Scraping website data into Airtable ​

With Simplescraper you can scrape data from any website directly into your Airtable bases quicky and easily. This guide has been updated to show you how to use Personal Access Tokens (PAT) instead of the now deprecated API keys.

Follow the steps below or watch the short video above

  • In Simplescraper navigate to the Integrate tab of a recipe that you've created and you'll find the Airtable integration. Toggle the Activate switch on to enable the integration. There are four sections to be completed: Personal Access Token (previously API key), Base ID, Table name and Included properties
  • To add your Personal Access Token in Airtable follow these steps:
    • Visit your Personal Access Token page on Airtable via this link: https://airtable.com/create/tokens
    • On the Personal Access Tokens page, click the '+ Create new token' button
    • Name your Personal Access Token something like 'Simplescraper access'
    • Under Scopes select 'data.records:read' and 'data.records:write'
    • Next, choose the access level for your PAT. For flexibility, we recommend selecting 'All current and future bases in all current and future workspaces'. This option allows you to use Simplescraper with any of your existing Airtable bases, as well as any new ones you create. If you are certain that you will only ever scrape data to a single base, then choose access to that specific base instead
    • After creating your token, copy it to your clipboard. Remember, the token is shown only once for security reasons
  • Paste this token into the Personal Access Token (previously API) field in the Integrate section of Simplescraper and press enter to save
  • To add your base ID, open the base that you wish to save data into and note the string that comes after 'https://airtable.com/' in your URL bar. It should begin with 'app' and then some random characters, for example 'appQjzhfyaBCde'. Copy this base ID and paste it into the Base ID field in Simplescraper and press enter to save (alternatively navigate to the Airtable API page and click on the base that you wish to scrape data into and you'll find the same Base ID highlighted in green in the introduction section)
  • To add your table name, navigate to the Airtable base that you wish to scrape data into and copy the name of the table where you want the data to appear. Paste this name into the Table name field in Simplescraper and press enter to save
  • Toggle the property names in the 'Included properties' section for the data you want to save to Airtable. Remember, for each selected property, you need a corresponding single-line text field in your Airtable table with the exact same name. Set up these fields in Airtable before you begin
  • If a property is a link, create an extra field in Airtable with '_link' added to the property name. For example, for a 'jobtitle' property that is a link, create both 'jobtitle' and 'jobtitle_link' single-text fields in your Airtable table
  • Click 'test integration' to verify that Simplescraper can successfully connect to Airtable. If everything is correct you will see a 'test passed - successfully connected' message
  • Now you're ready to run your scrape recipe. Click run recipe and when the task completes your data will instantly and automatically be saved to your Airtable base

Troubleshooting ​

If the test integration button didn't return a 'test passed' message it's likely an issue with your Airtable configuration. Follow the steps below for solutions to common error messages:

  • 'Something went wrong': make sure to press the ENTER key after entering the Personal Access Token, Base ID and Table name into the input fields
  • 'Base ID or table name may be incorrect or may not exist': verify that the base ID matches the base that you wish to scrape data into, and ensure that a table with the exact same name that you entered in the 'Table name' section exists in that base
  • 'One or more fields was not found in Airtable': verify that each property that you chose to include has a matching single line text field in Airtable. If this does not resolve the issue, un-toggle all properties and then toggle them on one by one, clicking 'test integration' each time to help identify the field that is causing the issue

Note: your Airtable Personal Access Token is encrypted before being securely stored. If you have any questions please reach out to us via chat.