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2/7/2023 – BuiltOnAir Live Podcast Full Show – S13-E05
Duration: 61 minutes
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FULL EPISODE VIDEO
Watch the full video of the show. See below for segment details.
The BuiltOnAir Podcast is Sponsored by On2Air – Integrations and App extensions to run your business operations in Airtable.
In This Episode
Welcome to the BuiltOnAir Podcast, the live show. The BuiltOnAir Podcast is a live weekly show highlighting everything happening in the Airtable world.
Check us out at BuiltOnAir.com. Join our community, join our Slack Channel, and meet your fellow Airtable fans.
Todays Hosts
Alli Alosa – Hi there! I’m Alli 🙂 I’m a fine artist turned “techie” with a passion for organization and automation. I’m also proud to be a Community Leader in the Airtable forum, and a co-host of the BuiltOnAir podcast. My favorite part about being an Airtable consultant and developer is that I get to talk with people from all sorts of industries, and each project is an opportunity to learn how a business works.
Kamille Parks – I am an Airtable Community Forums Leader and the developer behind the custom Airtable app “Scheduler”, one of the winning projects in the Airtable Custom Blocks Contest now widely available on the Marketplace. I focus on building simple scripts, automations, and custom apps for Airtable that streamline data entry and everyday workflows.
Dan Fellars – I am the Founder of Openside, On2Air, and BuiltOnAir. I love automation and software. When not coding the next feature of On2Air, I love spending time with my wife and kids and golfing.
Show Segments
Round The Bases – 00:03:21 –
Following Articles Used in this Segment:
[BuiltOnAir Community] general – BuiltOnAir – 3 new items – Slack
[BuiltOnAir Community] airtable-tricks – BuiltOnAir – 3 new items – Slack
[Airtable Community] See what Make scenarios are in a base – Airtable Community
[Reddit] 🗺️ I made an extension that lets you visualize your records on a custom map : Airtable
[BuiltOnAir Community] general – BuiltOnAir – 2 new items – Slack
Scripting Time – 00:25:24 –
Explore Scripting with “Scripts for Meal Planning”.
Kamille will showcase her Meal Planning Base and how she utilizes scripts to enhance the base.
Automate Create – 00:38:17 –
Watch as we review and work through automations. Alli shares how she uses automations to categorize data into buckets that is useful for reporting purposes.
Field Focus – 00:47:56 –
A deep dive into the Synced Fields on Record Deletion Buttons & Formulas – A useful trick is no longer available. Airtable synced tables used to allow for knowing when the source record was deleted by utilizing a RecordID formula
Full Segment Details
Segment: Round The Bases
Start Time: 00:03:21
Roundup of what’s happening in the Airtable communities – Airtable, BuiltOnAir, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Following Articles Used in this Segment:
[BuiltOnAir Community] general – BuiltOnAir – 3 new items – Slack
[BuiltOnAir Community] airtable-tricks – BuiltOnAir – 3 new items – Slack
[Airtable Community] See what Make scenarios are in a base – Airtable Community
[Reddit] 🗺️ I made an extension that lets you visualize your records on a custom map : Airtable
[BuiltOnAir Community] general – BuiltOnAir – 2 new items – Slack
Segment: Scripting Time
Start Time: 00:25:24
Scripting Time: Scripts for Meal Planning
Explore Scripting with “Scripts for Meal Planning”.
Kamille will showcase her Meal Planning Base and how she utilizes scripts to enhance the base.
Segment: Automate Create
Start Time: 00:38:17
Airtable Automations – Generating Data Buckets
Watch as we review and work through automations. Alli shares how she uses automations to categorize data into buckets that is useful for reporting purposes.
Segment: Field Focus
Start Time: 00:47:56
Learn about the Synced Fields on Record Deletion – A useful trick is no longer available. Airtable synced tables used to allow for knowing when the source record was deleted by utilizing a RecordID formula
A deep dive into the Synced Fields on Record Deletion Buttons & Formulas – A useful trick is no longer available. Airtable synced tables used to allow for knowing when the source record was deleted by utilizing a RecordID formula
Full Transcription
The full transcription for the show can be found here:
[00:01:44] All right, welcome back to the [00:01:46] BuiltOnAir podcast. We are at season 13, [00:01:50] episode five. Good to be with you [00:01:53] myself Dan Fellars [00:01:54] Kamille and Alli are back [00:01:56] with us. Welcome back [00:01:58] Doing good? [00:02:01] Sure [00:02:04] if I if I sound funny on this one [00:02:06] I think I bit my tongue [00:02:07] over the weekend so I [00:02:08] have like a fat tongue and I [00:02:10] have been talking [00:02:11] it's a little bit better today. [00:02:13] Yesterday I was talking pretty funny [00:02:15] the fat tongue. So [00:02:16] if I sound different, that's why. [00:02:20] But good to be with you all [00:02:22] for a regular weekly live show [00:02:25] with the BuiltOnAir [00:02:26] podcast. It's an hour show where [00:02:28] we talk about different [00:02:29] things going on in the [00:02:30] Airtable world. I'll go through [00:02:33] what we'll be discussing today. [00:02:35] We always start with our [00:02:37] Round the Bases [00:02:38] and share what is going on in the [00:02:40] different communities. [00:02:42] Then I'll do a spotlight on [00:02:44] our primary sponsor On2Air. [00:02:47] Then have Kamille showing [00:02:50] her meal planning [00:02:52] and scripts that she uses for her [00:02:54] meal planning base [00:02:56] and followed by Alli and [00:02:59] generating data buckets [00:03:01] for reporting using automations. [00:03:03] And then a quick shout out to [00:03:05] our community. [00:03:07] And then finally I'll talk about [00:03:08] field focus sync fields [00:03:10] in sync tables when dealing [00:03:13] with record deletion. [00:03:14] So with that [00:03:15] we've got a few things to [00:03:18] highlight in around the bases. [00:03:21] I'll start off with our latest [00:03:23] new community [00:03:24] that will start covering the new [00:03:26] TableForums launched by by Scott [00:03:30] and BuiltOnAir is also helping to to [00:03:34] sponsor that and get that going. So [00:03:36] it's definitely picking up you see, [00:03:39] you see starting to see a lot [00:03:41] of traction there, so that is cool to see. [00:03:46] But a couple of things from there, [00:03:49] vivid squid, who I know who it is, [00:03:51] I don't know if he wants his identity [00:03:53] out there, so I won't say his name, [00:03:55] but [00:03:56] talks about asking the question [00:03:58] of the definitive guide [00:04:00] on the secondary fields. [00:04:02] And this was actually new to me. [00:04:04] I never really [00:04:05] spent time thinking about [00:04:07] this quick shoutout [00:04:09] to Scott who's watching [00:04:12] creator of TableForums. But anyway, [00:04:15] so the question is maybe I'll show [00:04:19] show that in our BuiltOnAir base. [00:04:22] So if you have a linked record, [00:04:24] if you do it with our host, [00:04:28] so this information here [00:04:31] of what fields show up in a [00:04:33] linked record field [00:04:35] and I guess I've never really [00:04:36] thought about that, [00:04:37] so [00:04:39] but we do get a definitive answer. [00:04:41] Did you guys know how, how that works? [00:04:44] Yes. And it's it's stupid. [00:04:46] Yeah, you should be able to [00:04:48] control it like you can [00:04:49] in Interfaces, but [00:04:51] it's based on the top most grid view [00:04:55] in a table, [00:04:58] yep, yep. So yeah, the top most [00:05:02] grid view, so if you go to that table [00:05:07] and what Scott pointed out [00:05:09] was even if it's hidden, [00:05:11] it will still show up there, [00:05:13] so even [00:05:17] and so [00:05:30] my back [00:05:32] alright, [00:05:33] I'm even plugged in directly [00:05:35] to my internet, [00:05:37] so something else is going on here, [00:05:39] We'll see. Hopefully I stick around. [00:05:45] But yeah so [00:05:48] Oh so the top four [00:05:51] where they come from? [00:05:53] So even if they're hidden. [00:05:55] So it's basically these four here. [00:05:58] So if you have one when I get down down so [00:06:01] that it shoot, [00:06:06] am