Allow sorting by Last Modified field in the Manage Fields tool.
I sometimes break things without having done prior a snapshot of the base, usually adding elements to formulas to several related fields. Later I change mind and and end up going backwards to repair/fix/remove changes. Instead restoring the base by going too far back, I end up manually removing modifications.
There is a Last Modified date in the Manage Fields tool. However, not possible to sort the list of fields. Would like to be able to sort them by Last Modified.
It’s possible to sort that table by any mean except by the Last Modified field. Kind of oversight I guess.
@Kuovonne Is it be possible to add the field Last Modified to Field List extension? I doubt that piece of information is available though the API but just wondering, it would be a work-around in the meantime.
When a form is submitted and a record is created, the fields that have a “default” value should actually receive that default. Now, it just stays empty
Yeah, it’s extremely unfortunate that Airtable’s default values only apply to people who are logged into Airtable as an Airtable user and are manually creating new records using the Airtable interface itself.
The default values don’t get applied when records are created through the API, and the default values don’t (typically) get applied via forms
But here’s where it gets strange:
If you set a default value for a single-select field, that value will automatically appear on the form when you load the form in your web browser.
This “sort of” makes some degree of sense, but assuming that their logic makes sense here, why is it only for single-select fields and no other field types?
I feel like someone at Airtable needs to go back through and rethink how default values work across the board.
Cuz the people who made the change for single-selects either didn’t have the bigger picture in mind or weren’t empowered to make the changes.
I agree. Backfilling inconsistent features is an important part of dev. But it’s not just one person. I think it is a company culture thing. When you develop a new feature, how does that impact all the existing features.
Plus they don’t know what they don’t know. Users are free testers that do not cost any money. They need to engage with the user community of nerds and promote process of submitting ideas because these are the promoters for their product (free PR). The new forums board don’t really help as they are contra-productive as compared to Canny for instance.
Something simple I’ve often wished for is the ability to “collapse all” for the sections in the views sidebar panel. I love being able to group views into sections but it would be great to not have to collapse all the sections manually when you are trying to get a tidy look and feel.
Seems super simple to me and I’ve often wondered why it’s not there.
To that point, as a matter of consistency, Airtable should make the following features which currently exist somewhere in the product available everywhere else it makes sense to:
My absolute Pet Peeves because they are the most needlessly limiting:
The available color set of 40 hues (10 colors, 4 shades each) is the same for select field choices, checkboxes/ratings (just the colors, not the shades), record color conditions, the Base itself, and interface groups. Exceptions, none of which make sense:
Custom Extensions have access to 50 hues (10 colors, 5 shades each), not 40. All colors should be available everywhere, so the full 50 should be applied to all examples above.
Button fields only have 27 hues (9 colors, 3 shades each). I suspect someone forgot to push the new “ultra dark” shade to buttons. I have no idea why “teal” was left out to begin with.
Interface buttons are limited to 4 color options.
The background color for Interface “containers” only have three options: transparent, gray, and whatever the interface color is. All colors should be selectable.
Automation script actions and script extensions should be able to quickly allow you to add new Select field options when creating/updating records. You can do this in Airtable’s native UI, in Automation Steps like Create/Update record, and the Web API. The Web API accomplishes this with a typecast parameter, the same implementation would work for “internal” scripting.
Airtable Web API now lets you Upsert, as @Kuovonne mentions above. So “Upsert” should be a new action step type in Airtable Automations.
Other inconsistencies that also need fixing
All “collapsable” groups should have a collapse/show all toggles. Groups in Grid Views have this feature, but automation sections, view sections, and kanban stacks
Many search bars have an “x” that you can click to clear out your search term, but many do not. The most annoying one for me is searching for fields to show on a interface element (like Grid/Timeline/etc.).
Every time Airtable lists something, it should have a search bar. The most obvious example is the Automations list. The limit for automations is 50, scrolling through 50 items of anything is obnoxious without the ability to search for what one is looking for.
