10/8/2024 – BuiltOnAir Live Podcast Full Show – S20-E01

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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.

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 – 00:01:40 –

An App a Day – 00:01:41 –

Watch as we install, explore, and showcase the API Labz Analyst App from the Airtable Marketplace. The app is described as “the revolutionary Airtable app that harnesses the power of AI to transform your data into comprehensive, intelligent reports. With its cutting-edge technology, Analyst empowers you to extract valuable insights from any kind of data, effortlessly.”.

View App

A Case for Interface – 00:01:41 –

Explore Interfaces with “Conditional Coloring and Chart Stacking”.

Alli demonstrates new functionality in Interfaces for conditional coloring for number elements as well as new stacking options for charts..

Field Focus – 00:01:42 –

A deep dive into the Managed Apps and Components Developer Hub – Dan will demonstrate the new Managed Apps and Managed Components functionality available to Enterprise 

Learn More Here

Full Segment Details

Segment: Round The Bases

Start Time: 00:01:40

Roundup of what’s happening in the Airtable communities – Airtable, BuiltOnAir, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

Segment: An App a Day

Start Time: 00:01:41

Airtable App Showcase – API Labz Analyst – the revolutionary Airtable app that harnesses the power of AI to transform your data into comprehensive, intelligent reports. With its cutting-edge technology, Analyst empowers you to extract valuable insights from any kind of data, effortlessly.

Watch as we install, explore, and showcase the API Labz Analyst App from the Airtable Marketplace. The app is described as “the revolutionary Airtable app that harnesses the power of AI to transform your data into comprehensive, intelligent reports. With its cutting-edge technology, Analyst empowers you to extract valuable insights from any kind of data, effortlessly.”.

View App

Segment: A Case for Interface

Start Time: 00:01:41

Conditional Coloring and Chart Stacking

Explore Interfaces with “Conditional Coloring and Chart Stacking”.

Alli demonstrates new functionality in Interfaces for conditional coloring for number elements as well as new stacking options for charts..

Segment: Field Focus

Start Time: 00:01:42

Learn about the Managed Apps and Components – Dan will demonstrate the new Managed Apps and Managed Components functionality available to Enterprise

A deep dive into the Managed Apps and Components Developer Hub – Dan will demonstrate the new Managed Apps and Managed Components functionality available to Enterprise 

Learn More Here

Full Transcription

The full transcription for the show can be found here:

[00:00:00] Intro: Welcome to the Built On Air Podcast, the variety show for all things Airtable. In each episode, we cover four different segments. It's always fresh and different, and lots of fun. While you get the insider info on all things Airtable, our hosts and guests are some of the most senior experts in the Airtable community.

[00:00:26] Join us live each week on our YouTube channel every Tuesday at 11:00 AM Eastern and join our active [email protected]. Before we begin, a word from our sponsor on. On2Air Backups provides automated Airtable backups to your cloud storage for secure and reliable data protection. Prevent data loss and set up a secure Airtable backup system with On2Air Backups at on2air.

[00:00:49] com. As one customer, Sarah, said, Having automated Airtable backups has freed up hours of my time every other week. And the fear of losing anything. Longtime customer [00:01:00] David states, OntoAir Backups might be the most critical piece of the puzzle to guard against unforeseeable disaster. It's easy to set up, and it just works.

[00:01:08] Join Sarah, David, and hundreds more Airtable users like you to protect your Airtable data with OntoAir Backups. Sign up today with promo code BUILTONAIR for a 10 percent discount. Check them out at ontoair. com. And now let's check out today's episode, and see what we built on air.

[00:01:37] Dan Fellars: All right. Welcome back to season 20. I can't believe we are in the twenties. Welcome to the built on air podcast, regular hosts, myself, Dan Fellers and Allie Alosa. Welcome Allie. 

[00:01:49] Alli Alosa: Hello. Glad to be back. 

[00:01:52] Dan Fellars: Have a good break. 

[00:01:54] Alli Alosa: Absolutely. Lots of new stuff. 

[00:01:56] Dan Fellars: Yeah. Yeah. A lot going on. Kamille couldn't make it today.

[00:01:59] [00:02:00] She'll be back next week. Um, but we've got a ton of stuff to cover with you today. We walk you through what we're going to talk about. We always start, it's a hour long show talking about all things air table. We'll start with our round the bases. Lots of things since we've been off for a month, um, that we'll get you caught up on.

[00:02:18] And then a quick shout out to our sponsor On2Air Backups. And then I'm going to walk us through an app from the marketplace, um, deals with AI from API labs. Then, uh, Ali's going to walk us through a couple things in new features and functionality and interfaces, conditional coloring and chart stacking, and then how to join our community.

[00:02:43] And then finally, I'll walk us through the new functionality of managed apps and components. 

[00:02:50] ROUND THE BASES - 00:03:03

[00:02:52] So with that. Around the bases. Okay, first, hopefully we're getting close. We're [00:03:00] two weeks away, three weeks away from DareTable 2024, uh, October 25th and 26th in New York City. And, um, it's gonna be mostly a one day event of content, and then the next day is, uh, Is networking.

[00:03:17] Um, so excited for that. Ali will be one of the presenters. Keynote. No, not keynote. Not a keynote. No, not a keynote, but uh, yeah, lots of people presenting. I believe Kamille was also presenting as well. Justin, welcome in. And, um, so yeah, hopefully we'll see everybody. We might try to do another live show like we did at the last air table where we'll bring on people and, um, talk to everybody about what it's like.

[00:03:47] And so we'll plan to do that. And please introduce yourself if you're going to be there. Um, we look forward to, to catching up with everybody there. So yeah. And I [00:04:00] believe there's still tickets available. So if you haven't bought a ticket, you can still join us. Okay, let's look through. We'll briefly talk about some of these.

