Kuovonne's Guide to Scripting in Airtable

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Kuovonne's Guide to Scripting in Airtable

So you want to learn Scripting?

Where do I start?
Where do I start?

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If you know Airtable, but haven’t written code before

Try using a few simple scripts and seeing if you understand them and are comfortable with them.

Free Scripts⁠

in this document

Automation Helpers⁠

in my Gumroad store

Then take a step away from Airtable and learn the basics of JavaScript. There are many resources for learning JavaScript, both free and paid. Find the resource that fits your learning style and budget.

I used a variety of free websites, including

freeCodeCamp⁠

and

W3Schools⁠

, to learn the JavaScript vocabulary and grammar. But these websites might not match your learning style.

Treat learning a computer language like learning a human language.

learn the grammar of your language

learn the vocabulary of your language and of any libraries you want to use

practice common structures until they are second nature

read things written in your target language

You don’t have to master JavaScript to get started writing Airtable scripts. But you need to have the basics down. For comparison, a child doesn’t have to know all the letters of the alphabet to start learning to read simple words, but trying to read goes much more smoothly if at least all the common letters are known.

Then move on to the

Scripting documentation⁠

and simple projects.

If you know how to code, but are new to Airtable

Build a bases in Airtable to get a feel for how tables, fields, records, and views work.

The

Getting Started guides on the Airtable Support website⁠

have a lot of content.

The

Learning Airtable course on LinkedIn Learning⁠

covers a lot of the basics.

If you already have experience with relational databases, much of your knowledge will transfer, but some of it may get in the way. While Airtable is a relational database, it is not a traditional relational database. Its linked record fields do not work like relationships in other databases.

If you already have experience with spreadsheets, be open to a new way of thinking. A database can do things that a spreadsheet cannot, but some things that are easy in a spreadsheet are difficult or impossible in a database.

Then move on to the

Scripting documentation⁠

and simple projects.

If you’re familiar with both Airtable and Coding

Great! Now to put the two together. Start with the

Scripting documentation⁠

and simple projects. Then work your way up.

Note that you can start here even if you don’t know JavaScript specifically. If you know another high level language such as C or Python, you’ll pick up JavaScript pretty quickly.

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buy Kuovonne a sandwich

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Where do I start?Where do I start?

If you know Airtable, but haven’t written code before

If you know how to code, but are new to Airtable

If you’re familiar with both Airtable and Coding

Where do I start?
Where do I start?