I still here? [00:06:07] Yes. [00:06:11] Alright. So yeah so those are the fields [00:06:14] that you need to be looking at to [00:06:19] to display on there. [00:06:21] Good [00:06:22] discussion [00:06:25] shoot. [00:06:30] I keep going in and out [00:06:33] to add on to that a little bit. [00:06:36] There's that top most grid view is also [00:06:38] important in the layout of an [00:06:41] expanded record [00:06:42] when you're looking at an expanded [00:06:44] record that's on another table, [00:06:46] it will also follow that [00:06:48] same order of those [00:06:48] grid view fields. [00:06:52] The only exception to that is [00:06:53] if you're looking at an [00:06:55] expanded record on the [00:06:55] table that you're currently on [00:06:58] then it'll follow the view that you're on. [00:07:02] Right, right, That's fair. [00:07:05] Alright. Moving on. [00:07:07] Next one. Also from TableForums. [00:07:09] This is a good summary. [00:07:11] This actually I didn't know [00:07:13] about this one either. [00:07:15] So Scott showcases a cool little trick. [00:07:20] I'll show this video. [00:07:22] So basically if you have [00:07:24] if you have grouping in a view [00:07:25] and [00:07:29] hold on real quick, [00:07:31] we've got a question from Alicia. [00:07:33] Welcome Alicia, [00:07:34] does it also control order field [00:07:38] appear in zap? So in Zapier. [00:07:41] I don't know if I [00:07:42] were to guess I would say [00:07:46] Airtable remembers the order in which [00:07:49] fields were created for a table. [00:07:51] My guess is that Zapier and other [00:07:54] external integrations follows the created [00:07:57] time for each field. So [00:07:59] I don't believe it [00:08:01] pays attention to the first [00:08:04] grid view in the sidebar [00:08:06] for that particular table [00:08:07] because there's no way for [00:08:09] the other services to actually know [00:08:11] which order views or group that's not data [00:08:13] that's passed. [00:08:15] Yeah. [00:08:16] Yeah and that's what Scott mentions. [00:08:18] It's it's based on field creation. [00:08:21] Yeah the default although they did [00:08:24] just add the ability might be only at the [00:08:27] enterprise now I think it's at the pro [00:08:30] now the A. P. I allows you to know what [00:08:32] fields are in a view [00:08:35] used to not tell you that [00:08:37] it would tell you the views [00:08:39] and the view names but [00:08:40] not what fields are actually visible [00:08:43] and now there's a parameter that you can [00:08:45] pass when making an api call. [00:08:47] So in the future [00:08:48] that might change now that that [00:08:50] information is available [00:08:52] but before that yeah [00:08:54] it was the order of field creation. [00:08:57] I would love that in the scripting [00:08:59] api oh my god I was doing something [00:09:01] yesterday where I was like [00:09:04] why can't I do this? And I know what view, [00:09:07] I'm looking at, and Airtable [00:09:08] knows what fields are in [00:09:10] each view, why can't I see it? [00:09:12] So hopefully [00:09:14] that's coming I think [00:09:16] it is in the custom block [00:09:17] so that's what I was used to [00:09:19] and then I went and tried [00:09:21] to do something similar [00:09:22] in scripting and I was like, [00:09:23] well this is impossible. Great, [00:09:26] I really want to be able to like [00:09:28] I'm just for the day [00:09:30] where you can create a [00:09:31] view programmatically [00:09:33] with certain fields visible. [00:09:36] That would be amazing. [00:09:40] Yep. [00:09:41] Yeah, yeah. [00:09:44] Alright, next one. [00:09:45] So this is I mentioned earlier, [00:09:48] so if you have groupings [00:09:50] what you can do is you can actually, [00:09:52] once you start selecting and holding down [00:09:54] the control key or apple key [00:09:58] you can it will actually update [00:10:01] the grouping summary [00:10:03] at the top based off of [00:10:05] just the fields that you have selected. [00:10:08] So I'll show this animation of Scott [00:10:10] doing this. So once you have [00:10:13] multiple selected then [00:10:15] the grouping value updates [00:10:17] for just those selected. [00:10:19] Just kind of interesting thing [00:10:21] that could be bad, [00:10:21] could be good depending [00:10:23] on what you need. [00:10:25] But that's kind of cool. [00:10:28] Yeah, I like that, [00:10:30] it does that at the bottom [00:10:31] if you have no group selected. [00:10:33] So the very bottom bar, [00:10:35] that's the overall summary of that column. [00:10:38] I was not aware [00:10:39] it also did that for [00:10:41] individual groupings but you know that [00:10:43] makes sense if you do it for the [00:10:45] summary bar at the bottom. [00:10:50] Love it. [00:10:52] Alright, next one. [00:10:54] This one is just kind of more [00:10:57] humorous Kelly on Twitter [00:11:00] mentions must have been looking [00:11:02] at the documentation [00:11:04] from Airtable and thought [00:11:05] it was funny that they have to [00:11:07] explain what an email is. [00:11:09] So there's a section, [00:11:10] what is email? [00:11:11] Email is a method of exchanging [00:11:13] messages between people using [00:11:15] electronic devices. [00:11:19] So very thorough documentation [00:11:21] at least on this page. [00:11:24] Love it. I mean, [00:11:30] okay, you need to go back on Twitter [00:11:33] apparently right. I imagine they probably [00:11:36] have like that format they have [00:11:38] to follow for all their help talks, [00:11:39] like if they're integrating two things, [00:11:41] they probably have to say, [00:11:42] what is this? This is that [00:11:45] that's that's probably fair, [00:11:47] we'll give them the benefit of the doubt. [00:11:50] It's also good for SEO [00:11:52] purposes as well, I'm sure. [00:11:55] Yeah, but anyways, I was [00:12:01] okay, next, [00:12:03] we're moving on to the [00:12:04] BuiltOnAir community. [00:12:06] This actually came in today [00:12:08] from Ben. He noticed [00:12:10] he's like, I didn't know you could share a [00:12:14] read only of the entire base and [00:12:17] other people mentioned, no, [00:12:20] this has been around for a while, [00:12:22] but I thought it was interesting [00:12:24] if Ben hadn't [00:12:24] noticed this and Ben, [00:12:26] Ben is a pretty power user of Airtable, [00:12:29] then likely other people [00:12:31] may not know about it, [00:12:33] so just thought I'd share [00:12:36] it. So yeah, so [00:12:37] if you click on share view, [00:12:38] this is just for a view, [00:12:40] but if you go up here [00:12:41] and click up on here, [00:12:43] you can you have the base or the [00:12:44] view. So at the base level [00:12:47] you can share publicly [00:12:48] and it does give you a little bit [00:12:50] more things allow viewers [00:12:52] to copy data out of [00:12:53] the view now, [00:12:54] this one I don't think everybody has, [00:12:56] I don't think this one [00:12:57] exists anymore showing [00:12:59] extensions added to the base. [00:13:01] This was like a beta that they were doing [00:13:04] that that I signed up for and they [00:13:06] haven't taken it away but they have [00:13:08] said publicly that they're not planning to [00:13:10] roll that out. [00:13:12] So I guess I'm still cool [00:13:15] for having that feature. [00:13:18] I think they have that feature. [00:13:21] There was there was a share, [00:13:22] there's a beta for sharing [00:13:24] extensions embedding [00:13:26] individual extensions, [00:13:27] that's the one that they, [00:13:29] that they want to move forward [00:13:31] with even though I [00:13:32] would love if they did [00:13:33] but they probably just [00:13:35] moving to focus more on Interfaces [00:13:38] so you can get extensions with, [00:13:40] so that's available to everyone. [00:13:43] So they'll be just a note, [00:13:44] they'll be visible [00:13:45] to anyone who has access to the link [00:13:48] but they won't be able to if a feature of [00:13:50] an extension is to edit or add or modify [00:13:53] in any way any of the records [00:13:54] underneath [00:13:55] the extensions will be disabled. [00:13:57] They won't be able to do that [00:13:58] feature but if you have like a chart, [00:14:00] for instance, it will display the chart. [00:14:02] Right. [00:14:04] So I'm not cool, is what you're saying. [00:14:07] Well, I