[00:04:10] Some of these we are going to dive deeper into. Um, but let's see. So since we've been off the air, um, I think we did talk about some of these before we we always spot them sometimes before they show up in this list. So conditional numbering, color formatting. That's the one that Ali is going to walk us through.

[00:04:31] Um, that came out. I think we did highlight it on on our last season. Um, additional share and invite restrictions. Um, so now you can, this is for enterprise. So you can, um, restrict who has access and and make it. More conditional. So yeah, more stuff there where maybe we can show that app library. This is what I'm going to be talking about later in the show.

[00:04:57] Allows you to, to have managed apps [00:05:00] and components. So pretty cool stuff there. Automation history, date filters. This one is pretty cool. That one was 

[00:05:08] Alli Alosa: awesome. Yeah. Really into that one. And they also made it so you can be looking at the record revision history for something and something's been updated by an automation.

[00:05:19] It'll that's now a link as Russell's showing here, which is great. And it doesn't bring you directly to that specific run, but it brings you to. Pre filtered, uh, automation history log. So more than likely that run is going to be right at the very top. Um, unless you know, you had a bunch run at the very same time.

[00:05:39] So look, but it's a lot easier than having to scroll through for, you know, a few weeks worth of stuff if you're trying to follow the breadcrumbs. 

[00:05:48] Dan Fellars: Yeah. So very, very helpful. Can't tell you how many times keep scrolling back to find something historically in an automation and. Yeah, [00:06:00] very, very useful. 

[00:06:02] Alli Alosa: Now we just need a search bar.

[00:06:04] That would be the end all be all. 

[00:06:07] Dan Fellars: Yep. Yeah, for sure. So that's one, um, very useful. Let's see what else we got. Okay. This is for enterprise and business. Um, so enterprise user access, you can require, um. Multi factor authentication. That's what, uh, or two factor authentication. So you can require that. So that's a good thing.

[00:06:32] Um, Justin says maybe it's an enterprise thing. But automation failure notices that I receive have a link that takes me directly to the failed run. That's a good point. 

[00:06:42] Alli Alosa: Yeah, I noticed that as well. It'll it says view failure. I think now instead of It used to just say like go to automations or something.

[00:06:50] I can't remember what the button said, but I noticed that the other day as well. And I'm on business, so I don't know if it's enterprise slash business or everybody, but I would assume everybody. 

[00:06:59] Dan Fellars: Yeah. [00:07:00] I don't know. My automations never fail. So I've never seen that. 

[00:07:04] Alli Alosa: Good for you, Dan. 

[00:07:06] Dan Fellars: That's a joke.

[00:07:11] Sometimes not my fault. Sometimes there are tables fault. 

[00:07:15] Alli Alosa: Oh yeah. I mean, I got all of them. Mine. My most frequent one now is because people will add a record and then be like, Oh, oops, and delete it. And. Then the automation fails because it's trying to update the record that they added, but it's been deleted.

[00:07:29] So it's like not actually a failure, but it does clog up my inbox quite a bit. Uh, 

[00:07:38] Dan Fellars: next one organizing this one. I kind of chuckle that like, okay. Organization branding. Uh, I'm sorry. I think there's more work to be done on this one. 

[00:07:50] Alli Alosa: Yeah. 

[00:07:51] Dan Fellars: It basically puts your little logo as the, as the icon, which I guess is something, but it's, it, [00:08:00] I think it needs a little bit more to really get your brand in there.

[00:08:03] Alli Alosa: Do they let you like actually load in your own like hex code for the color? 

[00:08:09] Dan Fellars: Um, that's what I could not see. Let's look at this. I could not see. How to modify the color. I could only see this where you show the logo. So the color is still kind of, you pick from here. 

[00:08:29] Alli Alosa: Well, those colors under where it says Zelos look, they don't look like the same Airtable colors.

[00:08:35] I wonder if those are actually like, you know, your approved. 

[00:08:40] Dan Fellars: Maybe, I didn't see where you could set these. 

[00:08:43] Alli Alosa: I haven't played with it yet, but. I'd be interested to see. 

[00:08:47] Dan Fellars: Yeah, maybe, maybe in the admin section, there is a place to define some colors. So, uh, let us know if you, if you're aware of that, but yeah, the only thing I saw was just this, where you could turn [00:09:00] on the logo, it just puts the little logo there, which, which is something, but the challenge is.

[00:09:07] I mean, I guess many companies only have one base. So if you only have one base, especially for, uh, interfaces, if it shows the logo there, then that's good. 

[00:09:17] Alli Alosa: Yeah, absolutely. 

[00:09:20] Dan Fellars: Okay. And last one, restrict API access. So you can specify, this is kind of cool. You can specify users or service accounts, um, that can access the API.

[00:09:32] So you, you can kind of restrict and say, Oh, okay. Only these users can, can access the API. So that's kind of cool. Okay. Um, and then they made a big announcement a couple of weeks ago about, um, the app library, basically all the big enterprise stuff. Um, they didn't mention this, but at app sandboxing, they announced.[00:10:00] 

[00:10:00] Yeah. And, uh, so that's pretty cool. So that basically allows you to have a sandbox and then deploy any functionality features into the production base. Um, I haven't played with it yet, but, but, um, it's similar to managed apps. So, so there's some similarity there. Um, this other one, Hyper DB, this one I'm excited about.

[00:10:24] So, um, in the future, I think it's still early. It's not, it's not publicly available. You have to sign up for, for, um, to get access to it. And, um, and I don't think all the functionality they talk about here is, is yet available. So there's still more to come. So it's still in development. And I think. Still lacking in some functionality, but very excited for this future of how it, how it basically works is you can have a database, what they're calling hyper DB, and you can then create a view of that data.

