Learning Airtable

Learning Airtable

by Elliott Adams
Released December 2023
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781098133375

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Book description

Get a concise yet comprehensive overview of Airtable, one of the most versatile platforms to emerge from the no-code movement. Whether you're planning a new project, sharing data analysis within your organization, tracking a detailed initiative among stakeholders, or dealing with any other project that requires well-structured collaboration, this practical book shows you how Airtable is an accessible tool to tackle these challenges.

Author Elliott Adams guides you through the process of structuring your data in a relational database, creating automations based on changes to data in Airtable, and building user-friendly interfaces for no-code applications. This showcases how Airtable is superior to the typical options of either non-developers using spreadsheets or making large investments in time-consuming application development.

With this book, you will:

  • Learn how Airtable can reduce the need for custom-built applications
  • Use Airtable to replace internal tools such as spreadsheets
  • Build applications utilizing relational data--without any knowledge of software programming
  • Evaluate whether you can build a solution on Airtable rather than purchasing software
  • Understand the limitations of the Airtable platform when compared with writing a software application from scratch

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Table of contents

  1. Preface
    1. Who Should Read This Book
    2. Navigating This Book
    3. Conventions Used in This Book
    4. O’Reilly Online Learning
    5. How to Contact Us
    6. Acknowledgments
  2. 1. Introducing Airtable
    1. What Is Airtable?
      1. Airtable and the No-Code Movement
    2. How We Got to Now: Spreadsheets and Databases Collide into Airtable
    3. Airtable’s Primary Components
      1. Three Sections: Data, Automations, and Interfaces
      2. Bases, Records, and Tables
      3. Fields
      4. Views
      5. Automations
      6. Interfaces
    4. Airtable Pricing
    5. Airtable’s Competitive Advantage
      1. The Airtable Community
      2. Airtable’s Backers
      3. Design and Product Excellence
    6. Airtable in Context
    7. What This Book Will Cover
    8. Summary
  3. 2. Working with Records and Fields
    1. Records
    2. The Primary Field
    3. Fields and Field Types
      1. Input Fields
      2. The Button Field
      3. Calculated Fields
  4. 3. Linked Records and the Lookup Field
    1. Why Use Linked Records?
      1. Define Relationships Between Things
      2. Create a Single Source of Truth and Reduce Repetitive Manual Entry
    2. Relationships Between Records in a Relational Database
      1. One-to-One Relationship
      2. One-to-Many Relationship
      3. Many-to-Many Relationships
    3. Aggregating Data from Linked Records
      1. Lookup Field
      2. Count Field
  5. 4. View Essentials
    1. Configuring Views
    2. Getting Started with the Grid View
    3. The Grid View’s Configuration Options
      1. Filtering
      2. Sorting
      3. Hiding Fields
      4. Height
      5. Summary Bar
      6. Coloring
      7. Grouping
    4. Creating and Organizing Views
      1. Creating a View
      2. View Permissions
  6. 5. Importing Data
    1. Importing CSV Files and Spreadsheets
      1. Importing Tabular Data from CSV Files
      2. Importing Google Sheets and Excel Data
    2. Importing Different Types of Data
      1. Numbers, Currency, and Dates
      2. Outliers When Importing Spreadsheet Data
    3. Sync
      1. Syncing an Airtable View
      2. Multisource Sync
      3. Security When Syncing
    4. Form View
      1. Setting Up a Form
      2. Managing Form Access
      3. Conditional Form Fields
  7. 6. View Types
    1. Visually Organizing with Cards: Gallery and Kanban Views
      1. Gallery View
      2. Kanban View
    2. Visually Organizing Using Dates: Calendar, Timeline, and Gantt Views
      1. Calendar View
      2. Timeline View
      3. Gantt View
      4. List View
  8. 7. Creating the Fall Tour Tracker Base
    1. Creating Relationships Between Tables
      1. Connecting Cities to Lodging
      2. Connecting Cities to Venues
    2. Creating the Shows Table
    3. Creating the Regions Table
  9. 8. Formulas
    1. Basics of the Formula Field
    2. Formula Components
      1. Fields
      2. Operators
      3. Functions
      4. Numbers
      5. Text/String Data
    3. The Formula Editor
      1. Introduction to Operators and Functions
      2. Formula Examples
    4. Text Functions
      1. SUBSTITUTE()
      2. Shortening Venue Names Using SUBSTITUTE(), LEFT(), and FIND()
      3. Using FIND() to Find the First Word
    5. Date and Time Functions
      1. Calculating Weeks of the Tour
    6. Numeric Functions