mean you're cool, [00:14:08] but just not for this particular feature, [00:14:10] not that not this kind of Cool. [00:14:13] Okay, well that that's cool. [00:14:15] That's good that that [00:14:16] I was thinking that would [00:14:18] still [00:14:19] but [00:14:20] so that is [00:14:23] it [00:14:25] learning [00:14:26] things need on the show. [00:14:29] Here's a cool little trick from Angie [00:14:33] Interfaces in a grid view. [00:14:36] You must be clicked in the grid, [00:14:38] but then if you command f [00:14:39] it will bring up a [00:14:40] fine dialogue that searches [00:14:42] the interface pages, [00:14:43] just like within a view inside [00:14:45] the base. [00:14:46] If you right click at the name [00:14:49] of a group in a grid view with a [00:14:51] group, it will bring up a [00:14:52] collapsed menu that allows [00:14:54] you to collapse one group [00:14:55] subgroup or all with a click. [00:14:58] Okay, so these are like three different [00:15:01] tricks that that she's sharing. Shift [00:15:04] in space will enlarge a field. [00:15:06] Like a nose field. [00:15:07] So you don't have to make the [00:15:08] field wide or the rows taller. [00:15:12] Yeah, I don't think I knew that last one. [00:15:14] Yeah. It's it's a little frustrating [00:15:18] for grid views in Interfaces where you [00:15:21] don't have it enabled for them [00:15:24] to expand the whole record [00:15:26] because you know, [00:15:27] if text gets cut off, [00:15:28] you just won't be able to see [00:15:31] the rest of whatever is in [00:15:32] that field. Like if you had a really long [00:15:34] URL Field for instance, [00:15:36] it's not expecting it [00:15:37] to be multiple lines, [00:15:39] it'll just do the dot dot dot thing [00:15:41] and you'll never know what the end of that [00:15:43] URL is unless you click it [00:15:47] Shift space. Yeah. [00:15:48] So there's a quick shortcut [00:15:50] and I think they have lots of [00:15:51] shortcuts you can go into help. [00:15:54] So that's good stuff. [00:15:56] There's also other [00:15:58] people Tim about an omni box [00:16:01] for searching. [00:16:02] So you kind of combine fields into [00:16:04] one I'm guessing. [00:16:06] So then you can just search [00:16:08] that field. So that's a nice [00:16:09] little trick [00:16:12] there you posted in the forums. [00:16:16] Yes, [00:16:18] so cool. Cool. Little hacks in there. [00:16:21] One more, looks like this is new. [00:16:24] So this is in Interfaces. [00:16:27] It looks there's a new [00:16:30] I think it's a setting, [00:16:33] not an actual new element. [00:16:37] Oh and I don't think this is live, [00:16:39] they they saw it on a seminar [00:16:40] so maybe this [00:16:41] is coming. So here's a sneak peak [00:16:45] in the early promo [00:16:48] material for I think the first [00:16:50] major update for interface [00:16:52] is not the original [00:16:54] announcement, but like the next time [00:16:56] they did a batch release of a lot of [00:16:58] features for Interfaces, [00:17:00] there was an element that [00:17:02] looked like this and I said, [00:17:04] it reminded me of either notion or [00:17:09] kota [00:17:10] because they had similar kind of [00:17:12] styles for how they show like [00:17:14] a table component [00:17:16] and I was waiting for several months now. [00:17:20] It's been for that two up here and I [00:17:22] don't know if it's just a marketing [00:17:25] thing where they just build, [00:17:27] you know how commercials [00:17:28] that's not actually cereal [00:17:29] you're looking at. [00:17:30] Like that's like motor oil [00:17:31] or whatever that they used [00:17:33] to make it look good for [00:17:34] camera. I'm wondering [00:17:35] if they did something similar [00:17:37] where are we ever going to [00:17:38] get this thing? [00:17:39] Because I saw this like [00:17:41] months ago and it's still not there. [00:17:44] I want it. [00:17:45] I think it looks so much better. [00:17:47] It looks nice and clean. [00:17:49] I think it would be a welcome addition. [00:17:54] Yeah, [00:17:57] absolutely. There's so many things. [00:17:59] Some of this, [00:18:03] yeah. [00:18:08] Looking forward to that day. [00:18:10] All right, [00:18:13] yep. [00:18:16] Okay. [00:18:20] The last three, [00:18:25] three things I'll show are [00:18:28] actually new product releases [00:18:32] related to Airtable. [00:18:34] So there's quite a few [00:18:36] people putting out new stuff. [00:18:38] So I always like tinkering [00:18:39] with the new toys. [00:18:41] So here's a couple one [00:18:43] couple that you can try out. [00:18:45] So this one's a charting, [00:18:47] a map charting. [00:18:48] So if you do anything with maps, [00:18:50] they're building an extension [00:18:54] to visualize your data in maps. [00:18:58] So it's in the marketplace, [00:19:01] you can check that out. It's called match [00:19:04] chart [00:19:08] so I saw that on Reddit [00:19:15] every time I switch tabs, which is crazy. [00:19:19] Lose connection. [00:19:22] Okay, so there's also a [00:19:24] WordPress syncing [00:19:26] plug in. So if you're doing [00:19:28] anything with WordPress [00:19:30] and Airtable, this helps sync your data. [00:19:33] So I believe it's a plug in on the air [00:19:36] on the WordPress side that talks to your [00:19:38] Airtable base and pulls data [00:19:41] from Airtable into WordPress [00:19:45] and maybe vice versa [00:19:47] so any WordPress stuff check out there [00:19:52] if you do you think [00:19:54] and [00:19:56] then another one. This one [00:19:58] was actually in the Airtable community [00:20:00] I think I saw [00:20:01] it on Reddit as well [00:20:02] but base Inspector. [00:20:03] So this is kind of cool. [00:20:04] And I believe this individual used to [00:20:08] work at Airtable and left but it's now [00:20:11] building this tool [00:20:13] so it's a chrome extension [00:20:15] that if you use Make or Zapier [00:20:18] when your end up your make [00:20:21] it will actually tell you [00:20:24] what bases It's [00:20:26] using if you're connected to [00:20:28] the Airtable connector [00:20:30] and so it will actually kind of inspect [00:20:32] that and show you the base information. [00:20:35] So if you're a heavy user of one [00:20:37] of those two products and you want to get [00:20:40] better insights into [00:20:42] how it's using Airtable. [00:20:43] That's a chrome extension [00:20:45] you can check out. [00:20:48] It's very useful because [00:20:51] when you have a lot of [00:20:53] external automations, sometimes [00:20:55] you forget that there are other [00:20:57] automatic processes [00:20:58] that are connected to your [00:21:00] Airtable base is easy [00:21:01] if it's an Airtable automation [00:21:02] because there's a whole [00:21:03] tab for it and you can look at it. [00:21:05] But if there's no visual indicator in your [00:21:08] base that [00:21:09] a particular record series of records [00:21:13] or table is referenced by an external [00:21:15] automation, it gets really [00:21:17] easy to forget that they exist. [00:21:20] Yeah. [00:21:22] Alright. I think Alli [00:21:24] you want to share your [00:21:26] your tidbit that you found this week? [00:21:29] Oh yeah I had a couple [00:21:30] different things. [00:21:32] In Interfaces there's now the option [00:21:34] to orient your charts horizontally, [00:21:39] which is super, super cool. [00:21:41] Just another cool little visual tweak. [00:21:43] And then another weird one [00:21:45] that I saw [00:21:46] was I was in a base that was over [00:21:48] limits and in the bottom left [00:21:50] hand corner where [00:21:52] they're typically would be that [00:21:53] plus sign to add a new record, [00:21:56] it actually had a little [00:21:57] like red triangle with [00:21:58] an exclamation point [00:22:00] and when I mouse over it [00:22:01] was like, this base is over [00:22:02] limits, to continue adding records, [00:22:05] you you have to upgrade [00:22:07] and it did let me still add records, [00:22:10] but that tells me that they are making [00:22:12] movement on actually locking down [00:22:15] bases if they become over limits, [00:22:17] which we haven't seen until now, [00:22:20] so just a word of caution, [00:22:23] they're definitely [00:22:24] locking down on that. [00:22:27] Cool. Yeah, that's good [00:22:30] on the charting as well, [00:22:32] so well that concludes