[00:10:59] They [00:11:00] still have the same restrictions inside the interface of air table of number of record limits, but you can, you can have a bigger database and then create a view of. Of, you know, records that are then able to get essentially synced into air table, like a sink table and use that way, I believe for now it's only one way, so it doesn't have yet the ability to write back to the hyper DB, um, directly through the interface.

[00:11:28] And so, yeah, so 250, 000 is, is the limit that you can sink back in. Yeah. But I think there is way if you have, if you use it as a linked record, Um, you can link to a bigger to the entire hyper DB. So if you don't need it as a table listing view, and you just want to be able to link to a huge data set, then you can do it that way.

[00:11:58] Alli Alosa: Right. And then it'll [00:12:00] pull. Whatever you've linked to, assuming you're still under that two 50 K it'll add that to your actual table is my understanding. 

[00:12:09] Dan Fellars: Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. So not, not exactly sure, excited to play with this. Um, and, uh, so yeah, let's see in the branding, if it shows, yeah, it doesn't show how to define your colors.

[00:12:27] So I'm not sure how that works. Oh, here we go. So admin set the org logo and color options with exact text codes. So that must be in the admin interface. 

[00:12:40] Alli Alosa: That's very nice. 

[00:12:43] Dan Fellars: Uh, that's, that's a little better. They never show screenshots of where you define it in the admin. All right, moving on. I found, um, so yeah, this is one from Russell Russell talking about the, uh, automation history.

[00:12:58] Okay. I found [00:13:00] one undocumented. I was looking at the API. And they added a new endpoint where you can actually upload an attachment. So for the developers out there, um, with the actual data up to five megabytes, you can actually push the actual content of the data as an attachment file. So as long as the attachments less than five megabytes.

[00:13:24] So this is useful if you if you had, like, text and you wanted to push it as a TXT file or something like that. Um, or if you have, you know, the image data, um, from something that you wanted to just generate an image on the fly or something, you could do that. So, uh, that's kind of interesting because by default, how it's always been is you had to had to be.

[00:13:50] Accessible via URL and you pass in the URL and then it pulls from that destination. 

[00:13:57] Alli Alosa: That's interesting. [00:14:00] I ran into a situation a long, like years ago, and I had, I had to create a return label for a client using an app called ship station with the API. And what they gave me back was just this giant string.

[00:14:15] It was, it was base 64 encoded PDF file, and I couldn't do anything with it. Cause I couldn't, it was too long to put in a text field and it wasn't a URL. So I couldn't upload it. So I had to find another. App. I think I found cloudinary and I pushed a big base 64 string to cloudinary and got back a URL with the PDF.

[00:14:36] I don't think that this would even help that, but I don't know what it. Maybe 

[00:14:42] Dan Fellars: if it was less than five megabytes. Yeah. Cause you can, you specify the, um, the content type, so you can specify it as a PDF 

[00:14:50] Alli Alosa: that would have been very helpful at that moment. But yeah, 

[00:14:54] Dan Fellars: so yeah. So use cases like that, um, definitely, uh, five [00:15:00] megabytes, you know, that's not a whole lot to play with, but, uh, it's something, so that was cool.

[00:15:09] Uh, undocumented API release. That's good to know. I do like that. They're, they're still updating the, the API and thinking about it and, uh, doing stuff there. 

[00:15:19] Alli Alosa: Absolutely. I would really love to be able to get, uh, this is completely unrelated, but to. I'm updating the API. I want to be able to access who created a field within the metadata.

[00:15:32] That would be really great. 

[00:15:35] Dan Fellars: Yeah. Yeah. I wonder on the enterprise. I've been looking more into the audit logs. It might show it in there. Like it's, it's way overkill because I don't think there's a way to just tell me. To receive that is kind of an all or nothing that you've got to mine through. But, uh, could be in there somewhere.[00:16:00] 

[00:16:00] Okay. A lot going on in LinkedIn. We've been seeing a lot on LinkedIn and, and spending time there. Um, shout out to Nelson. Nelson is, uh, leads the, Um, partnerships at Airtable and, uh, one that Allie and I communicate with a lot. Um, he's been awesome. Looks like he hit his two year anniversary at Airtable. So congratulations.

[00:16:24] Nelson wanted to give him a public shout out. He's been a huge help to, I know to me personally, I'm sure to Allie as well and all the other partners, uh, he's been amazing to work with and, uh, really appreciate it. I've gone to lunch with them several times, so he's a, he's a good friend. Them. He's been great to work with at Airtable.

[00:16:44] Alli Alosa: Yay. Congratulations, Nelson. 

[00:16:48] Dan Fellars: All right. Next one. Um, also from Airtable. So the Academy, let's see, October 8th. So that's today. It is now live for [00:17:00] everybody. It used to just be for Enterprise, So now it's open to everybody. You can get certified and, uh, use all their learning, um, paths that they've got, and so that's cool.

[00:17:13] So if you, if you haven't had access to it yet, check it out today and see if you can. And on a similar note, um, they launched a new one, the official Airtable admin certification and friend of the show, Jen Rudd was. The driving force and her team was the driving force behind putting together that, that, that content.

[00:17:36] So congrats to Jen for getting that out there. I believe we'll, uh, join us, uh, on a future episode this season. So she can maybe share some insights into how that came together. Okay, next one. Um, here's one. A. I. Is obviously becoming a huge part of air table. A big push [00:18:00] of theirs. Here's a spotlight on how to build something pretty quickly in air table.

[00:18:06] So if you want a live use case, um, Alexandra post this on linked in. And okay, here's one, a third party tool called ply. So I don't, I'm not a customer of ply, but I have, uh, tested it. Basically what it is, is it's a, it, it works as a Chrome extension. They might support Firefox or other browsers. Um, but it basically allows you to like add functionality inside the application.

[00:18:38] So if you, if you can see here, see if I can make this bigger. Um, it actually.

