11/29/2022 – BuiltOnAir Live Podcast Full Show – S12-E11
Duration: 60 minutes
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FULL EPISODE VIDEO
Watch the full video of the show. See below for segment details.
The BuiltOnAir Podcast is Sponsored by On2Air – Integrations and App extensions to run your business operations in Airtable.
In This Episode
Welcome to the BuiltOnAir Podcast, the live show. The BuiltOnAir Podcast is a live weekly show highlighting everything happening in the Airtable world.
Check us out at BuiltOnAir.com. Join our community, join our Slack Channel, and meet your fellow Airtable fans.
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 – 00:03:57 –
Meet the Creators – 00:28:06 –
Meet Alex Tellez.
Alex Tellez works with Sterling Administration, an independent health savings accounts administrator
Base Showcase – 00:37:10 –
We dive into a full working base that will This 2 part demo will showcase how to do both 1-way and 2-way chatbot messaging within Airtable with your customers.
Field Focus – 00:57:46 –
A deep dive into the Displaying commas in number fields Currency Fields – Using a currency field instead of number field allows for comma based formatting.
Full Segment Details
Segment: Round The Bases
Start Time: 00:03:57
Roundup of what’s happening in the Airtable communities – Airtable, BuiltOnAir, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Segment: Meet the Creators
Start Time: 00:28:06
Alex Tellez –
Meet Alex Tellez.
Alex Tellez works with Sterling Administration, an independent health savings accounts administrator
Segment: Base Showcase
Start Time: 00:37:10
Chatbot Messaging in Airtable
We dive into a full working base that will This 2 part demo will showcase how to do both 1-way and 2-way chatbot messaging within Airtable with your customers.
Segment: Field Focus
Start Time: 00:57:46
Learn about the Displaying commas in number fields – Using a currency field instead of number field allows for comma based formatting.
A deep dive into the Displaying commas in number fields Currency Fields – Using a currency field instead of number field allows for comma based formatting.
Full Transcription
The full transcription for the show can be found here:
[00:01:43] All right, welcome back [00:01:45] to BuiltOnAir podcast. [00:01:47] Season 12, [00:01:48] episode 11. Good to be back with you. [00:01:51] We were off last week for the holidays and [00:01:53] and excited to be back again, [00:01:57] myself Dan Fellars [00:01:59] and Alli Alosa [00:02:01] regular home back [00:02:04] actually be a [00:02:06] familiar [00:02:07] podcast regular Scott [00:02:12] hey there, [00:02:14] but the s out [00:02:17] Alex, it's [00:02:20] last name, [00:02:22] have you on the show with us today. [00:02:26] Nice to be here. [00:02:29] I think I'm having [00:02:30] good, I think I was having [00:02:32] some freezing issues but I think [00:02:34] I'm good now. [00:02:34] Good to have everybody with us. [00:02:36] We may have Kamille, [00:02:37] Kamille joining with us midway. [00:02:40] She's having internet issues at her home, [00:02:42] so she may be joining us. [00:02:44] But let's run through [00:02:46] what we're gonna be talking [00:02:47] about today. As always, [00:02:49] it's a one hour show, [00:02:51] talking about all things Airtable. [00:02:52] We always start off with [00:02:54] our Round the Bases, [00:02:56] keep you up to date on [00:02:57] everything [00:02:58] news related and what's going on [00:03:00] in the different communities [00:03:02] around Airtable. [00:03:02] Then we'll do a quick shout out to [00:03:05] On2Air our primary sponsor. [00:03:06] Then we're going to learn more [00:03:08] about Alex and his story [00:03:10] and how he came into the [00:03:11] world of Airtable [00:03:13] and then Alex and Scott [00:03:15] are gonna show us some show, [00:03:17] so I was thinking as text messaging, [00:03:20] but it's really more chat messaging using [00:03:23] Airtable for chat messaging [00:03:25] and how that works in Airtable [00:03:28] and a live chat messaging system. [00:03:31] So we'll dive into [00:03:33] the world of chat messaging [00:03:35] and then a quick shout out to [00:03:37] how to join our community [00:03:38] if you're not already in [00:03:39] it. And then finally Scott's [00:03:42] gonna walk through [00:03:43] using currency and number [00:03:45] fields and show us a cool hack [00:03:48] around fields. [00:03:49] So with that we'll start with [00:03:52] Round the Bases and [00:03:55] not a whole lot going on. [00:03:57] I actually only have [00:03:58] two things to share both [00:04:00] airtable specific, [00:04:01] so I think it's been a little bit [00:04:03] quiet maybe because of [00:04:04] holidays, but the first thing is, [00:04:07] is the community is moving. [00:04:09] If you go to the community.airtable.com, [00:04:12] you'll see it's in read only [00:04:14] mode, so they're working right now [00:04:17] it looks like on December 1st, [00:04:19] which is a couple of days away, [00:04:21] they will have a new site on a whole new [00:04:23] platform. [00:04:25] I know Scott, you've got [00:04:27] opinions on this, what do you think? [00:04:30] I was just I don't know, [00:04:32] I really love the discourse [00:04:34] community forum. I love [00:04:35] how user friendly the software is, [00:04:37] how inviting it is, they've got those cool [00:04:39] leaderboards, [00:04:40] it's really easy to follow threads and [00:04:43] and, you know, [00:04:44] all the preferences. So [00:04:45] I don't know, [00:04:46] I don't know if the new community can beat [00:04:49] everything that we already have. [00:04:50] I don't know, [00:04:51] I guess we're gonna find out. [00:04:54] Yeah. What do you think Alli? [00:04:56] Interesting I mean, [00:04:58] it'll be I have no idea [00:05:00] what the new platform is, [00:05:01] but I do agree, [00:05:03] I've really loved [00:05:04] discourse for the time [00:05:06] it's been around. [00:05:07] So, I mean, looking forward [00:05:09] to seeing what the new community [00:05:11] looks like. [00:05:15] Yeah, Kuovonne did us all a favor, [00:05:17] and she took snapshots of all the leaders, [00:05:19] all of the, [00:05:22] Kuovonne [00:05:24] thank you, Kuovonne. [00:05:27] To hold on to, yep. [00:05:30] A streak of consecutive days posting [00:05:35] 365 at least visiting. And so these [00:05:41] couple of days she's not able to post, [00:05:43] so that's broken her streak and I don't [00:05:45] know what she's doing [00:05:46] with all her free time. [00:05:49] Kuovonne, if you're watching, [00:05:50] let us know [00:05:51] what you're doing with all your free [00:05:52] time these couple days. [00:05:57] And Scott as well, [00:05:58] I think you're the top poster, [00:06:01] is that right? [00:06:02] Thank you. Yeah. [00:06:05] I was number one and Kuovonne [00:06:07] was number two. [00:06:08] Here it is, all time. Yeah, [00:06:11] Scott, Kuovonne, Justin, Bill, Kamille [00:06:13] Jeremy. So Jeremy, [00:06:14] we gotta get Jeremy on the show, [00:06:17] he's the top one we haven't [00:06:18] gotten on the show yet. [00:06:20] That's crazy that Van Hall, [00:06:22] who probably hasn't posted in two years, [00:06:25] is still in the leaderboard [00:06:26] that shows how much [00:06:28] he posted at one point. [00:06:30] It's amazing, interesting. So [00:06:33] yeah, we'll see. [00:06:34] So in a couple of days [00:06:35] it will be a new platform. [00:06:37] Hopefully, hopefully all your clout [00:06:39] carries over and [00:06:40] and you don't have to start [00:06:42] over from scratch. [00:06:45] Totally. They did say that all [00:06:47] the badges and leaderboards [00:06:49] stats would carry [00:06:50] over in their email, [00:06:51] I'm interested to see how it looks, [00:06:54] but they did say that, [00:06:55] I think very cool. [00:06:57] Yeah, I think the new platform [00:07:00] is called khoros [00:07:01] or something like that is that [00:07:06] K H O R O S Bill French found [00:07:08] some interesting information on that. [00:07:12] It's mostly mostly we don't know [00:07:15] if it's conspiracy, conjecture, or fact, [00:07:17] but khoros's parent company [00:07:20] is one of the primary [00:07:22] investors in Airtable. [00:07:24] Yeah, the relation between the khoros [00:07:28] community software and Airtable. [00:07:31] So that may be the reason for the move. [00:07:35] Could be could be we'll see. [00:07:38] All right, well the only other [00:07:41] big thing this is a little bit old. [00:07:43] We weren't on last week to [00:07:46] to talk about it, but Airtable made a big [00:07:49] announcement new A P I S [00:07:52] and new endpoints, [00:07:54] lots of new stuff on the [00:07:57] developer front was announced. [00:07:59] It's still in beta [00:08:01] but let's go through these. [00:08:03] So they're they're using [00:08:05] personal access tokens, [00:08:07] so that's basically the ability [00:08:10] to create multiple [00:08:11] api keys that you could [00:08:13] use on more granular control [00:08:15] over things although that there is some [00:08:19] confusion as to whether you could [00:08:22] use those in place of your api keys. [00:08:24] Somewhere in the documentation, [00:08:26] it says that you shouldn't [00:08:27] use those with third [00:08:28] party. That's more for [00:08:29] your internal use only. [00:08:31] But api key should [00:08:33] are being replaced by OAuth [00:08:36] so OAuth is in beta [00:08:38] and so that is a big change. [00:08:42] The big thing about OAuth [00:08:44] it is you can