[00:00:07]
All right.
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Welcome back into the BuiltOnAir
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podcast.
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We are in season twenty four, episode two.
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Good to be back with you, with you,
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with everybody.
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Got Kamille, Ali, myself, Dan.
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back to chat and we’re going to do
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a deep dive today into best practices
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around how to maintain and update your
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bases and some general housekeeping and
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ways to stay up to date.
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Before that begins, let’s see.
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I didn’t see any big announcements.
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It’s been relatively quiet on the Airtable
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front.
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Not any news or some events coming up.
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We were talking before we started.
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airspace la is what they’re calling it i
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think airspace is their new kind of name
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for their conferences or mini conferences
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um so that’s coming up in may looks
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like this week in san francisco so if
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you’re out in that area in europe i
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believe there’s one also um and so yeah
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a few things going on
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What else?
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Also, I started playing with HyperAgent.
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I finally got access.
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Shout out to Rob, helped make that happen.
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And I was doing it later today.
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I’m helping out at the local university
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where I graduated from.
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I’m helping judge a competition.
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And so I ran it through HyperAgent,
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all the things that I need to be
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looking out for, did market research on,
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it’s like an investment competition.
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So I did some market research.
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So HyperAgent came in handy for that, ran,
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did a bunch of market research and
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anAllisis to help me prepare for that event
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this afternoon.
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So it was good.
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I don’t do a ton of that kind
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of work on my day to day.
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So, you know, so other things,
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I don’t know.
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I’m still kind of mixed on this approach
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to agents as far as like how I
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would use them on my day-to-day.
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I’m sure for certain types of work,
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they’re relevant.
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Claude or Anthropic just announced their
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kind of similar approach to managing
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agents.
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So I played with that as well this
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last week.
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I probably would lean towards using,
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I’m already a Cloud Code subscriber and on
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the team’s plan.
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And so I’d probably lean more towards
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using their approach for some of this,
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but HyperAgent definitely has a better
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user interface than the Anthropic one.
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And so I think for the right customer,
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it could come in handy,
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so I don’t know.
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Any other updates before we jump in?
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I don’t think so.
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There was one kind of update,
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like product release that kind of slipped
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through the cracks because it doesn’t
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really affect too many people since it’s
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only for enterprises.
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But packages,
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which is I think the new name for
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managed apps,
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now includes custom extensions.
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Custom extensions for interfaces,
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I should say, which are still in beta.
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But if you create a managed app,
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AKA package that includes one,
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it’ll come along with it.
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So useful.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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I think packages, I think they refer to.
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I’ve seen packages used to kind of like
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be the overarching name for any base
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automation interface,
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like anything within.
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I don’t know.
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I’ve seen packages used.
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I don’t think they’re renaming manage
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components, but maybe they are.
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If you use the API to create a
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new instance of a managed app,
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I’m pretty sure it’s create package or
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something like that.
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Yeah, I did see it in the API.
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Maybe that’s where I saw it,
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but I didn’t realize that referred to
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manage components.
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Components, I think,
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are still called components.
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I think it’s specifically managed apps.
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But I also could be wrong.
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Airtable sometimes changes the names for
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things and then doesn’t really tell
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anybody.
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They just sort of do it.
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I’m curious your thoughts.
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So I’ve used these managed.
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I always try to figure out what to
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call them because we kind of took the
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approach of doing everything as a managed
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component.
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and not use managed apps and because with
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a managed component you can deploy
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everything which is the same as a managed
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app but if you need to hold something
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back you can so we kind of figured
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there’s really no difference between
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deploying everything as a managed
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component versus deploying it as a managed
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app so we we kind of avoid using
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the managed app approach
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The use case I wanted to use them
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for, I haven’t fully implemented this,
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but I’m doing some testing on my own
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for this.
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I just went with managed apps because it
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really was take the whole thing,
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and I didn’t want anything to be…
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to not go through.
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So it’s kind of a shortcut.
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But thinking through,
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there really is no downside, I think,
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unless you forget to click on a new
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field, for example,
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to add to the component.
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Other than that,
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there’s no real reason not to.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, that makes sense.
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So cool, well,
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that’s a little bit of updates of what’s
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going on.
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Yeah,
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I’d be curious to see what new features
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Airtable is working on.
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Even in the what’s new,
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it’s been relatively quiet for a month or
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so.
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So we’re new for some new,
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we’re due for some new features.
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Certainly.
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I’ve been having a lot of trouble with
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and I’ve been in touch with support a
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little bit.
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I need to write to them again because
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I’m still seeing this problem with the
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recent update.
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They called it a new feature where they
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hold back if you have over five thousand
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records on a table and you’re trying to
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load over a thousand of them.
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They only load the first thousand.
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Ever since that change,
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I’ve been having some really weird UI
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issues where it’ll just literally show my
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entire row, the whole record as empty.
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And then I expand it.
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I see all the field values.
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And when I close it and click on
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the record again, all the values show up.
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And it affects the summary bar.
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All the summary totals are different.
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Like they’re wrong.
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They’re just wrong.
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And so it’s like a major issue,
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I think,
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just calling that out to be aware of.
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It tripped me up several times because for
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me,
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I’ve seen it where it’s like the whole
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row is blank,
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but sometimes it’s only like one or two
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fields are blank.
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And I’m like, okay,
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I did something wrong here.
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I accidentally cleared out a whole column,
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which is something you could do.
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And automation’s gone rogue.
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No, the data’s there.
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It’s just invisible,
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which isn’t helpful at all.
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Yeah.
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Not at all.
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I saw it where a formula…
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that should have been a different value
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didn’t update even when the other fields
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were.
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And I even like changed the formula to
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like specifically call it out and it still
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wouldn’t update.
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Although I think after a paid page
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refresh, it did update, but yeah,
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stuff like that.
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It’s really weird.
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I understand wanting to improve
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performance,
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but there’s something about the
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implementation where there have been
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multiple times in the past week or two
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where I was sitting and looking at
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something and being like,
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am I bad at Airtable now?
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Why isn’t this formula working?
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And no,
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it was just the data wouldn’t update.
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So I think if you’re going to limit
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the number of records that are queried at
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any given time,
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You got to load the whole query then.
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You can’t load half of the record because
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then you’re going to confuse everybody.
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Yeah.
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It’s been quite confusing.
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And yeah,
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half the time I notice because I have
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another formula that is like,
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if this field is not empty,
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return something.
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And I’m like,
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that whole formula field’s filled out,
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but this field’s empty.
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Like, what’s going on?
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And I refresh.
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Oh, the field’s not empty.
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It’s just, like you said, invisible.
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Yeah.
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Yeah,
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and I’m sure that’s preparation for
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increasing the record limit,
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which we all want to see.
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So they have to figure out how to
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survive in a pagination world.
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And I hope that they don’t just change
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it on the UI side,
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because in the scripting side,
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there’s no way to paginate or anything.
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You have to read through everything.
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There’s no way to search.
[00:10:09]
So I hope they fix it across the
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board.
[00:10:13]
If they increase the record limit from the
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current maximum is, I believe,
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five hundred thousand.
[00:10:19]
If you’re on the enterprise level for the
[00:10:21]
whole base, you’ve got to update.
[00:10:25]
You have to update the API across the
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board because you still can only create,
[00:10:31]
update,
[00:10:32]
delete ten at a time if you’re on
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the web API, which is absurd.
[00:10:38]
And then with the scripting API,
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it’s fifty.
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That’s not terrible.
[00:10:44]
I think it should be more if the
[00:10:45]
maximum keeps increasing.
[00:10:47]
But if you are querying with a script
[00:10:50]
in the automation and you feed it record
[00:10:53]
IDs so you can limit
[00:10:55]
what you’re returning,
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you can only query a hundred record IDs
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at a time,
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or you query the entire table,
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which can be up to two hundred and
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fifty thousand records.
[00:11:06]
That doesn’t make sense to me.
[00:11:07]
You should be able to query up to
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two hundred and fifty thousand record IDs.
