About Airtable Connector

The Airtable connector allows you to replicate data from your tables inside an Airtable base into your data warehouse via Daton. Unlike most connectors, Airtable does not have a fixed schema — columns are dynamically created in the warehouse based on the fields present in your selected Airtable tables. This makes the connector flexible enough to work with any Airtable base structure, whether you're tracking inventory, CRM records, project tasks, or custom workflows.

You can configure up to 5 tables per integration from a single Airtable base. Each table's data is replicated incrementally based on the record's last modified time, ensuring your warehouse stays in sync with minimal overhead.

Prerequisites & Authentication

Before configuring the connector, ensure you have:

• An Airtable account with access to the base you want to replicate.
• A Personal Access Token with the appropriate scopes granted for the target base.
• The Base ID and Table ID(s) for the tables you want to replicate.

How to Obtain Your Airtable Credentials

Step 1 – Create a Personal Access Token

1. Go to https://airtable.com/create/tokens.
2. Click Create new token.
3. Give the token a descriptive name (e.g., "Daton Integration").
4. Under Scopes, grant at minimum:
   • data.records:read
   • schema.bases:read
5. Under Access, select the specific base(s) you want Daton to connect to.
6. Click Create token and copy the generated token immediately — it will not be shown again.

Step 2 – Locate Your Base ID

1. Open the Airtable base you want to replicate in your browser.
2. Look at the URL in the address bar. It will look like: https://airtable.com/appWGcrZ9BjDJMfME/tblyXADA8z5yPZHG3/viwZQFrXmxG0bOmPK
3. The Base ID is the segment starting with app — in this example: appWGcrZ9BjDJMfME.

Step 3 – Locate Your Table ID(s)

1. From the same URL above, the Table ID is the segment starting with tbl — in this example: tblyXADA8z5yPZHG3.
2. To find the Table ID for other tables in the same base, click on each table tab and note the tbl... value in the URL.

Integration Setup

Follow these steps to configure the Airtable connector in Daton:

Step 1 – Begin Setup: Enter Source Configuration Details

1. In Daton, navigate to Add Source → Airtable.
2. Integration Name: Provide a descriptive name to identify this integration.
3. Description (optional): Add a note for easy reference (e.g., "Airtable – Product Catalog Base").
4. Replication Frequency: Select how often Daton should pull data (1h, 2h, 3h, 6h, 8h, 12h, or 24h or CRON).
5. Replication Start Date: Choose how far back you want Daton to pull historical data. Records with a last modified time on or after this date will be included in the initial sync.
6. Advanced Configuration Options:
   • Loading Mode: Choose Append (default — inserts new rows) or Upsert (updates existing rows and inserts new ones).
   • Loading Nested Objects: Control how nested/linked data is handled — options include inheriting warehouse settings, no unnesting, up to one level, or up to two levels.
7. Click Authenticate to proceed.

Step 2 – Enter Authentication and Table Credentials

1. Access Token: Paste the Personal Access Token you created in Airtable.
2. Base ID: Enter the Base ID (starts with app).
3. Table 1 – ID (required): Enter the Table ID for the first table (starts with tbl).
4. Table 1 – Name (required): Enter a friendly name for this table. This name will be added as a column value (table_name) in every row replicated from this table, making it easy to identify the source table in your warehouse.
5. Tables 2–5 (optional): Repeat the Table ID and Table Name fields for up to 4 additional tables from the same base.
6. Click Authenticate to validate your credentials.

Note: Only tables with a valid (non-empty) Table ID entered in this step will appear for selection in the next step. The Table Name you provide is for identification purposes in the warehouse — it does not need to match the actual Airtable table name, though using the same name is recommended for clarity.

Step 3 – Select Tables for Replication

1. Daton will display the tables based on the Table IDs you provided in Step 2.
2. Select the tables you wish to replicate.
3. Click Next to proceed.

Step 4 – Configure Schema

1. Review the default columns that Daton will create: id, table_name, and table_id.
2. Important: Since Airtable does not have a fixed schema, additional columns will be dynamically created in the warehouse as Daton encounters new fields in your Airtable data. You do not need to pre-define them here.
3. Click Submit to finalize the setup.

Daton will begin the initial historical load and then schedule incremental loads at the frequency you selected.

Schema & Data Handling

Dynamic Column Creation

Unlike most Daton connectors, the Airtable connector does not have a predefined schema. The columns in your destination table are automatically created based on the fields present in your Airtable records. As you add new fields to your Airtable table, Daton will detect and add corresponding columns in your warehouse on the next replication run.

Default Columns

Every replicated table includes the following system-generated columns:

All additional columns are created dynamically from the fields in your Airtable records.

Replication Strategy

Error Handling & Retries

The connector automatically handles:

• HTTP 429 — Airtable rate limiting (5 requests per second per base). The connector sleeps and retries.
• HTTP 5xx — Server-side errors. The connector retries with a 30-second backoff.
• Sync timeout — If a sync exceeds 30 minutes, it hibernates and retries from where it left off.

No manual action is needed for these scenarios.