Airtable
Connect Airtable with MESA
When you are setting up your first workflow with Airtable, you'll need to connect your Airtable account with MESA.
Click on the Connect with Airtable button to begin the process.
On the prompted modal, click on + Add a base and select All current and future bases in all current and future workspaces.
This base access is recommended because it will allow you to easily link any base from any workspace you create in your Airtable to your MESA workflow. If you choose another selection for this access, you may need to create a new credential for workflows going forward.
Click on Grant access once you are done.
Afterwards, you can re-use the newly created credential and select it for your future workflows!
Configuration
Update Variables in MESA
If you have an Airtable Record Updated or Airtable Record Created trigger added in your workflow, you will see the Update Available Variables button.
Once you have fill in the Base and Table fields, you will be able to click on this button to update the available variables in MESA that you can use in later steps in the same workflow.
To locate your available variables, you can expand the Fields section within the Variables menu.
Retrieve fields from your Airtable Table
In certain Airtable actions, we can automatically detect the fields in your Airtable Base and add them to MESA using the Retrieve Table Fields button.
If no fields appear or if the fields are missing, make sure you have at least one record in your Airtable table with a value in each column.
Your fields will display in the order that they were defined when you set up your Airtable Table. If you are viewing your table's data in an Airtable View, the order of the columns may be different.
Send data with different field types
Airtable provides a variety of field types that lets you store data in each record. Learn more about field types.
When using MESA's Variables feature, you will want to make sure that the data (that represents each variable) matches Airtable's expected format. When the data does not match Airtable's expectations, your workflow will fail.
Here is an example of a failed automation due to some formatting issues.
If you find out that your workflow is failing due to your Base's field types, you can reach out to our team at contact@getmesa.com and our team will be happy to help!
Unsupported field types
Currently, the following field types are unsupported in MESA and will not be added to the MESA interface.
Multiple Select
Links to other Tables if "Allow linking to multiple records" is enabled
If you need support for either of these fields, please let us know! Our team adds features based on popularity.
I don't see my Airtable workflow activating when I update something in Airtable?
MESA workflows that contain Airtable triggers (such as Record Updated and Record Created) will run on a polling system. This means on every hour or whatever the selected frequency is selected, MESA will look for any recent activity in Airtable. As a result, you may not see immediate activity in your MESA workflow until the frequency hits.
Once the frequency hits, MESA will process every single task that has accrued within the previous timeframe. To change the default frequency, you can open the Advanced Options setting in your workflow's Airtable trigger.
Please note that available frequencies will differ depending on your MESA billing plan.
Why did my workflow run so many times when I updated my field type?
When you update the field type of a column in your linked table from your Airtable base, Airtable will run an update on all records associated with that column based on the change. Unless you decline to be notified, Airtable will prompt you with messaging alluding to this update before converting:
Even if the records are not altered, Airtable will consider this an update to all records when this action is performed. As a result, if you are using an Airtable Record Updated trigger in your workflow, this will create an automation run for each of the records and will count towards your usage.
Potential Use Cases
Jumpstart your automation journey with one of our pre-made templates that you can install directly to the MESA dashboard.
Is it possible to use a personal access token with Airtable?
Yes, you can generate that and paste it into the API key field just like a regular API key.
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