what's [00:22:34] going on, keeping you up [00:22:36] to date in the world of Airtable. [00:22:38] Let's move on to [00:22:40] On2Air our primary sponsor. [00:22:42] It's an all in one toolkit [00:22:43] to run your business [00:22:44] on Airtable, a suite of apps [00:22:46] that help you do more [00:22:48] with your Airtable business [00:22:49] or what you're doing an Airtable. [00:22:53] We've been talking a lot about [00:22:55] new features coming out [00:22:56] with our in our forms. [00:22:58] We one thing that I was [00:23:01] gonna show today was [00:23:03] sometimes there's things that [00:23:05] we need to do that are [00:23:06] a little bit more behind [00:23:07] the scenes and [00:23:09] they're not as cool as the [00:23:11] cool new features but they are kind [00:23:13] of critical to making sure that [00:23:16] that things are running [00:23:18] behind the scenes more. [00:23:19] And so today I'm gonna showcase [00:23:22] we're about to release [00:23:24] our OAuth integration so [00:23:26] I've been spending quite a bit of time [00:23:28] working with the new OAuth [00:23:29] from Airtable [00:23:31] and that will be coming soon [00:23:34] into On2Air [00:23:35] so you won't have to use your legacy [00:23:37] api keys. They will still be supported, [00:23:40] so we'll still have them at least for [00:23:43] a while while they're still valid [00:23:46] but these are going away [00:23:48] next year in February. [00:23:50] But [00:23:53] you can also instead api key [00:23:55] you can use what they call [00:23:56] their personal access [00:23:57] tokens. Those work the same [00:24:00] as an api key. [00:24:01] So those will still work here [00:24:03] although they don't want us to kind of [00:24:06] rely on those and so we are [00:24:09] pushing the OAuth [00:24:10] but we will support, it will work [00:24:13] just like an api key does [00:24:15] or an OAuth [00:24:16] so either either way will work although we [00:24:19] are kind of encouraged [00:24:21] to go the go the OAuth route. [00:24:27] And do that and so once you [00:24:28] click on this [00:24:29] it will take you to an Airtable page [00:24:31] that showcases the permissions. [00:24:33] The one thing I kind [00:24:35] of don't like is you are [00:24:37] required to have to select [00:24:38] what what workspace [00:24:39] or what bases that you want to [00:24:41] give access to. [00:24:42] We kind of encourage people to [00:24:44] to give access to to all of them [00:24:46] so that anything [00:24:47] that you want to do in On2Air [00:24:49] this connector will already have [00:24:51] access to all your bases plus future bases [00:24:54] which is important but [00:24:56] if you want to lock it down [00:24:58] you can lock it down [00:24:59] within a certain workspace or base. [00:25:05] So that should be coming [00:25:07] if all our testing goes well, [00:25:09] as early as this [00:25:10] weekend [00:25:11] maybe another week after that, [00:25:14] but excited to get that out there, [00:25:16] start using [00:25:19] all right now, Kamille [00:25:23] is gonna tell us what she eats each day. [00:25:27] Can you guys see my screen? [00:25:30] Yes, [00:25:31] well [00:25:33] so this base, I created [00:25:38] quite some time ago, [00:25:40] I see that it was last updated [00:25:43] July 20th 2020 which was not [00:25:45] the day that I released it originally. [00:25:49] But this base I made for meal planning I [00:25:52] think [00:25:54] was the base that I demoed [00:25:56] when I was interviewed for BuiltOnAir? [00:25:59] I could be wrong, [00:26:01] but I think I used this base [00:26:03] is my sort of example of all the [00:26:05] cool neat stuff you can do in Airtable. [00:26:08] And over the years of all the things [00:26:11] that I've made for Airtable, [00:26:13] this is the one that gets the most [00:26:17] support questions [00:26:18] and I got one over the weekend [00:26:21] and the reason why is [00:26:23] because although the base [00:26:25] comes in fine on the universe, [00:26:28] the scripts apparently [00:26:30] don't [00:26:31] come in, [00:26:32] which is [00:26:33] really unfortunate, [00:26:36] I think if I re release it, [00:26:37] they might come in. [00:26:39] But the reason I haven't done [00:26:40] that is because I haven't looked at [00:26:43] these scripts in two years [00:26:44] and it's possible [00:26:45] that they might need some updating. [00:26:48] So for this segment, I wanted to just [00:26:51] give a rundown of what is supposed [00:26:54] to happen when you click these disabled [00:26:56] buttons and then talking through [00:26:59] some improvements [00:27:00] that I'm considering making [00:27:02] based on their current functionality [00:27:05] as a disclaimer. I have a separate copy [00:27:08] of the same base that I sometimes use [00:27:11] in my personal life [00:27:12] and I don't use the scripts at all. [00:27:14] I just do it all [00:27:14] manually. So it's [00:27:16] you don't need these scripts, [00:27:19] but you know, [00:27:19] they're they're useful. [00:27:21] So the big idea, [00:27:23] generally speaking for this base [00:27:25] structure, which is pretty adaptable, [00:27:27] not just for meal planning, [00:27:28] but more complex [00:27:31] relationships in between different tables. [00:27:35] You have a table full of meals and [00:27:37] each meal has a particular day [00:27:40] and a type, but it can be linked to one or [00:27:43] more different recipes. [00:27:45] So if I wanted to cook [00:27:47] two things on one day, [00:27:49] I could. [00:27:51] And then I have [00:27:54] a button [00:27:55] that will [00:27:57] create leftovers. So [00:27:59] an idea I had for this base was [00:28:03] I say I want to make five servings. [00:28:06] I'm not gonna eat [00:28:08] five servings in one day, [00:28:09] I would be able to click a button [00:28:12] and it would duplicate this same meal, [00:28:15] the tomato sauce plus the stuffed shells [00:28:18] four times for consecutive days after [00:28:20] this. And then I would say, [00:28:22] well this is what I'm gonna [00:28:24] be eating over the [00:28:25] next four days because the yield [00:28:27] is five, I'm eating the day [00:28:29] that I'm cooking. [00:28:31] That is one of the scripts [00:28:34] that is in the base. [00:28:36] Another one is prepare [00:28:40] recipe, which I don't [00:28:42] I don't understand why this was [00:28:44] a script to begin with. [00:28:46] This is why I didn't [00:28:47] ever re release it because [00:28:48] in actually using it in my day to day, [00:28:50] I sort of decided it's not, [00:28:53] it's not [00:28:55] super necessary [00:28:58] looking at how the recipes table [00:29:00] is structured [00:29:01] has all of the fields that you [00:29:02] might expect to be in a recipe field. [00:29:06] And of course, like many different [00:29:09] table structures, it relies on [00:29:11] a junction table that I've named recipe [00:29:14] ingredients. [00:29:15] If I go to recipe ingredients, [00:29:17] you'll see that each recipe has more [00:29:20] than one line item that says [00:29:22] how much of each ingredient [00:29:24] needs to be placed [00:29:26] within [00:29:27] the recipe. [00:29:30] So [00:29:33] if I go to the ingredients page, [00:29:36] it's pretty simple. The only thing that's [00:29:39] somewhat special about this table [00:29:42] was that it would be [00:29:44] able to calculate what I [00:29:45] would need to go to the store for [00:29:48] based on what I have planned as a meal for [00:29:51] that particular week. [00:29:54] What the [00:29:56] prepare recipe script [00:29:58] is supposed to do [00:30:00] is subtract [00:30:02] what I have cooked from [00:30:04] what I have said is in my pantry. [00:30:07] That is incredibly [00:30:08] unreliable and I don't recommend [00:30:11] this particular methodology [00:30:14] that is loosely [00:30:16] implied by this script here. Unless [00:30:20] you have a very [00:30:22] if you're a business [00:30:23] for instance and you have very [00:30:25] structured processes for [00:30:27] maintaining inventory, [00:30:29] then this is the type of [00:30:31] you know, script that would be [00:30:33] necessary [00:30:34] if you're just some person like me who [00:30:35] lives in a house [00:30:37] who may or may not keep an accurate [00:30:40] account of how many ounces [00:30:42] of tomato sauce you have, [00:30:43] you