actually determine [00:08:47] which bases that you want [00:08:50] to give access to the [00:08:52] third party tools that [00:08:54] you're giving access to. [00:08:56] So and you can give access to [00:08:59] just read only [00:09:01] or write or updating fields, [00:09:03] things like that. [00:09:04] So you have more granular [00:09:06] control over who you're giving [00:09:07] permissions to your data. [00:09:09] So that is pretty cool. [00:09:11] You can also set things up [00:09:13] at the workspace level [00:09:15] so you can give access to like [00:09:17] just one workspace and any [00:09:19] base current or future [00:09:21] that's in that workspace [00:09:23] or everything overall. [00:09:24] So [00:09:25] that will be big [00:09:29] what else? [00:09:30] New api endpoints. [00:09:32] So they're adding more information. [00:09:35] New enterprise admin features. [00:09:39] So I don't know if anybody's [00:09:42] dove too much into this. [00:09:44] Any other commentary? [00:09:46] The comments api is exciting. [00:09:49] I know more and more [00:09:51] clients that are into [00:09:53] the comment feature [00:09:54] especially since they surfaced [00:09:56] that element in the [00:09:56] interfaces. And I love the updates [00:09:59] they've made recently that you know, [00:10:01] if you get a notification in your email, [00:10:03] it says so and so mentioned you in this [00:10:05] interface instead of bringing you [00:10:07] into the base, it brings you right to the [00:10:09] place where the person actually [00:10:11] wrote the comment [00:10:12] which is hugely beneficial. [00:10:13] But the api I mean, [00:10:15] something actually a client [00:10:17] pointed out to me [00:10:19] the other day is that [00:10:20] when you put the grid, [00:10:22] a grid view in an interface at one [00:10:24] point or another, they showed the [00:10:26] little numbers next to the each row to say [00:10:28] this row has two comments. [00:10:30] This row has three or whatever. [00:10:32] Those those numbers [00:10:33] are now gone. [00:10:34] So this comments and I get [00:10:36] I get why, I mean I think it makes [00:10:38] sense for security purposes. But [00:10:40] now with this api [00:10:42] you could at least, you know, [00:10:43] if a comment exists, [00:10:44] you could have a little flag [00:10:46] on that record saying [00:10:47] there are comments on this so [00:10:49] you don't have to expand [00:10:50] everything to look for it [00:10:52] if that makes sense. [00:10:53] Yeah, that's cool. [00:10:55] That's interesting. Yeah, [00:10:57] I've played a ton [00:10:59] with the web hooks and the new [00:11:01] personal access tokens [00:11:02] and very similar to what [00:11:03] you were saying with the OAuth [00:11:04] the new personal access tokens [00:11:06] are so cool [00:11:06] because you can choose specifically [00:11:08] which bases you want access to [00:11:10] and with the and you can specify [00:11:13] what actual permissions you want, [00:11:15] like whether it's reading [00:11:17] or writing [00:11:18] or there's a couple other things as well. [00:11:20] You know, for the web hooks, [00:11:22] whether you're monitoring [00:11:23] table changes or data [00:11:24] changes. So it's very, very powerful. [00:11:29] They don't even list web hooks [00:11:31] in this one. But yeah, [00:11:32] web hooks is part of this [00:11:33] release, [00:11:35] interesting. [00:11:36] Yeah. One thing that's kind of interesting [00:11:39] if you can get into the technical [00:11:40] weeds of web hooks [00:11:41] if you don't get overwhelmed [00:11:43] by the technical nature because [00:11:44] there's no there's no front end to it. [00:11:47] You have to get into it yourself, [00:11:49] you know, through other means [00:11:52] if you as a user of Airtable [00:11:54] are not, you [00:11:55] know, put off by the technical elements [00:11:58] the web hooks are a very interesting [00:12:00] way to work around the limitations [00:12:02] of Airtable's automation runs. [00:12:05] So because there's no limitation [00:12:08] to how many times [00:12:10] you can trigger a web hook, [00:12:12] so it's [00:12:14] it's almost identical to the [00:12:16] automation with a lot more power, [00:12:18] but it has that little loophole [00:12:20] where you can work around [00:12:21] the automation runs. [00:12:22] Yeah, it also tells you [00:12:24] when records are deleted, [00:12:26] which there's no other way to [00:12:29] do that really. [00:12:30] So that's a powerful addition. [00:12:33] That is correct. [00:12:34] That is correct. [00:12:35] Of course, now that I've mentioned [00:12:36] the loophole on this podcast, [00:12:37] they're gonna close that loophole. [00:12:40] I think that's the whole point [00:12:42] of web hooks. [00:12:43] So I doubt that they would close [00:12:45] that. [00:12:47] But the other thing to mention [00:12:49] is there's now a new web [00:12:51] web documentation for [00:12:52] all their api stuff. [00:12:54] So this is pretty nice. [00:12:57] I know you gave them some kudos [00:12:59] for this new layout. [00:13:04] Yeah, so you can break out [00:13:06] so you can see everything. [00:13:08] And and the meta api is also part of this. [00:13:11] So now that that's publicly [00:13:13] that used to be required [00:13:15] additional approval [00:13:17] from Airtable to get that. [00:13:20] And so that and they they [00:13:22] actually added more to the meta api [00:13:24] that wasn't there before. [00:13:25] So now you can actually create [00:13:27] a base via the api [00:13:29] before you could just do [00:13:30] tables and [00:13:32] fields. There are some limits. [00:13:34] Some fields you still can't do, [00:13:37] especially formula fields. [00:13:39] That's like the one big thing [00:13:41] with the meta api once [00:13:42] you can do a full base replication, [00:13:45] that's a game changer. [00:13:49] But nothing around, [00:13:51] there's no api for interfaces [00:13:54] or automations those are [00:13:56] those are two api's [00:13:58] that would be cool [00:13:59] if they ever add that functionality [00:14:01] to be able to create interfaces [00:14:03] dynamically through an api, [00:14:05] that would be crazy [00:14:06] that [00:14:07] would be incredible. [00:14:09] Yeah I was very very surprised [00:14:10] to see that they added the [00:14:12] create a base feature [00:14:13] which I think we have just been [00:14:15] talking in the forums just [00:14:16] like two weeks prior [00:14:17] when we were telling people [00:14:19] that that's not a part of the api [00:14:20] then boom it was a surprise [00:14:22] and you're right [00:14:23] and you cannot create any formula fields [00:14:25] or anything that's [00:14:26] like a formula like field [00:14:28] like roll up fields for example, [00:14:30] you can't create. [00:14:32] Right, right. [00:14:35] Yeah. So yeah that that's still missing. [00:14:39] But yeah, once, I mean this gets you [00:14:42] a whole lot closer to you know, [00:14:45] being able to build [00:14:47] true apps in Airtable and [00:14:50] I wonder it's a matter of time [00:14:52] before this gets abused of people creating [00:14:54] millions of bases [00:14:55] because they don't charge [00:14:57] you per base. Right? [00:14:58] So you could you could literally [00:15:00] generate a million bases. [00:15:04] I don't know if there is [00:15:05] some kind of cut off [00:15:07] but it says unlimited on the [00:15:08] pricing page [00:15:10] who's up for the challenge [00:15:12] to see if they really mean unlimited? [00:15:15] I'll nominate bill. [00:15:17] I bet bill is working on that [00:15:19] Bill or Kuovonne, maybe. [00:15:21] Yeah, Kuovonne, Kuovonne [00:15:24] yeah, I will say [00:15:26] Kuovonne's commenting in here. [00:15:28] She has used personal tokens [00:15:30] as a substitute for [00:15:31] an api key. Yeah, [00:15:33] I know it's possible, [00:15:34] but their documentation says they don't [00:15:37] want you to or they don't prefer you do. [00:15:40] She also mentions web hooks give [00:15:42] you previous values, [00:15:44] which is awesome. [00:15:45] So that is really cool as well. [00:15:47] Yeah, that's huge. That's huge. [00:15:52] Previous to that, [00:15:53] you need to do some crazy workarounds [00:15:56] to like save the old [00:15:57] value and compare it to the new one. And [00:16:00] that's the tricky part about web hooks [00:16:03] is their only live for seven days. [00:16:05] You have to refresh it [00:16:07] within seven days, otherwise it just dies. [00:16:10] And I don't know if that's just [00:16:12] for the beta or if that's the plan to be [00:16:14] when it rolls out or not. [00:16:16] I'm not sure. I think Yeah, [00:16:18] I was talking with Sean [00:16:19] keenan about that. [00:16:20] He's the he's one of the guys [00:16:22] that was working on the api [00:16:23] stuff and he made it seem to me [00:16:25] that that would be a [00:16:26] permanent feature of it [00:16:27] that they would expire after seven days. [00:16:30] But what you can do is, [00:16:31] you can just like set, [00:16:32] you know, whatever tool you're using [00:16:34] to access those web [00:16:35] hooks. You know, [00:16:36] whether it's javascript or, [00:16:38] you know, make.com or whatever. [00:16:39] You can just set like a daily repeating [00:16:42] automation that just does a ping [00:16:45] to refresh it like once a day. [00:16:47] I mean at most you have to do [00:16:49] at the least you'd have [00:16:50] to do it once a week. [00:16:51] But on the safe side you may want [00:16:53] to