Creating a base share link or a view share link
- 28 Mar 2023
- 8 Minutes to read
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Creating a base share link or a view share link
- Updated on 28 Mar 2023
- 8 Minutes to read
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As an alternative to adding users as base collaborators, you can create a read-only share link that allows anyone with the link to view (but not edit) a single view or an entire base. Learn the details of how to use each type of share link in this article.
Introduction
| Plan availability | All plan types with additional security options for Pro and Enterprise workspaces |
| Permissions |
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| Platform(s) | Web/Browser, Mac app, and Windows app |
| Related reading |
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Overview
- The share links feature creates a private, randomly generated URL that allows non-collaborators read-only access to a view or base. It's important to note that anyone with whom you share the link (or who then shares the link with others) can view the data contained within that view or base share link.
- If you're looking to give your share links an extra layer of security, users who are part of Pro or Enterprise plan workspaces can further secure their base and view share links by restricting access to a share link with a password or by email domain.
- You can also embed a full base or table view within the base directly into a website—check out this support article on embeds.
Share a single view
If you share just a specific table view, you can choose to hide certain columns, or filter out certain rows—and the cell content in the link will stay up to date with any changes you make. You can create a share link to just a specific view of a table within a base—as opposed to the entire base. You can create view share links for all view types—Grid, Gallery, Calendar, Kanban, Timeline, or Gantt. At this time view share links are read-only, and it’s not possible for viewers to make edits to the records in the shared view.
Note
Check out the Airtable Sync support article to allow data in a grid view to be synced to other bases.
The viewer of the share link will not see any records that are hidden in this view. In the event that you change cell values, add records or fields, or otherwise change which fields and records are visible in the view, the viewer will need to refresh the page to see the most up-to-date version of the view.
If you'd like to take extra precautions to ensure that the configurations of your view share links won't get accidentally changed (and you're on an Airtable Pro plan), you can lock the view being shared, which will prevent all collaborators from altering a view's configuration until it's been unlocked by someone with creator permissions.
Note that if the shared view exposes a column containing linked records, only the names of those linked records will be exposed. Any viewers of your shared view link will not be able to open up a linked record to see all of the fields of that link record, as they would be able to do if they were collaborators with full access to the base.
When you share a view, you will be given a share link to a read-only page showing only the records in the given view. You can then send this share link to anyone, with or without an Airtable account, or even embed this view on your own site.
Setup a view
The first step is to create a view for sharing. Then, click the share link button in the view bar. This will bring up an option to create a shareable grid, calendar, gallery, or kanban view link.
Configure view share link options
Once you click "Create a shareable view link" you can configure different options to control the share link. More details about each option are available below.
Allow viewers to copy data out of this view
If this option is enabled, then:
- Any attachments in the base can be downloaded
- All cells in the table can be copied at once through the copy and paste keyboard shortcuts (CtrlCand CtrlV)
- For a base share link or an embedded base, there will be a "Copy base" button that, when clicked, will allow any people viewing the base to make copies of the base for themselves
- There will be an option to download a CSV version of the data in the current view
If this option is disabled, then:
- Downloading attachments is not allowed (however, attachments can still be viewed, so be careful, especially with image files!)
- You cannot copy and paste batches of cells using keyboard shortcuts
- Neither the Copy base button nor the option to download a CSV will be made available
Allow data in this view to be synced to other bases
Using Airtable Sync, you can sync records from a source base to one or more destination bases. More information about Airtable Sync is covered in detail in this article.
Show all fields in expanded records
If this option is enabled and you have certain fields hidden in the view, all fields will be made visible when records are expanded in the share link. If this option is disabled, only the fields that are actively visible in this view will be viewable from the share link.
Restrict access with a password
You can restrict access to a base or view share link with a password. If you do this, anyone that wants to view the contents of your share link will need *both* the randomly generated URL *and* the password.
To restrict access to a base or view share link with a password, simply turn on the toggle that says "Restrict access with a password."
More information about password restriction is covered in detail in this article.
Restrict access to an email domain
You can restrict access to a base or view share link to an email domain. If you do this, anyone that wants to view the contents of your share link will need *both* the randomly generated URL*and* to be logged into an Airtable account using an email address from the specified email domain. More information about email domain restriction is covered in detail in this article.
Preview the view share link
Once you've configured the view share options, you can click the preview button to take you directly to the URL and show you how your view share link looks.
Your view share link will look something like this:
Other options
- You can also click the "Embed this view on your site" option to get a code for an embed (more on that in this support article).
- If the view you're sharing is a calendar view, you can click the "iCal subscription link" option to generate an iCal subscription link.
- Lastly, you can click "Disable shared view link" to disable the link.
Share an entire base
Creating a public share link for the entire base will let anyone with the share link see the entire base, including all of the different tables. Since the created link creates a publicly accessible webpage, viewers are not required to have an Airtable account.
Note
Looking to share a base with other colleagues who use Airtable? Please consult this support article instead.
Open the base share menu
To share a whole base, open up the base share dialog by clicking the "Share" button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Once in the base share dialog, click on the option labeled "Share publicly" near the top-right portion of the modal. This will show a toggle option to either enable or disable a public shared base link. Turning full base access on will open a menu of additional options covered next.
You can now send this share link to others, preview it yourself, or embed it into a website.
Configure base share link options
Similar to the view share configuration options, you can configure different options to control the share link. For more details about each configuration option, see this section above.
- To enable a base share link click the toggle.
- Additionally, the options next to the share link URL allow you to generate a new share link, preview the link, or open up the iframe embed page.
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When someone opens a base share link, they’ll see something like this:
Note
Updates made to the base will only appear in the base share link when the page is reloaded.
FAQs
Is the share link URL generated private?
The URL itself is randomly generated, but anyone that has the link can access the view or base that you've shared, unless a password and/or domain restriction has been set up.
Can I generate a new URL for the share link?
Yes. Click the refresh button to generate a new URL for your view share link. If you refresh the share link, it will invalidate all previous links to this shared view.
Can I disable a shared link so it's no longer accessible?
Yes. Click "Disable shared view link" to disable the link.
Are share links accessible by search engines?
Pages for share links are not publicly accessible through search engines.
Do shared views support using Internet Explorer 11?
No, Airtable's shared views do not support IE11.
Can you create new view share links via Airtable's Meta API ?
We do not currently support creating new view share links via our API.
Can you set multiple domains when restricting access to a domain?
No, you are only able to limit a share link to a single domain.
If I filter a view share link and then download it as a CSV, will the CSV reflect the filters I have set up?
No. If a viewer of a view share link applies a filter to the link and uses the download CSV button, the CSV downloaded will NOT take into account any of the filters applied. The CSV will reflect the records from the original view that was shared. To create a filtered CSV, first download the CSV from the original share view. Then import that CSV to your own Airtable base, apply the filters there, and then export that filtered view as a CSV.
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