don't need this script. [00:30:45] So I'm just, this is a cautionary tale [00:30:48] about whether or not you you need to go [00:30:51] overboard with something. [00:30:53] The one that I think is [00:30:55] worth saving is create [00:30:56] leftovers. [00:30:57] So I'm gonna press the button [00:31:00] and hope that it works [00:31:01] and if it doesn't work I'll [00:31:03] troubleshoot why. So [00:31:10] Okay, so it did what I expected it to do [00:31:15] you'll see, you know, [00:31:17] I have duplicates [00:31:18] that were made counting each days, [00:31:21] I think it did five. [00:31:23] Yeah, it made five [00:31:24] when it should have made four [00:31:26] troubleshooting but you'll see that it [00:31:29] copied the same meal over. [00:31:31] And it also marked it [00:31:33] as a leftover with this field. [00:31:35] The reason I did that is because [00:31:38] the ingredients table [00:31:40] is rolling up all of [00:31:41] the things that I should be shopping for [00:31:44] for whatever is this week in my meals [00:31:47] table except I don't need to shop [00:31:49] for the ingredients of leftovers, [00:31:52] they've already been cooked. [00:31:54] So this is basically saying don't add [00:31:56] any meal that is duplicated. [00:32:01] Looking at the code, [00:32:02] what's happening here? [00:32:03] You'll notice I'm I'm using math, [00:32:05] which is a bad sign. [00:32:07] We're looking at the meals table. [00:32:10] We're looking at the recipes table [00:32:14] because I'm using a button field [00:32:17] to activate the script [00:32:19] I don't need to go [00:32:21] in here and click and select [00:32:23] a particular meal. [00:32:25] I could but I am relying on for [00:32:28] usability sake creating [00:32:30] a or clicking on a button [00:32:34] from there. [00:32:35] Were saying what is the date [00:32:37] that that meal was created on? [00:32:39] So I don't necessarily need [00:32:42] today's date because [00:32:43] if I'm planning ahead for you [00:32:45] know tomorrow Wednesday, [00:32:47] I want to start calculating [00:32:49] the leftovers from Thursday [00:32:51] onward. [00:32:53] So then I want to get all the records [00:32:56] that are linked to that particular [00:32:58] recipe [00:33:01] or all of the recipes linked to that [00:33:04] particular meal. Sorry. [00:33:05] I wanna get how much that yield [00:33:08] I said would be. So I said five [00:33:12] for this particular record I clicked on [00:33:15] and then if I don't have [00:33:18] a yield put in there, [00:33:20] I want to default to two. [00:33:23] So you know I'm probably not gonna [00:33:25] make one serving at a time, [00:33:27] I'm probably gonna make one [00:33:30] at least two servings, [00:33:32] if I haven't put in a [00:33:33] number that's customized for that field. [00:33:37] And then for each number of yield, [00:33:41] I want to create a record in the table for [00:33:46] meals that basically copies [00:33:48] the same values for the recipes over. [00:33:50] And then increments [00:33:52] the increments the date by one [00:33:54] because I am [00:33:57] a singular person [00:33:59] and I'm not gonna be making [00:34:01] 50 meals or 51 meals at once. [00:34:03] I elected to just create each record [00:34:06] one by one instead of batch creating the [00:34:09] records in one go. [00:34:12] I think if I were to [00:34:13] redo this script, I would [00:34:15] batch create the records [00:34:17] instead of doing one by one. [00:34:19] So in order to do that, [00:34:20] this script would need to be [00:34:22] altered a little bit [00:34:23] in order to accommodate that. [00:34:25] Part of the reason why [00:34:26] I create records one by one [00:34:28] is because I was trying to [00:34:30] increment each date by one. [00:34:33] And if your batch creating records, [00:34:36] you sort of have to prepare the record [00:34:39] values in advance [00:34:40] and then that create them, [00:34:42] if that makes sense. [00:34:43] So [00:34:46] looking at this, [00:34:49] I would redo it [00:34:50] If I were to re release it [00:34:52] and I just wanted to explain why. [00:34:54] Every now and again [00:34:56] someone will come across [00:34:58] that meal planner base which [00:35:01] works as it is. And again [00:35:03] you do not need [00:35:04] the scripts in order for it to [00:35:06] function. What there should be [00:35:08] is a tool that makes it [00:35:10] easier to sort of fill [00:35:11] out this [00:35:13] this table which is, [00:35:14] it's not hard to fill out, [00:35:16] but it's tedious and it's [00:35:17] tedious for you know [00:35:20] junction records in general. [00:35:23] But that's it. [00:35:25] That's just an overall view [00:35:27] of how this table is structured. [00:35:29] And [00:35:30] hopefully by next week [00:35:32] I will have a updated version of this. [00:35:36] And if the scripts still aren't [00:35:38] coming in through the universe, [00:35:39] then I'll link to, [00:35:41] my Git hub page [00:35:43] where you can just copy [00:35:45] the same text over. [00:35:47] So that's even if you download [00:35:49] the base, the scripts weren't coming in? [00:35:52] Well, let's, let's see, [00:35:55] copy base [00:36:02] Scott asks if you have a base [00:36:04] that will actually cook the meals for him? [00:36:07] So [00:36:09] I really don't. [00:36:13] Silly. [00:36:14] Absolutely silly that it doesn't [00:36:19] do that. There's a setting [00:36:21] before you share the base [00:36:24] in the actual script extension [00:36:27] to toggle on. [00:36:28] That could be it. But I [00:36:30] think it's when you [00:36:32] upload it into the universe, isn't it? [00:36:35] Well, right in the, [00:36:36] in the scripting app [00:36:37] there's also one under advanced [00:36:39] Yeah. Show code and [00:36:42] that's what I did wrong. [00:36:45] I don't think that option [00:36:46] was available when you [00:36:48] don't think it was either. [00:36:49] Because again, this was last updated [00:36:53] in 2020. So it had been some time. [00:36:55] I'm not going to republish this though, [00:36:58] until the scripts have been updated [00:37:01] because again, [00:37:02] I did also notice [00:37:04] if you go back to the code [00:37:06] in your leftover. [00:37:08] I think you're missing [00:37:10] an await on line 19, [00:37:12] Oh yeah, I am. Oh yeah. [00:37:15] See just, I was young and naive and yeah. [00:37:21] Must wait, [00:37:23] awesome. [00:37:26] Cool. Thank you for sharing that Kamille. [00:37:28] It's always fun to go back and look at [00:37:30] code from two years ago. [00:37:32] It's never fun [00:37:33] because I always find things where I'm [00:37:35] like why did I do this? [00:37:37] This is pointless. [00:37:39] Yeah [00:37:41] but the key is [00:37:42] if you want to know the secret [00:37:44] to not having any leftovers is [00:37:46] having a teenage boy [00:37:47] in your house. I've learned that. [00:37:50] Gonna have to give me a few years. [00:37:54] So that's in our house. [00:37:56] My son does not leave much for leftovers. [00:38:02] All right. [00:38:12] Alright [00:38:13] hold on [00:38:16] let me share your screen. [00:38:22] All right [00:38:24] okay. So I was saying before [00:38:27] we started this broadcast today, [00:38:28] I can't remember if I've demoed this [00:38:31] once before but I think it's worth demoing [00:38:33] again if I have [00:38:35] I saw someone asking a question [00:38:38] related to this in the Airtable [00:38:40] community group on Facebook the other day. [00:38:44] And it's a super useful tool [00:38:46] that I use a lot [00:38:48] in bases where I have to do [00:38:50] like complex time based reporting. [00:38:53] It's also just nice if you if you like [00:38:55] data and you wanna bucket it [00:38:57] in different ways, [00:38:58] this is a good little method to [00:38:59] employ. [00:39:00] So I have this transactions table. [00:39:03] That's all I have in this base. [00:39:06] I've got a date and amount. [00:39:08] This gross transaction [00:39:09] is just looking at whether [00:39:11] it's an expense or income. [00:39:13] So it multiplies the amount by -1. [00:39:16] If it's an expense. [00:39:17] Otherwise just by one to keep it the same. [00:39:21] And then I just have a single select [00:39:23] field for company. This could be a link [00:39:25] record field of course. [00:39:27] But just to keep things [00:39:29] very