Building and sharing forms in Airtable

• To add a cover image, click Add a cover image on the form’s canvas. Then, drop a file or click browse files. Next, click Upload 1 file. Your cover image will appear after uploading has been completed.

• To remove an existing cover image, click the X button in the top left corner of the canvas.

• Only 1 file can be uploaded.

• As a general guideline, 1800px by 480px is suggested as the minimum for cover images, with 1800px by 512px being a good target if your image is of higher quality/size.

• The area of the form cover image is 256px tall and the width is the width of the browser window that the end user is accessing the form from.

• To add a logo, click Add a logo on the form’s canvas. Then, drop a file or click browse files. Next, click Upload 1 file. Your logo will appear after uploading has been completed.

• To remove an existing logo, click the X button in the top left corner of the canvas.

• Only 1 file can be uploaded.

• Logos will be limited to max dimensions of 200px by 64px. Image files that exceed these dimensions will be resized to fit but not cropped.

• A form’s title will always appear as an H1 heading near the top of the form, just below the cover image and logo (if applicable).

• To change the form’s title, double-click on the title and modify it to fit your needs.

• Just below the form’s title, you’ll see a text box where you can add or modify an existing form description.

• Form descriptions support the following formatting options:

  • Text formatting (Paragraph, Quote, Code block, Large heading, Medium heading, Small heading, Numbered list, Bulleted list, and Checklist)

  • Bold ( ⌘ B)

  • Italics ( ⌘ I)

  • Strikethrough

  • Code

  • URL/Hyperlink ( ⌘ K)

On the canvas, you are able to:

• Add fields to the form

  • After clicking on the canvas, hover in between fields. Click on the blue + icon where you want to add the field.

  • This will open up the option to add an existing field (also searchable by name) or add a new field to the backend base and form by clicking the + Create field option. Choose an existing field or configure a new field and continue building your form.

  • Computed field types are not supported in Airtable forms.

• Reorder fields

  • Click and hold the field that you would like to move around on the canvas. Then drop that field where you see fit.

  • Dragging a field above or below will place that field above or below the closest field(s).

  • Dragging a field on top of another field will place the fields next to one another. Up to 4 fields can be placed side by side but this maximum can vary depending on field type and space constraints.

  • Dragging a field over a line break will cause the + Add group button to appear. Drop the field to create a new group as discussed in the next accordion section.

• Resize fields

  • Click on the right edge of a field to resize its width on the canvas.

  • Any preceding or subsequent fields in the same group can be resized to match the width of the first field in a row.

  • At times auto-formatting is applied when reordering fields when multiple fields exist side-by-side.

• Remove fields from the form

  • Click on the specific field that you would like to remove from the form.

  • Click the … icon on the far right side of the field.

  • Click the Remove option.
    *Note that removing fields will not delete them in the underlying base

• Configuring form fields - By clicking on a field within the form builder’s canvas you will see the properties panel on the right adjust to that field’s settings. We cover configuration options available in the properties panel in the next section.

Form groups allow you to group one or more fields into a section. These groups provide a clear delineation of questions/data entry for end users.

• To create a new form group:

  • Hover just below a form’s description or below the last field on the form-building canvas.

  • Then, click +Add group.

  • A New Group will appear. Click on the New group text box. Feel free to rename the group at this time.

  • This will open up configuration options in the properties panel on the right. This is discussed in more depth in the next section below.

• To delete a form group from the canvas:

  • Click on the group’s name.

  • Hit delete twice to remove the form group.

After creating a new form, clicking on the edge of a form’s canvas, or clicking on the Form button at the top of the properties panel on the right side of the screen you’ll find these general properties to configure:

• Title - Rename the title of the form

• Data

  • Source - Find the source table from the underlying base

  • Fields - See how many fields are visible in the form. Click the cogwheel icon to bring up a menu where you can Find a field, see form groups, and Edit, Delete, or Hide fields in the “Group” and “Hidden” sections.

