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Formula Field Caching: When A Rich Text Display Lies to You
3 MIN READ A Problem That Had Me Pulling My Hair Out In working on Version 2 of Realm Insights (one of the applications that makes up the Governance Core Apps), which is slated to release June 13, 2025, I was working on a pretty complex rich text formula field for the new Audit Logs Admin Console Connected Table enhancement. Picture this: You've built a beautiful audit dashboard in Quickbase with interactive pills that show activity counts and drill down to filtered records. Everything works perfectly... until it doesn't. I had created a sophisticated rich text formula field that displayed audit log statistics in a clean, interactive format (Governance Core Apps ↦ Realm Insights app ↦ Users table ↦ Audit Log Header). Users could adjust a "Days in the Past" filter to see activity for different time periods. The drilldown functionality worked flawlessly - click a pill showing "31" and you'd see exactly 31 matching records. But then something strange started happening. After changing the filter, the pills would still display "31" but clicking through would only show 10 actual records. The summary fields were updating correctly, the drilldown queries were working perfectly, but the visual display was frozen in time. The Maddening 1st Workaround The only way I could get the display to refresh was to: Go into the field properties Make any small edit (even just adding a space) Save the field Watch the "Refresh to Update" link appear Finally see the correct values display This worked every time, but asking users to edit field properties just to refresh a display? That's not exactly a sustainable solution. Understanding the Beast: Quickbase Formula Caching Here's what was actually happening behind the scenes: The Architecture: My rich text formula field lived in the Users table It referenced summary fields that calculated data from the Audit Logs table The filter ("Days in the Past") also lived in the Audit Logs table Summary fields like [# of Table Creates] updated correctly when filters changed But the rich text formula field had no idea its dependencies had changed The Cache Problem: User changes "Days in the Past" filter Summary fields recalculate (working correctly) Rich text formula stays cached with old values Drilldown URLs work because they use current filter state Display shows stale cached data The "edit field properties and save" trick worked because it forced Quickbase to recalculate the entire formula dependency chain from scratch. The Elegant Solution After exploring several complex approaches involving lookup fields, pipelines, and dependency triggers, the solution turned out to be beautifully simple: var text cacheBreaker = ToText(Now()); That's it. One line at the top of my rich text formula. Why This Works So Well This timestamp-based cache breaker is perfect because: Always unique - Now() gives a different value every time the formula evaluates Forces recalculation - Quickbase sees the formula dependencies have "changed" Lightweight - No complex calculations or additional fields needed Universal - Works regardless of table architecture or field relationships Future-proof - Will work even if you add more summary fields or change your data structure When to Use This Technique This cache-breaking approach is ideal when you have: Complex rich text formulas with cross-table dependencies Summary fields that update correctly but display values lag behind Interactive dashboards where real-time accuracy matters Situations where manual field editing triggers correct behavior Implementation Tips Place it early - Add the cache breaker at the very beginning of your formula Don't reference it - You don't need to use the $cacheBreaker variable anywhere else Test thoroughly - Verify both display values and drilldown functionality after implementing Document it - Leave a comment explaining why it's there for future developers The Bigger Picture This solution highlights an important principle in Quickbase development: sometimes the most elegant fix is the simplest one. While Quickbase is incredibly powerful, understanding its caching behavior can save you hours of frustration and overly complex workarounds. The next time you see formula fields that seem "stuck" displaying old values while their underlying data is correct, remember: a simple timestamp might be all you need to unstick them. Have you encountered similar caching issues in Quickbase? What solutions have worked for you? I'd love to hear about your experiences in the comments below.🎓 Certification Wins! May Edition
1 MIN READ Hello Qrew! We’re back with this month’s edition of Certification Wins, where we proudly spotlight the amazing individuals in our community who’ve achieved Quickbase certifications this past April! 🌟 Each certification reflects your effort, curiosity, and commitment to building smarter. Whether you’ve just begun or are advancing through expert-level skills, this space is all about YOU. 🙌 🏅Certified This Month🏅 🟨 App Foundations DeShawnJones anagalingam 11013 HemaChennojwala KristaSibery laharms Mark MihirMulloth MolinaDavis RaviShankar1 RajeshGangji RBater SeanTori 🟧 App Builder JenniferPotter1 🟩 Expert Builder CassandraFrien1 RohitVuppuluri ShubhangiSingha Lakshmi_Hanisha 💡 Each name above represents hours of learning, practice, and persistence. Congratulations to all our achievers! 🌟 Featured Shoutout 🌟 🎉 This month’s spotlight goes to SeanTori, for their dedication and perseverance. A $25 gift card is heading your way — congrats! 📣 Join the Celebration Want to see your name here next month? Start your certification journey today via Quickbase University and showcase your expertise to the entire Qrew. Quickbase Certification Central Read about Certifications here! Until next time! Bhavani Ramana Certification Specialist, QuickbaseJoin us for a Jamboree of June Events!
