Supported Field Types

Overview

CollabPortals supports every Airtable field type. Each one has specific rendering in view mode (data table) and edit/create mode (forms). This reference covers how each type behaves.

Some types cannot be written from a portal, so their Create, Edit and Required switches are greyed out in field permissions. You can still choose whether end users see them. That covers everything Airtable computes for you (formulas, rollups, counts, lookups, AI text, buttons and the system fields), the sync source on a synced table, and the collaborator fields, which Airtable will only accept a write to from someone who is a collaborator on the base. Your portal's end users are not.

Some types start hidden and only appear once you tick View for them: linked records, and the types added most recently (count, button, AI text, sync source, collaborator, rich text, barcode and duration). This is deliberate, so that widening what a portal can show never changes what an existing portal does show.

The "hidden by default" notes below describe how a type behaves when you first build a portal. A field you add to Airtable after that starts hidden whatever its type. See field permissions.

Text Fields

Single Line Text

• View mode: Plain text
• Edit/Create mode: Standard text input
• Notes: Most common field type. Supports any text value.

Multiline Text

• View mode: Text with line breaks preserved (truncated in table, full in detail view)
• Edit/Create mode: Expandable textarea
• Notes: Good for descriptions, notes, and longer content.

Rich Text

• View mode: Formatted text: bold, italic, strikethrough, headings, lists, task lists, quotes, code and links
• Edit/Create mode: Markdown textarea
• Notes: Airtable stores rich text as Markdown, and the portal renders that formatting. Editing is done as Markdown rather than with a formatting toolbar, so you type **bold** and it displays as bold. Links open in a new tab. Any HTML written into the field is shown as plain text rather than being rendered. Hidden by default.

Email

• View mode: Clickable mailto: link
• Edit/Create mode: Email input with format validation
• Notes: Validates email format on submission.

URL

• View mode: Clickable hyperlink (opens in new tab)
• Edit/Create mode: URL text input
• Notes: Displays the URL as a clickable link.

Phone Number

• View mode: Plain text (formatted phone number)
• Edit/Create mode: Phone number input
• Notes: No specific format enforcement, accepts any phone format.

Barcode

• View mode: The scanned code, in a monospace font
• Edit/Create mode: Text input
• Notes: Airtable records a barcode as its text plus the symbology it was scanned with. Only the text is editable in a portal, and the symbology is carried through unchanged whether or not the text is edited. Hidden by default.

Number Fields

Number

• View mode: Formatted number (respects Airtable precision settings)
• Edit/Create mode: Numeric input
• Notes: Supports integers and decimals.

Currency

• View mode: Number with currency symbol (e.g., $1,234.56)
• Edit/Create mode: Numeric input with currency symbol prefix
• Notes: Currency symbol and precision come from your Airtable field configuration.

Percent

• View mode: Number with % suffix (e.g., 75%)
• Edit/Create mode: Numeric input with % indicator
• Notes: Value stored as decimal in Airtable (0.75 = 75%).

Duration

• View mode: Formatted duration in your field's format (for example 1:30 or 1:01:01)
• Edit/Create mode: Text input accepting the same format
• Notes: Airtable stores durations in seconds. Typing follows the format shown, so under h:mm "1:30" means an hour and a half, while under h:mm:ss it means ninety seconds. A lone number is minutes under h:mm and seconds otherwise. Hidden by default.

Rating

• View mode: Star icons (e.g., 4 out of 5 stars)
• Edit/Create mode: Interactive star selector, click to set rating
• Notes: Maximum rating comes from your Airtable field configuration.

Selection Fields

Single Select

• View mode: Colored badge with the selected option text
• Edit/Create mode: Dropdown menu with all defined options
• Notes: Options and colors come from your Airtable field configuration. Users can only choose from predefined options.

Multiple Selects

• View mode: Multiple colored badges
• Edit/Create mode: Multi-select dropdown, add and remove tags
• Notes: Users can select multiple options from the predefined list.

Boolean

Checkbox

• View mode: Check icon (checked) or empty (unchecked)
• Edit/Create mode: Toggle switch
• Notes: Simple true/false field.

Date and Time

Date

• View mode: Formatted date string (e.g., "Mar 11, 2026")
• Edit/Create mode: Date picker with calendar UI
• Notes: Date format follows Airtable field configuration.

Date + Time

• View mode: Formatted date and time (e.g., "Mar 11, 2026 2:30 PM")
• Edit/Create mode: Date picker with time selection
• Notes: Includes both calendar and time inputs.

Relational

Linked Records (multipleRecordLinks)

• View mode: Record names displayed as badges/chips
• Edit/Create mode: Dropdown selector showing record names from the linked table
• Notes: Supports multiple linked records. Can be filtered with linked record filtering to show only records relevant to the current user. Hidden by default.

Files

Attachments (multipleAttachments)

• View mode: Thumbnail previews for images, file icons for other types
• Edit/Create mode: File upload interface, drag and drop or click to browse
• Notes: Supports multiple files. Images show previews; other file types show icons with filenames.

Computed Fields (Read-Only)

These field types are calculated by Airtable and cannot be edited through CollabPortals. They can be set to View Only or Hidden in field permissions.