• Appearance (Paid plans only)

  • Show or hide Airtable branding

• Settings

  • Toggle on the option to See who submitted a response to require that the form submitter logs into Airtable to track submissions in a created by field.

  • If a created by field doesn’t already exist in the source table, then a new user field will be created in the source table when this option is toggled on.

• Submission options

  • Button label - Choose the text that will appear on the submission button. The default label is “Submit.”

  • Redirect to URL - Toggle this option on to redirect the form submitter to another URL.

    • This URL can be a static http or https link. Other abbreviated URLs are not supported.

      • Post-submission URL redirects aren't available when a form is embedded.

    • You could even have the form dynamically redirect the user to the record created from the form submission inside the Airtable base. To accomplish this, copy the unique base URL ( https://airtable.com/appxxxxxxxxxx/) from your browser’s search bar and insert {record_id} at the end of the base’s URL like so: https://airtable.com/appxxxxxxxxxx/{record_id}/. Note that the form submitter would need at least read-only base access to be able to access this page.

  • Message - Type a custom message that will appear after a form response is submitted.

  • Show a ‘Submit another response’ button - After a form response is submitted, the page will load and show the option to “Submit another response.”

  • Email responses - This option allows builders to choose base collaborators who will receive an email notification each time a form has been submitted. Builders can choose whether to Select all base collaborators, choose individual base collaborators by clicking the toggle next to their name, or click Clear all to remove all base collaborators from notifications. Take note that any changes to the email responses setting will only occur once the interface has been published or re-published.

Clicking on a field on the form builder’s canvas will open different properties in a panel on the right side of the screen. Certain options listed below will only be available depending on the type of field you click on.

• Title - Change the title of the field in the form. It’s important to note that changing the field’s title in the form will not change the name of the field in the source table.

• Data

  • Source - Click Edit field to bring up a menu of field editing options. Note that changing a field type here will change the field’s type in the source table as well.

• Appearance

  • Layout

    • Dropdown or List - Specific to single and multiple select fields.

    • Card or pills - Specific to linked record fields

  • Size - This option modifies font size in the resulting form.

  • Helper text - Type additional context that relates to the specific form field you are configuring.

• Rules

  • Visibility - Add conditions or conditional groups that will hide the form field from an end user’s view unless the submitter’s entry causes those conditions to be met. Take a deeper dive into these settings below.

  • Selection - This option is only available on linked record fields. This allows you to control the Specific records that form submitters will be able to choose from.

  • Options - This option is only available on single select or multiple select fields. Choose the specific option(s) you will allow form submitters to be able to choose from.

  • Collaborators - This option is only available on user fields. Toggle the specific users you want the form submitters to be able to choose from. Additionally, you can Clear all or Select all users.

  • Default value - In most fields, you can insert a default value that the form submitter will have to manually adjust, otherwise the default value that is set here will return that value with each form submission. This can be especially useful when hiding the field from submitters such as a hidden status field. The formatting of the default value that you enter will depend on the field type. You can also prefill forms much in the same way that form views can be prefilled.

    • “Allow users to edit this field” - When a default value is configured, builders can also choose whether to disable or enable edits by toggling this option.

  • Required field - Toggle whether the field must be filled or selected before the form submission can be entered.

  • Certain fields also allow for data validation to be configured. This is covered in another section of the article below.

Clicking on a form group’s title will open the following properties in a panel on the right side of the screen:

• Title - Adjust the title of the group. This can also be accomplished by clicking on the name in the canvas.

• Data

  • Fields - See how many fields are visible in form group. Click on the cogwheel icon to Find a field. By hovering over a field and clicking the … icon, you can also Edit a field or Delete a field from the form. The eye icon allows you to toggle off the visibility of fields in any form groups or toggle on any fields that are hidden.

• Appearance

  • Show group title - Optionally toggle off the group’s title. Only field names will be displayed.

  • Show description - Insert helpful text to guide form submitters.

  • Show background color - Give the form a slight gray background color to help visually separate the group from other groups or fields.

