Click View More, and then click Install.

Once installed, you'll see Airtable appear in the menu to the left.

Now we need to configure a few things in order to use the Pipe. In this example, we're going to creating a record in Airtable from a created record in Tadabase, essentially duplicating the record to Airtable.

How to configure the pipe

Airtable

1. Click here to see instructions on generating an API key for Airtable.
2. Click here and find, and click on the Airtable Base you want to use with this Pipe.
3. You'll need to copy the Base ID from the next page. Take a look at the following image to locate it.

4. You will also need the name of the Table you want to create a record in. I'm going to use the Projects Table from this template app.

5. Lastly, you'll need your API_KEY from Step 1.

Tadabase

1. Click on the installed Airtable Pipe, followed by the General Parameters tab.

2. Enter all of your credentials from the Airtable section above and click Save.
3. Click on the API Calls tab.
4. We're going to choose the API Call titled "Create a Record".
5. We're going to change the following settings...

For the following steps, we are only concerned with the 2 fields we will be creating in our Tadabase App {Name} and {Category}

Parameters tab:

Delete the existing parameters and add the following

Request tab:

Delete the existing JSON and paste the following JSON below.

{
      "fields": {
        "Name": "{name}",
        "Category": "{category}"
    }
}

Note: JSON is a complex language that requires very a specific syntax. You're welcome to follow the format of this example for your own purposes but please take a moment to read about JSON.

Test Tab:

It's a good idea to run a test now so we can go back and troubleshoot any issues before continuing.

Because we entered our Airtable credentials in the Global Parameters tab, the only fields we need to fill out here are Name and Category.

For my test, I'll use "New Project" and one of the selectable options from Airtable - "Technology design"

Back to the Tadabase Data Builder

My goal for this Pipe is to make a duplicate Project in Airtable when I create a Project record in Tadabase. I created a Data Table called "Projects" and made 2 fields (to keep this simple) identical to the Projects base in Airtable.

{Name} and {Category}

For the {Category} field, I also set the select options to be identical to the field in Airtable, with both spelling and case sensitivity.

Next, let's go to the Rules tab for our Data Table and add the following rule...

On record creation ? Trigger the Airtable Pipe (Create Record API Call) ? Set our parameters to record values ? Return the newly created Airtable Record ID

On record creation

Trigger the Airtable Pipe (Create Record API Call) ? Set our parameters to record values

Return the newly created Airtable Record ID

Congratulations for staying with me this long. We're almost home - we'll have snack and then straight to bed.

Here's the final output 

A few things to note:

1. You can use this same method of trigger the Pipe on record creation by using record rules inside of a Form component.
2. Why did we return the Airtable record ID and save it to our app? If you go back to the Airtable Pipe and look at the other available API calls, you'll see those require an Airtable record ID to find the correct record to modify.

Thank you for reading and congratulations to Airtable for being Pipe of the Week