How to Prefill Forms in Airtable | Updated for 2022

[@GarethPronovost]

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[@anasanchezgarcia7757]

You are my savior. Excellent tutorials. Thank you

[@GarethPronovost]

Glad you like them - happy to help!

[@SnigdhaParida]

I do use prefilled forms a lot, but because of this very thing that exposes info that I don't want them to look at, I remove the linking field altogether and use automation to link records up. I ensure one unique record value is prefilled which automation can use to find the related record from other table. Great video as always!

[@GarethPronovost]

Thank you, and I love the workaround you described!

[@raphaelbanuelos2271]

It would be nice if we can link the records in the background. That's a good idea! I used a prefilled phone number value to link using an automation.

[@ncrariah]

Do you have a tutorial on how to do the automation to link records?

[@SnigdhaParida]

@@ncrariah I actually do have. Here's how I did it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/l3bcaH6Hf5iWf7c&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE&t=126

[@Emicss]

Thank you ! very clear !

[@GarethPronovost]

Glad it was helpful!

[@frankdrolet9439]

Great stuff as always Gareth, keep up the good work!

[@GarethPronovost]

Thanks Frank!

[@llstudio677]

Greattt! Thanks so much for this! I was asking you just this last week on facebook! Very very helpful info!

[@GarethPronovost]

Thanks for the inspiration!

[@asaren]

Thank you for video. I just start using Airtable and learned a lot from your videos. I plan to build ERP inventory management app for small company, with Airtable as backend. Which frontend do you think is the best for the job?

[@GarethPronovost]

My personal choice for front-end is Softr.io - they have the most flexibility and features with a reasonable price point.

[@tengoteatro]

Thanks!!Yo are a great teacher!!!! Is there anyway to prefill a single selct field?

[@GarethPronovost]

Yes, it works just like a text field!

[@andreagenciahouseful3933]

Thanks a lot for the instruction! It worked fine with images and text, but it didn't work with status, multiple choice, or ratings. Do you know if we can only update texts and images or can we also change other fields such as the status? If your video tip is only for texts and images, can you indicate a way to update the status of an airtable record?

Hi, stragely enough I have followed the tutorial and triplechecked but i stil get the RecordId in the field and not the value of the field.

[@dondominus666]

In a lot of your vidéos you advice to use Jotform for better form feature. Jotform also provides Jotform Table that looks pretty similar to Airtable. My question is why would a company pick Airtable over Jotform Table?

[@OutreachForHope]

Amazing - Thanks!

[@GarethPronovost]

Happy to help!

[@wely007]

Hi - do you also have a prefill solution for todays date?

[@GarethPronovost]

Not for a field in a form, but you can use a different field type called "Created Time" - this field will allow you to capture the date/time that a record comes into existence. You can't use this field in your form, but you can apply it to your table to catalogue when a form was submitted.

[@katjavlaseva-adamik4966]

Hi Gareth, Thank you very much for the video. It's been very helpful. I have only 1 question - can you please share the formula you use to create your Record ID? I see the record IDs are unique, and see where you use them, but I can't find what formula you use to create the filed. Thank you.

[@GarethPronovost]

Hi Katja, of course! I'm sorry I failed to outline this in the video. The record ID exists for every record, but you only see it when you use this formula: RECORD_ID()

[@katjavlaseva-adamik4966]

@@GarethPronovost Thank you very much, this was very helpful

I am still experiencing issues with those prefilled functions. As we have special characters in French my prefill form do not work. The url is not recognised as such.

[@GarethPronovost]

for any special characters, I'd suggest trying the formula in Airtable ENCODE_URL_COMPONENT() For example, é is not a supported character in a URL. The code for this character is %C3%A9 - I only know this because I used the formula in Airtable. - ENCODE_URL_COMPONENT('é') Anytime you need a URL output, it's a good idea to test it with this formula first. The formula will give you the 'non-special character equivalent'

[@iffyswitch]

Hi Gareth. I'm using Airtable to build a database with my teachers union. Your tutorials are great, thanks so much! I am doing a campaign where I have a some volunteer colleagues making outreach calls to 10+ other workers. I'd like to add their data automatically to our database. Since (it seems) people without an AT account can't add data to an existing table, I was thinking of using forms, with some info prefilled (the colleague-to-contact's name & contact info). But if each of the ten people that each volunteer is going to contact needs their own form (1 form per table entry), that will get to be a lot of forms to make and give to each volunteer. Is there a way in AT forms to give the volunteers a multipage form that will add multiple entries to a table? Or some other workaround (ideally within AT)? Thanks!

[@GarethPronovost]

Hi! An Airtable form, when submitted, will always create one (and only one) new record I'm Airtable. Potential workarounds would include using 3rd party form software (I love Jotform) and to build an automation that creates multiple records, of which the quantity depends on the data received. The automation would also need to be built with 3rd party tools, preferably Make or Zapier.

[@wichotamez]

Gareth! Thanks for your content! Its awesome. I am wondering what is you opinion on the Miniextensions form app. I am currently trying to create a form that needs some features not available in Airtable native forms. I have a team of account managers who input RFQ data into a form, however, such data includes yearly volume information, which I have as a 2nd detail table linked to main RFQ table in Airtable. From what I am reading, it seems like the Miniextensions form app might be able to help me solve the issue, but I haven't came across of any video of yours discussing this option, so I am wondering if there is anything shady to worry about miniExtensions... could you please comment? I really value your opinion and appreciate the quality of your content. =)

[@GarethPronovost]

Hi Luis, I do have mixed feelings. MiniExtensions has a very lean team and is often slow to respond to emails and support. That said, their tool is really good and offers incredible flexibility and new options for forms in particular. Personally, I've been burned by lean "start-ups" who lack business savvy and unexpectedly go out of business. For that reason I'm reluctant to make recommendations here, but I absolutely value the tool.

[@farfadet2222]

Fine, except Airtable doesn't allow a user to access a form with PREFILL without logging in to Airtable. This is actually my main problem at the moment. I don't know why Airtable doesn't allow custom URL access and requires user authentication

[@GarethPronovost]

Sure it does, you can create and share forms that aren't in interfaces. 👌

[@farfadet2222]

@@GarethPronovost Right ! i verified my link and it was not good. It works ! Thank you !