[00:11:13]
It’s a bizarre limitation.
[00:11:15]
Yeah, the hundred, the hundred,
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every query is a hundred.
[00:11:21]
So if you need to query the entire
[00:11:23]
table, that’s a lot of queries.
[00:11:27]
Yeah.
[00:11:27]
Even if you know the exact subset of
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records you need,
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you probably have to query the whole table
[00:11:33]
and then filter it down,
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which is tremendously inefficient.
[00:11:38]
Yeah,
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especially because you can only select in
[00:11:40]
the scripting API, what,
[00:11:42]
a hundred records with the record ID
[00:11:44]
parameter in select records async?
[00:11:47]
Yeah.
[00:11:48]
You can find a thousand in the find
[00:11:50]
record step,
[00:11:50]
but you can only select a hundred.
[00:11:53]
Put that in a loop.
[00:11:54]
Yeah.
[00:11:56]
You have to promise not all that if
[00:11:58]
you want to get the limit.
[00:12:00]
So there’s all of these numbers that we
[00:12:03]
all happen to know off the top of
[00:12:04]
our head.
[00:12:05]
But we’ve said the numbers ten, fifty,
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one hundred,
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one thousand and two hundred and fifty
[00:12:10]
thousand, all different intervals.
[00:12:15]
And they should clean that up.
[00:12:17]
Pick one number and make that the limit.
[00:12:20]
That would be great.
[00:12:21]
I often have thought of making a little
[00:12:22]
sticky note to just put next to my
[00:12:24]
desk with these numbers on them because
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I’m like, wait,
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is it a hundred or is it a
[00:12:29]
hundred fifty?
[00:12:29]
Is it two hundred?
[00:12:30]
Is it two fifty?
[00:12:31]
I don’t know.
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But yeah, it is wild.
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Yeah.
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Lots to remember.
[00:12:41]
All right.
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Why don’t we jump in?
[00:12:43]
Let’s talk some best practices.
[00:12:45]
Ellie’s going to guide us through and
[00:12:47]
we’ll add some thoughts along the way.
[00:12:51]
Yes, that would be great.
[00:12:56]
I’ve been doing just a lot,
[00:12:58]
a lot of maintenance upgrades,
[00:13:01]
moving things around,
[00:13:03]
helping clients change things up.
[00:13:05]
And I’ve developed over the years,
[00:13:09]
a list of best practices that I’m trying
[00:13:11]
to like actually get into a list format.
[00:13:15]
But I’m going to share some of them
[00:13:16]
today just kind of
[00:13:17]
glaze the surface of what I’m talking
[00:13:21]
about.
[00:13:21]
And then we can get into the nitty
[00:13:23]
gritty, I suppose,
[00:13:24]
a little bit on some of them.
[00:13:27]
This is kind of hard to find good
[00:13:29]
examples for because while I’m doing it
[00:13:31]
all the time,
[00:13:32]
I couldn’t just copy my client bases.
[00:13:33]
So I’m trying to apply my real world
[00:13:36]
scenarios to some templates and things I
[00:13:39]
can share here.
[00:13:42]
But I’m going to start by talking about
[00:13:46]
fields.
[00:13:47]
So let’s say this is a base I’m
[00:13:53]
working on.
[00:13:54]
This is actually a very,
[00:13:55]
very old template that Airtable had once
[00:13:57]
upon a time.
[00:13:58]
You can tell by the photos that they
[00:14:01]
have loaded here.
[00:14:02]
These look, I’m sure,
[00:14:03]
familiar to many of us.
[00:14:04]
Yeah.
[00:14:04]
Open that down.
[00:14:08]
I said those are OG photos.
[00:14:13]
This was like the home page had a
[00:14:15]
lot of these characters on them for a
[00:14:16]
long time.
[00:14:19]
But let’s say with this new feature that
[00:14:22]
Airtable has around being able to return a
[00:14:24]
formula as a single select,
[00:14:27]
I want to implement that into this base.
[00:14:29]
I have this formula field here called
[00:14:32]
status.
[00:14:33]
I have a field called term date.
[00:14:37]
I’m needing to fill in the termination
[00:14:39]
date for an employee and switch the status
[00:14:42]
manually,
[00:14:43]
or I could set up an automation to
[00:14:45]
do this for me.
[00:14:46]
And in fact,
[00:14:46]
I do in this base have an automation
[00:14:48]
running that when I fill in a term
[00:14:50]
date,
[00:14:50]
it’s going to automatically flip that
[00:14:52]
status to inactive.
[00:14:54]
So once upon a time,
[00:14:55]
that might be how you would set it
[00:14:57]
up because those were the tools available
[00:14:58]
at the time.
[00:15:00]
But now that we have this awesome new
[00:15:02]
feature where we can get the same exact
[00:15:04]
look and feel out of a field,
[00:15:06]
get rid of our automation,
[00:15:07]
get rid of manual entry.
[00:15:09]
Why not do that, right?
[00:15:12]
So what I’m going to do is just
[00:15:14]
kind of talk through how I would start
[00:15:16]
to approach something like this.
[00:15:19]
Because when you’re learning Airtable or
[00:15:22]
when you’re first starting to try and do
[00:15:23]
something like this, it might be like, oh,
[00:15:25]
am I going to break things?
[00:15:27]
And like the answer is yes,
[00:15:28]
you probably will.
[00:15:30]
So you need to be aware of how
[00:15:32]
things break, when they break,
[00:15:34]
what’s going to happen if they break,
[00:15:36]
what things breaking is a big deal and
[00:15:38]
what’s not.
[00:15:40]
That kind of thing is what we’re talking
[00:15:42]
about today.
[00:15:45]
So I’m going to start by the very
[00:15:47]
first thing that I do for this is
[00:15:51]
I create a brand new field.
[00:15:53]
I’m not going to edit the existing field.
[00:15:56]
I’m going to create a brand new field
[00:15:57]
that has the end result that I want.
[00:16:02]
And ultimately,
[00:16:04]
I guess maybe I should kind of just
[00:16:06]
talk through this.
[00:16:08]
my process in general as an overview,
[00:16:11]
I try to duplicate the field or create
[00:16:13]
a new version of it depending on what
[00:16:15]
the field type is.
[00:16:16]
Wouldn’t really make sense to duplicate
[00:16:18]
this because I’m going to turn it into
[00:16:19]
a formula.
[00:16:21]
But if it already were a formula,
[00:16:22]
I would just duplicate that and edit the
[00:16:24]
formula.
[00:16:26]
Then I compare the new field to the
[00:16:29]
old field,
[00:16:31]
look at any changes that are happening
[00:16:32]
between them,
[00:16:34]
address anything that looks wrong, right?
[00:16:37]
Like,
[00:16:38]
I theoretically should have the same
[00:16:40]
values across this,
[00:16:42]
between this field and my new one should
[00:16:44]
be identical.
[00:16:47]
Theoretically, big asterisk there.
[00:16:50]
Then I wanna decide how I wanna make
[00:16:54]
the change.
[00:16:54]
And there’s a whole series of things that
[00:16:57]
you wanna think about when you’re doing
[00:16:58]
that,
[00:17:00]
namely around field types is what the
[00:17:03]
biggest driver there is, I would say.
[00:17:07]
So I duplicate, I compare changes,
[00:17:10]
and then I decide if I need to
[00:17:12]
create a brand new field or replace the
[00:17:14]
existing field, and then go from there.
[00:17:18]
questions or thoughts so far?
[00:17:25]
Okay.
[00:17:25]
So I want to write a new status
[00:17:28]
field.
[00:17:28]
And what I typically do is I have
[00:17:30]
this little nomenclature
[00:17:33]
where I have my shorthand emojis.
[00:17:37]
So I usually use this little test tube
[00:17:39]
emoji when I am testing out a new
[00:17:42]
field.
[00:17:43]
So it tells me like, hey,
[00:17:44]
this is a new field.
[00:17:46]
It’s not in the workings yet.
