Simplescraper

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

Activating the Airtable Integration ​

  • In Simplescraper, navigate to the Integrate tab of your recipe and locate the Airtable integration
  • Toggle the Activate switch on to enable the integration

Setting up Your Personal Access Token ​

To add your Personal Access Token in Airtable:

  • Visit your Personal Access Token page on Airtable: https://airtable.com/create/tokens
  • Click the '+ Create new token' button
  • Name your token something like 'Simplescraper access'
  • Under Scopes, select 'data.records:read' and 'data.records:write'
  • Choose the access level for your PAT:
    • For flexibility, select 'All current and future bases in all current and future workspaces'
    • If you'll only use a single base, choose access to that specific base
  • After creating your token, copy it to your clipboard (token is shown only once)
  • Paste this token into the Personal Access Token field in Simplescraper and press Enter to save

Adding Your Base ID ​

  • Open the Airtable base you wish to save data into
  • Note the string after 'https://airtable.com/' in your URL bar (begins with 'app', e.g., 'appQjzhfyaBCde')
  • Copy this base ID and paste it into the Base ID field in Simplescraper
  • Press Enter to save

Alternative method:

  • Navigate to Airtable's API page
  • Click on your desired base
  • Find the Base ID highlighted in green in the introduction section

Setting Your Table Name ​

  • Navigate to your Airtable base
  • Copy the name of the table where you want the data to appear
  • Paste this name into the Table name field in Simplescraper
  • Press Enter to save

Configuring Properties ​

  • In the Airtable Integration section in Simplescraper, toggle on the property names in the 'Included properties' section for the data you want to save
  • For each selected property, create a corresponding single-line text field in your Airtable table with the exact same name
  • Set up these fields in Airtable before you begin
  • For link properties, create an additional field with '_link' added to the property name
    • Example: For 'jobtitle' that's a link, create both 'jobtitle' and 'jobtitle_link' fields

Testing and Running ​

  • Click 'test integration' to verify the connection
  • If successful, you'll see a 'test passed - successfully connected' message
  • Run your scrape recipe, and when complete, your data will automatically save 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.