Integrate Airtable with External Services using SnapLogic

SnapLogic is an integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) that allows users to create data integration flows with no code. When paired with the CData JDBC Drivers, users get access to live data from more than 250+ SaaS, Big Data and NoSQL sources, including Airtable, in their SnapLogic workflows.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData JDBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Airtable data. When platforms issue complex SQL queries to Airtable, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Airtable and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations). Its built-in dynamic metadata querying lets you work with Airtable data using native data types.

Connect to Airtable in SnapLogic

To connect to Airtable data in SnapLogic, download and install the CData Airtable JDBC Driver. Follow the installation dialog. When the installation is complete, the JAR file can be found in the installation directory (C:/Program Files/CData/CData JDBC Driver for Airtable/lib by default).

Upload the Airtable JDBC Driver

After installation, upload the JDBC JAR file to a location in SnapLogic (for example, projects/Jerod Johnson) from the Manager tab.

👁 Uploaded JDBC Driver (Salesforce & QuickBooks Online are shown)

Configure the Connection

Once the JDBC Driver is uploaded, we can create the connection to Airtable.

1. Navigate to the Designer tab
2. Expand "JDBC" from Snaps and drag a "Generic JDBC - Select" snap onto the designer 👁 Adding a Generic JDBC snap onto the designer
   
3. Click Add Account (or select an existing one) and click "Continue"
4. In the next form, configure the JDBC connection properties:
   • Under JDBC JARs, add the JAR file we previously uploaded
   • Set JDBC Driver Class to cdata.jdbc.airtable.AirtableDriver

   • Set JDBC URL to a JDBC connection string for the Airtable JDBC Driver, for example:

     jdbc:airtable:APIKey=keymz3adb53RqsU;BaseId=appxxN2fe34r3rjdG7;TableNames=Table1,...;ViewNames=Table1.View1,...;RTK=XXXXXX;

     NOTE: RTK is a trial or full key. Contact our Support team for more information. 👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
     

     Built-In Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Airtable JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.airtable.jar

     Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

     APIKey, BaseId and TableNames parameters are required to connect to Airtable. ViewNames is an optional parameter where views of the tables may be specified.

     • APIKey : API Key of your account. To obtain this value, after logging in go to Account. In API section click Generate API key.
     • BaseId : Id of your base. To obtain this value, it is in the same section as the APIKey. Click on Airtable API, or navigate to https://airtable.com/api and select a base. In the introduction section you can find "The ID of this base is appxxN2ftedc0nEG7."
     • TableNames : A comma separated list of table names for the selected base. These are the same names of tables as found in the UI.
     • ViewNames : A comma separated list of views in the format of (table.view) names. These are the same names of the views as found in the UI.
     👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
     
5. After entering the connection properties, click "Validate" and "Apply"

Read Airtable Data

In the form that opens after validating and applying the connection, configure your query.

• Set Schema name to "Airtable"
• Set Table name to a table for Airtable using the schema name, for example: "Airtable"."SampleTable_1" (use the drop-down to see the full list of available tables)
• Add Output fields for each item you wish to work with from the table

👁 Configuring a Select snap (Salesforce is shown)

Save the Generic JDBC - Select snap.

With connection and query configured, click the end of the snap to preview the data (highlighted below).

👁 Click the end of the snap to preview the data.

Once you confirm the results are what you expect, you can add additional snaps to funnel your Airtable data to another endpoint.

👁 Previewing data (Salesforce is shown).

Piping Airtable Data to External Services

For this article, we will load data in a Google Spreadsheet. You can use any of the supported snaps, or even use a Generic JDBC snap with another CData JDBC Driver, to move data into an external service.

1. Start by dropping a "Worksheet Writer" snap onto the end of the "Generic JDBC - Select" snap.
2. Add an account to connect to Google Sheets 👁 Connecting to Google
   
3. Configure the Worksheet Writer snap to write your Airtable data to a Google Spreadsheet 👁 Writing to a Google Spreadsheet
   

You can now execute the fully configured pipeline to extract data from Airtable and push it into a Google Spreadsheet.

👁 Data written to Google Spreadsheets (Salesforce is shown)

Piping External Data to Airtable

As mentioned above, you can also use the JDBC Driver for Airtable in SnapLogic to write data to Airtable. Start by adding a Generic JDBC - Insert or Generic JDBC - Update snap to the dashboard.

1. Select the existing "Account" (connection) or create a new one
2. Configure the query:
   • Set Schema name to "Airtable"
   • Set Table name to a table for Airtable using the schema name, for example: "Airtable"."SampleTable_1" (use the drop-down to see the full list of available tables)
   👁 Configuring a INSERT snap (Salesforce is shown)
   
3. Save the Generic JDBC - Insert/Update snap

At this point, you have configured a snap to write data to Airtable, inserting new records or updating existing ones.

More Information & Free Trial

Using the CData JDBC Driver for Airtable you can create a pipeline in SnapLogic for integrating Airtable data with external services. For more information about connecting to Airtable, check at our CData JDBC Driver for Airtable page. Download a free, 30 day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Airtable and get started today.