[00:17:48]
Like I’m trying it out.
[00:17:49]
And if I get stuck,
[00:17:50]
if I say somebody calls me,
[00:17:52]
I have to go pick up my son
[00:17:52]
from daycare.
[00:17:53]
And if I leave,
[00:17:54]
I like come back to this two weeks
[00:17:55]
later, I see that test tube.
[00:17:56]
I’m like, oh, I was working on that.
[00:18:00]
So I’m gonna say if,
[00:18:02]
term date, I know they are inactive.
[00:18:12]
Take it a step further even and say,
[00:18:14]
if date of hire,
[00:18:16]
we could even get super fancy and be
[00:18:18]
like,
[00:18:18]
if date of hire is less than or
[00:18:20]
equal to today,
[00:18:21]
let’s keep it simple for now.
[00:18:24]
And then TBD.
[00:18:31]
Now my least favorite part of this
[00:18:34]
feature, although I love this feature.
[00:18:37]
I yearn for the day when we can
[00:18:40]
automatically update these or it’s smart
[00:18:42]
enough to do it itself.
[00:18:45]
But we want to.
[00:18:48]
While you’re doing this,
[00:18:50]
one thing I noticed that it will always
[00:18:53]
come in when you change a formula to
[00:18:55]
output as a single select option,
[00:18:58]
it’ll always start with one option.
[00:19:00]
And I think the unique ID for it
[00:19:02]
is default.
[00:19:03]
Like it doesn’t have SEL and then fourteen
[00:19:07]
characters after that,
[00:19:08]
which is the normal.
[00:19:09]
I’m pretty sure it’s unique ID is
[00:19:12]
literally the word default.
[00:19:14]
I tend,
[00:19:15]
if I know I’m not going to have
[00:19:16]
a default,
[00:19:17]
I tend to delete it and then make
[00:19:19]
a new one.
[00:19:21]
They also might have changed that since I
[00:19:23]
first noticed because it doesn’t make
[00:19:24]
sense to do that.
[00:19:26]
That’s a really great question.
[00:19:28]
I do.
[00:19:28]
So sometimes I do delete it.
[00:19:30]
Sometimes I just type over it.
[00:19:32]
I think I just typed over it when
[00:19:33]
I was just doing this just now.
[00:19:36]
That’s really interesting.
[00:19:38]
I want to know.
[00:19:40]
why is this taking forever i don’t know
[00:19:42]
Airtables struggling i’m gonna do that
[00:19:47]
let’s let’s just look at it and see
[00:19:52]
this is a sidebar tangent but that is
[00:19:54]
an interesting thing i want to know uh
[00:19:57]
we’ll do let’s table and then while you’re
[00:20:01]
typing
[00:20:03]
I noticed, yeah,
[00:20:04]
you didn’t select a default.
[00:20:06]
Selecting a default gets you in trouble
[00:20:09]
because sometimes you don’t realize that
[00:20:12]
there’s a default selected if it doesn’t
[00:20:14]
match any of them.
[00:20:16]
And so you see all these values that
[00:20:18]
are going to the default when you think
[00:20:21]
it’s matching the criteria for that value,
[00:20:24]
but it’s actually going there because it’s
[00:20:26]
the default value.
[00:20:31]
Okay, so it changed.
[00:20:32]
It does have the STL, but… Oh, no.
[00:20:36]
Yeah, that was the first one.
[00:20:40]
See, now, Airtable, why would you do this?
[00:20:43]
Hi.
[00:20:43]
Does that mean that, like,
[00:20:47]
everyone that has that that doesn’t delete
[00:20:49]
it now…
[00:20:50]
That ID is like a million people have
[00:20:54]
SEL formula default as an ID in their
[00:20:56]
base.
[00:20:56]
They sure do.
[00:20:58]
Even if you pick another value as the
[00:21:00]
default.
[00:21:01]
Yes.
[00:21:01]
Yeah, let’s try.
[00:21:04]
Let’s see.
[00:21:05]
So if we do TBD as the default
[00:21:06]
and then.
[00:21:06]
Run it again.
[00:21:06]
See?
[00:21:06]
Yeah.
[00:21:20]
Yeah, I just thought that was strange.
[00:21:22]
It doesn’t necessarily affect how you
[00:21:26]
would use this, I guess, but yeah.
[00:21:30]
So every now and again,
[00:21:31]
your table drops a new feature and it’s
[00:21:33]
great,
[00:21:33]
like formatting a formula as a single
[00:21:35]
select, great addition.
[00:21:37]
And then there’s one little thing about it
[00:21:39]
where you’re like, but why?
[00:21:41]
This is the but why.
[00:21:42]
Yeah.
[00:21:43]
That’s so interesting.
[00:21:47]
Wow.
[00:21:47]
Interesting.
[00:21:48]
I usually,
[00:21:49]
if I do use the formula default,
[00:21:51]
which I usually don’t, but if I do,
[00:21:54]
I might,
[00:21:55]
I would like have it deliberately say
[00:21:58]
formula error and like red flashing emoji,
[00:22:03]
like problem.
[00:22:05]
So that way I know,
[00:22:05]
cause if it’s empty,
[00:22:06]
like there’s a difference between it being
[00:22:08]
empty and supposed to be empty.
[00:22:14]
Yes.
[00:22:14]
If it should be empty,
[00:22:15]
it should be empty.
[00:22:16]
But if it shouldn’t be empty,
[00:22:17]
it’s just not returning the right value.
[00:22:19]
I want to know that.
[00:22:22]
But yeah,
[00:22:22]
you have to be really careful with that
[00:22:23]
option.
[00:22:24]
Awesome.
[00:22:29]
Okay, so as you can see,
[00:22:31]
my two formulas do not match or my
[00:22:34]
new formula does not match this field.
[00:22:37]
And that’s probably because this
[00:22:39]
automation failed at one point that I have
[00:22:41]
to set up to flip this active to
[00:22:43]
inactive.
[00:22:45]
So if I were to get rid of
[00:22:45]
that and put it back,
[00:22:48]
my automation should run and now
[00:22:50]
everything matches.
[00:22:52]
Um,
[00:22:53]
but like the whole point I’m trying to
[00:22:55]
get at here is they might not match
[00:22:58]
and you want to make sure that your
[00:22:59]
formula is correct before you’re moving
[00:23:02]
any forward.
[00:23:04]
Um,
[00:23:05]
and what I generally do is if I’m
[00:23:07]
working in a big table with a lot
[00:23:09]
of records and I’m trying to make a
[00:23:11]
change, I will do two things.
[00:23:15]
One here, I’m going to undo.
[00:23:19]
I’m going to just shut this automation off
[00:23:22]
because I want these to not match for
[00:23:23]
a moment.
[00:23:24]
And if I had that automation on,
[00:23:28]
it would just keep fighting me,
[00:23:29]
flipping it back over and over.
[00:23:31]
So what I typically do,
[00:23:33]
we’ll pretend there’s like a hundred
[00:23:35]
thousand records on this table.
[00:23:38]
I first write a formula field and I
[00:23:40]
say,
[00:23:41]
if status does not equal
[00:23:46]
new status, anything, return something.
[00:23:51]
And then I’m going to be trying to
[00:23:54]
use the summary bar.
[00:23:55]
I’ll be like, is it filled?
[00:23:56]
Make sure you have no filters on your
[00:23:58]
table.
[00:23:58]
And if you want to be really,
[00:24:00]
really smart about it,
[00:24:01]
filter by this field and find this view
[00:24:04]
where things are not empty.
[00:24:07]
Then you look at everything that does not
[00:24:10]
match, figure out why they don’t match.
[00:24:12]
Maybe your formula is right and the table
[00:24:16]
original field was wrong.
[00:24:18]
Maybe the original field is right and your
[00:24:19]
formula is wrong and you need to go
[00:24:21]
back to the drawing board and try and
[00:24:22]
rewrite that.