just refresh it once once a day, [00:16:55] which is kind of silly. [00:16:56] If they've got all these people [00:16:58] pinging them to refresh [00:17:00] it, they should just have keep [00:17:02] alive setting when you create it, [00:17:04] you know, and that will save them [00:17:07] from getting all these refresh pings. [00:17:10] That's true. I wonder if they're doing it [00:17:12] because when you do call the web hook, [00:17:14] it actually gives you all the information [00:17:17] historically through time that that [00:17:19] web hook has ever received. [00:17:21] And and you can and each [00:17:23] each call is labeled by a cursor number. [00:17:25] So you can say, I only want the [00:17:28] information from cursor number 17 onwards. [00:17:32] And so maybe they're expiring them [00:17:34] so they don't run out of disk space [00:17:36] eventually because the web hooks, [00:17:38] it's not like the web hooks [00:17:40] just send you the [00:17:40] information [00:17:41] and then delete that information. [00:17:43] That information is permanently [00:17:45] stored in that [00:17:45] web hook. [00:17:46] So maybe they're doing that because [00:17:49] they were worried about too much [00:17:51] storage taking place, I don't know. Yeah, [00:17:56] interesting. So yeah, [00:17:58] it's, it'll be [00:17:59] it'll be interesting to see what this [00:18:02] does to open up, you know, new innovation. [00:18:06] I've I know I've been thinking of [00:18:08] ways to take our applications [00:18:10] actually talk a little bit [00:18:12] about that in the [00:18:13] On2Air demo [00:18:14] but it definitely opens up Airtable [00:18:17] to be more of a true platform, [00:18:19] all of these new functionalities. [00:18:22] So we'll see what [00:18:24] what creators do with it, [00:18:26] any other final comments? [00:18:28] Any anything I've missed [00:18:31] on updates from the communities? [00:18:34] I think in relation to this, [00:18:36] I'm not sure if it was [00:18:39] released prior to it or [00:18:40] along with all of this [00:18:42] and I know it's an enterprise only [00:18:44] feature but there's [00:18:45] now you can have like an access [00:18:47] only account. [00:18:48] I haven't been able to find it [00:18:50] but it's [00:18:52] and I have not taken advantage [00:18:54] of it yet [00:18:55] but I can see where it would be useful [00:18:57] to like set up an account that says, [00:18:59] okay this is gonna be my [00:19:01] access account for [00:19:02] my Zapier api and so [00:19:04] you don't have to worry about [00:19:06] like having that api [00:19:07] key be associated with a person [00:19:10] that may leave [00:19:11] and then you are left with a [00:19:12] bunch of broken zaps [00:19:14] that you need to reconnect. [00:19:17] I think I think they called it [00:19:19] an access only account. [00:19:20] I'm not sure I had the [00:19:21] documentation up the other day [00:19:23] but I'll dig around for it and find it. [00:19:26] Well that's interesting. [00:19:27] I didn't know about that. [00:19:28] That would be extremely [00:19:29] helpful. Absolutely. [00:19:31] Are they Service, service accounts? Yes. [00:19:34] Service account. That's what it's called. [00:19:36] Yeah. I don't [00:19:38] know if they're in here. [00:19:43] Let me see. I've got it somewhere. [00:19:48] But yeah, I think that [00:19:49] would be super, super useful [00:19:51] for sure. [00:19:53] So they've got the [00:19:56] personal access tokens. [00:19:59] Yeah, it says service for enterprise [00:20:02] for enterprise admin, service accounts set [00:20:04] up service accounts as non user [00:20:06] accounts for integrations and other uses. [00:20:09] But I that was copied and pasted [00:20:11] into my slack somewhere [00:20:13] and I'm not sure where [00:20:14] it was copied and pasted. [00:20:16] Is that something that was [00:20:18] that's in beta? That you're using? [00:20:20] I'm not using it yet. [00:20:21] It was something that [00:20:23] one of my clients like pointed out [00:20:24] to me and was like, [00:20:26] we should look at this [00:20:27] and I was like, yeah we should. [00:20:29] Haven't yet. [00:20:31] Yeah, no, that would [00:20:33] definitely be helpful, [00:20:36] awesome. So yeah, this [00:20:38] there's other limitations [00:20:40] like with web hooks, [00:20:42] it's like [00:20:44] six web hooks per base or something. [00:20:49] Pretty low limit [00:20:50] and that might be just during beta. [00:20:53] Yeah, no, they're actually, [00:20:55] I think they're sticking with the limit. [00:20:57] I asked about that as well and I think [00:20:58] the current limit is 10. [00:21:03] So that that's kind of a problem. [00:21:05] I mean I mean it's only a problem [00:21:07] if you're if [00:21:08] you're gonna be, if you plan [00:21:10] on being a heavy web hook user [00:21:11] then then it could [00:21:12] be a problem for you. [00:21:13] It's not a problem for me. [00:21:15] But it could be for [00:21:16] somebody [00:21:20] Oh, [00:21:21] Kuovonne said in the chat that [00:21:23] there is a limit of 500 bases [00:21:25] per workspace. [00:21:27] Interesting. [00:21:32] So it's not unlimited, like they state. [00:21:37] I don't know, is there anywhere [00:21:39] that counts how many bases you have? [00:21:41] Like under your storage? [00:21:43] Does it tell you the number of bases? [00:21:44] Because I don't even know, [00:21:46] I've never seen that. I don't know. [00:21:48] I would love to know. [00:21:49] I'd love to, [00:21:50] let's start a thread about how [00:21:51] many bases people have [00:21:54] in their workspaces, I want to know. [00:21:58] This is interesting. I don't think I [00:22:00] noticed this, web hooks created with user [00:22:03] api keys will not expire, [00:22:05] but are restricted usage [00:22:07] on enterprise plan users. [00:22:09] Oh, and we'll be deprecating. [00:22:11] Oh, so that's like the [00:22:14] old api keys. Gotcha. [00:22:18] Yeah, I was I did the same [00:22:19] thing you did. [00:22:20] I was so excited by that last sentence [00:22:22] and then I got to the part. [00:22:23] Oh, and they'll be deprecated. [00:22:24] So we better not go down the path. [00:22:26] So I think that's just yeah, [00:22:28] because legacy web hooks [00:22:29] was available on the enterprise plan. [00:22:31] So they're basically saying [00:22:33] like those will still work [00:22:35] for the time being. [00:22:38] Yeah, more from Kuovonne, [00:22:39] expiring web hooks makes sense [00:22:41] for web hooks that [00:22:42] people create to try [00:22:44] and then never actually use [00:22:46] definitely true. [00:22:50] so yeah, good stuff coming. [00:22:52] I think this will, [00:22:53] we'll see lots of innovation. [00:22:55] And excited for that. So [00:22:57] that kind of concludes [00:22:59] what's going what's new, [00:23:01] relatively quiet, but [00:23:02] that was definitely a big update [00:23:05] that you know we'll [00:23:06] see how long they haven't said [00:23:08] how long the beta is. [00:23:09] Have they have they set a [00:23:10] date when it's out of beta? [00:23:13] I don't think so. [00:23:14] Yeah so maybe a few months before [00:23:17] that goes out [00:23:19] and one more from Kuovonne [00:23:21] enterprise service account's [00:23:22] an account that is not [00:23:23] tied to a user. It's also free [00:23:26] free if you're on enterprise. [00:23:29] All right, very good. [00:23:32] Let's move on to [00:23:34] On2Air our primary sponsor, [00:23:36] On2Air is an all in one toolkit [00:23:38] that run that helps you [00:23:39] run your business on [00:23:40] Airtable. If you rely on [00:23:42] Airtable for your business, [00:23:44] you need to be checking out [00:23:46] On2Air for all the suite of apps [00:23:49] that we have. [00:23:49] Today I want to talk about our backups app [00:23:53] and maybe pull the curtain back [00:23:55] a little bit of you know some behind the [00:23:59] scenes of running a business [00:24:00] that's dependent on Airtable [00:24:02] and some of the [00:24:03] joys of what you get to deal with. [00:24:06] So as most people know so we have a [00:24:09] backups application that helps you [00:24:11] back up all your data and it will store it [00:24:13] into box dropbox and google drive [00:24:16] and it'll back up your data and your [00:24:20] attachments. [00:24:21] So as you know we've talked [00:24:23] a lot about changes [00:24:24] that Airtable made with [00:24:26] expiring URLs for attachments [00:24:29] and so we knew this was coming. [00:24:32] We we did some prep work [00:24:33] to try to prepare for it. [00:24:35] But Airtable didn't really [00:24:37] give us like you couldn't beta [00:24:39] like sign up for it [00:24:41] and so we really didn't know [00:24:43] what the behavior was going to be [00:24:46] until it actually the switch was flipped [00:24:48] and so we thought we would [00:24:50] be in a pretty good case [00:24:52] or a situation to to handle [00:24:53] it. Unfortunately that was not the case. [00:24:56] After a couple of weeks of kind of [00:24:57] reviewing what the new behavior [00:25:00] was with with expiring [00:25:01] URLs we found [00:25:03] that we were not fully prepared for [00:25:06] for that change and it definitely had an [00:25:09] impact on how we backed up [00:25:11] especially the attachments [00:25:13] and really just how they worked [00:25:15] in conjunction with the destinations. [00:25:18] Dropbox in particular had some [00:25:21] just odd behavior that [00:25:23] that we didn't foresee. [00:25:25] So actually