simple I'm gonna just [00:39:31] talk about what I would do [00:39:33] if I wanted to create a table of months. [00:39:36] You could also do this with a table [00:39:39] of weeks or even go even super granular [00:39:42] down to like the day level if you wanted. [00:39:45] But we'll focus on months for today. [00:39:47] So I'm just gonna create a new table [00:39:50] and I'm gonna call it months. [00:39:54] And what I typically do on this table [00:39:58] is I add a date field and I'll call it [00:40:01] month start. [00:40:03] And just put in I know that my data [00:40:06] starts in 2020. So I'm gonna do [00:40:09] it's a couple months to start and [00:40:13] give myself a lot of records [00:40:15] in this table. [00:40:16] I like to go out like as far as [00:40:18] possible just so I don't ever have [00:40:19] to worry about it. [00:40:20] You could also set up an [00:40:21] automation to create records [00:40:23] on this table as you go through time. [00:40:25] So you never have to worry [00:40:27] about keeping this table populated. [00:40:30] Another little trick if you start [00:40:32] just like an excel [00:40:34] if you start the pattern of [00:40:35] two fields here and grab this [00:40:37] little square [00:40:39] nub on the side and drag it down. [00:40:41] It'll follow that pattern [00:40:42] down for that column. [00:40:45] And then I'm gonna add [00:40:48] a formula for my name field. [00:40:50] I always start with an if statement. [00:40:53] If I'm trying to transform a date because [00:40:55] if you don't have one, [00:40:56] it will give you an error. [00:40:58] And I hate seeing those little [00:41:00] hashtag errors throughout the base. [00:41:02] So I'm gonna say if I have my month start [00:41:05] filled, filled, filled in, [00:41:07] then I want to format that. [00:41:09] All right. [00:41:11] And I have a very particular way [00:41:14] of formatting. [00:41:15] I've landed on after a while [00:41:16] that I think is nice. [00:41:18] And I have a reason for it, [00:41:20] which is if you start with [00:41:22] this, yy-mm then when you're [00:41:25] grouping everything's gonna fall in line [00:41:28] by first by year, then by month. [00:41:31] And so then it'll allow you [00:41:33] to also show out [00:41:34] the month and year in full after that. [00:41:37] So it still looks nice and you can easily [00:41:39] quickly see what each month is named. [00:41:44] So then on my transactions table, [00:41:48] I want to do the same thing, [00:41:50] I'm gonna create a formula field [00:41:52] to transform this date, the date of my [00:41:54] transaction into that same format [00:41:57] for the month that it falls into. [00:41:59] So I'm gonna write, if I have a date, [00:42:03] I wanna format that date [00:42:07] the same way. So yy-mm. [00:42:13] And then the full month [00:42:15] and the full year, [00:42:16] this slash slash is just visual, [00:42:17] you could do whatever you want there [00:42:19] could even just be a space doesn't need to [00:42:21] be there but I like it for [00:42:24] visual purposes [00:42:26] and I'm gonna name this month [00:42:28] with a little gear in front of it. [00:42:29] This is just my little symbol. [00:42:32] I use gears all the time [00:42:34] to like remind myself [00:42:35] and anybody else that might be [00:42:37] in this base. Hey this field is important. [00:42:38] It's integral to the workings [00:42:40] of how something functions [00:42:42] in this base but you [00:42:42] can ignore it [00:42:44] can basically always stay hidden. [00:42:47] And [00:42:48] then I'm gonna add [00:42:50] a linked record field to my months table [00:42:54] and I'm just gonna call it a month. [00:42:57] Finally [00:42:59] I'm going to add one more field [00:43:03] and I'm gonna call it update linked months [00:43:08] and I'm gonna write [00:43:09] in this field [00:43:11] gonna say if I have [00:43:14] a month if I know what month [00:43:16] this record needs to be bucketed into [00:43:20] and that month [00:43:24] does not equal the month [00:43:25] that I have it linked to, [00:43:30] then I know I want to update [00:43:32] the link to the month. [00:43:36] So all of these get filled in. [00:43:38] If I were to take this and paste it here, [00:43:42] this now goes away. [00:43:43] So this gives me [00:43:46] the ability [00:43:47] to [00:43:49] use that field as [00:43:52] my automation trigger. [00:43:55] So if I wanted to set up an automation [00:43:59] I would pick one I usually [00:44:01] 99% of the time [00:44:02] I'm using one of record matches [00:44:03] conditions as my trigger [00:44:06] and I'm gonna say on the transactions [00:44:08] table when my update link [00:44:10] to month field is not empty, [00:44:14] got this one example here [00:44:16] then I want to update [00:44:18] that same record. [00:44:23] I'm gonna update that month [00:44:25] linked record field [00:44:26] with the value [00:44:28] from my formula field [00:44:30] that knows what month it should be [00:44:32] linked to. [00:44:34] So if I test that out [00:44:39] we can see [00:44:40] that gets rid of my formula field [00:44:42] and it links it up to that month [00:44:45] Say like two months [00:44:47] to turn that on. [00:44:51] Now [00:44:52] when I delete something [00:44:53] it should just pop right back in [00:44:57] And now on our months [00:44:58] table we'll be able to [00:45:00] just change this into [00:45:03] a roll up [00:45:06] and I roll up that [00:45:08] gross transaction field. [00:45:09] I sum up all the values [00:45:13] now. I can easily see [00:45:16] what I've got for each month. [00:45:18] You can use rollup fields to get you know, [00:45:20] your average transaction [00:45:22] or your highest transaction, [00:45:24] lowest etcetera. [00:45:25] All sorts of different things [00:45:27] you can do with it from that point. [00:45:30] I like to also create like a year's table [00:45:32] and link that up to months. [00:45:33] So that way you can create reporting [00:45:35] Interfaces for each year for each month. [00:45:37] You could go down to weeks or days. [00:45:40] But the same method works really well to [00:45:42] keep all the data where it needs to be [00:45:45] in order to get that reporting correct. [00:45:51] That's cool. [00:45:53] Nice trick there [00:45:55] Jan says he also does it [00:45:58] similarly for his sales input. [00:46:02] Yeah, I have a base on the [00:46:06] universe that also uses a similar [00:46:09] sort of methodology [00:46:10] and it includes a formula [00:46:12] field that outputs, you know, [00:46:14] if you want to do [00:46:16] as you're saying years and [00:46:17] months it'll output, [00:46:19] you know, both of them in just one field, [00:46:22] you don't have to have a one field [00:46:25] for each and then [00:46:26] uses a similar process [00:46:28] for automations [00:46:29] will just link them both [00:46:30] into the correct link fields. [00:46:33] It works really well. [00:46:35] The only downside to it [00:46:36] that I've found is sometimes I'll [00:46:38] also write into my formula [00:46:40] that actually triggers the automation, [00:46:42] like make sure that I have [00:46:44] a couple other pieces [00:46:45] of that record before it runs [00:46:46] because if you're actually entering [00:46:49] the data in and you start typing a date, [00:46:51] it's gonna evaluate that date [00:46:53] immediately [00:46:54] and think that it has the right month [00:46:56] and [00:46:57] It could be, [00:46:58] maybe you're trying to fill in [00:46:59] something from two years ago and [00:47:00] it's gonna [00:47:01] automatically think it's February 2023. [00:47:04] So there are some catches, [00:47:06] but [00:47:07] in general it works very well. [00:47:10] Yeah, [00:47:11] awesome, thank you Alli for sharing that. [00:47:15] All right, quick shout out to join [00:47:18] our community builtonair.com/join [00:47:21] that gets you in. [00:47:22] We have a goal to get to [00:47:24] 2000 members in our slack [00:47:26] community and we're making good progress. [00:47:29] We're about a third of the way there [00:47:31] for this year. So that we'd love to [00:47:34] get as many people in and participate and [00:47:38] also we'd love to [00:47:39] have you come on the show. [00:47:41] So if you want to share your story [00:47:43] and your journey in the Airtable world, [00:47:45] we'd love to have you