[00:18:54] Yeah, so basically, like, overrides the the web experience and allows you [00:19:00] to insert icons. And so they now support air table where they'll actually insert new buttons that can add more functionality to air table to do certain things. It's kind of a cool concept. It does require, you know, anybody using it to have their extension installed.

[00:19:19] Um, but, uh, it's kind of cool though. You're like, I wish Airtable did this. You can, you can add your own functionality on top of it. Yeah, you were gonna say, 

[00:19:34] Alli Alosa: I just said that's always interesting when you have those things. Yeah. 

[00:19:38] Dan Fellars: Another AI note, um, Airtable announced that they now support IBM Watson X as a AI model.

[00:19:47] Um, so if you, if you are using Airtable AI, um, they allow you to select which model you want to use. So you can use ChatGPT. Or IBM or a couple others. [00:20:00] Um, so, so that's nice that it's not locked into just one model. You can use, um, different, even versions of the same model. So that's a new one. And okay, let's see.

[00:20:17] So we always liked seeing competitors that pop up and, and clones. So here's a new one I'd never heard of. Um, Jordan here. Uh, highlights on db. io. So it's an open source, pretty much. I think it's fair to say pretty similar looking probably fits in the clone category of air table. Um, but if you want to be able to install and run your own for.

[00:20:47] you know, simple use cases. Um, it's kind of cool. I always like seeing people building stuff like this. You can pay for it or, um, use the open source version yourself. So [00:21:00] we'll see. There are a couple other open source similar to this that are probably farther along, but it's good to see a new entry.

[00:21:08] Alli Alosa: Absolutely. 

[00:21:10] Dan Fellars: Okay, this is this is a video presentation from a conference from Anthony Maggio, who's VP and head of product management at Airtable. And I liked it. Um, I, I didn't watch it at all, but, um, just basically showing how Airtable uses AI internally for their own product development process. So I like to see that, that they're dog fooding, you know, what they're building into their product itself.

[00:21:43] Um, so this isn't just using Airtable, but into their, their product development process, which, which uses more than just Airtable, um, Um, and so that, that's a cool if you'd like to go deeper into the weeds [00:22:00] on how Airtable works as a company, there's that. Okay, a few more. Um, here's somebody upset. Um, very pissed off at Airtable first.

[00:22:12] Somehow all cells of a very important database of mine got replaced by the number. 1972. 3. Then the snapshot didn't work and their support so far slow and helpful, unhelpful. Um, won't be keeping anything in there anymore. And anyways, people reached out, said, please, we can help. You can look at the records and see how it was mysteriously.

[00:22:36] My guess is there might be some user error there of overriding 

[00:22:42] Alli Alosa: easy to paste data over something. 

[00:22:44] Dan Fellars: Yeah, yeah. Um, but I did think it was funny. Uh, he works for angry buildings, so he's living up to his name.

[00:22:56] Being upset about that, but it is unfortunate what happens [00:23:00] sometimes. Sometimes it's our fault, you know, snapshots, he was getting an air. So that's, that's unfortunate. If he was trying to, 

[00:23:09] Alli Alosa: that's a huge bummer. 

[00:23:10] Dan Fellars: Yeah. Bring a snapshot back. Um, Yeah, 

[00:23:15] Alli Alosa: help him get that. Get a snapshot downloaded. That would. Yeah, I hope so.

[00:23:21] Dan Fellars: Or which I'll talk about in a 2nd use onto air and we now have restore functionality so you can restore whatever data was in there at the last backup and get that back in that way. 

[00:23:34] Alli Alosa: That's very nice. 

[00:23:36] Dan Fellars: Yeah. Okay. We always like to see how people use Airtable for fun and, uh, interesting ways. So Alex, um, posts about using Airtable to make coffee and as a, for it to drive it's iot.

[00:23:54] So if you wanna watch a video about, uh, how to make your coffee using Airtable, check out this [00:24:00] one. 

[00:24:01] Alli Alosa: That's so funny. 

[00:24:03] Dan Fellars: Yeah. One last one from Allie 

[00:24:06] Intro: Alosa. 

[00:24:08] Dan Fellars: Posted a while back about some new functionality. Um, this was the modals to where you can get a confirmation on a button before it does. I think it's on the delete.

[00:24:20] Is it delete only or on any? 

[00:24:22] Alli Alosa: On any of them. 

[00:24:23] Dan Fellars: But I think it's required on the delete, right? You couldn't unselect it. If I remember correctly, 

[00:24:30] Alli Alosa: I have never used the delete action, but I would, I would hope it's required because I 

[00:24:38] Dan Fellars: think, I think it puts it there and you can't. Automatically selects it and you, and you can't unselect it.

[00:24:44] So anyways, I thought it was interesting, the reaction. So many people were like, Oh yes, I love this. I needed this. 

[00:24:52] Alli Alosa: Yeah, I love, I, it was really exciting to see how pumped people got about that one. And it's so [00:25:00] important though. Like it's, especially because the conditional visibility for buttons isn't. A is not consistent across every place that the buttons can be, and B isn't available on all the plan levels, so if you can't hide the button and people can push it whenever they want, at least warn them to let them know what's going to happen when they push it.

[00:25:22] Dan Fellars: For sure. That wraps up, uh, everything in the last month. Tell us your, your latest, your, your best, your favorite, um, feature announcements since we've been off the air or what's your, what you're excited about of things that the air table is talking about. We'd love to hear what you guys are all using with that.

[00:25:45] ON2AIR BACKUPS - 00:25:08

[00:25:46] Like I mentioned onto our backups, we do have restore functionality so you can now restore backups back into your base working on. We will be releasing, um, integration with one drive here [00:26:00] shortly. It's in final Q and a. So that should be coming out in a week or two as well as some improvements on, um, displaying the results of the backup and, uh, More functionality coming.

