Airtable

Integrate Airtable databases with your app.

Airtable is a spreadsheet-database hybrid with the features of a database but applied to a spreadsheet. Your apps can be integrated with Airtable bases, offering you a more robust approach to data management that you may not find in simple spreadsheets.

If you're new to Airtable or need a refresher, check out the resources in Learn Airtable below.

How to connect Airtable with Glide

  1. To create a new app, click on New app in your dashboard.

  2. Name your app, select Mobile or Large screen view, then Continue.

  3. Select Airtable as the data source, then Continue.

  4. Sign in to Airtable, click on Add a base, add the Airtable base(s), then Grant access.

  5. Select the base you want to use for your app and click Create Page to create your new app.

The sheets or tables in your base are added as individual Tabs to the Layout Editor and individual Tables in the Data Editor.

Airtable API Key Deprecation

Please note that Airtable ended the ability to generate a new API Key as of August 1, 2023.

Switching from Airtable API Key to OAuth Authentication

  1. Open the app connected to Airtable that you want to switch.

  2. On the left side of the page, click the plus (+) sign to the right of TABLES and choose Airtable in the dropdown.

  3. In the Select an Airtable Base popup, click the dropdown and select + Add another Airtable account.

  4. A new browser tab titled Glide is requesting Airtable access should open. Click + Add a base, then select the same base used in your original app, and then click Grant access.

  5. The tab Glide is requesting Airtable access should close, showing the Select an Airtable Base popup again. Below the dropdown, it should now say Edit Airtable Integration.

  6. Below the title AIRTABLE BASES, select the base you want the app to use and click Add Source.

  7. This should switch Airtable authentication to OAuth for all apps in the team.

  8. When you leave the new app and navigate back to your app, you don't have to do anything to get OAuth working in it. Just open the Data page and click the Manual Sync arrow button to the right of Airtable under the title DATA SOURCES (bottom left corner of the page).

Ignore API Key Dropdown

If you click the plus sign (+) to the right of TABLES and select Airtable, the UI defaults to showing the defunct API Key in the dropdown. This is a known bug that will be fixed. At this point, the app is already using OAuth. You should ignore the API Key entry and not use it anymore.

Changing your Airtable account

There are two ways to change the Airtable account you want to use data from.

  1. To create a new app, click on New app in your dashboard.

  2. Name your app, select Mobile or Large screen view, then Continue.

  3. Select Connect to Airtable and sign in with the Airtable account you want to sync.

  4. On the authentication screen, you’ll be prompted to sign in to Airtable.

  5. Once signed in, click on Add a base, select the bases you want, then Grant access.

  6. Select the base you want to use for your app and click Create Page to create your new app.

Changing which Airtable account is integrated will change the data in your data editor and could change the behavior of your app.

Sync data between Airtable and Glide

Glide and Airtable differ in how they manage data, which may impact how the data syncs across both platforms.

Views

Airtable allows you to create different ways to view your information. This means you can switch seamlessly between looking at your data as rows in a grid, cards on a kanban board, or even events on a calendar. Each view has its own layout, sorting, filtering, grouping, and more.

When connecting your bases to Glide, keep in mind that any filters applied to an Airtable view will not be transferred to your app. For example, if you have a filter in Airtable that hides empty rows, those empty rows will appear in your data in Glide.

It's best practice to keep at least one view in your Airtable base that has no filters or customizations. This way, you can see all the records in that base and know what will be brought into Glide.

Columns vs. fields

In Glide, data is arranged in columns. In Airtable, these are called fields. Airtable allows you to create many different types of fields, but Glide doesn't support all of them.

All field types transfer to Glide, except for the Button type.

Basic vs. user-specific columns

The Airtable API does not allow Glide to add new fields to your Airtable base. Because of this, any new basic columns (e.g., Text, Number) you create in Glide will not appear in Airtable. Instead, they will become user-specific columns that are only accessible in the Data Editor in Glide.

It's recommended to add new basic columns directly to Airtable rather than Glide if you want to keep both data sources in sync. Once you add a new column to the Airtable base and save, you'll be automatically prompted to refresh your app's data to update it.

In Glide, data is connected using Relation columns. In Airtable, these same connections are called Links. When you create a link in your Airtable base, it will show up in Glide as a Relation column.

You can use that data just like you would a normal relation. However, you will not be able to configure it in Glide since the configuration for the link/relation is set in Airtable. Connecting columns between data sources

Attachments

Starting November 8th, 2022, Airtable introduced expiring links for all attachments stored in Airtable. This means that URLs for attachments stored in Airtable will expire every few hours. You can read Airtable's full announcement here.

As a result of this change, attachments stored in Airtable bases connected to Glide will be automatically stored in Glide, so that these attachments remain accessible to users of Glide apps. These attachments count toward your Glide team's file storage quota.

Exceeding your file storage quota can result in your Glide apps becoming inaccessible to users until you upgrade to a higher plan. Removing an Airtable base from your Glide team (e.g. by deleting apps that use it) will free up storage space within minutes, and unused attachments are removed from Glide within 72 hours.

On your team's dashboard, you can navigate to the Usage page to check how much file storage your team is currently using.

Learn Airtable

If you're new to Airtable, check out the resources below to get you started.

Have a question about Airtable? Ask the Glide community.

Updated more than a week ago
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