eDiscovery APIs in Airtable

NOTE

Before starting the export process, locate the base ID you are trying to export (formatted as appxxxxxxxx).

To locate your base ID:

1. Visit your admin panel.

2. Click Bases.

3. Search for your preferred base under the “Base name” column.

4. Base IDs are visible immediately below your base’s name.

NOTE

You can also use audit logs if you need to determine which bases you need to export based on specific activity of users within your organization.

To access your audit logs:

1. Visit your admin panel.

2. Click Reports.

3. Enter your preferred date and select any necessary filters under the "Audit log" section.

4. Click Download report or Generate new report.

NOTE

Additionally, you can review user details in the admin panel to understand which bases your users can access.

To access your user details:

1. Visit your admin panel.

2. Click Users.

3. Click on your preferred user’s name.

4. Click Bases.

NOTE

After locating your base ID, POST a request to the Create eDiscovery API endpoint. Detailed documentation is available here.

• Currently, bases can only be exported one at a time.

• You can request that an email be sent to you once the request is submitted, which proactively notifies you when the export request is complete and provides a download link.

• The default export format is a JSON object, but CSV is also available.

• 10 minutes is the maximum time we allow an export request to run.

• If your request succeeds, you will receive a response with an enterpriseTaskId. You will use this value to check the status of your export request.

NOTE

You can review your eDiscovery export status by making a GET request to the eDiscovery API endpoint ( details here).

Your export will be in one of the following states:

• Pending – the export task is queued but has not started.

• Processing - the export task is in process.

• Error - the export task failed and hit an unexpected error. In this circumstance, you should retry or submit a support request.

• Done – the export is complete, and the request should contain links to the export files.

Suppose you do not specify the enterpriseTaskId when checking the export status. In that case, you will receive a list of all in-progress and past export requests and their status. The endpoint will return all exports created by all admins across the organization.

The following values are not included in exports:

• Calculated column values (like rollups or formulas)

• Interface layout information

• Automation configuration details

• Extension usage and details

NOTE

Exports do not contain record revision history or information about deleted records. If you want to monitor a change log of all Airtable data and store it in a 3p system, check out our Data Loss Prevention offerings.

NOTE

The default behavior of the eDiscovery API is to provide an export in a single JSON file. The JSON file contains each record's raw details, metadata, and comments.

Important objects in the JSON export

NOTE

Another option for customers is to export base data as a CSV. The eDiscovery API returns a URL into a .zip file containing the relevant CSV structure for a base.

Two CSVs are generated per base table. The first CSV contains the table export, while the second contains all the comments made on records within that table. The CSV table export contains all non-calculated fields for the records in a table. Additionally, to provide more metadata about the table, the CSV has the following additional information:

• The record creation and last modified times.

• The userID of the user who created and last modified the record.

Known limitations:

• Calculated columns do not have values in the export, but the column are present in the export.

  • This includes formulas, rollups, and lookup fields.