[00:24:23]
So I do all of this first before
[00:24:25]
I’ve even touched anything that’s existing
[00:24:28]
in the table.
[00:24:29]
I’m just adding and comparing.
[00:24:33]
One thing on your calculation,
[00:24:36]
what I love doing is formatting as a,
[00:24:39]
as a, um, check box.
[00:24:43]
So make it,
[00:24:44]
so I would say instead of using,
[00:24:46]
if just change your if to and, or,
[00:24:50]
or so that,
[00:24:51]
and then you got true or false.
[00:24:53]
Like that’s what I always do.
[00:24:55]
That’s a nice shorthand because I always
[00:24:58]
do if true false.
[00:25:01]
Yeah.
[00:25:01]
Okay.
[00:25:04]
Yeah,
[00:25:04]
and then you can format it as a
[00:25:06]
red flag.
[00:25:07]
You can change the syntax of the display,
[00:25:13]
the style.
[00:25:13]
I do that all the time.
[00:25:16]
If this were a field I were keeping
[00:25:17]
around,
[00:25:18]
I would do that and leave it that
[00:25:20]
way and have it be like that or
[00:25:22]
return.
[00:25:22]
Sometimes I return like a single red
[00:25:24]
emoji,
[00:25:24]
but I’ve honestly come back to doing this
[00:25:28]
to doing the checkbox return and let me
[00:25:31]
we’re talking best practices here if
[00:25:33]
you’ll indulge me for a moment i hate
[00:25:35]
checkbox fields i do not use checkbox
[00:25:38]
fields i do not let my clients use
[00:25:40]
checkbox fields unless they are like
[00:25:43]
adamant um and that is simply because it
[00:25:47]
is so so so so easy to check
[00:25:50]
a checkbox without noticing that you
[00:25:52]
checked it yeah and to uncheck a checkbox
[00:25:55]
without noticing that you checked it
[00:25:58]
It caused so many problems.
[00:26:00]
I’ve just stopped using them altogether.
[00:26:02]
I use a single select even if it
[00:26:04]
only has one option in it.
[00:26:06]
It works just as well.
[00:26:08]
There’s two clicks,
[00:26:08]
but then you’ve got more intention.
[00:26:11]
However,
[00:26:12]
I love returning things as a checkbox
[00:26:14]
because my favorite thing about this is
[00:26:16]
when you filter by it,
[00:26:20]
you don’t have to do the second,
[00:26:21]
say I only want the things that are
[00:26:22]
empty.
[00:26:24]
Now I don’t need to go and say
[00:26:25]
is empty.
[00:26:26]
It’s like already done.
[00:26:27]
It just saves so many more clicks,
[00:26:28]
which is awesome.
[00:26:29]
Yeah.
[00:26:32]
And with checkbox,
[00:26:33]
the other reason to not use them,
[00:26:36]
you know,
[00:26:36]
as input fields is I’ve had it so
[00:26:39]
many times where I think it’s a Boolean
[00:26:41]
state where it’s either on or off.
[00:26:43]
And then eventually you’re like, oh,
[00:26:45]
there’s a third state it needs to be.
[00:26:47]
And now you got to change the field
[00:26:49]
to a single select and update all your
[00:26:51]
views and everything.
[00:26:53]
Yep.
[00:26:55]
A hundred percent.
[00:26:56]
And that’s,
[00:26:57]
that’s like part of it as well as
[00:26:59]
oftentimes it’s like, okay,
[00:27:00]
we have the checkbox, but I’m like,
[00:27:02]
I can’t tell if someone’s reviewed this or
[00:27:03]
not.
[00:27:04]
Like,
[00:27:04]
is this in the pre-touched stage or like,
[00:27:07]
has somebody looked at this and decided
[00:27:09]
not to check the box?
[00:27:10]
I don’t know.
[00:27:12]
Yeah, I find checkboxes best,
[00:27:15]
not formatting a formula as a checkbox,
[00:27:18]
the literal checkbox field.
[00:27:20]
I find them best for utility fields,
[00:27:22]
like use this to begin an automation.
[00:27:28]
And that is the trigger,
[00:27:29]
because you can’t have it trigger while
[00:27:32]
it’s checked again, which I like.
[00:27:36]
Other than that,
[00:27:37]
I don’t really display checkboxes to
[00:27:39]
users.
[00:27:40]
I have buttons click or unclick a checkbox
[00:27:44]
for them.
[00:27:46]
But again,
[00:27:47]
that means that they don’t have access to
[00:27:49]
the base where they can go in and
[00:27:51]
see it themselves,
[00:27:51]
because it is really easy to misclick.
[00:27:57]
Exactly.
[00:27:57]
Yeah, where it triggers an automation,
[00:28:00]
but a button is what updates it.
[00:28:02]
Yeah.
[00:28:02]
Yeah.
[00:28:05]
For sure.
[00:28:07]
Again, Airtable template.
[00:28:09]
I did not add this checkbox here.
[00:28:12]
Embarrassing.
[00:28:16]
Awesome.
[00:28:16]
Let’s go a little bit forward.
[00:28:18]
I need to add something to this that
[00:28:20]
I meant to add before this call,
[00:28:21]
which is,
[00:28:23]
let’s pretend that we’re using the status
[00:28:25]
field on this table, the original status.
[00:28:31]
Let’s say this view is filtered where
[00:28:38]
We’re only looking at the active
[00:28:40]
employees.
[00:28:41]
Okay, so let’s say I’m like,
[00:28:49]
everything’s correct.
[00:28:51]
My formula, I trust it.
[00:28:53]
I’m ready to make the change.
[00:28:55]
I want to use this field instead of
[00:28:57]
this field.
[00:28:59]
Now, my next step depends, is like highly,
[00:29:02]
highly variable.
[00:29:04]
And I would love at some point,
[00:29:07]
one of my like goals in my dwindling
[00:29:10]
free time is I would love to create
[00:29:12]
a resource that I could share with people
[00:29:14]
that’s like,
[00:29:15]
is it okay to change this field type
[00:29:17]
to this field type?
[00:29:19]
Are you gonna break things if you do
[00:29:20]
that?
[00:29:22]
I happen to just know a lot of
[00:29:23]
them off the top of my head,
[00:29:24]
but some of them I need to test
[00:29:27]
out on the fly before I do it.
[00:29:28]
So I would love to just have that
[00:29:30]
as a resource to look at when I’m
[00:29:31]
doing this.
[00:29:32]
But I happen to know I cannot change
[00:29:35]
this status dropdown to a formula,
[00:29:38]
even though it’s returning the same values
[00:29:41]
outwardly.
[00:29:44]
It will break things.
[00:29:45]
If I change this status field to,
[00:29:49]
the formula, do the same exact thing.
[00:29:51]
Edit the field, turn it into a formula,
[00:29:55]
have the same like copy paste,
[00:29:56]
do everything.
[00:29:58]
Anything that is using my status field as
[00:30:00]
it currently stands will break.
[00:30:04]
Because as we just looked at every one
[00:30:06]
of these underlying single select values
[00:30:10]
has its own ID and under the hood,
[00:30:12]
that’s what Airtable is using.
[00:30:13]
They’re not using the value active.
[00:30:16]
They’re using SEL blah, blah, blah, blah,
[00:30:19]
blah.
[00:30:20]
I can’t just change that out.
[00:30:22]
I wish I could.
[00:30:24]
This particular situation, you can’t.
[00:30:29]
Instead,
[00:30:30]
what I do is I leave my new
[00:30:32]
field and that’s going to become my new
[00:30:34]
field.
[00:30:36]
I could if I really wanted to.
[00:30:39]
I needed to keep that field,
[00:30:40]
the status field.
[00:30:41]
I knew it was tied into other things.
[00:30:45]
You could go and shut off all your
[00:30:46]
automations.
[00:30:49]
and edit that field if you want to
[00:30:50]
be really safe.
[00:30:51]
But what I typically do just as a
[00:30:53]
best practice is if changing this is going
[00:30:56]
to break everything,
[00:30:57]
I create a new version of it and
[00:31:00]
repoint all my dependencies to use my new
[00:31:02]
field.