[00:26:16] So lots of new stuff coming for onto air. And so check it out onto where. com use promo code built on there to get a discount and start using it to make sure your data is backed up and stored outside of air table into box, dropbox, Google drive, and soon coming one drive. Um, 

[00:26:37] AN APP A DAY - 00:26:48

[00:26:39] okay, now let's check out an app.

[00:26:43] From the marketplace. Um, I love, I like to, I like to look at the marketplace because, um, one, I have an app in the marketplace and, um, I used to have four apps. We took out three of them and, uh, just [00:27:00] have our backups app in there now, but. I am always trying to push the marketplace, hoping that Airtable puts more emphasis behind it and one day allows it to, to be able to install these apps inside of interfaces that I think will really be a game changer.

[00:27:18] So hopefully one day that will happen, but in the meantime, we can promote those apps that are in there. Um, there's a new one that I just noticed. Um, Um, the launch that looks like in August, um, called analyst and I thought I'd check it out. This is a paid app. They do have, um, you can use it for some free, um, that I'm on.

[00:27:40] So I'm not a paid customer of this. I don't know the team behind it. So this is unsolicited, um, use of it. But I thought it was pretty cool. So I'm going to showcase how that works. So you've got an app or you got your, your base and you want to, um, you know, add your extension, find it [00:28:00] in the marketplace.

[00:28:02] And let's see, uh, here somewhere. Anyways, if you do a search for analyst, there it

[00:28:15] is, this one right here and install it. Let's go full screen here. And it's pretty simple. It basically you pick your table, you can limit the records to a view, and then you give it a prompt of what you want to analyze of that table. So. It's for analyzing data across a table. Um, so I had it, I had to do it.

[00:28:38] It does take a minute because it's actually like looking one record at a time, um, to analyze all the data in that record. Um, so I won't run it again for time's sake, but I'll show you the output. Um, so this product launch is just kind of some fake data of different products. It has, um, dollar amounts, progress.

[00:28:59] [00:29:00] Things like that, ratings, um, some tags and let's look at the output here. Oh, this is the website, the company behind it, if you want to check it out. And then the output generates a pretty cool looking report. Um, and so it kind of. I basically just said provide analysis, um, of insights into the data from this table.

[00:29:25] So I gave it a pretty generic, um, prompt and this is what it outputted. I didn't, I didn't give it specifics of what I was looking for, um, but pretty, pretty cool insight that you could use for generating a nice looking report that you could use. Um, you could then take this URL, Put it back into, I wonder, this is probably less than five megs.

[00:29:49] You can maybe convert this into a image or something. 

[00:29:55] Alli Alosa: Is it live or does you do have to rerun it? 

[00:29:57] Dan Fellars: You got to rerun it. Yeah. Awesome. [00:30:00] Yeah. Yeah. Looks very 

[00:30:01] Alli Alosa: nice though. 

[00:30:02] Dan Fellars: Yeah. Yeah. So if you're looking to get more insights, um, from your data using AI, this is, this is a nice little tool. And then you basically, um, can go to their website and purchase more credits.

[00:30:16] Uh, let's look at their pricing. So 40 for 4, 000 credits. And the report I ran, I think it's per record. I'm not sure exactly. What the pricing is, but you can figure that out. Um, I think I used 50 credits to process. I think it only processed like 80 records or something. So give you a sense. So anyway, check that out.

[00:30:41] The company does have other stuff that I thought was interesting. They've got a bunch of other. AI tools that you could utilize, um, but that's their API or air table app intro. Do it. So check it out, see if you like it and, uh, let us know your feedback on API [00:31:00] analyst or analysts from API labs. 

[00:31:05] A CASE FOR INTERFACE - 00:31:14

[00:31:07] All right, Allie, walk us through some new stuff.

[00:31:12] Alli Alosa: All right. 

[00:31:13] Dan Fellars: All 

[00:31:15] Alli Alosa: right, this is a, so there's two notable new features and interfaces that I am particularly excited about. Um, the first is around the number element. And what's really cool. Is it used to be we just had this top part where you could pick a color and you know, you could set whether you want the background color or not.

[00:31:40] I've also noticed that this is a bug. If you have it on the gray and then you turn on the background color, it doesn't actually set it. Um, Until you flip to something else and then change it again. So that's just a weird thing, but let's say, so this is a base with PTO requests and [00:32:00] then we can call this just total requests and I'm going to duplicate this.

[00:32:05] And let's say, I want to know how many, uh, pending requests I have. So there's 11. Pending requests and I can go and set some conditions for that color just like you can in the data layer and in interfaces, um, you can use conditions to set the little color tick at the far left of your records. Um, this is going to function the same way.

[00:32:39] So I could put A red where the number so that's just whatever the result is of this number and I can say if it's greater than 10, I want it to be red and then I can duplicate it and say, if it's, um, greater than 0, I want it to [00:33:00] be yellow and then if it is 0, I could make it green and this is actually going to be and then you can set a default fallback color.

[00:33:12] Okay. As well, but with these conditions, there's never going to be, it will never default to this back because it's either going to be 0 or greater than 0. But then if I want to call this pending requests, let's add a little filter at the top and we'll make this so that we're only looking at, we'll say is before 30 days ago,

[00:33:49] or I guess 90. There we go. So now in that time range, there was only nine pending requests. And if I were to go back [00:34:00] even further to, let's say, 180 days ago, you know, it's just going to keep going. I don't know exactly when I have there. Now it's green. So it'll change depending on what your, um, what the result is and what conditions that you've set, which is very nice.

[00:34:22] So if you want to draw attention to a number that is too high or too low, then you can set it to red. And if it's in the, The good zone, you can make it green. Um, very flexible. They're super excited about that one. Um, that's cool. It's very cool. I find it extremely useful. Uh, then there's, um, the, this is kind of a stealth update.

