Airtable

Connect Airtable with MESA

When you are setting up your first workflow with Airtable, you'll need to add your Airtable account API key so that Airtable is a connected app within MESA.

You can find the API key on your Airtable account page. Paste the API key into the Airtable Step and click on the Add Credential button. Then, you are all set!

Configuration

Locate your Base & Table

Airtable's triggers and actions both require a Base and Table to be configured.

To find your Base*, log in to your Airtable account and go to airtable.com/api. Click on your Base from the list. On the next page, your ID will be listed in green next to the label The ID of this base. Example: app3tJXimOU6SzxQz

The Table* will be the label from your Airtable interface. Example: "Restaurants", "Orders", or "City Districts".

Locate your Record ID

In certain Airtable actions, you may be required to enter a Record ID. Learn more on how to locate your Record ID.

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.

🗒 Note: 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. 

🗒 Note: 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. 

🗒 Note: Please note that available frequencies will differ depending on your MESA billing plan. 

Potential Use Cases

Jumpstart your automation journey with one of our pre-made templates that you can install directly to the MESA dashboard.