Formula

• View mode: Computed result (text, number, or date depending on formula)
• Edit/Create mode: Not available (read-only)
• Notes: Displays the formula result. Format depends on the formula output type. If the formula works out a duration, see Showing a calculated duration below.

Rollup

• View mode: Aggregated value from linked records
• Edit/Create mode: Not available (read-only)
• Notes: Shows the rolled-up value (sum, count, average, etc.). If the rollup totals a duration, see Showing a calculated duration below.

Showing a calculated duration

A rollup that totals a duration field, or a formula that calculates one, arrives from Airtable as a plain number of seconds. A three hour total shows as 10,800 rather than 3:00.

This is a gap in Airtable's API rather than a setting you have missed. Airtable's own screens know the answer is a duration, but the API describes it only as a number, and it does not say whether a rollup is summing, counting or averaging. A rollup that counts how many timed jobs a customer has is the same shape as one that adds up their hours, so CollabPortals cannot tell which is which on its own.

So you tell it. Open the field's settings in the portal editor and turn on Display as duration, then pick the format to match the duration field it is calculated from.

• Only formulas and rollups that come back as a number offer this. A duration field itself already formats correctly, and so does a formula that returns a date.
• Leave it off for anything that is not really an elapsed time. Switching it on for a count of three records would display 0:00:03.
• Turning it off puts the field back to the plain number.

Count

• View mode: Number showing count of linked records
• Edit/Create mode: Not available (read-only)
• Notes: Automatically counts linked records. Hidden by default.

Lookup

• View mode: Values from a field in linked records
• Edit/Create mode: Not available (read-only)
• Notes: Displays looked-up values. Can show multiple values if multiple records are linked. A lookup that resolves to a linked record shows that record's name, not its ID.

AI Text

• View mode: The generated text
• Edit/Create mode: Not available (read-only)
• Notes: A cell still generating shows "Generating…". A cell whose generation failed shows as empty rather than surfacing the error to end users. Hidden by default.

Button

• View mode: The button's label, linked to the URL its formula produces
• Edit/Create mode: Not available (read-only)
• Notes: Shows as plain text when the formula produces no URL. Only http and https links are made clickable. Hidden by default.

System Fields (Read-Only)

These fields are automatically managed by Airtable.

Auto Number

• View mode: Sequential number
• Edit/Create mode: Not available (auto-generated)
• Notes: Automatically assigned by Airtable when a record is created.

Created Time

• View mode: Formatted date and time when the record was created
• Edit/Create mode: Not available (auto-generated)
• Notes: Set automatically by Airtable.

Last Modified Time

• View mode: Formatted date and time of the last modification
• Edit/Create mode: Not available (auto-generated)
• Notes: Updated automatically by Airtable when any field changes.

Created By / Last Modified By

• View mode: The collaborator's name, falling back to their email
• Edit/Create mode: Not available (auto-generated)
• Notes: Records the Airtable collaborator, not the portal end user who made the change.

People and Synced Fields (Read-Only)

These are not computed, but a portal cannot write them either.

Collaborator / Collaborators

• View mode: The collaborator's name, falling back to their email. Several are comma separated
• Edit/Create mode: Not available
• Notes: Airtable only accepts a write to these fields from someone who is a collaborator on the base, and your portal's end users are not, so there is nothing valid for them to pick. Bear in mind these fields can show a colleague's email address to your end users. Hidden by default.

Sync Source

• View mode: The source name
• Edit/Create mode: Not available (read-only)
• Notes: Present on synced tables. Behaves like a single select, so it can be used for end-user filters and grouping. Hidden by default.

Summary Table

"Hidden by default" means the field exists in field permissions but starts with View off, so you decide whether end users see it.

Field Type	Viewable	Editable	Required	Notes
Single line text	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multiline text	Yes	Yes	Yes
Rich text	Yes	Yes	Yes	Markdown, hidden by default
Email	Yes	Yes	Yes	Validated format
URL	Yes	Yes	Yes
Phone number	Yes	Yes	Yes
Number	Yes	Yes	Yes
Currency	Yes	Yes	Yes
Percent	Yes	Yes	Yes
Duration	Yes	Yes	Yes	Hidden by default
Rating	Yes	Yes	Yes
Single select	Yes	Yes	Yes	Predefined options
Multiple selects	Yes	Yes	Yes	Predefined options
Checkbox	Yes	Yes	No
Date	Yes	Yes	Yes
Date + time	Yes	Yes	Yes
Linked records	Yes	Yes	Yes	Filterable, hidden by default
Attachments	Yes	Yes	No
Barcode	Yes	Yes	Yes	Hidden by default
Formula	Yes	No	No	Computed
Rollup	Yes	No	No	Computed
Count	Yes	No	No	Computed, hidden by default
Lookup	Yes	No	No	Computed
AI text	Yes	No	No	Computed, hidden by default
Button	Yes	No	No	Computed, hidden by default
Auto number	Yes	No	No	System
Created time	Yes	No	No	System
Last modified time	Yes	No	No	System
Created by	Yes	No	No	System
Last modified by	Yes	No	No	System
Collaborator	Yes	No	No	Hidden by default
Collaborators	Yes	No	No	Hidden by default
Sync source	Yes	No	No	Filterable, hidden by default

Next Steps

• Field Permissions - Control visibility and editability per field
• Creating Records - How field types work in create mode
• Editing Records - How field types work in edit mode