Airtable Collections

Created by Paul Williamson, Modified on Tue, 15 Aug, 2023 at 2:40 AM by Paul Williamson

Airtable can be used as a collection for generating Dynamic Pages. For more information on collections, see Define a Collection for Dynamic Pages.

Note

Airtable is phasing out API keys and replacing them with personal access tokens.

Starting August 1st, 2023 a personal access token must be used for new collections.

Warning

Effective February 1st, 2024, API keys will be completely phased out. At this time, collections that have not had the API key switched to a personal access token may encounter disruptions.

Airtable collections have the following limitations:

	Airtable
Collection Number per Site	100
Fields (columns)	100
Collection name character limit	50
Field name character limit	50
Page item URL	350 characters
Update data	Automatically every hour

To create an Airtable collection:

In the left panel, click Content, click Collections, and then click + New Collection.
Click Airtable.
Enter your Airtable API credentials.
- API Key
  1. Click Airtable account page (located in step 1 of How to connect with Airtable).
  2. A new tab will open to your Airtable account page (you may need to sign in).
  3. Once signed in, visit airtable.com/create/tokens (if not signed in to Airtable, you will receive their 404 page).
  4. Once on the Personal access tokens page, click Create token.
  5. Enter in a name for the token.
  6. In the Scopes section, click Add a scope.
  7. Select the data.records:read (See the data in records) option.
  8. In the Access section, click Add a base.
  9. Select the All current and future bases in all current and future workspaces option located under All Workspaces.
  10. Click Create token.
  11. Click the copy button located next to the token.
  12. Return to Website Builder and paste the token into the API key field.
- Example URL
  1. Click Airtable API page (located in step 2 of How to connect with Airtable).
  2. A new tab will open In Airtable (you may need to sign in).
  3. Once on the API Reference page, scroll down and select the desired table.
  4. Click Authentication (located in the side panel).
  5. Copy the link under EXAMPLE (located in the Curl tab).
  6. Return to Website Builder and paste it in the Example URL field.
Click Import Fields.
Define the correct data type for each field.
Click Continue.

Update an Existing Collection's API Key with a Personal Access Token

To update an existing collection’s API with a Personal Access Token:

In the left panel, click Content, click Collections, and then the desired Airtable collection.
Click Collection Settings located towards the bottom.
In the API Key field, replace the API Key with a personal access token.
- To retrieve a personal access token:
  1. Click Airtable account page (located in step 1 of How to connect with Airtable).
  2. A new tab will open to your Airtable account page (you may need to sign in).
  3. Once signed in, visit airtable.com/create/tokens (if not signed in to Airtable, you will receive their 404 page).
  4. Once on the Personal access tokens page, click Create token.
  5. Enter in a name for the token.
  6. In the Scopes section, click Add a scope.
  7. Select the data.records:read (See the data in records) option.
  8. In the Access section, click Add a base.
  9. Select the All current and future bases in all current and future workspaces option located under All Workspaces.
  10. Click Create token.
  11. Click the copy button located next to the token.
  12. Return to Website Builder and paste the token into the API key field.
Click Refresh Data.
Click Done.

Supported Fields

Note

Airtable made changes to their URL attachments (such as links and images) causing them to expire after two hours. Website Builder is not affected by this change since it pulls data from Airtable on an hourly basis.

The following table outlines the supported Airtable fields, the corresponding Website Builder fields, and examples.

Website Builder Field	Airtable Field	Example
Text	Rich text	Welcome to my dentist office. Note Using Airtable's built-in link rich text field is not supported. For example, to add a link, use the HTML `<a> </a>` tag.
Text	Long text	Note This field supports HTML and row breaks.
Text	Plain text	welcome to my office
Numeric	Number	10,000 Note Must only contain numbers, and periods (for decimals).
Boolean	Checkbox	Note Only for custom widgets.
Image	Attachment with one image	Image added through Airtable.
Link	URL	https://goo.gl/maps/F81HPm4CBTQSTsJ5A
Video	URL or text	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EsYwAKxAFU
Phone	Phone number or text	123456789
Email	Email or text	email@email.com
Location	Text	streetAddress, postalCode, region, city, country 846 Kerry Way, 90017, CA, Los Angeles, US
Business Hours	Text	SAT, SUN: 08:00-20:00; THU, FRI: 08:00-12:00;
Inner collection that contains one image field	Attachment with multiple images	Images added through Airtable.
Text	Number
Text	Currency	Note Displays only the number, without $ sign.
Text	Percent	Note Displays with decimal and without % sign.
Text	Rating	Note Displays the number.
Text	Formula	Note The result of the formula can be a string.
Text	Autonumber
Social account	Value	Must be formatted as name: value; name: value; email: my@gmail.com; whatsapp: 123456; facebook: Website Builder; Note Supported social networks: email, whatsapp, facebook, twitter, instagram, youtube, linkedin, yelp, pinterest, google_my_business, waze, vimeo, snapchat, reddit, tripadvisor, foursquare, rss.
Date & Time	Text	The default structure is YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:SS, which displays as 2021-10-06 16:12:00. For a complete list of date and time formats and how they display, see Class DateTimeFormatter. Note Check use GMT for all users so that the data displays exactly as it appears in Airtable. This field can be used for sorting when using the filters or sort functionality in the Connected Data pop-up.
Multi Select	Multi Select	After defining the field as Multi Select, click Options to add options. Each row in the collection can be assigned one or more of the options you created. Note This field can be used to filter the displayed collection in widgets, such as photo gallery, list, accordion, and custom widgets that connect to collections.

Note

Due to API limitations, Website Builder will not import fields that do not have content in the first 10 rows.

Row Order

When using Airtable collections, the row order is being pulled in randomly due to an API limitation on Airtable's site. We ignore filters or sorting in Airtable.

To pull the row order in the same order that exists in Airtable, including filters and sorting, add the Airtable View name to the example URL that you are using to import their collection. For more information, see Airtable Support.

To add the view, after the example URL is added, add '?view=View Name'. The view name is case sensitive and should be typed exactly how it's written in Airtable.

Warning

Deleting or changing the view name after importing the collection will break the connection.

The following is an example of the URL before adding the view name:

https://api.airtable.com/v0/appbiL1pCyvFcW8WG/Feedback%20Session?view=Main%20View

The following is an example of the URL after adding the view name:

https://api.airtable.com/v0/appbiL1pCyvFcW8WG/Feedback%20Session?view=Main View

For more information on adding the view name to the URL, see this video.

The next step is to create or convert a Dynamic Page so you can connect it to your newly created collection.