Hi, everyone.
I’m trying to wrap my head around what I need to do to prep my (and my clients’) bases for moving from API to PAT. Is switching all of the existing integrations to Make or Zapier the only solution? I work with mostly non-profits and solopreneurs, so adding another monthly payment into the mix is going to require some emotional prep and careful budgeting.
Would love to hear your thoughts.
The API is still available, it’s just how you access it that is changing. If you have built integrations that use the API currently they just need to be updated.
Hey there!
What are you connecting Airtable to/with?
JotForm is by far the thing we integrate with the most, and - from what I can tell - they’re not changing anything on their end to comply with Airtable’s new process. So I’m not sure that the direct integrations that we currently have will continue to work after the AT deadline.
Has JotForm officially declared that they won’t be switching over to Airtable’s Personal Access Tokens or oAuth?
If so, then that means that JotForm is ending their native built-in support for Airtable, and your only real option would be to switch to Make’s JotForm integrations. I would not recommend using Zapier.
This would require you reconfiguring all of your form integrations, although this could be a blessing in disguise because JotForm’s native Airtable support was pretty weak to begin with (i.e. many fields were not mappable between JotForm and Airtable), so you will gain a lot of new capabilities by using Make.
If you’re going to be forced to use Make anyways, you may also want to take a peek at Cognito Forms, which offers some cool advanced features that I don’t think are available in JotForm, such as creating unlimited line items on a form, saving forms for picking up again later, and more.
JotForm haven’t said anything officially yet - in their help forums they seem to alternate between saying that there isn’t an update yet and it’s on their product roadmap, so 
. But I have one client that is (was?) scheduled to launch a new JF-AT integration in mid-August, and with not knowing what JF is planning and AT not allowing users to create new APIs beginning on 1 August 2023 (and then deprecating it completely on 1 Feb 2024), I’m in a pickle to research and present viable long-term options.
For anyone who works with for-profit clients, this is probably much less of an issue (if it’s one at all). It’s only because most of my AT work comes from organizations that operate on shoestrings that led me to using JF, even with all of the hiccups, because it avoided the extra monthly charges. I was initially optimistic that JF would continue to support its native integration with AT but that doesn’t seem like it’s going to be the case.
What is super-helpful to know is that you don’t recommend Zapier, so you saved me from going down that path. Appreciate it!
You’re welcome on the Make vs. Zapier front. And since you’re dealing with shoestring budgets, you’ll especially appreciate Make because it’s significantly cheaper than Zapier too.
I’m currently using nocodeapi.com to reduce the costs associated with my Make operations, but their app hasn’t been updated to the new API specifications yet.
Does anyone know of a similar app or service I could use?
You may want to check out Data Fetcher, which is an Airtable extension.
I just noticed that sometime earlier this year, Airtable mentioned on their website that no new API keys would be able to be created starting on August 1, 2023.
I don’t think I paid much attention to that deadline before, but it definitely leaves a gap for brand new JotForm users between August 2023 and February 2024 – if they want to use JotForm’s native integrations.
I think the best bet is for people to switch over to Make, which then gives ultimate flexibility to use ANY form software on the market.
Yeah if JotForm has given no indication of anything, I would be hesitant to use it. Agree with @ScottWorld on this!
Huge sigh of relief.
“Hi pressgo.design,
Thanks for reaching out to Jotform Support. To answer your questions, it is already on our roadmap and finalized update, so that users can can update their integrations before the deprecation of API keys.
Let us know if you have any other questions.”
If we’re using Zapier do we need to do anything to make sure our zaps still work?
Welcome to the community, @rmanke!
Yes, you will need to manually convert all your zaps to Airtable’s new security before January 31, 2024.
Also, if you’re not already too heavily invested in Zapier, I always recommend for people to consider switching to Make, which is significantly cheaper yet infinitely more powerful than Zapier. I just wrote up a post on this here.
I’ve already invested a ton into Zapier, because there was no Make when I got started with that. I’d use Make for new projects though.
I thought Zapier used Oauth to connect to AirTable. Has the Oauth authentication changed as well?
You’ll need to update your old Airtable connections to use oAuth, now that it’s available.
Ok. I’m pretty sure Zapier already uses Oauth.
oAuth just became available in February 2023, and Zapier didn’t implement it until May 15, 2023. So if you created any zaps prior to May 15, 2023, then you will have some manually updating to do on your end.