Limitations of Unito’s Airtable Integration

Here's a breakdown of what Unito's Airtable integration can't do yet — and a few other considerations.

Unito's Airtable integration is designed with flexibility in mind to help you get the most out of your database and records. You've seen what Unito can do for Airtable users, so this article will cover what it can't do — yet.

What does this article cover?

• Airtable Integration Limitations
• Field mappings and drop-down lists
• Last modified time fields
• Frequently Asked Questions

Limitations of Unito's Airtable Integration

• Signing up to Unito through Airtable: At this time you'll have to sign up for Unito through an account you have with another tool, or by creating a Unito account with an email address.
• Creating a table from Unito: For now, you can only sync Airtable work from tables you've already created which just means you'll need to prepare them before building a flow.
• Personal Access Tokens: Airtable's API can use Personal Access Tokens or OAuth to keep your data safe.  Personal Access Tokens are specifically for scripting and making API calls within Airtable, and so aren't supported by Unito. You can instead use OAuth to connect your Airtable account with Unito, much like with many other Unito integrations.
• Comments: Currently, Unito can't sync comments in other tools to or from Airtable. Airtable can however sync single or multi-line text from Airtable to your other apps or tools, as long as those fields aren't paired with comments.
• Ratings must be limited to values between 1-5: When syncing ratings, for example, through Trello, the numeric field must remain between values of 1 to 5. If you try to sync a rating with a value greater than 5, the task will fail to update.
• Subtasks: Since Airtable does not have subtasks, Unito can't sync subtasks from other tools as subtasks in Airtable.
• @ mentions: Unito does not sync @ mentions in text.
• Long text fields: If rich text is enabled, Unito won't be able to sync long text fields, so be sure to disable rich text.
• Formulas:
  • Field mapping with formulas: Unito supports syncing from formulas one-way to another field, but can't write formulas into an Airtable record.
  • Rules and triggers with formulas: You can only use a computed field or formula as a filter in one-way flows. Formulas can't be used as triggers with a 2-way flow direction. Here's more on what you can do with a one-way create, two-way update flow.

• Link to record fields: Unito can only sync data out of these fields, and not into them.
• Lookup fields: Unito can only sync data out of these fields, and not into them. So you won't be able to write Lookup fields with Unito.
• Views: Unito can only sync records from tables, not views. So if your view excludes certain records, just make sure those records are also excluded from your Unito rules if you don't want them to sync into another block of work. 
  • If, for example, you have a view with a filter for a specific value in a single-select field, a new record created by Unito will show up in that view if it has that same value. What are Airtable views?

Field mappings and drop-down lists

Field mappings

Usually, Unito will automatically map similar fields across tools. In Airtable, that isn't always possible, since you can use Airtable fields for just about anything. With that in mind, make sure you create a Title column in Airtable using a Single-line text field, and map it to a similar field in your other tool. Otherwise, you might end up with a bunch of work items with no titles!

Drop-down lists

If you want to sync a drop-down list (such as Status), make sure it's in the base you're building your workflow around. Otherwise, you won't be able to select it when you customize your mappings.

Adding the Last modified time field in every connected table

In order for Unito to sync your Airtable data, each connected table must include a Last Modified Time column. You can always hide this column if you don't need to see it, but make sure you don't delete it.

Here's how to set up a Last modified time field in Airtable:

1. From your Airtable base, click + to add a column.
2. Scroll down the list and look for Last Modified Time. Not to be confused with Last Modified By. They're different fields with similar sounding names, so don't mix them up.
3. You can give it a name, or not, but this field won't be mapped by Unito. It is required, however, for your flow to function as intended.

Frequently asked questions about Unito's Airtable Integration

• Why not use Airtable to sync records between tables?
  When it comes to keeping records is sync, only Unito offers real-time 2-way syncing between tables. In other words, changes in one synced table will appear in the other, no maintenance required.
• Can I sync a synced table via Unito?
  Yes, tables that are already synced (via another tool, including Airtable) can still be synced again to other tables in a Unito flow.
• Can I sync bases that aren't part of the same Airtable workspace?
  Yes, though keep in mind that Unito syncs records from tables and not entire bases, you'll need to specify which table within a base for each Unito flow. 

• What happens if I manually delete a synced record?

  If you choose to delete a destination record (a record created by Unito or synced based on changed to another work item), Unito will not sync the deletion.

  • In other words, when you delete a synced row, the work item it was synced to won't be affected. This can sometimes go unnoticed if someone accidentally deletes a synced row and then re-adds it, in which case the records will remain, but will no longer by in sync.