on, [00:47:46] just reach out and we'll get you [00:47:49] on a future episode. Our final segment I'm [00:47:52] gonna showcase sync fields [00:47:54] or sync tables [00:47:56] and and how to deal with record [00:47:58] deletion. So [00:48:03] assume if you if you have been using [00:48:06] synced tables, it's been out for a while. [00:48:10] And basically what it allows you to do [00:48:14] is to have one table in one base, [00:48:17] get synced over into another table. [00:48:20] And down the road [00:48:22] they'll have two way sync. [00:48:24] That's not that's not available [00:48:26] to everyone yet. But but that is coming. [00:48:29] But for now it's kind of a one way [00:48:32] sync from one base. So you have your [00:48:34] source base and then you can [00:48:36] sync it over into a destination. [00:48:39] But when you set that up [00:48:44] So right now I'm in my destination. [00:48:46] So you basically from [00:48:48] your destination, your [00:48:50] you'll create a new table and [00:48:53] there will be a process to pull [00:48:57] And one of the options [00:49:00] of your synced table is [00:49:02] how to deal with deleted [00:49:04] records from the source. [00:49:06] And so by default [00:49:08] it will delete the record in this [00:49:10] table so that it always stays in sync. [00:49:13] But it does have an option [00:49:15] where you can [00:49:16] leave the record in this table even [00:49:19] when it gets deleted [00:49:20] from the source table. [00:49:22] So that's kind of useful if you if [00:49:24] you want to [00:49:25] you can almost use this as like [00:49:28] an archive where this keeps [00:49:30] anything that gets deleted [00:49:32] and maybe your refreshing [00:49:34] your source with the latest [00:49:36] information. But you want to [00:49:38] delete everything [00:49:39] but you want to keep it in [00:49:40] another base. So that's [00:49:42] that's one trick [00:49:43] you could use this feature for. [00:49:45] So I've used this in some [00:49:48] consulting work [00:49:49] and I think a couple [00:49:52] a couple of [00:49:53] seasons ago I showcased [00:49:55] how you can determine if [00:49:57] you have that setting set on [00:50:00] turned on [00:50:02] to leave it here. [00:50:04] If you have that turned on, [00:50:06] how can you determine if a record [00:50:08] that's here was deleted [00:50:10] in the source? [00:50:11] And the way that it used to work, [00:50:14] there's kind of two ways. [00:50:15] And the way that [00:50:17] I preferred Airtable actually [00:50:19] changed at some point along the way [00:50:21] and it no longer works. And it actually [00:50:24] messed up our processes. [00:50:27] But it used to be [00:50:29] if it used to be what [00:50:31] what we would do is [00:50:33] we would create a formula field [00:50:36] that exposed the source record ID [00:50:39] So this is a unique identify rare for that [00:50:42] record. So we would have this record ID [00:50:46] And this record I.D. [00:50:47] Would actually get removed [00:50:50] if that field was deleted from the source. [00:50:53] And so [00:50:56] so I'll create a new record here. [00:50:58] That will now get [00:50:59] a unique identifier for the [00:51:01] source. And if I go over [00:51:03] to the destination get it synced over. [00:51:07] It used to be if I deleted, [00:51:10] there it is. [00:51:11] If I deleted it from the source here [00:51:15] the this record ID Would actually [00:51:18] be blank. [00:51:19] And so it was easy to then create [00:51:22] a formula field that says [00:51:24] if the record ID [00:51:26] That's coming from the source not [00:51:28] the destinations record ID [00:51:30] because this this destination [00:51:31] record will have its [00:51:33] own record ID [00:51:34] That will be different than the record ID [00:51:36] In the source. [00:51:38] But if the source record ID [00:51:41] was is blank, [00:51:42] that means that that record was deleted. [00:51:46] But they changed that behavior [00:51:48] and now this record ID [00:51:50] Does not get deleted so [00:51:51] it actually holds on to [00:51:54] what the deleted records ID Was. [00:51:57] And I'll showcase that. [00:51:59] And so this formula [00:52:01] no longer works because this is not [00:52:03] blank or it still has a value [00:52:07] so it's not blank. So if I delete it [00:52:12] from here [00:52:18] come over here and sync. [00:52:23] You see actually still there. [00:52:28] Wait it's syncing. [00:52:34] Okay you'll see that this is [00:52:36] still there. [00:52:38] So this formula that is what the [00:52:40] approach that we used [00:52:42] to take longer works. [00:52:44] So the workaround is to use a source [00:52:47] link button. [00:52:50] And so what that is is a button where [00:52:53] this is this action is only available [00:52:56] if this is a synced table [00:52:58] it allows you to link to the URL [00:53:02] In the source table which is nice [00:53:05] so that you can jump back [00:53:07] and forth between [00:53:08] the destination and the source. [00:53:10] So if I click on this, [00:53:12] it will open up in the [00:53:13] new tab the store. [00:53:18] If it's deleted [00:53:20] there's no longer a source [00:53:22] and so they tabled [00:53:26] and so then I can have a new formula [00:53:29] that is looking and say its source link. [00:53:33] So if that button is blank, [00:53:34] even though it doesn't necessarily look, [00:53:37] blank, it actually is blank. [00:53:38] Then I know that this [00:53:40] record was deleted in the [00:53:41] source. So this is the new approach [00:53:45] that that you can do to determine if [00:53:48] if a record got deleted from the source. [00:53:51] So if you were using the old way [00:53:54] which we were [00:53:55] someone along the way probably [00:53:58] said I need to know that record ID. [00:54:01] It would come in handy if you just wanted [00:54:04] to have a unique identifier [00:54:06] for a deleted record. [00:54:08] Maybe you were archiving it [00:54:10] exporting it somewhere. [00:54:11] And you want to be able to [00:54:13] still reference it. [00:54:14] I think there's still value [00:54:16] in having that that record ID [00:54:18] But it did break this, [00:54:20] this detection here. [00:54:22] Great work around [00:54:26] we have news from the front [00:54:29] If you recall 20 minutes ago [00:54:32] when we were like [00:54:33] gee I wish that [00:54:35] mysterious new element type [00:54:37] was available in Interfaces gets [00:54:39] released eventually. [00:54:41] It's released now. [00:54:43] So first brought to my attention by [00:54:46] Ben Bailey on the [00:54:48] BuiltOnAir slack community [00:54:51] and then by Jan in our live [00:54:53] chat here. So [00:54:55] It's desired. I have made [00:54:57] an interface with it on there [00:55:00] and I'm sharing my screen. [00:55:01] This is what it looks like. [00:55:03] It looks exactly how I thought [00:55:05] it would based on the [00:55:05] thing. So it's real. [00:55:07] I love it. [00:55:08] Good work team [00:55:09] because Bold still comes in. [00:55:11] That's nice. Nice. [00:55:13] So watching the show [00:55:15] and said I can turn that on. [00:55:17] You know what [00:55:18] I like to think that's what happened. [00:55:21] So it's, [00:55:24] you know, it's one of the things [00:55:26] that can be easily convertible. [00:55:28] So very useful feature. [00:55:29] If you made a grid [00:55:31] and think it's better as a gallery, [00:55:33] you can just switch, [00:55:34] swap back and forth. [00:55:36] But now you can swap it to a list [00:55:37] component. [00:55:39] You pick a source for the table, [00:55:43] apparently you can do hierarchy. [00:55:47] I don't know what that means. [00:55:49] I think it might be [00:55:51] their version of grouping. [00:55:53] I've looked at this for roughly 60 seconds [00:55:56] so I don't have the scoop quite yet. [00:55:59] Exactly [00:56:01] what what it is? [00:56:02] There's a prefixed field. [00:56:04] What does that mean? [00:56:05] Who knows? [00:56:06] I have no compatible field. Apparently. [00:56:10] Interesting. [00:56:11] If I turn a field off, nope, [00:56:15] what does that mean? [00:56:18] Selections with no additional rows, [00:56:23] what does that mean? What's happening? [00:56:27] Yeah. What happens if I select [00:56:32] what's going on. [00:56:34] Oh my God, you can add records