Airtable Export Pod

Summary

The Airtable export pod will export a Dendron note to a row in an Airtable. Various aspects of the note can be exported - from frontmatter fields to the note body. You can view the example video here

Requirements

the table must already exist in Airtable
all columns that you want to write to must exist in Airtable
you must have a column named DendronId (case sensitive)

Side Effects

this will add Airtable pod metadata in the frontmatter of your note under pods namespace.

pods:
  airtable:
    <pod-id>: "airtableId"

Configuration

In addition to the Common Properties, the Airtable has the following properties:

podType

This is actually a common property, but for the Airtable Export pod this must be set to AirtableExportV2.

connectionId (required)

The ID of an Airtable connection. See Airtable.

baseId

base ID of Airtable base.

tableName

Name of the destination table in Airtable.

filters

type: {fname: string[]}

Filter export scope by given patterns. Filter currently only supports the fname filter which filters by the file name.

Example:

Given the following notes:

- foo
- foo.one
- foo.one.alpha
- foo.two

and the following filter

filters:
  fname: [foo, foo.one*]

Then the following notes would be exported

- foo.two

sourceFieldMapping

This contains a mapping of Airtable fields with the note contents and properties. This can either be a plain string or a dictionary that specifics additional properties. You can see the type definition below

type SrcFieldMapping =
  | {
      to?: string;
      type: "string" | "date" | "singleSelect" | "multiSelect" | "linkedRecord";
      filter?: string;
    }

In all cases, the key represents the name of the column in Airtable.

NOTE: the key must exist in Airtable before you are able to create a new value

common options

The following options apply for string, boolean, and number values

required: if set, throw error if field is not present
strictNullChecks: if set, throw error if field is null
skipOnEmpty: if set, don't try to upload if field is empty
- NOTE: this is only valid on date field

string value

String value is the name of the field in Dendron. You can use any valid NoteProps (Private) as the value

srcFieldMapping: {Note ID : id, Title : title, Summary: body}

boolean

value: boolean

You can represent a boolean by using the boolean type

IsChecked: {type: boolean, to: "custom.checked" }

number

ANumber: {type: number, to: "custom.anumber" }

date

endDate: {type: date, to: "custom.endDate" }

By default, this would skip exporting a field if value is empty. To bypass this, you can update skipOnEmpty to false.

endDate: {type: date, to: "custom.endDate", skipOnEmpty: false }

linkedRecord

This field lets you link to another records present in Airtable. In the below example, the Tasks field of table A is a link to a record present in table B

Tasks: {
    type: "linkedRecord",
    filter: "task.*",
    podId: "dendron.task"
  }

multiSelect

This fields let you pick multiple values. You can either select an arbitrary frontmatter field or use the special tags key to select tags in the note.

Example of multi select using frontmatter field

Config

# sourceFieldMapping
Role: {type: "multiSelect", to: "foo"},

Note

---
foo: ["two", "three"]
---

Export

foo: ["two", "three"]

Example of multi select using tags

Role: {type: "multiSelect", filter: "tags.dendron.role.*", to: "tags"},

Note

---
...
---

#role.foo
#role.bar

Export

foo: ["role.foo", "role.bar"]

object value

to: the name of the field in Dendron
type: what type this field is on Airtable
- string: regular string
- date: will convert a unix time liked the updated prop in a Dendron note to an Airtable date
- singleTag: creates a Single Select field on Airtable that is populated with Tags found in Dendron note
  - NOTE: Airtable does not let you create new values in single select via API. Make sure that all values exist or set the field as a string on Airtable before exporting and then convert back into a Single Select field
filter: used with type: singleTag, used to restrict what tags are parsed from Dendron
- eg: {type: "singleTag", filter: "tags.foo.*"} -> this will add tags that start with #foo.* but will ignore all #bar.* tags

Example Complete Configuration

# description: configuration ID
# type: string
# required: true
podId: novels-airtable

# description: export scope of the pod.
# type: string
# NOTE: When a setting is missing from this config, you will get a UI prompt to select a value for that setting while running the export pod. For this particular exportScope setting, if you would rather not be prompted and always have the same exportScope, simply uncomment the line below.
# exportScope: Note

# description: type of pod
# type: string
# required: true
podType: AirtableExportV2

# description: ID of the Airtable Connected Service
# type: string
# required: true
connectionId: test-airtable

# description: airtable base id
# type: string
# required: true
baseId: appCuzX6AAg7gw3RF

# description: Name of the airtable
# type: string
# required: true
tableName: Novels

# description: mapping of airtable fields with the note eg: {Created On: created, Notes: body}
# type: object
# required: true
sourceFieldMapping: {
  Author: author,
  Summary: body,
  Title: title,
  Status: status,
  DendronId: id
}

# description: undefined
# type: object
# filters: TODO

Troubleshooting

Insufficient Permissions to Create New Select Option

If you see an error like the following:

"Error while running Airtable Export Pod: {\"error\":\"INVALID_MULTIPLE_CHOICE_OPTIONS\",\"message\":\"Insufficient permissions to create new select option \\\"\\\"NON-REPRO\\\"\\\"\",\"statusCode\":422}"

Columns in Airtable that are of the type 'Single Select' or 'Multi Select' behave like enums - if you try to upload a value that's not in the enum set, then you'll get this error. If you see this error, check in Airtable what acceptable values for that column and change your field to one of those accepted values.

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