just at the beginning of this [00:25:29] this podcast we sent out an email to [00:25:31] anybody that was impacted. [00:25:33] We did have some delays [00:25:35] in backing up our [00:25:37] attachments and we had to [00:25:39] rework our code to [00:25:40] to better support the new expiring URLs [00:25:43] and because of that we have a [00:25:45] huge backlog of attachments that [00:25:47] that's still that we're actually retrying. [00:25:50] We don't know for certain [00:25:51] how many actually got backed up [00:25:53] so we decided to [00:25:54] just re back up all of the attachments [00:25:57] since the change which means we have [00:26:00] weeks worth of of attachments [00:26:02] that need to be backed up [00:26:04] and it takes quite a [00:26:05] long time for that. [00:26:06] So if you're a customer [00:26:08] of our backups I apologize for [00:26:10] the inconvenience but we're working on it [00:26:13] and it'll take a few days for the [00:26:15] backlog to clear out [00:26:17] and we'll get everything backed up [00:26:19] and stored and we're now [00:26:21] prepared for the future with [00:26:24] with this new approach and dealing with it [00:26:27] when those you URLs expire. [00:26:30] And but the good thing about it and [00:26:33] in conjunction with all these new changes [00:26:35] the Airtable is doing [00:26:37] we're working on the next iteration [00:26:40] of backups to be [00:26:42] able to back up your comments [00:26:44] with your data. [00:26:45] So that's a new feature we're [00:26:47] working on. [00:26:48] It will probably be Q one of next year. [00:26:52] Maybe Q two. [00:26:53] Were also we were also pretty much [00:26:56] rewriting our our backup [00:26:58] processes to be much [00:27:00] more scalable. [00:27:01] So that's in the works [00:27:03] backing up all your schema data [00:27:07] which before [00:27:08] you could do just through [00:27:09] our schema apps [00:27:10] were now incorporating that into the [00:27:12] backup. So you'll be able to [00:27:14] back up your schema information [00:27:17] as well as far [00:27:17] as all your field data and table data. [00:27:21] So that will all be available on certain [00:27:24] tiers of the backup plan. And [00:27:29] I think those are the main ones. [00:27:31] You're back up your comments your meta. [00:27:34] So lots of changes coming [00:27:36] reworking to to support the new URLs [00:27:39] and things like that so [00:27:41] I just wanted to share that [00:27:43] with any of our [00:27:44] customers that may be listening [00:27:46] but you'll get an email with full [00:27:48] explanation of what's going on [00:27:50] and how it impacts you. [00:27:51] So you should have [00:27:52] already received that [00:27:54] during the show. [00:27:56] So with that we'll move on [00:27:59] to our spotlight on Alex. [00:28:02] Alex. Welcome to the show. [00:28:05] Why don't you tell us a [00:28:07] little bit about yourself, your [00:28:10] your background your business. Then [00:28:12] I'd love to just kind of turn it [00:28:14] over you but things [00:28:15] I'd love to learn about is [00:28:16] your story, how you found Airtable. [00:28:19] Maybe what you were trying what you [00:28:22] were using before Airtable [00:28:24] to accomplish your business goals [00:28:27] and then really how Airtable [00:28:29] has changed your business? So with that, [00:28:32] don't we [00:28:35] yeah you're in here, [00:28:39] tell us Alex. Well thanks Dan, [00:28:41] thanks for having me on the show. [00:28:43] My name is Alex Tellez. [00:28:44] I have been a data scientist now for [00:28:49] 13 years which makes me like [00:28:51] like an old timer [00:28:53] in my field at the rate that [00:28:54] like General Assembly graduates [00:28:56] data scientists is [00:28:57] you know it's pretty pretty [00:28:58] common now. [00:29:01] I live and work in the Bay Area. [00:29:03] And so I've been fortunate [00:29:05] to work on like a [00:29:06] lot of really interesting projects. [00:29:08] I've done some of my more funny ones, [00:29:11] I've worked in online dating. [00:29:13] News, advertising, banking, [00:29:16] healthcare. Two of my favorite [00:29:18] data science projects I've done that I [00:29:20] enjoyed [00:29:21] was in NFL football so right [00:29:26] Bill brady and tom Belichick, [00:29:28] they're the top longest standing. [00:29:30] They were you know quarterback [00:29:33] and coach duo. And we tried to build an [00:29:36] algorithm that could predict run [00:29:38] or pass depending on the down distance, [00:29:40] the game, the weather etcetera etcetera. [00:29:42] And it turns out that Bill Belichick [00:29:46] is like a it's like a 55 45 [00:29:48] so past 55% run [00:29:49] 45 [00:29:50] we were able to get them down [00:29:52] to around 77% [00:29:53] using something called sequencing. [00:29:55] So this is when an algorithm takes [00:29:58] previous plays and kind of [00:30:00] ties them up as a [00:30:00] sequence but it remembers [00:30:02] what happened in the previous place. [00:30:04] So as an example, [00:30:06] you know if I said a b c d [00:30:08] and said what are the subsequent [00:30:10] words to that? [00:30:11] You would obviously know what [00:30:12] that is because you're taking the sequence [00:30:14] and you're applying it forward same [00:30:16] thing that we do here. [00:30:17] The other one that I did [00:30:20] that was really fun was a [00:30:21] while ago, I was a bit of a wine buff [00:30:24] and we built an algorithm to predict [00:30:27] vintage years of bordeaux wine [00:30:29] so that if you wanted to [00:30:31] buy the wine while it [00:30:32] was in a barrel [00:30:33] kind of like a future of a stock, [00:30:36] you could buy it and then we would predict [00:30:38] whether or not the wine's value [00:30:39] would go up or down based on certain [00:30:41] geographical features. [00:30:43] And so my whole life [00:30:44] has basically been in data science [00:30:45] and then algorithms. [00:30:47] I've been really lucky to [00:30:49] I've written a book about it, [00:30:50] I've taught courses on it [00:30:52] and so it's been it's been [00:30:54] quite a journey of data [00:30:55] science if you will. [00:30:57] But one thing that was [00:30:58] I never really got into there was [00:31:00] a pretty clear [00:31:02] division of labor if you will, [00:31:04] was kind of more of the [00:31:06] data engineering side [00:31:07] and also the data storage side. [00:31:09] And so typically in a typical [00:31:10] workflow of data [00:31:11] science right? [00:31:12] You have data engineers, [00:31:14] you have sequel guys, [00:31:15] you have you know data warehouse people, [00:31:18] devops etcetera and they're storing [00:31:20] this data. And then as a data scientist [00:31:22] you are asking for data so you're [00:31:23] consuming it and then you're [00:31:25] doing something with it. [00:31:27] And why this was so interesting [00:31:29] like about Airtable was for the first time [00:31:33] I had to think about I guess [00:31:36] taking off my data science hat [00:31:38] and turning on my [00:31:39] data engineering and [00:31:41] kind of like data storage hat. [00:31:43] And so not having ever done [00:31:44] this profession in my life, [00:31:46] not only do I have a huge [00:31:47] respect for devops people [00:31:48] and D. B. A. S. Etcetera but [00:31:50] I was able to discover Airtable [00:31:53] and so you know [00:31:54] fast forward [00:31:55] to kind of present day now [00:31:57] and I work for a company called sterling [00:32:00] managed services [00:32:02] and what we do is [00:32:03] we try to build applications in the [00:32:06] healthcare world [00:32:08] in particular for elderly people. [00:32:10] And so given that this is [00:32:12] a very growing population here in America, [00:32:15] the idea is how can we [00:32:18] better serve our elderly [00:32:20] by kind of caring for them [00:32:23] better and trying to use data. [00:32:25] And obviously that's the [00:32:26] data science comes in to [00:32:27] kind of get out better ways [00:32:30] to care for elderly people. [00:32:32] And doing so that's [00:32:34] kind of when I had to research [00:32:35] this question of like, [00:32:37] well where do we store [00:32:37] this data? And obviously [00:32:39] there's a ton of like data storage [00:32:41] solutions out there. [00:32:43] Like if we, [00:32:44] you know, we could hack [00:32:45] like I'm sure we could hack [00:32:46] like a google sheets, [00:32:47] kind of like multi tab thing [00:32:48] together and I'm sure people do, [00:32:50] but it was only kind of researching [00:32:53] and doing my own independent [00:32:55] research when I [00:32:56] said, you know what, like, [00:32:57] I probably don't have the acumen [00:32:59] and wherewithal to [00:33:00] get like an entire oracle dB like [00:33:02] in front of me and like [00:33:04] try and do this as a [00:33:05] data scientist. So I thought what [00:33:07] was the most intuitive thing [00:33:08] that could get me [00:33:09] up and running at least for a prototype. [00:33:12] And that's when I found Airtable [00:33:14] and that's kind of when [00:33:16] I had like this wow [00:33:17] moment where I was like, [00:33:18] so you're saying that [00:33:20] I can do a lot of other things [00:33:21] with automations, I think that's [00:33:23] that's kind of like a really [00:33:24] fascinating thing [00:33:24] that Airtable does. [00:33:26] And in doing so [00:33:28] in finding these automations, [00:33:30] I started to ask like more thought [00:33:32] provoking