too? [00:56:37] Yes, which is great. [00:56:41] I've got a lot to go like things [00:56:44] to go play with now. Yeah, so I'll be [00:56:47] distracted for quite some time. [00:56:49] I don't wanna [00:56:50] open up from here [00:56:52] but you know that works [00:56:54] how you would expect it to. [00:56:56] It's really persistent on me [00:56:58] opening it in a new thing, [00:57:01] you could change row [00:57:02] height, which is nice. [00:57:04] And then labeling which is to be expected. [00:57:07] What happens if I have things selected? [00:57:11] Is it [00:57:12] if you go to preview it, can you [00:57:15] does it give you more options? [00:57:17] What happens? [00:57:18] What does it mean? Can I Right click? [00:57:26] Okay. [00:57:28] Okay. [00:57:30] Cool. [00:57:31] Alright. Fun things. So a nice new [00:57:37] interface layout. I need to [00:57:39] figure out [00:57:42] what levels do [00:57:43] I see the premium icon on here. [00:57:47] So this base is on a pro level [00:57:50] workspace I wonder [00:57:57] So it's letting me do it. [00:57:59] So I think it's available [00:58:01] for at least pro level [00:58:02] and enterprise. [00:58:03] I don't know if you do [00:58:04] it on the plus level. [00:58:05] That remains to be seen. [00:58:08] Oh my God, [00:58:09] does this do what I think it's doing? [00:58:13] You could do your record [00:58:15] and then records [00:58:16] that are linked to that record sub [00:58:18] record. That's what this is. [00:58:22] That's incredible. [00:58:25] Okay. [00:58:28] I'm very happy. [00:58:30] We'll cover this obviously in more [00:58:33] detail next episode but Jesus [00:58:36] Christ. That's a [00:58:39] that's a big one. [00:58:42] What's happening [00:58:45] from my understanding [00:58:47] for this particular base I'm looking at, [00:58:49] there are different types of buildings, [00:58:51] like a house and apartment. [00:58:53] And then President, [00:58:54] which is an example of, [00:58:56] you know, [00:58:58] You know, 123 fake street [00:59:00] is an example of a house [00:59:01] and 456 other street is [00:59:03] another example of a house [00:59:05] that's controlled by a link field. [00:59:08] So what I should be seeing [00:59:10] when I'm done, [00:59:11] I'm gonna ignore this right now. [00:59:13] It's letting me pick which [00:59:16] field I want visible. [00:59:18] You can see, you know, here are all of the [00:59:23] precedent examples that are [00:59:26] of the type multiplex small, [00:59:28] so I can add a record [00:59:30] from here that is linked already. [00:59:34] Will it work? I don't know [00:59:36] because right now you can't [00:59:42] in other view types, [00:59:43] if I go back and look, [00:59:45] this is a list versus a grid. [00:59:47] Previously in a grid view, [00:59:50] you couldn't add [00:59:53] new records [00:59:55] if the source was a linked record field. [00:59:59] You had to find some other way to [01:00:02] add records in here. [01:00:03] So this might be a good [01:00:05] workaround for that, [01:00:06] but [01:00:08] nested records. [01:00:12] This is a formula field. [01:00:13] So me not being able [01:00:14] to edit that is expected, [01:00:19] wow. [01:00:20] And then you can control the width. [01:00:25] Nice. [01:00:28] Cool. I wonder [01:00:29] I wonder if anything else [01:00:31] came out new this morning. [01:00:33] I don't know [01:00:34] but you can see here [01:00:36] that you can control [01:00:37] individually whether or [01:00:39] not you can open up each level of [01:00:44] you know, each level [01:00:46] that you have in this nested list. [01:00:49] I don't know how many [01:00:51] levels you can add as a maximum. [01:00:53] First glance, [01:00:54] this seems a little backwards to [01:00:56] me. [01:00:58] Precedents are my, [01:01:01] you know, nested level [01:01:03] to me, this is level two [01:01:05] and this is level one. [01:01:06] It that seems backwards to me. [01:01:12] Interesting levels [01:01:14] and then I can add a [01:01:16] new level above. [01:01:17] So that is an intentional thing [01:01:20] for them. [01:01:24] Interesting. [01:01:25] I don't know, I think I would [01:01:26] have done it the other way around. [01:01:30] This seems very cool, so I'll be [01:01:33] obsessed with this for the next two hours. [01:01:35] Melanie asks how many levels does it [01:01:37] do? [01:01:39] Who knows? [01:01:39] I don't know this base isn't [01:01:42] complicated enough for me to really push [01:01:44] it boundaries, [01:01:45] I'd have to find or create [01:01:47] some random use case to really [01:01:50] see if I were to guess [01:01:52] either five or 10 [01:01:53] because this would get really [01:01:55] convoluted if you [01:01:57] you know have a several [01:01:59] several layers at least. [01:02:01] That's my opinion, [01:02:02] I still don't know what [01:02:04] prefix field means or does. [01:02:09] And that's what I think [01:02:14] yeah what this is controlling [01:02:16] is like in a grid view, [01:02:19] if you are grouping by [01:02:20] a select field and you have [01:02:22] a certain select option [01:02:24] that isn't represented in [01:02:25] any of your records, [01:02:27] you can hide that group, [01:02:28] this is a similar functionality. [01:02:29] There are no linked records [01:02:32] for several of those [01:02:34] building types so they are [01:02:36] hidden from view based on [01:02:37] my selection here. [01:02:39] If I show them they come back and [01:02:40] you'll see that there's nothing [01:02:42] underneath primary dwelling. [01:02:44] So Scott says it's actually [01:02:46] a new view type in the data side. [01:02:48] It's there too. [01:02:50] Go out to the data. [01:02:52] I'm losing my mind. Good of you, [01:02:57] my [01:02:58] dark blue and everything, [01:03:03] wow. [01:03:07] That means they haven't [01:03:10] fully given up on adding stuff. [01:03:13] Things. [01:03:16] Alright, so obviously [01:03:18] we're going to talk about [01:03:20] this next week when I actually [01:03:21] know what I'm looking at. [01:03:23] But this seems like a very [01:03:25] it is a [01:03:27] what appears to be a medium [01:03:30] between the gant view [01:03:31] and the grid view because the [01:03:34] gant view shows you know, [01:03:36] a nested sort of relationship [01:03:39] underneath [01:03:40] different records as well. [01:03:43] Except this is pulling in [01:03:46] data from another view. [01:03:48] This is gonna make, [01:03:49] I think a lot of people's [01:03:51] lives a whole lot easier. [01:03:52] And then roughly two weeks from now [01:03:53] we're going to come up [01:03:54] with a list of things [01:03:55] that we want to be different. [01:03:57] But in those blissful [01:03:58] first two weeks honeymoon [01:03:59] period we're gonna be so happy. [01:04:02] It does also kill some [01:04:04] of the extensions. [01:04:06] Exactly. That always happens where I'll [01:04:09] have an extension in mind [01:04:11] and then Airtable will [01:04:12] improve something just enough [01:04:14] where it makes it obsolete for me. [01:04:16] I've been there as well. [01:04:19] Awesome. Cool. Yeah, [01:04:21] we'll do a segment [01:04:22] on this next week. For sure. [01:04:25] Very cool. [01:04:26] I love breaking news on the show. [01:04:29] Love it. You've seen it here first [01:04:31] on BuiltOnAir podcast. Or actually you've [01:04:34] seen it first on the BuiltOnAir [01:04:36] slack community, courtesy of Ben Bailey. [01:04:39] That's right. Thank you. Ben, showing that [01:04:42] awesome. Well, thank you all for [01:04:45] for joining with us. [01:04:46] And we will see you next [01:04:47] week on the BuiltOnAir podcast. [01:04:49] Take care everyone.
![[S11-E07] Full Podcast Summary for 06-14-2022](https://builtonair.com/wp/../uploads/segment_image_1-69-440x264.png)
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- [S20-E05] Full Podcast for 11-05-2024 - Jon Elliard from NH Rocks; New Interface CSV Import November 8, 2024#airtable #on2air #builtonair 11/5/2024 - BuiltOnAir Live Podcast Full Show - S20-E05 ___________________________ The BuiltOnAir podcast is a live weekly show highlighting everything happening in the Airtable universe. Check us out at BuiltOnAir.com/join. Join our community, join our Slack channel, and see what's happening. ------------------------ SPONSORED BY On2Air - Airtable Apps and Integrations to run […]
