Airtable DBI connection

Stores Airtable credentials and connection state for DBI methods. Use airtable2() with DBI::dbConnect() to create connections.

Usage

# S4 method for class 'AirtableConnection'
dbDisconnect(conn, ...)

# S4 method for class 'AirtableConnection'
dbIsValid(dbObj, ...)

# S4 method for class 'AirtableConnection'
dbListTables(conn, ...)

# S4 method for class 'AirtableConnection,character'
dbExistsTable(conn, name, ...)

# S4 method for class 'AirtableConnection,character'
dbListFields(conn, name, ...)

# S4 method for class 'AirtableConnection,character'
dbReadTable(conn, name, ...)

# S4 method for class 'AirtableConnection,character'
dbWriteTable(conn, name, value, overwrite = FALSE, append = FALSE, ...)

# S4 method for class 'AirtableConnection,character'
dbRemoveTable(conn, name, ...)

# S4 method for class 'AirtableConnection'
dbGetInfo(dbObj, ...)

Arguments

conn, dbObj

An AirtableConnection object.

...

Additional arguments passed to Airtable helpers.

name

Table name.

value

Data frame to write.

overwrite, append

DBI write mode flags.

Capabilities and limitations

Reading tables

dbReadTable() works on any accessible table. You can also pass "TableName WHERE <formula>" as the name to filter records using Airtable's formula syntax.

Writing tables

dbWriteTable() works on existing tables only. With append = TRUE it creates new records; with overwrite = TRUE it syncs (upsert + delete-missing) using the first column as the key.

No table creation via DBI

Use at_create_table() to create tables. dbWriteTable() errors if the table does not already exist.

No table removal

Airtable's API cannot delete tables. Use the Airtable web UI instead. dbRemoveTable() will error with a clear message.

No SQL queries

Arbitrary SQL is not supported. Use the high-level helpers (air_read(), air_write(), air_upsert(), air_sync()) for more ergonomic access.

No transactions

Airtable does not support database transactions.

Single-base or all-bases

When a base_id is given, the connection shows that base's tables directly. Without a base_id, all accessible bases appear as schemas in the connection pane.

For most use cases, the high-level functions like air_read(), air_write(), air_upsert(), and air_sync() provide more ergonomic interfaces for Airtable operations.