[00:31:05]
So this is a very simple base.
[00:31:08]
So there aren’t that many dependencies.
[00:31:10]
You might have sixty eight dependencies.
[00:31:13]
You might have two hundred and forty.
[00:31:15]
Like it might be a lot of work,
[00:31:19]
but it’s important to do slowly and with
[00:31:22]
intention because you could depending on,
[00:31:24]
you know, the scale of your operation,
[00:31:26]
the scale of what you’re doing in your
[00:31:27]
table.
[00:31:28]
I’ve made every mistake in the book and
[00:31:30]
you can so easily
[00:31:32]
fire off hundreds of emails without even
[00:31:35]
realizing it while you’re doing this.
[00:31:37]
So just take it slow and like test
[00:31:40]
it, maybe make a duplicate of the base,
[00:31:42]
test it out and then do it in
[00:31:44]
the real one.
[00:31:45]
There’s a ton of different approaches
[00:31:47]
here,
[00:31:48]
but what I’m gonna- How did we survive
[00:31:51]
without the shared dependency field?
[00:31:54]
I think you just sort of winged it.
[00:31:56]
I think you just sort of said,
[00:31:58]
you emailed all your stakeholders and
[00:32:00]
said, get ready.
[00:32:03]
And then you broke a bunch of stuff
[00:32:05]
and went back and fixed it later.
[00:32:07]
It wasn’t there before like automation.
[00:32:10]
Like we had automations and interfaces
[00:32:13]
even before this.
[00:32:15]
Most likely.
[00:32:16]
And then my,
[00:32:18]
where did it come in relation to
[00:32:21]
bi-directional syncing?
[00:32:22]
That’s really the,
[00:32:23]
your hardest dependency to coddle,
[00:32:27]
so to speak,
[00:32:28]
just because it’s a whole other base you
[00:32:30]
have to go to,
[00:32:30]
to see that basis dependencies for any
[00:32:33]
fields that are synced downstream.
[00:32:37]
That, yes, I find.
[00:32:39]
So that’s another thing is I really wanted
[00:32:41]
to have a sync example.
[00:32:42]
And if we come back to this another
[00:32:45]
time,
[00:32:45]
I will have a more full example with
[00:32:47]
a synced table because that is a huge
[00:32:50]
point that Kamille just made is you might
[00:32:53]
have synced bases here at the top.
[00:32:55]
They would show up right at the top
[00:32:56]
anywhere that you’re syncing this table to
[00:32:59]
or this view to that that field is
[00:33:01]
included in.
[00:33:03]
you must go to that base and then
[00:33:05]
check the dependencies there of that field
[00:33:07]
and make sure that there are none.
[00:33:10]
And if there are, sync your new one,
[00:33:12]
do everything,
[00:33:13]
repeat the whole process of what I’m doing
[00:33:15]
here in the sync table as well.
[00:33:19]
So it can be quite tedious,
[00:33:22]
but very important.
[00:33:24]
So what I typically do is I start
[00:33:26]
at the top of the list and go
[00:33:28]
down,
[00:33:29]
or I might start with fields
[00:33:31]
depending on how many there are.
[00:33:32]
I make my plan of attack.
[00:33:35]
This is a pretty simple list.
[00:33:37]
So we’ll just start from the top.
[00:33:39]
Mark inactive when term date entered.
[00:33:41]
I don’t need this automation anymore.
[00:33:43]
This is the whole point of doing this
[00:33:44]
is to remove this automation.
[00:33:46]
So I don’t really care about it.
[00:33:47]
What I typically do,
[00:33:48]
my best practice in this situation though,
[00:33:51]
is I put a little red X and
[00:33:55]
I say deprecated.
[00:34:01]
So I keep this around for a little
[00:34:03]
bit and I know that I’ve looked at
[00:34:05]
it.
[00:34:05]
I don’t need it anymore.
[00:34:07]
I’ve told myself I’m done with it.
[00:34:10]
If it shows up in my dependencies,
[00:34:16]
I’ll see, well,
[00:34:19]
I will in a couple minutes.
[00:34:20]
Maybe I’ll see the new name.
[00:34:23]
It should say that.
[00:34:24]
But then I can see right away, like,
[00:34:27]
all right, that automation’s good.
[00:34:28]
It’s not on.
[00:34:29]
It’s got the red X.
[00:34:29]
I’m done with it.
[00:34:30]
I don’t care.
[00:34:31]
But I do not want to delete it
[00:34:32]
yet, just in case I want some history.
[00:34:35]
Like, if I’m like, I don’t know,
[00:34:37]
six months down the line, I’m like,
[00:34:39]
want to be able to see something,
[00:34:41]
I might keep it around.
[00:34:42]
But depending on the automation,
[00:34:44]
you might just delete it.
[00:34:45]
Up to you.
[00:34:48]
Then I’m going to go to my onboarding
[00:34:51]
checklist and look at this.
[00:34:53]
But let’s demo.
[00:34:55]
What I want to do is actually demonstrate
[00:34:57]
what will happen if I didn’t do this
[00:34:59]
step, just to show you why it’s important.
[00:35:03]
So let’s pretend this is my original
[00:35:10]
status field.
[00:35:13]
And on my onboarding checklist,
[00:35:15]
that’s the one I’m looking at.
[00:35:24]
And on my team members, let’s just say,
[00:35:26]
I’m gonna take this,
[00:35:29]
edit this original field,
[00:35:31]
pretend this one doesn’t exist for a
[00:35:33]
moment.
[00:35:36]
Change it into a formula.
[00:35:39]
Do my fun little thing.
[00:35:41]
I’m gonna delete that,
[00:35:42]
cause I want that muscle memory to sync
[00:35:45]
in.
[00:35:47]
We’ll do TBD.
[00:35:51]
Active, inactive.
[00:35:55]
I don’t even care about the colors right
[00:35:56]
now because I’m going to delete this.
[00:35:57]
I just want to demonstrate.
[00:35:59]
So it’s going to tell me, hey,
[00:36:01]
you’re looking this field up on that other
[00:36:04]
table.
[00:36:07]
Now that might not matter, right?
[00:36:09]
Because I don’t know.
[00:36:10]
It doesn’t show me what the dependencies
[00:36:11]
are of that field on that table.
[00:36:15]
Yeah, it’s not recursive.
[00:36:17]
Exactly.
[00:36:19]
So what I would typically do is I’d
[00:36:21]
go look at it and be like, oh,
[00:36:23]
I keep going to that table,
[00:36:24]
it’s this one.
[00:36:25]
These tables are in a weird order.
[00:36:28]
Oh,
[00:36:28]
this field is being used to filter a
[00:36:31]
view.
[00:36:32]
So that would be my red flag there.
[00:36:39]
And then if I change it,
[00:36:46]
this looks the way it should
[00:36:49]
But now my filter is gone.
[00:36:52]
I no longer have a filter on this
[00:36:53]
table.
[00:36:54]
It broke it.
[00:36:55]
So that’s…
[00:36:58]
And that is being synced down to some
[00:37:00]
other base and…
[00:37:03]
Yeah, exactly.
[00:37:03]
Now you’ve released all the inactive
[00:37:05]
records into whatever sync table is using
[00:37:08]
this hypothetically.
[00:37:10]
And now like emails are being sent and
[00:37:13]
things are happening and you’re like,
[00:37:16]
oh my God,
[00:37:16]
you’re going to start getting phone calls.
[00:37:17]
So that’s why it’s important to not do
[00:37:21]
that.
[00:37:23]
But let’s undo.
[00:37:25]
Can I undo all the way?
[00:37:26]
Let’s see.
[00:37:29]
There we go.
[00:37:31]
but that does not undo my filter of
[00:37:33]
breaking.
[00:37:33]
Yeah.
[00:37:33]
Yeah.
[00:37:33]
Now we will go here.
