Automate URL Shortening with Pabbly Connect and Airtable

Learn how to automate URL shortening using Pabbly Connect, Airtable, and Switchy. This step-by-step guide covers everything you need to know. Revolutionize your productivity approach with just a few strategic clicks. Uncover professional methods for connecting applications and creating workflows that reclaim hours of your week.

Watch Step By Step Video Tutorial Below

1. Accessing Pabbly Connect for URL Shortening

To start automating your URL shortening process, access Pabbly Connect by entering the URL Pabbly.com/connect in your browser. This will take you to the Pabbly Connect dashboard where you can either sign in or sign up for a new account.

Signing up is free and offers you 100 free tasks every month, allowing you to explore various workflows. Once signed in, you can create a new workflow by clicking on the ‘Create Workflow’ button. This is where you will set up the integration between Airtable and Switchy for shortening long URLs.

2. Creating a Workflow in Pabbly Connect

After accessing Pabbly Connect, name your workflow, such as ‘Airtable to Switchy URL Shortener Automation’. Then, you will see two sections: Trigger and Action. The Trigger section is where you define the event that starts the workflow.

For this integration, select Airtable as the trigger application and choose the event ‘New Record’. Connect your Airtable account by entering your API key, which you can find in the account section of Airtable. Once connected, select the base ID for your Airtable, which should be labeled as ‘URL Shortener’.

• Select ‘New Record’ as the trigger event.
• Enter your Airtable API key to connect.
• Choose the base ID labeled ‘URL Shortener’.

After setting up the trigger, ensure you create a ‘Created Time’ field in Airtable to enable proper automation. This field is crucial for the trigger to function correctly, as it captures the time when a new record is created.

3. Shortening URL Using Switchy

Next, you will set up the action in Pabbly Connect by selecting Switchy as your action application. Choose the ‘Create a New Link’ action. To connect Switchy, you will need to provide your Switchy API key, which can be generated from the settings in your Switchy account.

Once connected, you will need to map the long URL from the Airtable record to the destination link field in Switchy. This mapping allows the data to flow from Airtable to Switchy seamlessly. After setting the destination link, click on ‘Save and Send Test Request’ to create the shortened URL.

• Select Switchy and the action ‘Create a New Link’.
• Enter the API key from your Switchy settings.
• Map the long URL from Airtable to the destination link in Switchy.

After the test request is successful, you will receive a response containing the shortened URL, which you can now use.

4. Updating Airtable with the Shortened URL

Now that you have the shortened URL, the next step is to update your Airtable record with both the original long URL and the newly created short URL. In Pabbly Connect, add another action step and select Airtable again, this time choosing the ‘Update Record’ action.

Connect to your Airtable account again and specify the base ID and table where the record exists. In this step, you will map the record ID from the previous steps to ensure you are updating the correct record. Then, map the long URL and the short URL into their respective fields.

Finally, click on ‘Save and Send Test Request’ to update the record in Airtable. This will ensure that both the long and short URLs are recorded in the same row.

5. Conclusion

By following these steps, you have successfully automated the process of shortening URLs and recording them in Airtable using Pabbly Connect. This integration not only saves time but also simplifies managing long URLs for your projects.

This tutorial demonstrated how to connect Airtable and Switchy seamlessly through Pabbly Connect, allowing you to create a streamlined workflow for URL shortening. With this setup, you can easily manage and utilize short links in your applications.

Explore the capabilities of Pabbly Connect and enhance your automation processes today!