[00:34:50] I think, I don't think they actually released anything on the what's new page about this, but if you go to your charts and if you have your chart grouped [00:35:00] by something. Like, let's say I want to group this by status. And now I have this option of stacking. They did do a small update a couple of months ago where they had a little toggle that said switch to 100 percent stacked bar chart.

[00:35:19] Um, which I love as well, but now there's another option. Which people have been asking for since interfaces came out, um, if you've been using air table for a long time, and we're familiar with the chart extension that predates interfaces, you did have this option in the chart extension slash you do, you can still use it where you can choose to stack it or not.

[00:35:43] And that was missing from interfaces when interfaces came out. So people were like, I want that back. And now we have it back, which is great. So by default, it goes with standard, which is stacking your results. So it's going to show each of those colors, one on top of each other. [00:36:00] And then if you switch it to none.

[00:36:02] You'll see them next to each other. So you can see the real proportion of all of those numbers. Um, let's reset these. So now you can see there's other stacked or other groups rather. Um, and I also really love the 100%. Which I think we've already talked about at least once before, but this is nice because it'll show you the, you know, relative proportion of each 1 of your groups, um, across all of the bars here and it always just looks so pretty if I change this to department.

[00:36:42] Can't remember which one is colored. I think this one's colored. Yeah. I just think they look so pretty. 

[00:36:48] Dan Fellars: Yeah. 

[00:36:51] Alli Alosa: Absolutely. But so yeah, more flexibility with charts and with the number element and you can do all sorts of fun things with [00:37:00] your colors, which I'm always excited about. 

[00:37:05] Dan Fellars: Very cool. Yeah. So if you want to see relativeness, you can use understacked if you want to see.

[00:37:12] Um, actual amounts than the standard or the none. Yeah. 

[00:37:19] Alli Alosa: And that looks nice. There 

[00:37:21] Dan Fellars: you 

[00:37:21] Alli Alosa: go. Yeah. 

[00:37:22] Dan Fellars: Yeah. Remember 

[00:37:24] Alli Alosa: that bucket by year instead. 

[00:37:29] Dan Fellars: So what's, what's still missing in charts? 

[00:37:33] Alli Alosa: Oh, there's a few things. Um, I do love that you can have more than one y axis now, which is really nice. Um, and you can have, uh, where is it?

[00:37:48] Do do do. You can even have more than one field on your y axis, which is also great. Haven't really been able to use it [00:38:00] the way I want to, but, uh, Bye. Bye. I'm not sure what's going on there. There's, you know, I, oh, the one thing I really would like is if you are doing the scatterplot, it always, it always reduces you down to just one dot.

[00:38:24] Like, and in the chart extension, it doesn't. Like, if you used a scatterplot in the chart extension, it would show you a point for every single Record, which I would really love because I was trying to find, like, the distribution of something the other day and, like, get a feel for where all of my things are plotted.

[00:38:42] And it kept averaging it out. And I, I don't know, I would really love to be able to see the individual plot. Interesting. Other than that, they've made. Leaps and bounds. I am very happy with where charts are at, at the moment. 

[00:38:59] Dan Fellars: Yeah, [00:39:00] that's good. Awesome. Thank you, Allie, for keeping us up to date on interfaces.

[00:39:10] Okay. We're going pretty, pretty quickly here throughout.

[00:39:14] BUILTONAIR AIRTABLE COMMUNITY - 00:39:14

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[00:39:58] FIELD FOCUS - 00:40:03

[00:39:59] [00:40:00] Okay. This one is more than a field. I need it. I need a new screen, a new, a new segment for things like this, but managed apps and components. This is enterprise only. So you can find it in the admin panel. If you're an enterprise user. Um, I believe on either tier. So my understanding is that the business is also kind of considered enterprise.

[00:40:26] So this I think is available on business. Is that is that correct? Ellie? 

[00:40:31] Alli Alosa: Uh, yeah, I believe most of the time when I've heard them say it's only available for enterprise. I still can see it, except I I don't see it for a 

[00:40:41] Dan Fellars: business. Adapting components right here. So maybe it's, so they have business and then enterprise scale.

[00:40:47] So it might be enterprise scale on above. that this is available to. So basically within here, there's two, there's two things, a managed app and components. [00:41:00] And they're pretty much the same thing. The main difference is a managed app is everything. So everything inside of a base is locked in and you kind of, you don't, you don't break it into smaller pieces.

[00:41:13] It's an all or nothing. If you just care about certain things, and we'll talk about what those things are. And you just want to replicate, uh, a set of fields or a set of tables, um, or automations or specific interfaces, then you can break those into components and just have managed components. So managed app is basically all of the components inside of a base.

[00:41:41] Whereas components, you can break it down into more modular things that can be shared. And what this means is you can, you can have a base that is your definition of that app or those components, and then you can publish them into this sort of global [00:42:00] management environment. And then those can then get deployed into new bases, um, or new workspaces.

[00:42:10] And anything that's managed within here can't be modified. It's, it's as if it was like a synced. You know, data field or something. Um, it can only be modified in the managed, um, app or managed components element to it. So it's a way to, for enterprise users, if you've got lots of users, but you want to, um, lock down certain functionality and say, everybody use this and not give them the ability to, to modify those things, then you can centralize the, the management.

[00:42:44] So. Very useful in an enterprise use case, um, where you don't want everybody, you know, messing with your components or, or bases, things like that. Um, so that's how it works. So we're going to walk us through. So basically you, the [00:43:00] main thing is you can, you can use an existing base, um, and then make it, turn it into a managed app.

[00:43:08] Um, so what you would do, but you do have to start here. So you start here and you go to publish a managed app. Give it a name and then a description and then right here is where you toggle. So if you don't toggle this, it will create a new app or a new base that you then use to work from. Or if you click this, then you can select an existing app that then becomes your, your source for your managed.

