Airtable to Xata

Migrate any Airtable base to a Xata database.

Getting started

Install the dependencies

$ npm install

Run scripts/airtable-schema-extractor.js

Unfortunately, the metadata API from Airtable is currently in closed beta. Due to this you will need to run a custom script in your browser console to retrieve your airtable base metadata.

Steps to follow:

• download/clone this repo locally
• create an API key in Airtable (see Setup your credentials section below)
• Go to https://airtable.com/api
• Click on the base you want to migrate
• Open the DevTools (Chrome: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/open/ | Firefox: https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/devtools-user/web_console/index.html)
• Paste the content of scripts/airtable-schema-extractor.js into the console
• Press Enter to execute the script
• Open src/index.ts
• Paste the content inside the migrate() function

⚠️ The apiKey for Airtable is part of the output script, if you want to version control safely this script, you can move this value to .env with the XATA_API_KEY key.

Setup your credentials

Before migrating data from Airtable to Xata, the script needs to have the respective apiKey.

You can find more information about creating API keys in each platfom in the respective documentation:

• Airtable api key: https://support.airtable.com/docs/how-do-i-get-my-api-key
• Xata api key: https://xata.io/docs/concepts/api-keys

You need to add a file at the root called .env with the following format:

XATA_API_KEY=xau_...
AIRTABLE_API_KEY=key...

Fine-tune your migration

Fill in the required configuration fields in src/index.ts:

• source.apiKey: your Airtable API key
• target.workspaceID: you can find it in the workspace configuration tab. The workspace ID is part of the Workspace API base URL => https://{workspaceId}.{regionId}.xata.sh/db/{database}
• target.regionId: the region where you would like your Xata database created
• target.databaseName: the name of your database that will be created in Xata

You can choose any databaseName and databaseColor that you want, but note that the database name must not exist already. The migrator will create the Xata database for you.

Advanced

If needed, you can tweak every table and column definition:

• You can rename a table by providing a targetTableName value
• You can rename a column by providing a targetColumnName value
• You can add a required to flag to any column

For further customization, please refer to src/types.ts.

Run the script

Now that everything is setup, it's time to run the script to import your data into Xata. Please note that your current data in Airtable will not be affected by this migrator tool since it is read-only and as it strictly works by creating a new database in Xata, this will not affect your other databases! In case something didn't go as planned (incorrect data type, or a name that you dislike), you can easily delete the created database and re-run the script.
If you need help running this migration tool or have questions, you can contact support@xata.io

$ npm start

Enjoy your new Xatabase

If everything went well, the script will print out the URL address of your new Xatabase.

To learn more about using Xata, please refer to our documentation https://xata.io/docs/getting-started