questions and I was like, [00:33:33] I wonder if we can do [00:33:34] this that and the other [00:33:36] and not knowing those answers [00:33:38] kind of led me to the Airtable [00:33:40] community which [00:33:41] kind of dovetails nicely into [00:33:43] the beginning part of our podcast. [00:33:45] That was when I was like, man, [00:33:46] there's like this guy [00:33:47] named Scott who keeps like [00:33:48] commenting the heck out of like forums [00:33:50] and stuff like that, like seems like he [00:33:52] knows what he's talking about, [00:33:53] you know what I mean? [00:33:54] Like a modicum of like [00:33:55] intelligence and so [00:33:56] that's when I like reached out [00:33:57] to Scott and like Scott and I [00:33:59] have been been working together [00:34:01] ever since, but that's kind of my journey [00:34:03] from, [00:34:04] you know, data scientists, [00:34:06] nicely packaged data [00:34:07] to suddenly now you have to do [00:34:09] it but Airtables kind of given me [00:34:11] this this opportunity to do so in a [00:34:14] really intuitive way. [00:34:18] I love it, I love it. [00:34:23] Yeah, and so, you know, I think [00:34:25] I think one of the interesting [00:34:27] things that [00:34:28] we see and I'll just start, [00:34:29] I'll talk about kind of [00:34:31] what Scott and I are [00:34:32] gonna like demo here for you [00:34:35] is as companies like Airtable [00:34:38] or Zapier or Make [00:34:39] kind of democratize technological [00:34:43] functionality, right? [00:34:45] And technology is easier to use [00:34:47] and it's more consumable by people. [00:34:50] So too comes, I think the desire [00:34:52] to do something with it, right? [00:34:54] And that's kind of the essence [00:34:56] of data science is like, okay, [00:34:57] you've generated this exhaust [00:34:59] now, let's do something with it. [00:35:01] And so one of the key things [00:35:03] I had thought about was, you know, [00:35:06] we're working with a lot of people. [00:35:09] So you know, elderly people [00:35:11] who are receiving care [00:35:12] we're working with care [00:35:14] administrators. So these are people [00:35:15] who are sending, you know nurses to your [00:35:17] home, to your mother's home [00:35:19] to care for your loved one. [00:35:21] And all these people are kind of [00:35:23] asking somewhat similar questions [00:35:25] such as like, [00:35:26] you know, hey, what did my dad [00:35:29] do today? Or you know, [00:35:30] did my dad or mother take [00:35:32] her medication for the day [00:35:34] etcetera etcetera? [00:35:35] And these would not only be coming [00:35:36] from the concerned loved ones, [00:35:38] they're also coming [00:35:39] from the business as well. [00:35:40] And so we kind of had this idea [00:35:42] where I said, you know, I don't want to, [00:35:45] you know have death by paper cuts [00:35:48] by way of like report requests [00:35:50] all day because [00:35:50] believe me, that would happen. [00:35:53] And so I thought [00:35:54] is there a way we can use all of [00:35:56] these kind of applications [00:35:59] and Airtable to kind of make a chat bot [00:36:04] such that the user in this case [00:36:07] it could be the loved one. It could be the [00:36:10] business, it could be an R N [00:36:12] it doesn't matter who [00:36:14] the loved one could kind [00:36:15] of like self service themselves [00:36:18] with a really intuitive chatbot [00:36:20] that had a whole bunch of web hooks on it, [00:36:23] in which those web hooks would fire [00:36:25] essentially queries to Airtable [00:36:28] and extract data [00:36:29] and send it via email wherever [00:36:31] it needs to go. [00:36:32] So that was the thought process [00:36:35] is how can we [00:36:36] take this really good data and [00:36:38] kind of have it be self [00:36:39] I mean kind of have it be like [00:36:41] a self service kind of [00:36:42] thing whereby, you know, [00:36:44] like you can fend for yourself [00:36:46] more or less and as [00:36:47] opposed to just [00:36:48] you asking me all the time for [00:36:50] for data etcetera etcetera. [00:36:52] So with that [00:36:53] let me I'll just go ahead [00:36:55] and share my screen down and I [00:36:57] think you have to re share it. [00:37:00] Yeah, I'll share my screen. [00:37:02] Okay, [00:37:06] let me let me move on. [00:37:08] So this is our Base Showcase [00:37:11] on chat messaging in Airtable. [00:37:14] Share your screen. [00:37:17] There you go. Okay, [00:37:19] so this is a this is a client [00:37:22] that we have and this is, [00:37:25] you know, these are real people here [00:37:27] and you'll notice that [00:37:29] on this site here we [00:37:30] we work with a company called chat bot [00:37:33] and we named this particular bot [00:37:36] in honor of Scott. [00:37:38] And we even have the avatar, [00:37:41] we kind of had to make it look [00:37:43] like him as best as we could. [00:37:46] Yeah, but you know let me just show you [00:37:50] kind of let me take you through the [00:37:54] the application first [00:37:55] and then I'll kind of [00:37:56] show you the back end of what had to [00:37:57] happen. So here it's just [00:37:59] it kind of works like it's you know, [00:38:01] we wanted to make it intuitive [00:38:02] where you're basically pressing [00:38:03] buttons and so it [00:38:04] says you know, hello staff [00:38:05] please tell us essentially [00:38:07] what it is you want to do, [00:38:08] do you want to explore your clients, [00:38:10] caretakers etcetera? So we'll just press [00:38:12] one because we want to explore [00:38:14] clients and then it says you know, [00:38:16] okay let's explore your clients, [00:38:18] press one if you, you know the person that [00:38:20] you're interested in [00:38:22] or two if you want us to list [00:38:23] all of the clients that you [00:38:24] have and in this case [00:38:26] I'm gonna choose the one [00:38:27] that I know we have and it says you know, [00:38:29] go ahead and type in the client's name [00:38:31] and you can also build and I'll talk [00:38:33] about the chat bot app, [00:38:34] you can also build kind of [00:38:36] defensive coding here where [00:38:37] like if they type in something bogus [00:38:39] like you know, Brad Pitt you can be like [00:38:40] hey that's not a real client. [00:38:42] But you know here you [00:38:44] just say you know this is [00:38:46] this is a client's name [00:38:48] When days do you want it? [00:38:49] You can choose these different [00:38:50] things and so if you [00:38:51] look right, these are just date filters, [00:38:53] they're just being very clever with [00:38:54] date filters, but obviously [00:38:56] the user doesn't know that. [00:38:57] So I'll just say the [00:38:58] last 30 days and it says great, [00:39:00] we're going to generate a report, [00:39:01] what email would you like this to do. [00:39:04] So I'll put in my email address [00:39:09] and then then it basically says, [00:39:11] you know, we're on it [00:39:12] and so behind the scenes, [00:39:15] so here's my email [00:39:16] and as you can see, [00:39:18] there's the report for Paul Novak [00:39:21] and you click it, it generates the C S. V. [00:39:24] and here's all the things that [00:39:26] Paul Novak has done [00:39:27] the last 30 days, this particular client. [00:39:30] And so behind the scenes, [00:39:32] what we have here is [00:39:33] this is an application called [00:39:35] chatbot.com [00:39:36] and this was my first [00:39:38] kind of like chatbot [00:39:39] so it's really inefficient [00:39:41] and how it works. [00:39:42] But you're you're basically seeing [00:39:43] this diagram and this diagram [00:39:45] is kind of like all the different [00:39:47] steps and paths [00:39:48] you can take. [00:39:49] And I say it's really inefficient [00:39:50] because I realized I could probably like [00:39:52] dovetail things into other things, [00:39:54] but I didn't really know [00:39:55] what I was doing at [00:39:56] first. And so this was kind of like [00:39:58] my first foray with it, but as you can see [00:40:00] the critical step is web hook [00:40:02] right here. So I'll zoom in. [00:40:05] So everything basically says, [00:40:06] you know, you're starting with [00:40:08] like a name, [00:40:08] you can set up filters, [00:40:10] you can set up defensive coding [00:40:12] whereby people, [00:40:12] you know, don't put in a bogus name. [00:40:15] This is the time frame that you desired, [00:40:17] you know, where are we sending this email? [00:40:19] This checks that it's an email, [00:40:20] an actual, you know, [00:40:21] at and with the dot com or whatever. [00:40:24] And then at the end [00:40:25] we have a web hook here [00:40:27] that fires [00:40:28] and as you can see this web hook fires [00:40:31] were sending it to Make. [00:40:33] And Make's just a really good, [00:40:36] really incredible partner [00:40:39] of ours and this is [00:40:40] our make application [00:40:42] for this particular chat bot. [00:40:44] It's huge because we have a [00:40:45] lot of permutations that go on with it, [00:40:47] right? We have a lot of different [00:40:48] scenarios that you can do. [00:40:50] I think it's got like [00:40:51] 120 like modules and stuff like that. [00:40:53] But every one of these light blue [00:40:55] modules and I'll try and zoom in. [00:40:58] I mean these are [00:40:58] these are Airtable modules, [00:41:00] right? So it's doing a search [00:41:01] records action [00:41:02] where we're basically filtering, [00:41:04] if the record exists, [00:41:05] if it doesn't