      1. Calculating Ticket Revenue Estimates
    7. Logical Functions
      1. Determining Whether to Buy an Insurance Policy
      2. Using SWITCH() to Calculate How Many Days Off Between Shows
      3. Using Nested IF() Statements for Data Validation
  10. 9. The Rollup Field
    1. What Does It Mean to “Roll Up” a Field?
      1. Rolling Up Grocery Store Orders
      2. Setting Conditions for Rollup Field
      3. Choosing a Rollup Function
      4. Rolling Up Costs from the Fall Tour Tracker
    2. Rollup Functions
      1. Arithmetic Rollup Functions
      2. Logic Functions
      3. CONCATENATE Text Function
      4. Array Functions
  11. 10. Extensions
    1. Three Major Categories of Airtable Extensions
      1. Extensions That Work with Data in Your Base
      2. Extensions That Connect to Third-Party Services
      3. Scripting Extension
    2. Top Airtable Extensions
      1. Chart Extension
      2. Web Clipper Extension
      3. Page Designer
      4. Translate Extension
    3. Keeping Track of Extensions
    4. The “Manage Extensions” Dashboard
  12. 11. Airtable Automations
    1. Airtable Automations Versus Other Connector Software
      1. Advantages to Connecting Airtable via Airtable Automations
      2. Disadvantages to Connecting Airtable via Airtable Automations
    2. The Basics of Airtable Automations
      1. The If/Then Logic of Automations
      2. Simple Automation: When a Record Is Updated
      3. Simple Automation: When a Record Matches Conditions
      4. Advanced Automations
    3. Triggers
      1. Airtable Triggers
      2. Third-Party Triggers
    4. Actions
      1. Airtable’s Actions
      2. Third-Party Actions
  13. 12. Interface Designer
    1. Interfaces as a Frontend
      1. Why Use Interfaces?
      2. How Do Interfaces Work?
      3. What Makes an Interface?
    2. Creating Interfaces
      1. Creating Full-Page Layouts
      2. Creating a Dashboard Interface
      3. Creating an Interface with Multiple Tables and Buttons
      4. Interface Layouts
    3. Interface Elements
      1. View Elements
      2. Discrete Elements
    4. Interface Designer Permissions
  14. 13. Platforms That Extend Airtable
    1. Connectors
      1. Zapier
      2. Make
    2. App Builders
      1. Softr
      2. Stacker
    3. Summary
  15. A. The Web API and Blocks SDK for Nondevelopers
    1. The Airtable Web API
      1. What’s a REST API?
      2. How Does the Airtable REST API Work?
      3. What Can You Do with the Airtable REST API?
    2. Developing Custom Airtable Extensions with the Airtable Blocks SDK
      1. What Are Extensions?
      2. The Power of the Blocks SDK
      3. How Does the Blocks SDK Work?
  16. B. Formula Functions and Operators
    1. Text Operators
      1. &
      2. '\n’
    2. Text Functions
      1. CONCATENATE()
      2. RIGHT()
      3. LEFT()
      4. LEN()
      5. LOWER()
      6. TRIM()
      7. SEARCH()
      8. ENCODE_URL_COMPONENT()
      9. SUBSTITUTE()
      10. FIND()
      11. LOWER()
      12. UPPER()
      13. REPT()
      14. MID()
      15. T()
      16. REPLACE()
      17. LEN()
    3. Date and Time Functions
      1. DATESTR()
      2. DATETIME_DIFF()
      3. DATETIME_FORMAT()
      4. DATEADD()
      5. DATETIME_PARSE()
      6. HOUR()
      7. IS_BEFORE()
      8. IS_AFTER()
      9. IS_SAME()
      10. DAY()
      11. MONTH()
      12. SET_LOCALE()
      13. MINUTE()
      14. SECOND()
      15. SET_TIMEZONE()
      16. NOW()
      17. WEEKDAY()
      18. TIMESTR()
      19. WORKDAY()
      20. WEEKNUM()
      21. WORKDAY_DIFF()
      22. YEAR()
      23. TODAY()
      24. TONOW()
      25. FROMNOW()
    4. Numeric Operators
    5. Numeric Functions
      1. AVERAGE()
      2. COUNT()
      3. MAX()
      4. MIN()
      5. SUM()
      6. ABS()
      7. COUNTA()
      8. CEILING()
      9. EVEN()
      10. COUNTALL()
      11. FLOOR()
      12. EXP()
      13. LOG()
      14. INT()
      15. MOD()
      16. POWER()
      17. ODD()
      18. MAX()
      19. ROUND()
      20. ROUNDUP()
      21. ROUNDDOWN()
      22. SQRT()
      23. VALUE()
    6. Logic Functions
      1. AND()
      2. BLANK()
      3. FALSE()
      4. IF()
      5. NOT()
      6. OR()
      7. SWITCH()
      8. XOR()
      9. TRUE()
    7. Logic Operators
      1. !=
      2. <
      3. <=
      4. =
      5. >
      6. >=
    8. Regex Functions
      1. REGEX_EXTRACT()
      2. REGEX_REPLACE()
      3. REGEX_MATCH()
    9. Array Functions
      1. ARRAYJOIN()
      2. ARRAYCOMPACT()
      3. ARRAYFLATTEN()
      4. ARRAYUNIQUE()
    10. Record Functions
      1. LAST_MODIFIED_TIME()
      2. CREATED_TIME()
      3. RECORD_ID()
    11. Error Functions
      1. ERROR()
      2. ISERROR()
  17. Index
  18. About the Author

Product information

  • Title: Learning Airtable
  • Author(s): Elliott Adams
  • Release date: December 2023
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781098133375