Hello,
I’m a complete newbie to Bubble. Very basic question. How do I save data in an input field to an external database, and even check if the user is registered using data from external database.
It seems everything is saved automatically in bubble’s databsae, and it’s unclear to me how to change the database. By the way, I’m using firebase realtime database for all of the data.
Thanks
Tony
Hi Tony, I believe the way people do this is by sending or retrieving data through the API to another database. It’s a bit slower than using Bubble’s native connection to the default database, but seems to work just fine.
There could be smarter ways to do this as I haven’t explored this in much depth myself.
Best,
Scott
I have the same question as sankwon. I have a database in Airtable, and I have successfully set up the Airtable API in Bubble’s API Connector. While setting up the Airtable API in Bubble’s API Connector, I was able to write data to the Airtable database while “initiating” and “modifying” within the setup.
Despite successfully navigating the API Connector setup, I cannot figure out how/where in the Bubble design or workflow modules to “create a thing” via API. I know how to create a thing in workflow when using the Bubble database, but I cannot figure out how to create a thing over API.
You probably don’t technically create a new thing in Bubble if you’re not using Bubble’s database, but instead pass the data to your database and have your database create a new row.
One way to do this would be to include a parameter in the data that’s sent “isNewThing” and then on the database side, when this parameter is =yes, then you use the data to create a new thing.
The database’s API includes a “create record” call. The issue I have is where exactly in Bubble I would make that call. Would it be in the workflow module or design module? I cannot find steps/instructions anywhere that would guide me through the process.
Hi Sridhar, Conceptually what you told me makes sense, but unclear how to do that in real life. I could not find Firebase realtime database API in the list of 432 plugins…Is there another type of API I can choose to connect to Firebase realtime database? Not sure if there are any step-by-step guidance to do this.
Hi destryhunt, Curious how you connected “Airtable API”? I did not see Airtable API in the list of 432 plugins…
Also if you figure out how to “create a thing”, let me know as well, as I’m sure I will run into that issue, once i figure out how to even connect. 
Thanks.
Tony
I cannot figure out how to send data to my Airtable database from within the Bubble Design module, but when testing the api in Bubble’s API Connector, the test produces a new row in Airtable. Airtable is not a separate plugin, but rather an API call I added within the API Connector plugin.
You’d need to use the workflows and actions to send the data.
You could set up a workflow to trigger, for example, when someone clicks the “Save” button. Then, add an action to that workflow that sends the data to the API in Bubble.
From there, you’ll need a workflow in the API section that actually sends the data to Airtable.
I suspect someone has well documented this in the forums with screenshots, etc. I hope this helps!
Scott
Yeah, you don’t need a “Plugin” for this. You’ll just want to go through the API Connector and create the connection yourself.
I’d search the forums for details on using the API Connector. Best of luck!
Hi just curious, can you share how you configured the airtable api to work in bubble plug in connector?
Sorry about the delay in the response.
I can absolutely share my configuration. The only api call I used was the one for creating records.
The json object in the body looks like this:
{
“fields”: {
“Abused or Neglected Animal”: “”,
“Animal Species”: “”
},
“typecast”: true
}
Let me know if you have any questions.