exist, [00:41:06] if it does exist, [00:41:07] create that C S. V. That you saw in the [00:41:09] open and then send the email. [00:41:11] And if it doesn't exist, [00:41:13] we need to send another email that says, [00:41:14] hey, sorry, this doesn't exist. [00:41:17] And so all these things are basically, [00:41:19] you know, to go back to the flow, [00:41:22] we have this chatbot here [00:41:23] that is basically [00:41:24] logging the path that the user [00:41:28] wants using those numbers [00:41:31] like 1122 and based on [00:41:33] that I guess code we're decoding [00:41:35] that path in the context [00:41:38] of these automations here [00:41:40] and then it's firing the emails [00:41:43] with the CSVs over to [00:41:45] kind of whoever [00:41:46] needs to consume this data. [00:41:47] And so that way they [00:41:49] can really kind of fend for [00:41:50] themselves. [00:41:53] It's gotta be one of the most [00:41:57] complex Make maps we've seen. [00:42:01] Yeah, well like I said, [00:42:02] it was, it was like my first [00:42:03] go around with it. [00:42:04] So it was terribly inefficient [00:42:05] I think the first time [00:42:06] I'm sure there's like a [00:42:07] lot more we can do with it. [00:42:08] But you know, [00:42:09] what it what it does do is it really [00:42:12] kind of again, it relieves the, [00:42:14] I wouldn't call it the burden, [00:42:15] but it just, it lets people consume [00:42:17] the data on their time [00:42:19] when they want to do [00:42:20] it. So if someone's working [00:42:22] at like 11 PM and I'm not there, [00:42:23] they can just pull up this chat bots [00:42:25] and they can say, hey, I want to look at, [00:42:27] you know, all the things [00:42:28] that this particular nurse has done [00:42:30] and whether and we even have it [00:42:32] like if it's a specific nurse [00:42:33] and a specific [00:42:34] client or just everything [00:42:35] that this nurse has done [00:42:37] in the last whatever data [00:42:38] frame you want [00:42:39] because one of the things [00:42:40] I've noticed is just like with Airtable [00:42:43] in the data science world, [00:42:44] there's all these other applications [00:42:47] that are making it [00:42:48] really easy to you know, [00:42:49] gleam insight from your data [00:42:51] to visualize it [00:42:52] and you know that that should be [00:42:53] shared and and I'm glad [00:42:55] it's being more democratized [00:42:56] and so you know again if [00:42:57] you're working at 10 30 at night [00:42:59] for whatever reason [00:43:00] and you're on this chat bot [00:43:01] and you download all this data, [00:43:03] you can now go do something [00:43:05] with it using all [00:43:06] these other tools at your [00:43:08] at your leisure. [00:43:09] And so I think it's a really nice way [00:43:10] of [00:43:12] essentially like exposing your base [00:43:15] but without like giving someone you know [00:43:17] the keys to your base of Airtable, [00:43:19] you're letting them [00:43:21] kind of like explore it. [00:43:22] And quite frankly, [00:43:23] you know the number one [00:43:25] business intelligence [00:43:27] application on the planet is [00:43:28] Microsoft Excel. [00:43:29] And that's just what people know [00:43:31] and use and whether [00:43:32] that's good or bad, I'm not gonna debate. [00:43:34] But people are familiar with that [00:43:36] with that medium [00:43:37] of kind of looking at data in [00:43:39] a very tabular format [00:43:41] and this kind of gives it [00:43:43] to them in kind of how [00:43:44] they want to do it without [00:43:45] kind of like, you know like [00:43:47] this is the formula field in the [00:43:48] table and you can adjust it [00:43:50] like it's just kind of more like [00:43:51] its consumer ready [00:43:52] and it's ready for you [00:43:53] to do something with. [00:43:56] Alex. It's so awesome [00:43:57] what you've done. It's incredible. Very, [00:44:01] that's why we named it the [00:44:04] Scott bot came from you man, [00:44:06] I'm so honored. [00:44:07] I'm so honored that there's a real bot a [00:44:09] working bot out in the world [00:44:11] named after me. [00:44:13] There you go man, it's the first time, [00:44:15] yeah, Alex has really been [00:44:17] pushing Airtable [00:44:19] to the extremes with Make when, [00:44:21] when Alex first came to me, [00:44:23] he was using Zapier [00:44:24] and you actually couldn't do [00:44:26] the things that you wanted to do in Zapier [00:44:28] because you with some of the other [00:44:29] things that you didn't show today, [00:44:32] you're doing like aggregations and a lot [00:44:34] of like very heavy logic [00:44:36] that we that you that you [00:44:38] were able to solve once you [00:44:39] switched over to Make. [00:44:41] Yeah, I mean, so you know, [00:44:43] I didn't know about Make quite frankly, [00:44:45] right? So the first thing [00:44:47] I knew about was kind of [00:44:49] Zapier and you know, [00:44:49] not knocking them. [00:44:51] But what, when I approached Scott, I said, [00:44:53] you know, here's kind of what [00:44:54] I'm thinking of how to do. And I kind of, [00:44:56] you know, approached him [00:44:58] and I said I'm not able to do [00:45:00] that at least at least to my knowledge [00:45:02] and when we talk about what that is. [00:45:05] I know that's like really broad, [00:45:07] but one of the key things [00:45:08] that we do at least [00:45:09] in health care that's very important [00:45:11] is we need to be able to look back, [00:45:12] right? It's and again, [00:45:13] this is probably the data scientists [00:45:15] in me that's getting [00:45:16] all like that. But we need to be able [00:45:18] to say, you know, if someone, [00:45:19] let's say your mother, [00:45:20] your father is not receiving [00:45:22] adequate care, [00:45:23] we can't just throw our arms up [00:45:25] and say, well my dad's [00:45:26] not receiving care, [00:45:27] What we need to do [00:45:28] is we need to be able to [00:45:29] look back in time and say, [00:45:30] well why is your father [00:45:32] not receiving this care? [00:45:34] So let's look back end steps. [00:45:36] And those steps could be [00:45:38] defined as events, [00:45:39] days, doesn't really matter to me how [00:45:41] you define the steps back, [00:45:43] but we need to be able to do a [00:45:45] look back and kind of [00:45:46] aggregate data from a look back [00:45:48] point of view [00:45:48] and that's kind of where Make [00:45:50] really that's where Scott opened [00:45:52] my eyes to Make and you know, [00:45:55] like we're very happy enterprise, [00:45:58] Make customers. So thank you again Scott. [00:46:01] I love it, you're welcome, [00:46:02] thank you. I love going out. [00:46:04] I love doing all these these [00:46:05] these challenging projects [00:46:07] with you [00:46:07] which are so successful and are helping [00:46:09] people in a real way. [00:46:11] Like, for example, [00:46:12] Alex has this whole text messaging [00:46:14] system that he's set up in. [00:46:16] So it goes with your slide Dan, [00:46:17] that said text [00:46:18] messaging [00:46:19] system set up that if two [00:46:22] negative events happen in a row [00:46:25] to a client, like for example, [00:46:27] somebody doesn't take [00:46:29] their medication twice in a [00:46:31] row in a day, [00:46:32] then a text message [00:46:33] will be automatically [00:46:35] sent to the caregiver to [00:46:36] let them know that that happened [00:46:38] and that's because [00:46:39] the nurses in the field are [00:46:40] actually they have QR codes [00:46:43] that they can scan to let, [00:46:45] which then gives them a [00:46:47] survey to fill out a brief survey [00:46:48] where they can say what happened with this [00:46:51] with this client. [00:46:53] Yeah so I mean just briefly [00:46:54] so thank you Scott for launching into it. [00:46:57] But you know one of the key things [00:46:59] that we found just we have a we have an [00:47:01] entire like clinician board [00:47:03] of directors that helps us [00:47:05] with and just just so [00:47:06] that we all know everyone [00:47:07] does better when you receive care at home. [00:47:10] It's actually never a good thing [00:47:11] when you land in the hospital, [00:47:12] whether you're young or old [00:47:14] it doesn't matter. [00:47:15] You want to kind of avoid a [00:47:16] hospitalization. [00:47:17] And so what we found is [00:47:19] for elderly people, [00:47:20] they do better when they receive [00:47:21] care at home. [00:47:22] That's obviously true for everybody. [00:47:24] But the key that the key [00:47:25] thing that I think the pandemic [00:47:27] really did is it really [00:47:28] burned out a lot of [00:47:28] workers, especially in health care [00:47:30] whether you're an RN you're a caregiver, [00:47:32] it doesn't really matter. [00:47:34] That kind of have been really burned out. [00:47:35] And so [00:47:37] because it's kind of been an [00:47:39] unfortunate revolving door [00:47:40] of people who are [00:47:41] caring for other people. [00:47:43] The idea is could we use data [00:47:45] also like Scott said [00:47:47] using aggregations to say [00:47:49] let's say Alex was caring for Alli today [00:47:52] but for whatever reason I [00:47:54] I can't care for you tomorrow [00:47:55] and Scott needs to come [00:47:57] in and care for Alli now, [00:47:59] what does Scott need to know about Alli? [00:48:02] So that Scott is like halfway [00:48:04] prepared for like caring for Alli [00:48:06] so if we know [00:48:07] that [00:48:08] you know hey like