The Manage Fields panel allows you to sort by some columns but not all. There is no reason to disallow you to sort by Last Modified Time or Created Time.
Field Descriptions are surfaced in Grid Views, Record Detail modals, Field Manager, and nowhere else. EVERY place you can see a field title, you should be able to see the field description. Literally everywhere. In automation actions, and especially in interface elements (including the individual “field” elements, possibly with a toggle to show the description as a tooltip, on a line below the title, or off)
Ratings and Checkboxes share the same icon options apart from two: checkmark and “x”. Just make them the same list.
Every editable field type (except Link to Record, I get it.) should have a configurable default. Its missing from dates, checkmarks, ratings, durations, multiselect.
NOTE^ the above are examples of what I remember off the top of my head, whichever engineering team implements these changes should actually check the product for elsewhere features are lacking.
Try to sort these ideas using AI, it would be interesting to see if it can handle it. Because if that doesn’t work it’s gonna take quite a bit to go through this list. It’s long reading to go through this list. Something like voting for ideas would be nice like canny.io
I couldn’t find if it was mentioned or not. On Airtable for mobile app - allow searching for fields when selecting fields to show in the table. No search now, so fields need to be picked by scrolling the list of fields, hard to do if table has 100’s of fields.
re: Auto adjusting column with:
Voting yes. Even if it means adding another menu option in right click, that would still be helpful. Still easier than manually adjust.
Since Airtable subsetting some extensions, they could add others that are more popular, like Cloudinary support. I know I can use Cloudinary with Make/Zapier but it’s more costly because of number of steps and requires setup, if all I need to do is process a couple of images on ad-hoc basis. Many people use Cloudinary so that would make it likely a popular extension.
I would actually love auto-adjusting column HEIGHT, too!
And, when REDUCING column widths, the column headers (i.e. field names) need to wrap text onto multiple lines! Otherwise, we can’t see the names of our fields.
I’m not sure if this feature has been requested before, but it’s something that I need multiple times a day.
Within a Grid View, often as I’m searching through many fields within a table via the “hidden fields” drop-down, I’m needing to reposition those returned fields from the hidden fields menu, typically the fields that I’m toggling the visibility of, I’m usually needing to move the fields to the first position of the table (or perhaps the last).
Can we please have a toggle added on each field returned that allows users to quickly reposition their fields (to first or last) whilst the field search is active within the hidden fields - Grid View? And toggling the first/last button won’t close/cancel out the hidden fields menu either, allowing for multiple operations to be carried out sequentially. Find field(s), toggle then to first and last, find different fields, toggle them to first and last, rinse repeat without the dialogue closing between each toggle.
Screenshot below, hopefully this explains my request;
Whew - I have so many ideas for feature requests, but here are my few I’ve been thinking of -
Group or label sets of fields - I have so many fields in bases and wish there was some sort of way to easily collapse or open columns like I can with grouping columns in Excel.
Views need descriptions - We have tons of views that control so many things and it’s not feasible to include all details of what that view means in the name. A simple description would be helpful, or even further, an extension from Airtable that helps us see all views.
Promote use of Field IDs rather than Field Names across integrations - While the ability to build APIs for Field IDs exists, it’s not baked into many tools and is fairly hidden across documentation. We had a custom integration built and our developer originally built against Field Names, which causes its a whole slew of problems. Other third parties that build against Airtable all tend to use Field Names as well.
Delete history - Snapshots to me seem like using old CCTV cameras where if you had something stolen, you only get to see when it was last seen and when it was next not seen - does not help you see who stole something or when. Having a delete history would help so much. Our developer built us a version of it and joked that his delete history was better than Airtable’s (because it doesn’t exist).
Everyone’s said it but I’ll reiterate - DYNAMIC CHOICES IN LINKED RECORDS!!
of nerds and promote process of submitting ideas because these are the promoters for their product (free PR). The new forums board don’t really help as they are contra-productive as compared to Canny for instance.