[00:37:40]
I will say,
[00:37:41]
I think when you duplicated the field,
[00:37:44]
it didn’t immediately break the filter on
[00:37:47]
onboarding checklist because duplicating a
[00:37:49]
field keeps the underlying values of the
[00:37:54]
IDs for the select choices.
[00:37:57]
So when you updated the lookup to be
[00:37:59]
status two,
[00:38:01]
and it wasn’t a formula yet,
[00:38:03]
the filter was still intact.
[00:38:05]
That’s expected behavior.
[00:38:06]
It’s the instant you switch it to
[00:38:08]
something else.
[00:38:09]
That’s when it breaks because it’s no
[00:38:11]
longer the same select choices,
[00:38:13]
even if they look identical.
[00:38:15]
It’s the IDs underneath.
[00:38:17]
Absolutely.
[00:38:19]
Thank you so much, Kamille.
[00:38:20]
That’s exactly one of the points I wanted
[00:38:22]
to make is, let me delete.
[00:38:24]
You made it earlier.
[00:38:25]
I just, you made it earlier.
[00:38:26]
I was just reminding the audience.
[00:38:29]
No, thank you.
[00:38:30]
I should have pointed it out as well.
[00:38:31]
So we’re changing if the field type is
[00:38:35]
exactly the same, right?
[00:38:36]
Field type, field type, duplicated,
[00:38:38]
very important, same IDs.
[00:38:42]
Um,
[00:38:42]
cause if you created a new single select
[00:38:44]
field with different,
[00:38:46]
like the same options,
[00:38:47]
this would not work.
[00:38:48]
Um,
[00:38:49]
but now changing this to be status copy
[00:38:56]
will not break my filter.
[00:39:00]
Filter stays,
[00:39:01]
but if I point it to a different
[00:39:03]
field, different field, underlying values,
[00:39:07]
it will break.
[00:39:09]
Um,
[00:39:10]
So how do I make it not,
[00:39:12]
how do I avoid all that from happening?
[00:39:15]
I forgot I didn’t flip that back.
[00:39:19]
Not following my own rules here.
[00:39:24]
We’ll delete this extra one.
[00:39:27]
Okay, so I want to…
[00:39:29]
delete this replace with that what i would
[00:39:32]
do is on my onboarding checklist table i’m
[00:39:35]
going to add a new version of the
[00:39:37]
field because again if i repoint this one
[00:39:40]
at my other at my new field it
[00:39:44]
will break the filter still um so i’m
[00:39:47]
gonna do and you could i guess there’s
[00:39:50]
other ways of doing this depending on how
[00:39:52]
many dependencies are on this status field
[00:39:56]
you could like
[00:39:58]
edit this filter temporarily and then
[00:40:00]
change this field and then remove the
[00:40:03]
filter.
[00:40:03]
So depends on like how much work it’s
[00:40:06]
gonna be to replace the field versus other
[00:40:09]
options.
[00:40:09]
That’s kind of what you’re constantly
[00:40:11]
weighing in this scenario.
[00:40:15]
So now I’m gonna say,
[00:40:17]
this is my new status field.
[00:40:21]
I’m gonna take this, flip it to,
[00:40:24]
and actually,
[00:40:26]
I’m not going to do this right now
[00:40:27]
because this is a great thing to point
[00:40:29]
out as well.
[00:40:30]
This view, I don’t really care about.
[00:40:33]
I’m not syncing this anywhere.
[00:40:35]
I can tell because this is not pink
[00:40:37]
and it doesn’t have my thing at the
[00:40:38]
top saying there’s no automations using
[00:40:41]
this view.
[00:40:43]
You could just change this filter without
[00:40:45]
worrying about things going crazy.
[00:40:50]
Let me demo.
[00:40:51]
If I change this filter now,
[00:40:52]
see the second I pick that,
[00:40:55]
all of my inactive records show up.
[00:40:57]
If I don’t want that to happen,
[00:41:03]
what I typically do to be really, really,
[00:41:05]
really safe is I duplicate the view,
[00:41:09]
change this filter,
[00:41:13]
status has any of active,
[00:41:15]
go to the original,
[00:41:17]
and then this is a little
[00:41:19]
known or little used, I think,
[00:41:21]
feature that I use pretty often.
[00:41:23]
If you click on the view and say
[00:41:26]
copy another view’s configuration,
[00:41:28]
side note, Airtable, we desperately,
[00:41:30]
desperately need this on interfaces.
[00:41:33]
Yeah.
[00:41:34]
For the love of God.
[00:41:35]
Yeah.
[00:41:39]
I’m going to pick the copy and I’m
[00:41:40]
going to take those filters and paste them
[00:41:43]
onto this one.
[00:41:44]
So that way…
[00:41:46]
It just happens and I don’t end up
[00:41:48]
with inactive coming and then leaving.
[00:41:50]
So nothing crazy is going to happen that
[00:41:52]
I don’t know about.
[00:41:53]
Nice.
[00:41:54]
Yeah, I never use that.
[00:41:56]
That’s a good tip.
[00:41:58]
I also use this,
[00:41:59]
and I cannot stress enough that it is
[00:42:02]
so helpful,
[00:42:04]
not just for the exact walkthrough that
[00:42:08]
we’re doing right now,
[00:42:09]
but just in general.
[00:42:11]
If you have a view that’s the basis
[00:42:13]
of an automation or a basis of a
[00:42:17]
sync view,
[00:42:19]
you got to test that filter somewhere else
[00:42:21]
first and then copy and paste.
[00:42:23]
Like this example,
[00:42:24]
we’re only filtering on one field.
[00:42:26]
But imagine you have nested groups on
[00:42:29]
nested groups and you want to do all
[00:42:32]
of your testing somewhere else first
[00:42:34]
before you commit it to the view that
[00:42:36]
matters.
[00:42:38]
Exactly.
[00:42:40]
Exactly.
[00:42:41]
Because, and there’s also, I love,
[00:42:44]
I’m really a big, at first,
[00:42:46]
I hated that the feature where they
[00:42:47]
changed it to have the button to apply
[00:42:50]
the filter changes on your view,
[00:42:53]
which did not just show up because I
[00:42:54]
only have twelve records here.
[00:42:58]
But if I go into a different base
[00:42:59]
that has more, let’s see, I guess, nope.
[00:43:12]
Nope.
[00:43:12]
All right.
[00:43:14]
You know what I’m talking about though?
[00:43:15]
The big blue apply button.
[00:43:17]
Yeah.
[00:43:17]
Right, right, right.
[00:43:20]
If that is when
[00:43:24]
You would think that anytime you have,
[00:43:26]
you set the view up as a sync
[00:43:27]
view, that it should switch to that apply,
[00:43:30]
but it doesn’t always.
[00:43:33]
When does that show?
[00:43:34]
I think there’s some sort of record
[00:43:36]
threshold, um,
[00:43:38]
which to me should not be the trigger.
[00:43:41]
I think it should be,
[00:43:41]
if there’s any dependencies at all on the
[00:43:44]
view, it should say,
[00:43:46]
are you sure you’ll want to make that
[00:43:48]
change rather than it being a certain
[00:43:50]
number of, uh, records.
[00:43:53]
Yeah.
[00:43:54]
Exactly.
[00:43:55]
Yeah.
[00:43:56]
I used to really not like it because
[00:43:58]
it was slowing me down.
[00:43:59]
But now I miss it when I don’t
[00:44:00]
see it.
[00:44:01]
I’m like, okay, it really does help.
[00:44:03]
Because if that button were there,
[00:44:05]
you wouldn’t have to worry about doing the
[00:44:06]
whole thing I just did.
[00:44:09]
Although it is kind of good practice.
[00:44:11]
Sometimes I will still do this so that
[00:44:14]
I can see the number of records didn’t
[00:44:16]
change.
[00:44:17]
The records are still there when I make
[00:44:20]
the actual filter update.
[00:44:23]
the records that are on that view are
[00:44:25]
not going to change.