Alli like has like [00:48:10] a bum shoulder from like Monday [00:48:12] now we know [00:48:12] like okay well like that [00:48:14] that shoulder there [00:48:15] we can also determine like how you [00:48:17] know like what are the best times [00:48:19] to give Alli her medication [00:48:21] so that she doesn't [00:48:21] miss her medication right? [00:48:23] Because if you miss enough of it, [00:48:24] you land in hospital [00:48:25] that's obviously bad for everybody. [00:48:27] And so all these types [00:48:28] of really complicated logical paths [00:48:32] were made possible you know using [00:48:36] make but also using Airtable [00:48:37] so Airtable's you know holding [00:48:39] this data and we're [00:48:39] querying it all the time [00:48:42] and then we're using text messages [00:48:44] to communicate because you know that's [00:48:46] just I mean everyone, [00:48:47] everyone's connected [00:48:48] and you know we're all just kind of [00:48:49] like see it and this but [00:48:51] but as I was saying if it's a revolving [00:48:54] door, the data that knowledge [00:48:56] leaves with that person [00:48:58] and now we can kind of [00:48:59] take that knowledge [00:49:00] and we can pass it to the next caregiver [00:49:02] so they can do [00:49:03] their job better for the next person. [00:49:06] That's awesome, [00:49:08] That really showcases basically [00:49:10] using Airtable as a knowledge repository [00:49:14] and knowledge base [00:49:16] and how to query data out of it. So [00:49:19] very cool stuff Scott I believe [00:49:22] you're gonna expand on that same concept. [00:49:25] You want to share your screen, [00:49:28] I will share my screen. [00:49:31] Okay. [00:49:35] Oops. [00:49:37] Okay cool perfect. [00:49:39] So yeah so Alex really [00:49:42] really inspired me to dive more [00:49:45] into chat bot because [00:49:46] because Alex was the first client [00:49:49] that I had worked with [00:49:50] that actually [00:49:51] wanted to create a chatbot [00:49:53] and Alex dived in and create it. [00:49:55] And I was so [00:49:55] inspired by it, [00:49:56] I started playing around [00:49:58] with chatbots to see what other things [00:50:00] can we do with chatbots [00:50:02] and as you can imagine [00:50:04] what you can do is you can [00:50:05] actually have the chatbot [00:50:08] communicate back with the person [00:50:11] about information [00:50:13] that it finds in Airtable. [00:50:15] So in Alex's example [00:50:16] you went through the whole chain [00:50:19] and then at the end [00:50:20] the chatbot emailed you [00:50:22] a customized C. S. V. File. [00:50:23] And in this demo I'm gonna [00:50:25] show you the chatbot will actually respond [00:50:28] in the chat with the information [00:50:30] that you need. [00:50:31] So check this out what I have here [00:50:34] is a simple database here. [00:50:36] Some customers [00:50:37] there's a first name, a last name, [00:50:39] the last payment we received from them [00:50:42] and the last payment date that they made [00:50:44] and then here in the chat bot [00:50:47] I've got a very simple scenario [00:50:50] that I set up here [00:50:51] and let's just run through it [00:50:53] and I will show you [00:50:55] what happens here, you can [00:50:57] see this corner of my screen right? Okay, [00:51:00] alright, so oops, that's [00:51:03] that's actually their chat bot [00:51:06] for chatbot.com. [00:51:08] I meant to go up here to test my bot, [00:51:10] so I'm gonna go up here to test my bot and [00:51:12] it says welcome to our customer [00:51:14] information chat bot, [00:51:15] let's try to find you in [00:51:16] our system. What is your email address? [00:51:18] So if we go back to Airtable here, [00:51:21] I have three email addresses in here, [00:51:23] so I'm just gonna choose [email protected]. [00:51:26] So I'm gonna type in here in [00:51:28] the chat, [00:51:29] I'm gonna say jane at example dot com. [00:51:31] And then I hit return and the [00:51:33] chat about comes back [00:51:35] and says hello Jane. [00:51:37] So it actually from the email address [00:51:40] it actually pulled in the first name [00:51:42] from right here, so it says hello Jane, [00:51:43] would you like to know [00:51:45] your recent payment information? [00:51:47] So I'm gonna say yes. [00:51:48] And then the chatbot thinks [00:51:49] for a moment [00:51:50] and it comes back and says your last [00:51:52] payment was $250 [00:51:53] and it was received on 11 1 22. [00:51:56] And if we come back in the Airtable, [00:51:58] we see that here's [00:51:59] the information right there [00:52:01] and again like [00:52:03] Alex was showing you earlier, [00:52:05] this is all due to placing [00:52:08] web hooks within your chatbots scenario, [00:52:11] so you know, you set these, [00:52:14] you know, this whole path here. [00:52:15] And Alex showed you [00:52:16] a perfect example of a very [00:52:17] complex path. [00:52:18] And what you can do is [00:52:20] you place these little web hooks along the [00:52:22] way [00:52:23] and then what you can do is [00:52:26] you can set up a scenario [00:52:28] in Make here where after [00:52:30] you receive the web hook from chatbots, [00:52:33] so this right here is how you received [00:52:35] the information from chatbots [00:52:37] with whatever the person typed in [00:52:40] and then it does something in Airtable. [00:52:42] So in this case it's searching for the [00:52:44] records [00:52:44] and then here is the key, [00:52:47] the key thing here is that [00:52:49] it will respond to chat bot [00:52:51] with information that's taken [00:52:53] from Airtable. So for example, [00:52:55] if I go into this module here, [00:52:58] we can see that [00:52:59] I'm actually sending back to [00:53:01] chatbots. So after it searches [00:53:03] the records in Airtable [00:53:04] and it finds a matching person, [00:53:07] a matching customer, [00:53:08] it'll actually send back to [00:53:10] chat about the I. D. [00:53:12] That's the record I. D. [00:53:13] In Airtable. The first name and [00:53:15] the last name. [00:53:16] Now we're actually not using [00:53:19] all three of those right away [00:53:20] because if you remember [00:53:22] when the chatbot actually said hello Jane, [00:53:25] it was only using the first name. [00:53:27] However one thing that's super super cool [00:53:29] about chat bot [00:53:31] is that it actually remembers [00:53:33] any information [00:53:35] that's sent to it throughout. [00:53:37] Oops, where is it? [00:53:38] It's over here, [00:53:39] it remembers any information [00:53:40] that's sent to [00:53:41] it throughout the entire path. [00:53:43] So it'll remember through [00:53:45] this entire process the [00:53:47] email address that somebody typed up. [00:53:49] And it will remember through the entire [00:53:51] process, it will remember [00:53:53] the record I. D. Number [00:53:55] the first name and the last [00:53:57] name. [00:53:57] And the reason that that it's important [00:53:59] that it remembers all that is because [00:54:01] when it comes to the second web hook [00:54:04] and that was the one where it said would [00:54:06] you like to receive [00:54:08] your payment information? [00:54:09] Yes or no. Then what it will do is [00:54:11] oh this is actually where it asked [00:54:13] the question and then when it goes out to [00:54:15] Make I've got another [00:54:18] scenario set up here [00:54:20] and this time it will actually [00:54:23] throw in all the information [00:54:25] that it has received [00:54:27] so far in the scenario. [00:54:29] So it'll take all the information [00:54:32] that is collected so far, [00:54:34] and it will send it [00:54:35] into the Make scenario and then [00:54:38] we have all the information [00:54:40] at our fingertips. [00:54:41] So in this particular case [00:54:43] we only needed the record I. D. [00:54:45] So we are immediately [00:54:46] know which record I. D. To look up. [00:54:48] So you can see here we're just pulling in [00:54:50] the I. D. This is all the information that [00:54:55] that chatbot will send in to Make. [00:54:58] And down here under the attributes the [00:55:01] attributes, it will give you a list of all [00:55:03] the information that is collected [00:55:05] along the path. [00:55:06] And then you can use it [00:55:08] any way you want in Airtable. [00:55:09] And then once again [00:55:11] you create another web hook response [00:55:14] and I formatted the date here, [00:55:16] here's the payment received [00:55:18] and you send it back [00:55:19] into chatbots. So it's really [00:55:21] really powerful. [00:55:22] It's very very cool what you can [00:55:25] do with chatbot and [00:55:28] Alex is the one that inspired me [00:55:30] now, I want to do chatbots for everyone. [00:55:34] Yeah, that becomes your interface, [00:55:37] your Ui for Airtable interacting with it. [00:55:39] Exactly. Yeah, exactly. [00:55:41] And like I was saying [00:55:43] there's security measures [00:55:45] you can put in place, [00:55:46] you know, if you don't [00:55:46] want everyone to have access to [00:55:47] everything, you know, [00:55:48] have them type in a pin code, [00:55:50] you know with their email [00:55:51] address [00:55:56] I mean like exactly what Scott did right? [00:55:58] Like say you misspelled Jane and you [00:56:00] put in, you know Jan [00:56:02] you it'll go in there [00:56:04] and you can say like, [00:56:06] you know, hey that's not [00:56:07] like a valid response [00:56:08] and it'll do like that kind [00:56:10] of like defensive kind of