2 MIN READ June is heating up with many Qrew events and activities to fill your days with learning new tips while connecting with other builders and admins. This month we’ve got four virtual Qrew Meetups coming up with brand new topics and a hands-on training opportunity. App Builders Qrew Meet Up June 10, 2025 | 12:00–1:00 pm EDT – Register here Join Nichole Braswell, Quickbase Developer at Sympo, to discover an easy way to manage multiple forms for a single record with just one button. Plus, Lyla Rozelle, Sr. Product Manager, will give a quick tour of the updated admin console account summary page, and Ventsi Tasev, Group Product Manager, will share the latest on Audit log feature updates. Cascading Permissions – General Qrew Meet Up June 11, 2025 | 12:00–1:00 pm EDT – Register here Join this Empower encore Qrew Meet Up with Lauren Molino, Director of Advanced Solutions Services, for a hands-on, follow-along session where you'll learn how cascading permissions can help you control access across your Quickbase apps, streamline workflows, and boost security—all with fewer manual updates. To follow along, download the "Empower 2025 – Learn Cascading Permissions" app from the App Exchange before the session! Code Pages Qrew Meet Up June 24, 2025 | 12:00–1:00 pm EDT – Register here Join us for a quick overview of code pages with helpful tips and resources to get started, then explore four real-world code page examples by customers and Quickbase subject matter experts that you can try out after the Meet Up. Pipelines Qrew Meet Up June 25, 2025 | 12:00–1:00 pm EDT – Register here Wes McAda, Senior Software Developer at Versar Global Solutions, will give an enhanced encore of his Empower 2025 session on using Pipelines with an Everyone-on-the-Internet app, featuring time-bound secure links, cascading permissions, and new security features for staging documents. In the spirit of having more fun at our Qrew groups, we will be doing more raffles, door prizes, and certification celebrations throughout the month. Find additional event details on our Events Page and don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions or comments. We can’t wait to see you in June!New email notification beta has arrived
5 MIN READ NOTE: THIS BLOG WAS AUTHORED BY BrianCafferelli , BUT DUE TO TECHNICAL CHALLENGES, BRIAN WAS NOT ABLE TO PUBLISH. Companies around the world run time-sensitive, business-critical processes on Quickbase. And one of the ways this streamlines how you manage critical information is through our built-in email notifications. The ability to send alerts to the right people at the right time ensures that your team stays productive. We’ve upgraded much of the user interface across the Quickbase platform recently, such as reports and forms. And the next step in this journey is simplifying emails and making them more flexible. We’re proud to announce that we have re-built emails from the ground up. We are providing a new and modernized experience that supports new forms, allows you to pick the time of day an email is sent, and more. Read on to learn more what’s possible using new email notifications. Using new forms and notifications together We recently rolled out a new version of forms, providing a drag-and-drop building experience and giving you more control over the layout and appearance. However, using these new forms requires a separate legacy form to be built for emails as well. We are now making this build experience easier and more consistent, now that you can display a new form in a new email notification. This helps make your notifications more professional-looking and engaging. Embedding reports and charts Legacy emails in Quickbase allow you to send a single report to a group of users periodically. New email notifications will also allow you to send a chart, and even multiple reports or charts in the same email. This puts a lot of power into the hands of the app builder since you build these user interface elements such as reports, and can use them in many places such as dashboards and emails. Expanded options for the From field Being mindful of who appears in the From field of your email can help clarify who is driving the process at hand and help an email recipient to respond quickly. Quickbase enables you to set your From field to the generic “notify@quickbase.com”, or the user set in a User-type field. For example, an email on a compliance requests table could appear as coming from the user who placed the request. Our new email notification feature adds a few options for setting your “From” field. You can have your emails appear as coming from the owner of the email notification. Or you can even have emails appear as coming from the user who triggered the email in the first place. This gives you a great amount of flexibility to set up email notifications to match your exact process needs. Setting CC and BCC fields With the legacy emails, you can dynamically set the recipient based on data in Quickbase. For example, based on the Assigned To field in your table. This maps to the To field in the email message. However, it’s not possible to populate the CC or BCC fields today. New email notifications enable you to CC and BCC people. (This ability must first be enabled at the realm level) Attach files to your emails Using legacy emails, you could include a file attachment as part of the form or report being sent. New email notifications will let you go a step further and take a file from a File Attachment field in Quickbase and attach it directly to the email. Better bulk options We have also added more flexibility for managing bulk emails. For