Use Case #1: Create A Directory with Pory.io

Use Case #1: Create A Directory with Pory.io
Status
Published
Do not index
Do not index
Words
730

Intro

Welcome to Airtable Wiz use-case series, where we're showcasing real life products using Airtable-Stack. This is not a guide or tutorial, but an overview of a product created using the Airtable-stack. If you like what you see, read until the end to learn more.

The Idea

We have members in the No Code Asia community who are founders of no-code tool builders, as well as products created from no-code tools.
So we decided to showcase them on our main website — Made by APAC, a dedicated directory page of Asia-Pacific builders. Try them out yourself.
Made By APAC page
Made By APAC page

The Flow & Front End

This is where Pory.io comes in.
Quick intro: “Pory is a no-code platform for creating apps and portals using Airtable. It takes less than 1 minute to connect your data and has a growing collection of building blocks.”
For the flow, we have two: 1) Viewers, and 2) Founders. Three, if you count the website admin.
Let’s get to it!

For viewers

Like any other directory platform, you can immediately browse through the list when you open the page as shown in the screen above.
Here it is filtered by country names. Since we’re APAC, you will only see the countries from this region. There are only 6 of them at the moment - Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam as these were submitted by their founders. If you’re from countries not in the list, it will show up once you’ve submitted. Read “For founders” below on how to do it.
Filtered by country names
Filtered by country names
To view more details, just click on each card. It will show the founder’s name(s), the description, country-based, and their Twitter links.
Card & detailed view
Card & detailed view

For founders

You only have one action. At the page, click on the “Submit” button and fill up the form. As simple as that.
Founder’s submission form
Founder’s submission form
The admin will receive a notification email, and they will do a quick check.
Once confirmed, you will get an approval email like below.
notion image

The Back End

Here we will touch on everything Airtable (almost). From the table to the beauty of its automations.
Airtable is a spreadsheet-database hybrid, with the features of a database but applied to a spreadsheet.” — Wikipedia

Airtable base

In this base, we’ve set up the fields as below.
  • Title - Company, app or product name
  • Subtitle - One-line description/sales pitch
  • Avatar - Brand/logo
  • The Founders
  • Call to Action URL - Links to website, sales page, etc.
  • Twitter URL
  • Country
  • Approved — For Admin use
The base. Click to zoom in
The base. Click to zoom in

Airtable views

Basically, you’ll need TWO views to make this work.
  1. All — I renamed this from the default view
  1. Published — Filtered by “Approved ✅”
      • This view will be visible on the main page.
Filtered by Approved
Filtered by Approved

The Form

As seen in the GIF below, all the fields are needed except for “Approved” and “Category” which is for Admin’s view only.
Copy the link which you will add to the Submit button in Pory.
Airtable form
Airtable form

The Automations

For this project, I only did one automation, which is to send approval emails to the founders.
The trigger will be when the “Approved” field ticked✅.
Not too fancy, but gets the job done.
Airtable Automations
Airtable Automations

Takeaways & Challenges

This was as easy as it looks. I actually learned a lot about Airtable from playing with Pory.
I started with one of their templates, but they somehow removed them recently, and introduced “Building Blocks” instead.
It should be OK even if you don’t have the design fundamentals. You can always copy from existing websites out there.😉
Pory’s Building Blocks
Pory’s Building Blocks

Steal this idea

If you’re new to Pory and Airtable, this can be a fun project. I had a great time myself during my first try.
Putting the design aside, you can recycle the same structure with different ideas.
You can build:
  • A job board
  • A membership directory
  • Local store directories
And a lot more.

Want to learn more?

You can sign up now to the newsletter to receive the latest updates and information on a new course that I will be starting later this year. Also, you can get on a 1:1 call with me if you have a similar problem to Lilian and others. Cheers! Leif🌾