Airtable

Introduction

Airtable is a cloud-based relational database and collaboration platform that combines the simplicity of a spreadsheet with the complexity of a database. It allows users to create, organize, and manage data in a flexible and user-friendly interface, making it suitable for a wide range of tasks, from project management and content planning to inventory tracking and customer relationship management (CRM).

You can find more details and the supported operations on Airtable | qibb Catalog.

How to get started with Airtable integration

Before you get started using Airtable integration please make sure that you have the needed permission for the operations. Here you can find the Airtable API Documentation.

1. You will need a Personal Access Token to use as Bearer token for authentication. If you don't have a PAT, you need to generate one in your Airtable dashboard.

   1. Login to your Airtable dashboard. Click on your account in the upper right corner of the screen. Here you'll see a dropdown menu appear. Click the Developer hub option.

      

   2. This will bring you to the Personal Access Tokens page of the hub. From here you'll click the blue Create token option. This will open configuration options for the PAT that you are creating.

      

   3. First name the Personal Access Token, then choose the scopes you'd like this PAT to have access to. More information on which scopes are currently offered can be found here. Finally, choose what level of access this PAT will have. Options include choosing a single base, multiple bases, all of the current and future bases in a workspace you own, or all of the bases from any workspace that you own including bases/workspace added in the future.

      

   4. Click once again on Create token. Your token will be displayed and can be copied to your clipboard.

   

2. Go to qibb Workflow Editor, open Node Catalog in the right sidebar, and install Airtable nodes by clicking on the + button.

3. Drag Airtable nodes from the left sidebar and place them in your flow.

4. Enter your Personal Access Token with the prefix “Bearer” into the Advanced/Security field of the node and start using the integration!

   

Importing flow examples of a node

Once you've successfully installed a node from the qibb catalog, you can easily import example flows that showcase how the nodes can be used. These example flows are directly accessible within the Flow Editor and are designed to guide users with helpful hints, including how to configure mandatory parameters and credentials.

Here's how to import examples:

1. In the top right corner of the Flow Editor, click on the menu icon.

2. Select Import to open the Import Dialog.

3. Click on the Examples tab.

4. Choose an example from the list.

5. Confirm your selection by clicking on the Import button.

By following these steps, you are now ready to make basic API calls using the provided examples. For further exploration of what’s possible, you can find more complex examples in the Flow Catalog.

Using qibb’s Secret Manager with Airtable

There are many ways to enter your Personal Access Token in the Advanced > Security > apiKey field. For example, you can use our Secret Manager to streamline access to your token across all apps in a space.

1. If you haven’t already, get started with our Secret Manager.

2. Add your Airtable Personal Access Token to your space secrets as “AIRTABLE_TOKEN”. First click the plus sign at the bottom right of your space secrets list. Then input your key and value. When you’ve saved your secret, you’ll see it in the list.

   

   

3. Navigate to the Flow App you plan to use. Make sure you have installed the Airtable and Secret Manager nodes from the Node Catalog.

4. Drag the Secret Manager node to the grid, configure it to meet your needs and save your flow. When syncing is complete, you’ll be able to see that you have a secret called “AIRTABLE_TOKEN” in the global context view.

   1. Note that you do not need and should avoid creating multiple instances of the Secret Manager node in your app. Since the Secret Manager enables access to the space secrets as global context values, they are available in all the flows in this app.

      

5. Drag an Airtable node (and any other nodes you might need) to the grid; here we have used one of the examples included with your Airtable node. Open an Airtable node and navigate to Advanced > Security. Open the type dropdown and select JSONATA expression.

   

6. Enter "Bearer " & $globalContext("SECRETS.AIRTABLE_TOKEN") in the apiKey field and click Done.

If the field isn’t big enough for you to see what you’re typing you can always click the ... to open the expression editor.

7. That’s it! You can now run your flow by elegantly accessing this secret.