[00:44:27]
So you might want to test that out
[00:44:28]
first.
[00:44:30]
But now I have no more dependencies on
[00:44:33]
my original status field.
[00:44:36]
Now,
[00:44:36]
if you know for a fact that you
[00:44:38]
are not using any other third-party tools,
[00:44:41]
you could stop here,
[00:44:42]
you could delete the field,
[00:44:43]
you could be done.
[00:44:45]
If you are using another tool such as
[00:44:48]
fill out Zapier, make etc,
[00:44:51]
they might be looking at this field there.
[00:44:54]
It might be using it and that’s going
[00:44:55]
to be going off of the field ID
[00:44:57]
in all likelihood, so you will.
[00:45:00]
You could break things in other third
[00:45:02]
party tools.
[00:45:04]
Different platforms have different ways of
[00:45:06]
dealing with this.
[00:45:07]
Some are easier than others to search for
[00:45:09]
whether or not you’re using that field.
[00:45:12]
Zapier,
[00:45:13]
you can download a JSON file of all
[00:45:15]
of your Zaps.
[00:45:16]
And that’s what I often do is I
[00:45:18]
just search.
[00:45:18]
I like go here, copy field URL.
[00:45:23]
and get that field ID and then search
[00:45:27]
for it in a JSON file of my
[00:45:29]
SAPs.
[00:45:31]
That’s one way to do it.
[00:45:32]
I think there’s other tools that exist or
[00:45:34]
there used to be one that was really
[00:45:36]
cool.
[00:45:37]
You could upload that JSON file and put
[00:45:39]
it into a GUI interface for you.
[00:45:43]
But there’s a lot of things that you
[00:45:45]
should pay attention to beyond the
[00:45:47]
Airtable base if you are using those
[00:45:50]
third-party tools.
[00:45:52]
Kavon at Airtable in San Francisco did a
[00:45:56]
really awesome demo on how she approaches
[00:45:59]
capturing those dependencies.
[00:46:02]
I have not implemented it,
[00:46:03]
but I often have thought of it because
[00:46:06]
I’m like, if I wasn’t being so lazy,
[00:46:08]
I would do what Kavon does.
[00:46:11]
And what she does is she says, like,
[00:46:14]
I don’t know,
[00:46:15]
Zapier dependencies or whatever it might
[00:46:17]
be.
[00:46:18]
And she’s like, and…
[00:46:21]
status, point of contact, email.
[00:46:24]
Let’s say those two fields I’m using in
[00:46:26]
Zapier and I might add to it.
[00:46:29]
She gets way more fancy with it too,
[00:46:31]
but this is the general idea.
[00:46:33]
Come on,
[00:46:34]
I’m sorry if I’m butchering your option
[00:46:36]
here.
[00:46:37]
But now if I right click on here,
[00:46:41]
Well, it’s already on the screen.
[00:46:43]
So this will show up and say Zapier
[00:46:45]
dependencies.
[00:46:46]
And so that’s my little cue to be
[00:46:47]
like, I got to go to Zapier,
[00:46:49]
do the same thing, flip everything around.
[00:46:52]
So come on, kudos to you.
[00:46:53]
I’ve done that.
[00:46:55]
I’ve done that if you in the extension.
[00:46:59]
If you have a script.
[00:47:01]
And then the script in the configuration
[00:47:04]
you can even specify a field,
[00:47:06]
but that doesn’t show up in your
[00:47:07]
dependencies.
[00:47:08]
So I had to do this trick to
[00:47:10]
make sure like it’s show that it’s being
[00:47:13]
used in in the script.
[00:47:16]
my variation for this was to use a
[00:47:18]
last modified time or by field but that
[00:47:21]
only lets you select editable fields so
[00:47:25]
you wouldn’t be able to do the lookup
[00:47:26]
like in this example so if you need
[00:47:30]
this for um you know calculated fields
[00:47:36]
formula all the way yeah yeah absolutely
[00:47:39]
you just got to remember to update it
[00:47:42]
keep it maintained every time we make a
[00:47:43]
change come back here
[00:47:47]
So that’s really helpful as well,
[00:47:49]
but I’m going to delete that.
[00:47:51]
So now I’m going to delete this field.
[00:47:53]
I’m going to delete my status field.
[00:47:54]
I’ve got my new status field on this
[00:47:56]
table.
[00:47:57]
I can call this table done and I’m
[00:47:59]
going to go back here and right click
[00:48:03]
show dependencies.
[00:48:06]
And now I’m looking, I’m like, okay,
[00:48:09]
that automation is deprecated.
[00:48:10]
I don’t care about that calculation.
[00:48:12]
That’s just my helper field to see whether
[00:48:14]
these two things match or not.
[00:48:16]
So I am good to go and I
[00:48:19]
can delete this status field.
[00:48:25]
It would then,
[00:48:29]
then I’d be able to delete the test
[00:48:32]
tube on my regular one.
[00:48:37]
and call it a day.
[00:48:41]
That’s a very simple or simple approach
[00:48:44]
doing one field to another.
[00:48:45]
I’ve got a whole bunch of other examples.
[00:48:49]
One I will briefly touch on because we
[00:48:51]
have not much time left is a little
[00:48:56]
trick that I’ve figured out on the
[00:49:01]
self-linking tables.
[00:49:02]
Let’s see, where am I?
[00:49:10]
No, I’ve used this many times.
[00:49:13]
This one, OK.
[00:49:16]
This is a copy of my wedding planner
[00:49:18]
base.
[00:49:18]
I haven’t, none of these are real people.
[00:49:21]
I replaced them all with fake names.
[00:49:24]
But this base was created in twenty twenty
[00:49:29]
one,
[00:49:30]
twenty twenty or twenty twenty one before
[00:49:32]
we had the ability to link bidirectionally
[00:49:37]
from one table.
[00:49:40]
So before you could only,
[00:49:43]
if you could still link a record to
[00:49:45]
it’s the same table,
[00:49:47]
like I could say link to guests from
[00:49:50]
guests on the guest table,
[00:49:51]
I want to link to another guest and
[00:49:53]
that’s what this field is,
[00:49:55]
but it only goes in one direction.
[00:49:58]
So if I link Margie Murcott to Rika
[00:50:02]
Ferolli,
[00:50:05]
I don’t see that Rika is tied to
[00:50:08]
Margie at all.
[00:50:09]
Like if I look at Rika’s record,
[00:50:12]
there’s no mention of Margie whatsoever.
[00:50:15]
So that became a problem for many people
[00:50:19]
in some use cases.
[00:50:21]
You could have an automation that would,
[00:50:23]
and I did in this space in my
[00:50:25]
original one.
[00:50:28]
Yeah.
[00:50:28]
Link to partner.
[00:50:31]
and it would just link the other one
[00:50:33]
to itself.
[00:50:36]
But I can get rid of that with
[00:50:38]
our new feature,
[00:50:39]
which is if you were to add this
[00:50:41]
field today, link to the guest table.
[00:50:47]
And it won’t show it on this view
[00:50:53]
because I have things hidden,
[00:50:54]
but it did also add the reciprocal of
[00:50:58]
that linked field.
[00:51:00]
So now if I link Margie to Rika,
[00:51:04]
Rika is linked to Margie.
[00:51:08]
In this scenario,
[00:51:09]
the partner plus one scenario,
[00:51:12]
I actually kind of like it all in
[00:51:14]
the same field because I don’t want to
[00:51:18]
see
[00:51:21]
i’m getting on a tangent here but in
[00:51:23]
this scenario i might not actually want to
[00:51:24]
do this change that i’m about to do
[00:51:26]
because i like having it all in the
[00:51:27]
same field whereas if i look at margie’s
[00:51:31]
record i don’t see rika’s name in this
[00:51:34]
field the field and it’s like okay well
[00:51:39]
which one how do you decide what the
[00:51:40]
hierarchy is there like there is there
[00:51:42]
really isn’t one um
[00:51:45]
So decisions to make,
[00:51:47]
but let’s say you have decided you
[00:51:49]
absolutely do wanna make this field have
[00:51:52]
the bi-directional reciprocal on the same
[00:51:54]
table.