[00:43:36] Your managed app. So I'm going to go here. I'm going to click on this one. This is one I've already created. And this shows me, um, the link to it that we'll go to in a second. It kind of gives me a sense of, um, what's in here in the content. You can kind of see. The tables that are associated with it. So any table in the base, any automations and any [00:44:00] interfaces that are published.

[00:44:02] Um, so this is kind of nice, even even just to see like, oh, here's a good overview of everything going on inside of a base. Um, so it kind of maps the same layers. So you have your data layer, your tables, that's essentially your data layer, your automations and your interfaces, um, forms. I don't know if forms are considered managed.

[00:44:28] They don't show up here. We'll have to test that. 

[00:44:30] Alli Alosa: Yeah. Interesting. 

[00:44:32] Dan Fellars: Okay, so we'll, we'll see. Um, we're gonna click on this and so now we're inside our managed, um, our actual managed app. And, um, the main difference that you'll see right here. Is this dropdown. And so it tells us that this is our development app and we're in development mode.

[00:44:52] And so any changes that we make, um, so if we just want to create a new field, it's, [00:45:00] it, it's only, um, created, oh, I've already done that. It's only created in our development environment. Um, and so what we have to do, and there's two ways you could do it. Um, And one thing you'll notice is this, this icon change colors.

[00:45:20] So that tells me, um, that something has been updated or, um, yeah, added to the space. And it tells me, uh, 1 field has been, uh, Added. So there's an update used to this. And so this icon here will show in a second. So anyway, you make all your changes that you want to your environment, either at the data layer, the automation layer or the interface layer.

[00:45:48] And then, um, you can click on this publish to library. You can also click on this dropdown and publish to library, or you can click on this, and this takes [00:46:00] you, um, to that managed app.

[00:46:06] Let's see, which is interesting. This is different. Uh, yeah. Okay. So here's a little bit more information on it. Um, so let's go back. To our base. And yeah, so if we, so then if we want to publish it, it will tell us, okay, you're publishing data. You're going to publish a new field. If I've made changes to automation or interface, those would show up as well.

[00:46:40] Um, this is kind of the general overall information about the managed app, um, and who it's available to. So you can specify this is available to any creator. Okay. Um, in here or, um, or specific to user groups or [00:47:00] everyone at my company. And then I can just now publish the update. And now, um, now it shows me that, uh, I shouldn't have anything.

[00:47:10] I think I need to refresh the page. That doesn't, uh, showcase there. Hmm. Still showing. Oh, never mind. This is something different. What this is showing is I'm actually using a component from the library added to the space. Um, and and so, so this is, uh, let me I'll get to that when we talk about components.

[00:47:39] So, yeah, so ignore this button. So right now we're just in our managed app and we just deployed a change and we can do that. Um, and then let's see if we go here and we've got our managed app. [00:48:00] And in order to use it, um,

[00:48:07] let's see. So I believe in order to use it, we have to come here and, um, essentially create a new from the template and app. So create Templates and apps. And then inside of our app library, we can create from the managed app. So this is how you repurpose the app that you've created. So now if I were to create this.

[00:48:43] This tells me what's in it, which is really nice. Now I can add this. Um,

[00:48:54] okay. And, uh, let's do this. Now we're going to create a new [00:49:00] app. And what we'll see is nothing is, is configurable, um, inside of here. Because it's all configured. And you see, I don't have that dropdown showing me that I'm in development mode. Um, and so now you see it looks like you can rename the fields, but you can't modify the configuration because it's managed by your organization can't be deleted.

[00:49:25] And some changes are restricted, but you can add new fields, which is interesting. So. You can expand beyond the managed base, um, to do that. But so you can rename, you can't change configuration automations. Um, uh, let's see, can I update automations? No, no. So you can't update automations, but you can create new ones.

[00:49:58] So you, you can expand beyond [00:50:00] the managed app, but you can't, uh, modify what, what is managed as part of the 

[00:50:04] Alli Alosa: app. 

[00:50:07] Dan Fellars: So that's pretty cool. Um, yeah, we'll have to test if forms get synced over it. Don't think they do. So forms might be separate. 

[00:50:20] Alli Alosa: That's interesting. 

[00:50:23] Dan Fellars: Yeah, so that's that. So the main difference, like I mentioned, for a component, um, is, you know, it's just one piece of an app.

[00:50:34] And so, like this, this, I thought was interesting. I remember somebody, um, uh, if you If you're international, um, and you like always deal in your currency, it's a pain to have to go to every currency field and update it. Or if you're in a time zone and any date field, you want to, um, always have them locked down to, to your time zone.[00:51:00] 

[00:51:00] You could create a field. That has that configuration and then just tell people to use that field from the component library and then it's configured with your way and you don't have to reconfigure it every time. Um, and so I'll show how you can do that. So if we go back to our base and if I were to click on this.

[00:51:22] There is now this fields from library option. And so now you can click on this and my field, um, comes from this test component and it's a date field and it's configured for the, the settings, uh, East coast time zone and the settings that I want. And then you can just specify your own name. Um, for that date field.

[00:51:46] Um, and then you're good to go. So it's a way to, like, predefine fields, put them into your component library, and then just remember to instead of creating a new one from here, just [00:52:00] get fields from library as well. And that works for, um, let's see, I haven't done an automation. Um, let's see. I wonder if, okay, so it doesn't have the icon there.

[00:52:21] How would you get an automation? I'm a component maybe cause I don't have any, 

[00:52:27] Alli Alosa: right. Where do you create the components? Is that all from the admin panel? 

[00:52:32] Dan Fellars: So you have to, you have to at least define, um, uh, let's call it, let's do a test one.

