Upcoming Changes to the Attachment Field in Airtable 😱 (Nov 8, 2022)

[@GarethPronovost]

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[@juliencibat6337]

Hi Gareth, thanks for your video! Really useful to know more about this update. Do you think this will affect how Softr handles Airtable attachment data? I sometimes rely on custom code and Airtable Formulas with attachment URLs to have more flexibility on my Softr UI, and I am not sure if this will still be possible in the future or not. Any thoughts would be appreciated :) Thanks and keep up the good work!

[@GarethPronovost]

Great question! I'm sure this will impact how front end solutions access attachments in Airtable. I'm not exactly sure how that will happen and I suspect it will be different for each front end (Softr, Stacker, etc). My best guess is that Softr will have access to the attachment through the API for the given timeframe, but that it will not be accessible afterward. I'd recommend checking with Softr for confirmation

[@ninebirdsrising]

@@GarethPronovost Mny tks for your videos which I've been following for some time. RE softr I will - along with many others I expect - be asking them what's going to happen, but I have a feeling this is going blast our use case (managing thousands of artwork assets and related files for multiple end-users) out of the water. We basically need to hold a URL in Airtable that points securely to a document or image. I'm guessing this will impact many of your viewers with simil needs. Could you do a video addressing automation of asset storage and retrieval? Would seem to be timely!!

[@HannahBrewster-mt2uh]

Great video - I've been wondering why my attachments weren't accessible. I hate this new feature but I understand why they have done it. Can you do a video on how I can automate sending an email with an attachment with these changes - please

[@holgergelhausen8616]

Thank you for the great video. This is unfortunately very bitter because all my social media workflows store the images/videos in Airtable. That means adapting all flows so that the images/videos are in cloud systems and then we have the problem that the links should also be created automatically. Annoying. That was also the reason for Airtable, to keep all data in one place. What alternatives are there?

[@BusinessAutomatedTutorials]

Hey Gareth! Big fan, started myself watching your Airtable videos. In the video you are mentioning a couple of times, that the link will expire some time after being "uploaded". This does not sound entirely correct, might lead people to wrong understanding. According to the change notice and forum - links will expire within 2 hours of being retrieved. This means that every API request (even days after upload) will get you fresh signed linked , with 2 hour validity. This would be similar to how AWS signed links work. Any automation working on this URL should be fine, also long as it accesses the data within 2 hours and does not store link for further reference.

[@GarethPronovost]

Hi, thanks for this feedback! In fact we have spoken with a few people on this topic and things seem a bit divided. I'm hopeful that your interpretation is the right one. Once I confirm this with Airtable, I'll definitely post an update!

[@thejoelavery]

Let’s hope so!

[@jjmdx62]

Will this effect example if we are using Softr to display data on our Apps ??

[@GarethPronovost]

I've asked Softr this question and they tell me that it won't impact their apps. I'm suspicious of this (it seems to me that this SHOULD impact them) but they tell me that it won't be an issue. 🤷‍♂️

[@khuned]

Hi Gareth, great video but I think you might have forgotten to clarify something: the first use case in your video says that as long as the automation sends out the certificate before the link expires, the certificate receipients (public) gets an email with the certificate as attachemnt, which does not expire. I believe the recepeient now needs to login to Airtable when they click on the image url? At least that is what is happening to us.

[@timstuart5766]

Hey Gareth, great video as always! I was looking closer at this and I noticed that I may be impacted. Do you know the answer to this, I have a column that takes the URL from the image as a formula and puts it in text. Will this automatically update every 3 hours with a new link since the link for the attachment will be changed? Also, I assume I am correct here, but the image/document in the attachment field will not be deleted, the url will just change, correct? Thanks for your help in advance!

[@GarethPronovost]

I don't believe a new link is created every three hours. I believe one link is created at the time the attachment is uploaded. That link is available for three hours, at which point it expires. The attachment is not deleted, it's just the link that becomes inaccessible.

[@timstuart5766]

That makes sense then. Basically right now I have an automation that pulls an image from another table and puts it in another record when a new record is created. Do you know of a way to automate image copying other than using the links that will work with the new Airtable update? Thanks!

[@cottagekeeper]

I’m very confused. I sell on eBay I copy the image link in my listing and add it to Airtable. Does this mean for each listing I am tracking in Airtable for my business is going to lose all the images? OR will I still see the images but there will be no link????

[@GarethPronovost]

You will not lose the images. You will only lose the ability to publicly share the image a few hours after adding an image to Airtable.

[@Pithon369]

What would happen if I emailed an attractant more than 3 hours after I added the attachment to the record?

[@GarethPronovost]

The URL will not be publicly available, so my guess is that the automation would not include the attachment. Haven't been able to test it yet, so not exactly sure.

[@Pithon369]

@@GarethPronovost Thank you for the feedback I'll have to test things out on my end as well once the update is pushed through.

[@Crotoua]

Hi Gareth, thanks for this video. Will these changes also affect attachments in views (not the base) shared : • via a private link or • an embed link in, let's say, Notion or clickUp ? 😨

[@GarethPronovost]

If you're in Airtable or sharing the attachment with an Airtable user, it won't be affected. I suspect the embed link will not work in Notion or ClickUp, but I'm not certain. 🤞

[@Crotoua]

Thanks Gareth OK. What I usually share is a private link, to someone who is not an Airtable user, and opens it in a browser. A private link like this one (not my usual base, but nothing confidential here) : airtable.com/shrVnxVqjuq0cALr9. Is it considered as a “public” link, like the ones embedded on a website ? In other words, will there be a difference between a private link, which does not give access to the whole base, and other types of publications online ?

[@thejoelavery]

This seems like a negative change. More work and time to figure this out to do what we already have been doing. I don’t need my KZbin thumbnails to be secure. It’s content, I want everybody to find it. This security change should be optional on a per base / field / table basis.

[@GarethPronovost]

We've recently learned that every time the URL is accessed by the API the countdown resets. So presumably you can store your images in Airtable for an extended period of time before accessing the URL via the API, allowing you to then use it in an automation. 🤞

[@shaikhsanah3087]

Hi sir, Thank you for such informative video, I have a question. I have developed chatbots for different channels (WhatsApp, Telegram etc), the bot fetches the information such as text field and attachment field URL from Airtable and send it to Users as a text message and media files respectively. The attachment RUL is fetched whenever user initiates the chatbot and the bot directly fetches these informations from Airtable at the time of request. Do you think these changes will affect the flow of the chatbot?

[@GarethPronovost]

I can't say for certain, but I suspect it will affect the flow.

[@Londya]

What if they open the email you sent them with their certificate in it after 3 hours? Will they still be able to access it?

[@GarethPronovost]

That's a great question! My hunch is that the attachment is actively added to the email, so the time delay won't matter. It's one of the first things I'll be testing!

[@miguelangelvidalmolina4695]

Airtable, just destroy month of work to the trash. Why to use airtable now? Do you know any other app that could be used for replace airtable?