[00:51:56]
I had a scenario where my client was
[00:51:59]
using this to be like referred by, right?
[00:52:05]
So this person referred this person.
[00:52:08]
I wanna see all of the people that,
[00:52:11]
they referred in the other field.
[00:52:14]
So it does make sense where you end
[00:52:16]
up with one field of the people that
[00:52:19]
Who referred this person?
[00:52:20]
Who has this person referred?
[00:52:22]
You have two different fields,
[00:52:23]
which makes more sense than this example.
[00:52:27]
So apologies there.
[00:52:28]
But if we wanna change this field and
[00:52:32]
I want it to be this field,
[00:52:34]
I don’t wanna create a new one.
[00:52:35]
I wanna keep this field because I care
[00:52:37]
about the history of it.
[00:52:38]
In my record revision history,
[00:52:40]
I wanna be able to look back and
[00:52:41]
be like, oh, two years ago,
[00:52:43]
somebody said this person referred that
[00:52:45]
person, right?
[00:52:47]
That might be important to you.
[00:52:49]
So this is something you can do that’s
[00:52:51]
like a little scary,
[00:52:52]
but like it works if you do it.
[00:52:55]
What I have,
[00:52:57]
make sure I have my record ID.
[00:52:59]
I don’t have a record ID on this
[00:53:00]
table.
[00:53:01]
That’s crazy.
[00:53:04]
I’m gonna create a record ID for every
[00:53:06]
guest.
[00:53:08]
I’ve got every guest record ID on this
[00:53:10]
table.
[00:53:11]
Now I’m gonna add a lookup field and
[00:53:18]
capture.
[00:53:20]
the record ID of everybody in this field.
[00:53:24]
So now I know Rika’s record ID is
[00:53:27]
this five MP one.
[00:53:29]
And if I look at Rika five MP
[00:53:32]
now, next step,
[00:53:34]
I want to take this and change it
[00:53:36]
to single line text.
[00:53:37]
Cause I want to freeze that value in
[00:53:41]
a field.
[00:53:41]
I don’t want it to change.
[00:53:44]
Then I’m gonna take this and also change
[00:53:47]
it to single line text.
[00:53:48]
And this is the scariest part of it
[00:53:50]
all.
[00:53:51]
You wanna make sure that you don’t have
[00:53:52]
any automations on that are looking at
[00:53:54]
this field when you do this.
[00:53:55]
That is a huge, huge, huge thing.
[00:53:58]
Make sure that all of them are off.
[00:53:59]
Do your Zapier thing,
[00:54:00]
do your checks in your third party tools.
[00:54:03]
But if you’re in the clear,
[00:54:05]
don’t be scared to do this.
[00:54:08]
You can do it.
[00:54:10]
All of these fields,
[00:54:11]
don’t even worry about them.
[00:54:13]
Just don’t even worry,
[00:54:16]
unless they are gonna trigger automations,
[00:54:18]
unless they trigger automations,
[00:54:19]
big asterisk.
[00:54:20]
But if they don’t, don’t even worry,
[00:54:23]
convert.
[00:54:25]
Now I’m looking at the scariest thing
[00:54:26]
ever.
[00:54:27]
I’m like, oh God, what did I do?
[00:54:29]
I’m gonna copy that,
[00:54:32]
paste the record IDs over.
[00:54:34]
And the reason for that is because once
[00:54:36]
I change this back,
[00:54:36]
if I didn’t do that step,
[00:54:38]
if I have two Ricoh Ferrolis in my
[00:54:40]
database,
[00:54:41]
I don’t know which one it’s gonna pick.
[00:54:43]
So I want to make sure it’s picking
[00:54:45]
the same one it picked before,
[00:54:46]
but it keeps it there.
[00:54:48]
Now, last step,
[00:54:49]
change it back to link to another record,
[00:54:52]
link to the same table, hit save.
[00:54:58]
Oh, I should have showed,
[00:54:59]
didn’t show the revision history before,
[00:55:01]
but revision history is intact.
[00:55:04]
Oh, I don’t, yeah,
[00:55:06]
I can actually do that here.
[00:55:08]
Margie Mirko, yeah.
[00:55:10]
See, five minutes ago,
[00:55:11]
so before I changed the field type,
[00:55:13]
It shows I put in Rika as her
[00:55:15]
plus one,
[00:55:16]
shows me actually changing all the field
[00:55:18]
stuff and then putting Rika back.
[00:55:20]
But if I had things edits in that
[00:55:22]
prior to that, this first one here,
[00:55:25]
I’d still see them.
[00:55:26]
I wouldn’t have lost them with this
[00:55:28]
change.
[00:55:29]
And if I created a new version of
[00:55:31]
it,
[00:55:31]
I would have lost all of that history
[00:55:33]
because I’d be deleting my original field.
[00:55:37]
Um,
[00:55:37]
so that I did some after some testing
[00:55:40]
and I’ve,
[00:55:41]
I’ve applied it to a few different bases
[00:55:43]
and it has worked really well.
[00:55:44]
If I go back to the demo.
[00:55:47]
Yes.
[00:55:48]
So if you delete a field,
[00:55:50]
it deletes the revision history of that
[00:55:52]
field in your history.
[00:55:56]
I believe it does.
[00:55:58]
Hmm.
[00:55:58]
I didn’t know that.
[00:55:59]
That’s interesting.
[00:56:02]
Mm-hmm.
[00:56:05]
It’s, it’s really odd.
[00:56:08]
Um,
[00:56:08]
I would prefer it to be there still.
[00:56:12]
Yeah.
[00:56:14]
Like if I delete this field, it’s still,
[00:56:24]
it’s still there.
[00:56:25]
No, it’s not.
[00:56:26]
That’s a different field.
[00:56:27]
Yeah.
[00:56:30]
But actually, maybe that wasn’t an edit.
[00:56:32]
That field didn’t actually technically
[00:56:33]
have an edit associated with it.
[00:56:35]
Let’s add an edit.
[00:56:40]
And I got to wait a few because
[00:56:41]
that too, I found this really frustrating.
[00:56:44]
Like sometimes just, okay, cool.
[00:56:46]
It captured it.
[00:56:49]
Now, if I don’t have to.
[00:56:57]
Yeah.
[00:56:57]
Wow.
[00:57:00]
Very interesting.
[00:57:06]
All the time, everything is so scary.
[00:57:08]
I find that the longer I do this
[00:57:11]
and the more complex all the builds are
[00:57:13]
getting,
[00:57:13]
the longer it takes me to make any
[00:57:15]
little change.
[00:57:17]
it’s it’s important to do it right to
[00:57:20]
slow down and be aware of like what
[00:57:23]
your cascading ripple effect is going to
[00:57:24]
be that’s why we call things breaking
[00:57:27]
changes like they are important to be
[00:57:30]
aware of when you’re about to do one
[00:57:33]
yeah i could go on and on but
[00:57:37]
you know we’re at time here
[00:57:40]
Very cool.
[00:57:42]
These are great insights.
[00:57:43]
It’s always good just to take the time
[00:57:45]
and go through this and lots of valuable
[00:57:47]
best practices.
[00:57:49]
If you’ve got more that we missed,
[00:57:51]
let us know.
[00:57:52]
We want to learn from everyone and
[00:57:54]
everybody improves from sharing best
[00:57:57]
practices.
[00:57:57]
So thank you, Ali.
[00:57:59]
Next week we’ll continue.
[00:58:01]
I think we’ll do a deep dive into
[00:58:03]
sandboxes.
[00:58:06]
Learn more about that.
[00:58:07]
Some best practices around there.
[00:58:08]
Yep.
[00:58:12]
So that’s gonna be good.
[00:58:13]
So come back,
[00:58:14]
join us for next week’s episode and
[00:58:16]
everybody have a good week.
[00:58:17]
We’ll see you next time.