checking [00:56:12] for you and it also has like synonyms, [00:56:14] so like all the different permutations [00:56:17] of saying yes and no it has and so like, [00:56:19] you know, if you ask it like a yes [00:56:21] or no question and you know, [00:56:23] you respond with like, [00:56:24] you know, yep, Y E P. [00:56:26] It'll go like, yep that's a yes [00:56:27] and then it will route you [00:56:29] like correctly. And so it's not like [00:56:31] all these really cool things [00:56:32] that are built [00:56:33] into it and what I love about [00:56:35] when you test it as you saw with Scott, [00:56:38] you get this nice visual ui [00:56:40] that lets you see where [00:56:41] you are exactly on the path [00:56:43] so that you know, you can, [00:56:44] you can diagnose if, [00:56:45] if a step is not working as it [00:56:47] should. [00:56:49] Very cool. [00:56:50] I think a lot of people are starting [00:56:54] to question how can I use the [00:56:56] chatbot now [00:56:57] you just have to name them [00:57:00] all the Scott bot. I love it, [00:57:03] I love it. Thank you Alex. [00:57:06] Awesome, cool, let's move on, [00:57:08] let's go. And while you're getting [00:57:11] your next demo ready Scott, [00:57:12] I'll give a plug for [00:57:14] our BuiltOnAir community [00:57:16] where you can interact with [00:57:18] amazing people like Scott and Alex, [00:57:20] I don't know if you're in our community. [00:57:22] If not you need to join, [00:57:24] join us at builtonair.com/join. [00:57:27] That'll get you into our newsletter [00:57:29] and our slack community where there's [00:57:31] thousands of Airtable users [00:57:33] all discussing every day about [00:57:36] how to best use Airtable [00:57:38] in your own life and business. [00:57:40] So check us out at [00:57:41] builtonair.com for our final segment [00:57:45] Scott's going to give us [00:57:48] a cool airtable hack. [00:57:50] Yes, yes, this is something that [00:57:53] affected one of my clients the other day. [00:57:57] Let me share my screen again here [00:58:01] and okay, and they are a [00:58:05] commercial real estate company [00:58:09] and they had a very [00:58:12] complex database where they were [00:58:15] keeping track of the square footage that [00:58:17] they're dealing with for all their [00:58:19] different commercial properties. [00:58:20] And what we realized was that Airtable [00:58:25] doesn't actually give you the commas in [00:58:29] your numbers and it's something [00:58:31] that I've always known [00:58:32] but I never really really [00:58:33] noticed it until we were dealing [00:58:34] with like these really large numbers. [00:58:36] And that's especially it's especially [00:58:38] confusing when you're looking at these [00:58:40] numbers down here. [00:58:41] I mean it's confusing to start with [00:58:42] when you're looking at [00:58:43] these numbers down there but then it's [00:58:44] especially confusing when [00:58:46] you're looking at sums up here [00:58:48] because at first you're [00:58:49] like wait is this 202,004? [00:58:50] And then you realize oh wait a second, [00:58:53] that's actually 2,024,000. [00:58:55] You know very very difficult [00:58:57] because if you go to the [00:58:59] number field here there's [00:59:01] there's no formatting that [00:59:03] allows you to show commas. [00:59:05] And then I figured out a quick [00:59:08] little trick, a little hack [00:59:10] which is that the [00:59:12] currency field actually shows [00:59:15] commas. [00:59:16] And so look how much easier this looks. [00:59:19] And the only real trick here [00:59:21] is instead of using a number field [00:59:23] you use a [00:59:23] currency field. But what you do is [00:59:26] you remove the currency symbol. [00:59:28] So normally your currency field [00:59:29] would look like something like this. [00:59:31] But if you remove the dollar sign. [00:59:34] Oh and by the way, change your precision [00:59:37] to not be [00:59:39] with decimals just make it an imager here [00:59:41] then [00:59:42] what you have is a field [00:59:45] that looks just like a number field [00:59:48] but it has commas [00:59:49] instead [00:59:51] and this is really cool in interfaces [00:59:53] where this really comes in handy. [00:59:54] So because we were creating an interface, [00:59:57] look at the difference between these [01:00:00] two [01:00:01] on the left is without the commas [01:00:03] on the right is with the commas [01:00:05] and the [01:00:06] and so you can see how much [01:00:07] this is so much more confusing [01:00:09] to read down the left [01:00:10] side of this versus the left side of this. [01:00:13] And if you hover over like the little [01:00:15] pie charts here there's no commas [01:00:17] in the values and then over here there are [01:00:20] commas in the values. [01:00:22] So same thing with this, [01:00:24] if you hover over this [01:00:25] you've got the commas and if you [01:00:27] ever hover over this [01:00:28] you do not have the commas. [01:00:30] The only thing that's weird is [01:00:31] that Airtable removes [01:00:33] the commas for its legend here. [01:00:36] I we might have to [01:00:37] email Airtable about that. [01:00:39] They may not even know about that. [01:00:41] So that's the only weird thing. [01:00:43] And then the other sad news [01:00:44] is that this will [01:00:45] not work for our friends in Europe [01:00:47] or other countries. This will only work in [01:00:50] the US and Canada because we use commas as [01:00:53] thousands separators and in many [01:00:56] other countries, most other countries they [01:00:58] actually use periods instead [01:01:01] and Airtable is only set [01:01:03] to show commas instead of [01:01:05] periods. But if you're in the US [01:01:07] or Canada [01:01:08] this will work very well for you. [01:01:09] And so there you go. [01:01:11] Just a nice little tip. [01:01:13] A little trick on how to make your [01:01:16] numbers more readable [01:01:17] across the board in Airtable [01:01:21] moment. Yeah, it's a question I get [01:01:24] very very often [01:01:25] like more often than I would [01:01:27] think is can I put commas [01:01:29] in the chart on the side? [01:01:31] Like they don't really care [01:01:33] about the numbers in the base [01:01:34] but like when they're reading the chart, [01:01:36] the bar charts and the interfaces [01:01:37] people want to see those [01:01:39] commas and that is [01:01:39] something I've never thought of. [01:01:41] I love that Scott. Thank you. [01:01:42] I love it. I'm so happy [01:01:44] I was able to give you [01:01:45] an a ha moment today. [01:01:46] That's great. [01:01:47] That's awesome. Yeah [01:01:48] it makes it makes a world of difference [01:01:51] but we have to put [01:01:52] pressure on Airtable too. [01:01:54] Give up the European people [01:01:56] the same thing [01:01:57] and fix those little legends on the [01:01:58] side and then we're [01:02:00] then we're golden [01:02:02] or just added to the number field or that [01:02:05] you know, they can do it [01:02:07] because they do it [01:02:08] with the currency field. [01:02:10] We do. And I think [01:02:11] if I recall correctly is [01:02:12] there the option to remove the [01:02:14] commas in the currency field formatting? [01:02:16] I don't let me check real quick. [01:02:18] I don't think that's an option. [01:02:20] I didn't see that. [01:02:21] So that's not an option isn't [01:02:22] that interesting. So you have the [01:02:23] option to add it in number fields [01:02:25] and you have no option to remove it in [01:02:27] currency fields interesting. [01:02:30] I really also to that [01:02:33] end want a to currency [01:02:37] or a currency format formula [01:02:39] that would be amazing, [01:02:40] would probably return as a [01:02:41] string. So you wouldn't be able to [01:02:43] like make any fun bar charts out of it. [01:02:45] But that would also be helpful [01:02:47] for our friends in Europe. [01:02:49] Yeah, absolutely, totally agree. [01:02:51] And by the way, for [01:02:53] for people in the US you [01:02:54] could actually create a formula field [01:02:57] that you hide from the users and and [01:02:59] formatted as currency [01:03:00] and do the same trick [01:03:02] that I showed you and that would be [01:03:04] if you don't like the dollar sign [01:03:06] showing up in the toolbar, [01:03:07] you know up at the top because [01:03:09] that might confuse people [01:03:10] with my typing in [01:03:10] currency here still wouldn't [01:03:13] work for Europe, [01:03:14] but it would work for us here. [01:03:16] Yeah, that's great. Yeah and [01:03:19] Kuovonne hasn't already [01:03:20] made formulas I think [01:03:23] a way to get that [01:03:25] currency converter formula, [01:03:28] the one that returns a string. But yeah, [01:03:33] very cool, Alli, you're gonna modify [01:03:36] all of us to have you on. [01:03:39] Yeah, it's good to be here. [01:03:40] Thank you so much. [01:03:42] Yeah, thank you so much for [01:03:45] showing your it's awesome [01:03:47] to life scenarios of how [01:03:48] people use it in the real world [01:03:50] and for real business use cases. [01:03:52] So thank you Scott [01:03:53] Thanks for bringing Alex on [01:03:55] and for showcasing your stuff as [01:03:56] well. Always good to have you. [01:03:59] So that concludes today. [01:04:02] We'll be back next week [01:04:05] with our final episode for the season. [01:04:07] So join us next Tuesday 11 a.m. Eastern. [01:04:09] Thanks for sharing what you BuiltOnAir. [01:04:12] Take care everyone.