  • Field labels - Choose whether field labels (titles) will appear on the Side or on Top of the fields in the group. The “Side” option is not available when two or more fields are next to each other.

1. Open the interface editor where you want to duplicate the form.

2. From the Pages tab on the left side of the screen, find the form layout page you want to duplicate and hover your mouse over it.

3. Click the … icon to reveal a menu of options.

4. Finally, click Duplicate to form builder. This will create a new, duplicate form in the “Forms” section on the left. You can now modify and publish the form as outlined in the article above.

1. Open the interface editor where you want to duplicate the form.

2. From the Pages tab on the left side of the screen, find the layout page containing a record creation form/button that you want to duplicate.

3. Click the Add record button. Not that this button can have a custom label, so your button may appear differently. However, the button will be in the upper right corner of the canvas.

4. From the properties panel on the right, find the “Data” section and the “Form” option.

5. Next, click the dropdown to open the menu.

6. Finally, click Duplicate to form builder. This will create a new, duplicate form in the “Forms” section on the left. You can now modify and publish the form as outlined in the article above.

1. Click the first/top field on the form building canvas.

2. Under Rules and next to “Visibility” ensure that “Always show field” is showing.

3. Click on the next field on the form. This time click the cogwheel icon next to “Visibility.”

4. This will open up a conditional menu. Click + Add a condition.

5. Next to “Where” click the name of the previous field if it isn’t already selected. Then choose the is not empty option from the dropdown to the right. You’ll see a strikethrough eye icon appear on the canvas on the field you are editing indicating that the field is hidden from form submitters.

6. Click on the next field on the form. Again, click the cogwheel icon next to “Visibility.” Follow the same process outlined in step 5, but this time select the field that you just hid from form submitters. This will result in cascading visibility. Continue to repeat step 6 as much as necessary to capture every form field.

7. At any point in your form-building process, you can toggle on a Preview from the upper left side of the screen. Once you are happy with the result, don’t forget to click Publish form to update the live form.

To enable email validation, click the toggle next to Validate email under the “Rules” section of a valid field type.

• If a form submitter hasn’t entered an email address in a valid format (e.g. john.doe@airtable.com, johndoe@mail.net, johndoe@nonprofit.org) they will see the following error: Please enter a valid email address

• Consider enabling the See who submitted a response option for the form to ensure proper format and provide an understanding of which user submitted the form response. (An Airtable account login is required to submit the form)

To enable character count limits, click the toggle next to Character limit under the “Rules” section of a single line or long text field type. Then, enter a value next to one or both of the Minimum and/or Maximum fields that appear.

• If the minimum character count is unmet, then the following error will appear: Your input must be at least ## characters long

• If the maximum character count is exceeded, then the following error will appear: Your input must not exceed ## characters

To enable email validation, click the toggle next to Range limit under the “Rules” section of a valid field type. Then, enter a value next to one or both of the Minimum and/or Maximum fields that appear.

• Valid field types include: Number, Currency, Percent, and Duration field types

To enable file type restriction/validation, click the cogwheel next to Allowed types under the “Rules” section of an attachment field type. A few notes:

• By default all supported attachment field file types will be allowed

• For a list of supported file types, please consult this documentation

• You’ll need to specify allowed MIME types. You can find MIME types for most file formats here.

To enable URL format validation, click the toggle next to Validate URL under the “Rules” section of a URL field type.

Yes. A maximum of 50 forms can be created per base/app.

Only users with creator permissions can create and publish forms in the form builder.

Though forms are built inside the Interface Designer UI, forms built and published this way are full-page forms that can be shared with any audience, outside of your interface. Use interface form page layouts or record creation templates to collect data specifically from interface collaborators.

Yes, form submitters will find a Clear form option next to the “Submit” button at the bottom of a form. When they click this option, they will be asked to Confirm that they want to clear the form before any data is cleared.

Yes. You’ll use the Airtable Automations feature to accomplish this type of workflow.

