Airtable fieldname versus field ID

Question

Right now I have a field in Airtable called Name. But if I rename that later, it's going to break the connection with Webstudio. I tried placing the field ID in there instead fldi9VKxKWO7AOy6n, but didn't work.

Makes sense to prefer field IDs over names, right?

Bogdan · Answer

Must be a nightmare tbh

Bogdan · Answer

What we code-devs do to rename column is duplicate it, maintain changes on both and rewrite client. Once all is fixed we drop old column.

Bogdan · Answer

Same with variables in webstudio. If you copy the expression and paste into text field you see the name is actuall an id. And sometimes users see it as gibberish

Bogdan · Answer

Though it's easy to rename

Bogdan · Answer

In case of css variables we decided to rely on original name

Bogdan · Answer

So renaming would be harder to implement from our point of view

Ronald from 360Creators · Answer

I see that duplicating the column and transitioning makes sense to do it securely.If I understand correctly, it's not possible to bind the expression by field ID, right?

Bogdan · Answer

Should be possible. I think John did it in his videos.

Bogdan · Answer

Maybe need to enable this somewhere in airtable?

Ronald from 360Creators · Answer

Okay! Let's ask @John Siciliano

Bogdan · Answer

He will be here a week later 🙂

Ronald from 360Creators · Answer

Ohh haha! Hope he's having some nice time off then haha.Not too urgent, mainly curiousity

Ronald from 360Creators · Answer

I'll see if I can find it in any of the videos

Bogdan · Answer

I remember seeing it in baserow video for sure

Ronald from 360Creators · Answer

okay

John Siciliano · Answer

Yes this is possible in Airtable @Ronald from 360Creators Use this param https://airtable.com/developers/web/api/get-record#query-returnfieldsbyfieldid

It makes setting up more annoying because you have to figure out the internal ID of each field but overall its WAY more stable so definitely worth it

Ronald from 360Creators · Answer

Thank you very much!

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Airtable fieldname versus field ID