Quickstart - Build Your First Snippet

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Our Example Airtable Base: Marketing Campaigns

Imagine you have an Airtable base to manage your marketing campaigns. Let’s say you have a “Campaigns” table with fields like:

This base allows you to track various campaigns and which client they belong to.

Our goal is to create a shareable mini-app for each client where they can see the status and performance metrics of only their campaigns.

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Step 1: Connect Your Airtable Base

1. Go to app.trycrust.ai and sign in.
2. You’ll be prompted to add an integration and connect your Airtable base.
3. Follow the prompts in the Airtable authorization window that appears. Select the workspace and the specific base containing your “Campaigns” table.
4. Grant Crust AI the requested permissions (read access to data and structure, and write access if you plan to add interactive elements later).

Once connected, you’ll be able to access the “Snippets” dashboard.

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Step 2: Create a New Snippet

1. Click the Create New Snippet button.
2. Select the Airtable table you want to build the snippet from (e.g., “Campaigns”).
3. Click Create Snippet.

Crust AI’s AI will now analyze the structure of your selected table and begin generating the initial snippet interface. This may take a moment.

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Step 3: Configure a Single Item Snippet (Detail View)

By default, Crust AI sets a “Single Item Snippet” type initially.

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Understanding Single Item Snippets

A Single Item Snippet focuses on showing the details of just one record. On the left side of the screen, you see a preview of your table data. The phone preview on the right shows how the details of the currently selected record in the table preview would look in the snippet’s Detail View.

You can click on different records in the table preview on the left to see how the phone preview on the right updates to show the details of that specific record.

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About Shareable URLs for Single Item Snippets

The Shareable URL for a Single Item Snippet is designed to point to a specific record. It typically includes the record’s unique ID as a parameter in the URL. If you get the shareable URL for a Single Item Snippet, you’ll notice a parameter like ?rec=recXXXXXXXXXXXXXX at the end of the URL. Changing the record selected in the builder before getting the URL will result in a different record ID in the URL, linking to that specific record.

To learn more about how this works, see: Understanding the Shareable URL Structure

To learn how to set which specific record is shown in the single item snippet, see: Selecting a Record for Single Item Snippets

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Step 4: Customize the Appearance (Optional)

While the AI generates a functional starting point, you can easily customize the look and feel. In the “Make It Perfect” section (Step 3), you can use natural language prompts to request design changes.

For example you could type something like:

"Make the header red"

The AI will process your request and update the visual preview.

You can also preview the snippet on different devices (mobile or desktop).

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Step 5: Change to a Multiple Items Snippet (List View + Detail View)

Now, let’s say you want a client to see all their campaigns in a list, not just one at a time.

1. In the Snippet Builder, go back to Step 1: “Select Snippet Type.”
2. Choose the Multiple Items type.

The right-side preview now unlocks the List View, displaying multiple records from your table (initially, all records). You’ll also see a button or option to switch between the List View and Detail View above the phone preview in step 3.

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Step 6: Control Which Items Appear: Set Permissions

By default, the Multiple Items snippet shows all records from the table. To ensure a client only sees their own campaigns, we will set up User-based Permission.

1. Go to Step 2: “Set Filters & Permissions.”
2. Click on the Permission tab within this section.
3. Select the User-based permission option.
4. You’ll be asked “Which field holds the user’s identifier?”. Choose the field in your Campaigns table that contains the value you’ll use to identify the user. In our example, this is the Client Email field.
5. Click Apply Permission.

Now, when someone accesses this snippet, Crust AI will require an identifier (the client’s email) to filter the list.

Testing Permissions

To test this, use the “View as” input that appears after setting permissions. Enter the email address of one of your clients (e.g., jamie@example.com). The preview will update to show only the campaigns linked to that email address.

Learn More

Learn more about User-based Permission on the: User-Based Permission Explained

You can also set static Filters and Sorting options here to further refine the list shown to users. Learn more on the: Setting Filters & Sorting for Multiple Items Snippets

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Step 7: Share Your Snippet

Once your Multiple Items snippet is configured, you’re ready to share it.

1. Click the Get Shareable URL button at the bottom.

For a User-based permission snippet, the standard shareable URL will ask the viewers to enter their permission value. In this case, the client email.

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Next Steps

You’ve now successfully built and configured a basic, secure snippet! This quickstart demonstrated the core process. From here, you can explore more advanced features:

Crust AI provides the flexibility to build simple data displays or complex, interconnected applications powered entirely by your Airtable data, without traditional coding.