In this example, we'll use this event planning template as a real-life example to demonstrate this functionality.

1. Add a form - To start, you'll need to create an Airtable form as outlined in the building and sharing forms article above.

2. Add an automation - If you’ve never created an automation before, consult this article.

3. Configure a trigger - The next step is to set up an automation trigger to look for new records added to the Attendees table.
   Using the " When form submitted trigger" automation will trigger (run) every time the form we select is submitted.
   In our example, this automation will trigger after someone fills out the event registration form.

4. Set up an automation action - To send the confirmation email we'll use the Send an email action which is covered in more detail in this article. To set up the "Send an email" action click the blue "+ Add Action" button. Then, click on the "Send an email" option. This will bring up a box with configuration options to add recipients, a subject line, and the message body. For the To field, we'll select the email field used to collect registrant email addresses.
   You can then configure the other available fields. By clicking on the "Show more options" drop-down arrow, you will have the ability to customize four additional parts of the automatic email you send out, which includes "CC", "BCC", "From name", and "Reply to". It's a good idea to BCC your own email address. You can remove your email address after the automation is confirmed to be sending the email correctly.
   Our native Send email action may not be the best choice in every situation. Consider also testing out functionality with our Gmail: Send Email and Outlook: Send Email actions.

5. Test and review the confirmation email - After your message looks the way you want it to you must test to ensure the automation is working properly. If the test runs successfully, then at this point it's a good idea to check that the test email was also sent successfully and looks the way you want it to. If so, you can now turn on the automation. Every time someone registers for an event they'll receive the confirmation email you created!

Yes. The submissions section has an “Email responses” option that allows builders to choose base collaborators who will receive an email notification each time a form has been submitted. Builders can choose whether to Select all base collaborators, choose individual base collaborators by clicking the toggle next to their name, or click Clear all to remove all base collaborators from notifications. Take note that any changes to the email responses setting will only occur once the interface has been published or re-published.

There are a couple of reasons why you could be experiencing this error when attempting to submit a form.

• If the form is configured to only allow access to “Users with base access,” then any collaborator with read-only or commenter permissions won't be able to submit the form response. In this case, we'd recommend using another form share setting when collecting responses.

• Another reason this error may occur is when fields used on the form are conditionally visible, but the conditional form field contains an invalid condition due to an underlying field change or deletion.

To confirm if this is happening, please navigate to the form in your interface editor, open the conditions for all of your conditional fields, and look for an “invalid condition” error. Here's a GIF showing an example of what this may look like:

If you find one of these, you will need to fix or delete the condition and then (re)publish the form. Please note that this may be happening on multiple fields, so you'll want to check all conditional fields.

The “Lost connection to the server” error happens when interface-only users attempt to access the standalone form, but the URL they are using is missing '/form' at the end:

The URL should be formatted in the following manner: https://airtable.com/appXXXXX/pagXXXXX/form

Once you add /form to the end of the URL, your interface-only users should no longer experience this error. When sharing a link to the form or building prefilled form links in the future, the full share URL can be copied by going to Share form > Copy Link:

The table that was selected when creating the form will hold the data submitted via form responses. Keep in mind that:

• The underlying table in the base may contain views that filter certain data out based on conditions.

• An interface may or may not be set up to include pages that display data submitted through forms.

• You might not have the appropriate permissions to view data in a base or on specific interfaces.

When a form containing a field that has been deleted in the underlying base, a warning message will appear:

“The form cannot be submitted because some of the fields have been deleted".”

To rectify this situation, you can do one of two things:

1. Remove the field from the form and republish the form.

2. Restore the field that was deleted from the base trash. Once restored, as long as no other changes to the form are needed, there’s no need to republish the form.

Collaborators added to user fields are not automatically notified when a record is created through a form submission.  Notifications are triggered by direct actions within the base, interface, or through specific automation setups.

Although there isn't a form setting to enable collaborator notifications, you can set up an automation to send notifications when a record is created via a form.