example, imagine that you have created an email notification which is sent when a record is edited. If a user clicks to edit a single record, then saves it, the email sent will reflect the changes made to that individual record. But what would you like to happen when a user enters grid edit mode, and updates many records at once? Legacy email notifications allow you to choose whether you want to send the email if many records were changed at once. Our new email notifications go one step further and make it easy to send individual emails (up to 10 at once), or to send a combined email that covers all the triggering records. Audit Logs We get support cases from builders asking to verify whether an email notification was sent, when it was sent, etc. The Quickbase Tech Support Team has access to that information today, but customers are not able to see it directly. When you leverage our new email notifications, account admins will be able to track usage of those emails in their Audit Logs. A streamlined builder experience We’ve also made it easier to build email notifications. We have combined the functionality of legacy notifications and legacy subscriptions together, allowing you to set up either a triggered email or a scheduled email. Need to change the trigger type later? No problem! Using the new email notifications, you will be able to go back afterwards and switch the trigger type without needing to create a new email from scratch. This also provides a more intuitive and streamlined experience, similar to how trigger behavior can be modified for a pipeline. For scheduled emails, you will also be able to specify the time of day the message will be sent. This is a long-time customer request which makes it easier to plan out your workflows. Our updated rich-text editor helps you to create impactful and professional messages, with new features like inserting report widgets into your emails. And you can still modify the HTML markup directly if you’d prefer. Tips for new builders To create notifications that are impactful, here are a few things to keep in mind: Leverage the conditions in the trigger to ensure the email is sent precisely when you need it to be Write out your email in a way that makes it clear why the recipient is receiving it, and what they should be doing upon receiving it Use rich text and images like your company’s logo to create a more engaging message. The future of legacy email notifications and subscriptions In order to make all the powerful improvements above to email notifications, we needed to re-build the feature from the ground up. That means that you will need to create new emails to take advantage of these new capabilities. However, we realize that most of you rely heavily on legacy notifications and subscriptions. So those legacy emails will continue to be available and operate exactly like they do today, and we do not currently have plans to change that behavior. Try it out today! We opened up our beta program for new email notifications to all users in March 2024. Simply navigate to table settings, and when you click the New button for emails you will see the new “Build your own” option. To learn more about new email notifications, please see the article in our help center.Who Won the May Feature Focus Door Prize?
1 MIN READ We’re thrilled to give a big shoutout to Chris Austin for attending our recent Quickbase Feature Focus webinar and being our door prize winner! Thank you to all who were able to attend! All registrants and attendees will receive the recording via Goldcast to your email. You can also rewatch the webinar on demand by accessing the events page. We are so delighted to see how enthusiastic folks were to learn about the new AI smart features and thoroughly appreciated the thoughtful questions and comments from the crowd. We can’t wait to see how you put these new features to work when they are available! Interested in joining the public beta to test out these features? Join here!The Admin Getting Started Hub
2 MIN READ If you're new to being a Quickbase admin, start here! While it may feel like there is a ton to learn, the Getting Started Hub has you covered. This is how you start. We'll cover the basics, with account settings and Quickbase Navigation, and we'll leave you with the right resources you can bookmark to reference early and often throughout your time as a Quickbase customer. Do you know someone else in your company starting out on Quickbase? Bring them here! Consider this Step 1 in transforming your operations on Quickbase! Reference Materials These are the often used resources you'll have while learning Quickbase. Qrew Members have found these links helpful to save as bookmarks to reference. Glossary - Definitions for Admins Resources Onboarding Emails Account Set Up You and your team are eager to build an app, but wait! Spend some time in your first 30 days accomplishing these tasks to familiarize yourself with these essential areas. Also, click here for the attachment, Checklist for New Admins, which you'll want to have by your side! You'll thank us later! Configure Your Account Learn Quickbase Navigation Setting Up Your Admin Team and Users Security and Single Sign-On Taking The Next Steps Your account is now set up properly. All your handy resources are now bookmarked and ready to be referenced. Now what? Take these next steps with you as you and your team solve the first of many challenges with Quickbase. Or if you're inheriting an application, check out our Accidental Admin Guide. How to Start Building Platform Analytics Accidental Admin What Else? Join a Qrew Discussion and Ask a Question? Register for one of our upcoming Events and Webinars Qrew Meetups are a great way to see how other Quickbase customers are using the product Pop into Office Hours to ask a Quickbase expert a quick question Check out Quickbase University for upcoming training opportunitiesQrew Tip #05: Pipelines 101
