Hey everyone! I’m working on a cool project for an upcoming conference. We’re making a QR code game where attendees scan codes at different booths. Each code takes them to an Airtable form.
Here’s the tricky part: I want the form to automatically know which product or booth was scanned. Is there a way to use prefilled inputs or linked records in Airtable forms to make this happen?
I’ve got a separate table with all the product and booth info. Ideally, when someone scans a QR code, the form would somehow pull the right info from that table.
Has anyone done something like this before? Any tips or tricks would be super helpful! I’m kinda stuck and the conference is coming up soon. Thanks in advance for any advice!
I’ve got some experience with this kind of setup from a charity event I helped organize. We used a slightly different approach that might work for you. Instead of linking directly to an Airtable form, we created a simple landing page for each QR code. This page captured the product/booth ID and then redirected to the Airtable form with that ID as a parameter. The benefit of this method is that you can use Airtable’s native URL parameter handling without needing to write custom scripts. In your form settings, you can create a hidden field that pulls in the ID from the URL. One thing to watch out for: make sure your landing pages load quickly. We had some issues with slow loading times on busy WiFi networks. Also, consider having a backup plan like manually entered codes in case of technical difficulties. It saved us when a few QR codes got damaged during setup.
ive tried a simlar method at a hackathon. we used bitly to create short qrcode urls with IDs. then a webhook in airtable picked up the id and prefilled the form. works well if you test it before the event!
I’ve actually implemented something similar for a trade show last year. Here’s what worked for us:
We used unique URLs for each QR code, with a product ID parameter. For example: ‘Swingbot - Automated Swing Analysis’. In Airtable, we set up a script that runs when the form is opened. It reads the URL parameter and pre-fills the corresponding product info.
You’ll need to enable scripting in your Airtable base and write a bit of JavaScript. It’s not too complex, but it does require some coding knowledge. The script essentially fetches the product details from your separate table based on the ID in the URL.
One caveat: make sure your QR codes are generated with the correct URLs including the product IDs. Also, test thoroughly before the event to avoid any hiccups on the day.
Hope this helps point you in the right direction. Good luck with your conference game!