Record templates overview (Beta)

Airtable's record templates are a no-code way for you and your team to automate repetitive record creation. Once configured, a record template can create a predefined record and/or set of related records (sub-records) with a single click, ensuring consistent data and increasing the efficiency of your workflows. In particular, project management or marketing campaign "one-to-many" use cases that often involve the same set of tasks, subtasks, or milestones will benefit from implementing record templates.

Introduction

Example use case and sub-records

Let's say you manage a product team. You track product releases in an Airtable project tracking base that has two tables. One table is named "Projects" which acts as the parent and another is named "Tasks" which has a linked record field connected to the "Projects" table. Records in the "Tasks" table will act as the child sub-records. Each time your team is tasked with bringing a new product to market there are some common tasks that occur leading up to a launch. To simplify let's say that there are 5 tasks:

1. Create design mock-up
2. Engineer beta version
3. Feedback and bug bash
4. Final touches and staging
5. Launch/Release

With a record template, instead of having to go create these 5 tasks (sub-records) in the "Tasks" table and then manually link each task to the corresponding project/product in the "Project" table, you would configure the template one time and then simply add the template or apply the template to your base with the click of a button. Let's throw one more complexity into the equation though. Let's say there are two different teams that may work on a product release project. If a product release is in a certain category then "Team 1" would work on it, in other instances, it would be assigned to "Team 2." In this case, you could build out one template for "Team 1" product releases and another for "Team 2." As a manager, you can now choose which set of records will be created depending upon which template you use. Consider the image below and then move on to learn how to configure a template in Airtable.

Configuring a record template

Follow the general steps below to build out a record template in your base. 

1.  Open the base where you want to create a record template.
2.  Find the Record templates feature under the Tools dropdown in the upper right portion of the screen.
   
3.  If this is the first template being created in this base, then open up whichever table you'd like to set up a record template in. Then, click "Get started" and you'll see a pop-over to insert the name and description. You can always edit the name and description at a later time. Click "Next."
   Otherwise, if this isn't the first template, then click the dropdown to choose which table to set up a record template. Once you have chosen the table, click the "New template" option and fill in the name and description of the template.
   
4. Clicking "Next" will open the template configuration window. On the right side, you'll see fields from the table you've chosen to create the template in. Now, you can input data into whichever fields you always want this template to fill information into. You can always create more templates if this template only satisfies one use case. Also, you should note that certain fields (computed fields like formulas, lookups, rollups, etc.) will not be visible/editable.
   
5.  At this point, depending upon your needs, you could be done building out the template. This kind of template would create/apply the schema to just one record. However, the real power of record templates happens when you utilize the "+ Add sub-records" option on the left side of the configuration window. Using this option requires there to be at least one linked record field in the table you are creating this template for.
6. To create a sub-record click the "+ Add sub-records" option. This will open up a dropdown menu where you will select which linked record field to use. Click "Done" after selecting the appropriate field. Now, the right side of the configuration window will show the configurable fields in the table the linked record is connected to. After configuring the necessary fields for the particular linked record you are wanting to create, click "Done." Repeat this process as needed.
7.  Now, you can click "Done" to create the template. Creators can always modify the template at a later time by clicking on the template.

Using a record template

There are two ways to utilize templates. You can either:

1. Add the template to the base - Adding a template to a base will cause a new parent record to be created along with any sub-records that have been configured in that template. To add a template to the base, click the "+ Add to base" option from within the record templates sidebar. Remember, that templates will be organized by table. Click the dropdown next to the name of the table to choose a different table.
   
2. Apply the template to a record that has already been created- Applying a template to a record will have different behavior depending upon the field types that are configured in the template:
   • Empty non-array type fields are filled according to the template's configuration
   • Array type fields are always appended to and deduplicated
   • Non-empty, non-array type fields are ignored
   • Computed field types cannot be directly modified by templates
   To apply a template, right-click on the record you would like to apply the template to then click "Apply template." This will open a pop-over window where you can choose which template to apply.
   

Using record templates in automations

If you've already built out one or more record templates, then you can leverage those templates when setting up automations that contain one or more Create record or Update record actions. To utilize this functionality:

1. From an open base, click the Automations tab in the upper left corner of the screen. Then navigate to an existing automation or start building a new one. In the Actions section add a Create record or Update record action or click on an existing one.
2. Under the Configuration section to the right, choose the table containing the record template that you want to leverage. 
3. Click the drop-down menu below Create record and click the option From a template.
   
   
4. This will cause the Record template drop-down to appear. Click that drop-down to choose the record template you want this automation to use to create records when it is triggered to run.
   
5. You can click Generate a preview to test out what the record will look like when the automation runs. This will directly match the current configuration of the template chosen in the previous step. It’s important to note that any changes to the record templates used will affect the live automation's runs, even if the live automation isn't updated.

FAQs