1 MIN READ Whether you're syncing data between systems or automating onboarding tasks every time a new customer is added, pipelines are designed to save you time and reduce manual work. Key terms Knowing these terms will help you understand documentation and submit more specific support tickets: Pipelines: automated workflows for integrating systems or automating within Quickbase Channels: the systems you’re connecting with (e.g., Slack, Outlook, Quickbase) Steps: the building blocks of a pipeline. There are different types of steps, including: Triggers: events that start a pipeline (e.g., record changes, daily schedules) Actions: tasks the pipeline performs (e.g., create records, send emails) Queries: search steps to avoid duplication or check data before acting 💬 Are there any terms you would add to this list? Let us know in the comments! Types of pipelines There are three types of pipelines: Triggered: runs when an event occurs Scheduled: runs on a set timeline Manual: runs on demand or from another pipeline ✨ Whether you're just getting started or building advanced automation, pipelines give you the power to scale smarter. 👉 Want to see it all in action? Watch the full webinar hereIntroducing New Quickbase Navigation (beta)
3 MIN READ Update: This blog was initially published ahead of our open beta in May. On October 1st, new (or sidebar) navigation will become the default Quickbase experience. To help guide the transition, if your users tried new navigation during the open beta and reverted to legacy navigation, we will respect their current settings. Your team will still have the option to use to legacy (or top) navigation through the end of 2025, but doing so will require action from both admins and individual end users. Access the End User Guide for More Details > Quickbase is the world’s first platform for dynamic work management. And that means we wake up every day asking ourselves how we can make our customers more efficient and help them grow. We are continually improving the platform and adding new capabilities, so it is easier than ever for you to see, connect, and control your most complex processes. To do that, we want to make sure we continue to focus on providing an intuitive, clean user experience, which is the foundation on which the rest of Quickbase relies. That’s why we’re excited to announce the beta version of our new navigation. Here’s what to expect from our new navigation, and how you can try it out today. What’s changing? We rebuilt Quickbase’s navigation from the ground up to provide a more modern and intuitive experience for both you and your users. And, while we have future plans to add new functionality and concepts to our navigation, we’re not adding any new elements just yet. Instead, this initial release of our new navigation will re-arrange the components you use to navigate around your apps today. This approach will ease you and your users into this experience and make it easier to manage this change. Tables have moved to the left side Some may call it clunky; others call it dated, but we heard loud and clear from many of you that the Quickbase menus at the top of the page take up too much room. That’s why we’re moving app-level links to a new sidebar which you can find at the left edge of the page. Here, you can navigate to each table in your app. And if you are an app admin, you will find links to app settings and the user management page. We’re also providing centralized access to all your table settings with Settings for each table directly in the content menu are designed to save you time and clicks. It’s important to note that your existing table order and permissions will translate 1:1 from legacy navigation to the new style, so you’ll be able to hit the ground running without the need to re-calibrate your settings. With more room to breathe, you can see – and understand - more of your own data on your screen at once. There are several ways you can choose to interact with this menu, depending on how you like to get work done. You can open the sidebar by clicking the arrow to push content and maintain your open/closed state as you navigate across pages or simply hover anywhere over the closed sidebar to open temporarily and close automatically as you navigate. Switch between apps using the new global nav menu We’re cleaning up the experience of having to switch between apps with the app bar, by moving these controls to the top-left corner of the page. In this new waffle menu, you’ll be able to switch between apps. This is also where you will access other parts of Quickbase outside of apps, such as Pipelines and Exchange, enabling one-click access to key areas of the platform. Getting involved in the beta program Want to be one of the first to get your hands on the new nav? Your valuable feedback is pivotal to shaping our platform. Register here! Next steps The new navigation will be available for all users starting on May 8, 2024, with the ability to try it defaulted on. Each account admin can choose to disable the new navigation for their users under the Admin Console-> Permissions menu. If a user’s ability to turn the new navigation is not disabled, they can visit their user preferences and select sidebar navigation to try out the new experience. Happy navigating!New Forms Are Now Live in Quickbase Mobile!