[00:52:47] Okay. Um, let's create from existing. Let's do it from here. Okay. So now I'm going to create, which is kind of crazy. This is. This [00:53:00] is, um, synced with a managed app, and I'm turning it into a component. Um, so you have to create it, you have to define it here, and then now it took me to there. And now it's turned this into a development, um, base.

[00:53:21] And, um, let's see here. So now if I want to publish to library. Okay, fine. So in order to do anything. Other than data, uh, or structure, um, or just fields you do custom, you can now pick your, your automation. So what if we just did, Oh, and it does have to take your data cause your automation, it's actually smart enough to know what automations, what tables this automation references, and it [00:54:00] automatically will include those.

[00:54:02] Um, and so now I'm published as an automation, um, Let's go to, let's go to here, see if I can install an automation.

[00:54:25] Um, so it doesn't, let's see. 

[00:54:32] Alli Alosa: If you just add a trigger for that, I think it'll change your little sidebar. Yeah. Yeah. And then, let's see,

[00:54:49] Dan Fellars: um, let's see.

[00:54:57] Screen, our data layer [00:55:00] and um, so to get a table. Yeah. So we might, maybe we have to do the table and let's see you library. Let's go. All components. Hmm. So it doesn't show that. Oh, there it is. Let's see if it adds or automation. So here, I guess. Okay. So you have to add the table data, um, and then add component.

[00:55:29] So that's how you get the automation. And there we go. 

[00:55:33] Alli Alosa: Okay. 

[00:55:34] Dan Fellars: So, and probably similar for interfaces. I don't think, let's see, can you add an interface? So these templates are the default, um, prebuilt ones by Airtable. Let's see. Can I add interface? Yeah, I don't think so. It must work the same way. You have to [00:56:00] add the data first and then it will automatically add the interfaces attached to that component.

[00:56:05] Alli Alosa: So 

[00:56:08] Dan Fellars: there you go. All right. So that kind of is You know, I think it is really useful, especially for a multi department team, um, and, um, being able to manage centralize your components. Um, the bad part is, is there are times where you're like, I want to, um, you know, kind of take ownership of it. And let me. I believe you can, you can, um, let me see.

[00:56:43] Can I, um, see this table can't be deleted and some changes. I thought there was a way to like remove it from [00:57:00] being managed. Um, but maybe not, 

[00:57:05] Alli Alosa: maybe in the admin panel. 

[00:57:08] Dan Fellars: Yeah, let's see here. Okay. Oh, there we go. Convert to unmanaged. That's where it is. Okay. So inside the library right here, you can convert it to unmanaged.

[00:57:18] So if I do that, then it basically now everything becomes as if it was installed by scratch. And so now is 

[00:57:27] Alli Alosa: that restricted, like that option to Just the person that created the component or just the like workspace owner. Cause that would kind of defeat the purpose if you like launch it out and then anybody can just say, Nope, this is mine now.

[00:57:45] Or like, 

[00:57:46] Dan Fellars: that's a good question. I don't know the answer to that. Um, yeah, we, maybe we'll test that out. 

[00:57:53] Alli Alosa: I would assume so, but we'll see. 

[00:57:56] Dan Fellars: Yep. Yeah. If anybody knows, let us know. [00:58:00] Yeah. I didn't see in the, in the management of these, like a way to, um, to lock it, you can lock down who can install it. 

[00:58:16] Alli Alosa: Yeah. 

[00:58:18] Dan Fellars: Yeah. So maybe, so you could, my guess is whoever can install it can uninstall it.

[00:58:26] Um, so if you lock down who can install it, then that will make those people could uninstall. 

[00:58:33] Alli Alosa: That makes sense. I think. 

[00:58:36] Dan Fellars: Yeah. So that's managed apps and components. Um, It's definitely something, yeah, I know we work with some pretty large companies that, that could benefit from this. And so we're starting to incorporate it into our workflows going forward.

[00:58:54] Alli Alosa: Yeah. I could see the components being very useful. Like what you described is like, if [00:59:00] you're sick of, you know, every time you had a date field, having to reconfigure it or a currency field or whatever it might be that, that I could see being super useful, the app thing. Within an organization to me, I'm, I'm having trouble seeing the.

[00:59:16] Like benefit of it as where it stands right now, only because it's like, it doesn't come with, I mean, maybe it could come with the data itself, but it's like, doesn't that just kind of encourage people to silo their data more where it's like, I'm going to create, like, I'm going to use this app that somebody built, but I'm going to have only this data in it.

[00:59:35] And then someone else has it over here with different data in it. And it just, I don't know, I I'm, I'm, I'm sure there'll be more added to it and it'll become more clear what the. 

[00:59:49] Dan Fellars: Yeah, right, right. Yeah, with the, yeah, because I could see it being a challenge of like. I think maybe it's a good starting point [01:00:00] for like a mini app inside of a big base where if you want to like standardize to have an interface that, you know, displays all this information or something, um, so you could standardize around that.

[01:00:12] But at some point. It'll be like, okay, I need to make this my own now inside of the space. So I need to unmanage it. And then you kind of lose some of those benefits. Yeah. So anyways, let us know how you're going to plan to use it and use cases for it. Excited to see how that develops. And that concludes today's episode, episode one of season 20.

[01:00:37] So we'll be back for, you know, Eight episodes in total for this season that'll take us through October and November. Um, we still have one or two openings for guests to come on the show for this season. So, uh, we'd love to see new faces. If you haven't been on the show before, or it's been a while, come back and join us.

[01:00:56] Give us an update. We'd love to hear from you and see what you're building. [01:01:00] And until next week, we will see you then. Take care.

[01:01:20] OUTRO - 01:01:22

[01:01:21] for joining today's episode. We hope you enjoyed it. Be sure to check out our sponsor onto our backups, automated backups for air table. We'll see you next time on the built on air podcast.