4 MIN READ We’re excited to share that as of April 21, the new forms experience in Quickbase is now generally available on mobile! This launch marks a significant milestone in our mission to provide a seamless, consistent, and powerful experience to users—no matter where they work or what device they use. Why This Matters Historically, building for mobile in Quickbase presented a number of challenges. App Admins often had to create and manage separate legacy mobile forms to provide a usable experience on smaller screens. For end users, the experience was often inconsistent. Legacy mobile forms came with limited layout options, lacking the flexibility to organize content using columns, or tabs. Form rules and workflows sometimes behaved differently than expected, and key functionality—like viewing embedded reports directly on the form—wasn’t available on mobile at all. As a result, mobile usage often required workarounds, compromises, or shifting tasks to desktop, slowing down teams who needed to work when they were away from the desk— until now. One Form, Multiple Devices The new forms experience is now fully responsive. Builders can design a single form that automatically adapts to desktop, tablet, or mobile, with no extra configuration required. Whether users are approving invoices, pulling up customer contacts, submitting support cases, or updating project details, the experience is consistent and intuitive across the board. What’s New for Mobile Here are a few key enhancements you’ll notice right away: 🔹 Fully Responsive Form Canvas The layout automatically adjusts to the screen size and orientation, while maintaining the structure and design you built on desktop. Forms are organized with pages, sections, columns, tabs, and steps, and Quickbase automatically adapts the layout to fit the device's screen. For instance, on mobile devices, columns stack vertically to ensure optimal readability and usability. On tablets—especially in landscape mode—forms can display multiple columns side by side, taking full advantage of the larger screen and offering a more spacious, desktop-like layout. Additionally, tabs and steps help break down longer forms into manageable sections, making it easier for mobile users to navigate complex forms without feeling overwhelmed. Users can quickly swipe through form steps or tap between tabs, maintaining focus while completing tasks efficiently. 🔹 Optimized Field Interactions We’ve reimagined how field components work on mobile. From dropdowns to date pickers, every interaction is optimized to feel natural on a smaller screen, while retaining the power of the desktop version. For example, multiple-choice fields are presented in modals, allowing users to search and select options efficiently. 🔹 Dynamic Form Rules & Workflows Form rules and formulas now behave just as they do on desktop. We’ve been on a mission to eliminate the need for mobile-specific workarounds, and this update is a step forward. Dynamic form rules now apply across devices, so the logic you’ve built for desktop users works just as smoothly for those on the go. 🔹 Embedded Reports on Mobile For the first time, embedded reports are displayed directly on mobile forms, giving users real-time access to the related data they need to make decisions and take action on the go. While some functionalities like grid edit and exporting to CSV are not supported on mobile, users can view reports, search, add new records, edit or view individual records, and delete records, depending on their permissions. 🔹 Support for Custom Workflows New forms on mobile now support more advanced and flexible workflows. App admins can confidently use table-level settings like “Auto save when redirected away”, the custom CSS class SaveBeforeNavigating, and URL parameters such as ifv=1 and hs=1 to hide native Save and Cancel buttons. These tools enable customized navigation, smoother inline saves, and fully tailored form experiences—all while maintaining mobile compatibility. Assigning Forms for Mobile App admins can assign the latest, mobile-friendly version of forms to specific user roles using the "View/Edit/Add Form (Mobile)" column from Forms Settings, ensuring that users see the appropriate form on their mobile device. In some cases, assigning a simplified, mobile-specific form may be beneficial. It allows you to reduce friction, minimize cognitive load, and create a faster, more focused experience for users – especially for those who only need to complete a subset of fields or perform quick tasks on the go. Alternatively, if admins prefer to use the same forms across desktop and mobile, they can select “Use full site forms”. A Better Experience for Builders and End Users With this release, builders no longer need to build two versions of a form, and end users don’t have to adapt to a stripped-down mobile layout. The result? Faster time to value and more efficient teams. Ready to Get Started? If you’re already using new forms on desktop and you have selected the option “Use full site forms” for mobile, you don’t have to lift a finger—your mobile experience is ready to go. Just open your app in the Quickbase mobile app (version 1.68 and above) or browser and experience it for yourself. If you’re not using new forms on desktop yet, now is the perfect time to start. By switching to new forms, you’ll not only unlock a modern, flexible form-building experience on desktop—you’ll also ensure your app is mobile-ready. 💡 Want to learn more? Check out the full documentation: Assign forms for mobile Understand the form canvas and layout on mobile Form field types and components on mobile What’s Next The launch of new forms on mobile is a big milestone—but we’re not done yet. In the coming months, we’ll be rolling out additional capabilities including: QR/Barcode scanning Next/Previous record navigation, making it easier to move between records Timezone helper, and more!
