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March 2025 PDX Qrew Meetup Notes
We started the March meeting with sharing updates on development progress during the previous month. Jen went first by showing a report designed to track progress and work complete on Jobs. The use case is to provide an easily digestible view for anyone with access to the realm. The report looks really nice and provides a lot of information with links to details. The goal of the report is to replace the spreadsheets used in the past. Next Kennedy updated Notifications sent to customers around warranty information. Seeing how others use the features of Quickbase to perform work is interesting. Jim talked about a Pipeline using the Restful API to get a report from Quickbase and then again using the Restful API to UPSERT changes to the table. The Pipeline takes three steps and uses the batch method in place of loops. He also shared progress on using QuNect to UPSERT to a UNIQUE lookup on a child table. Progress came to a halt when it was discovered that QuNect doesn't allow writing to lookup fields. Prior to a recent change by Quickbase to allow mapping tables using a Unique lookup field, this would have been an error. QuNect correctly made certain the builder didn't attempt to write to a lookup field. Now that writing to a lookup is allowed, QuNect is working on a solution and should have an update next week. Elena shared her work with Fast Field forms. She is building a solution for a customer. One problem was found problem with inserting a string value to a field. There is an option on the Fast Field form builder to insert a string literal. The string isn't written to the cell correctly. The workaround is to add a hidden field to the Fast Field form to take the place of the literal and then upsert that to QB. As we discussed Fast Field we moved into a general discussion of sharing our experience with Fast Field. The general talk about Fast Field includes a brief overview of the upcoming OCR feature. We have some interesting use cases to test out and determine if the Fast Field feature is preferred to the other offerings available in the market. During the conversation, Kennedy asked about Fast Field in general as her company doesn't have access. We gave a brief overview of Fast Field and then went over the features and differences between Fast Field and Quickbase. It seems like Jen has the most production level Fast Field experience amongst the PDX Qrew. Her experience in general is the separation between the two platforms causes duplicate work during development. We all acknowledge that while this integration is only a couple years old, improvements are taking place on a regular basis. As the platforms come together we expect improvements in the integration. As the Fast Field conversation died down, we started talking about the benefits and experience of using AI. We talked about how we use AI to write some code. We also shared our requirements & best practices for using AI. The conversation then moved towards an interesting AI use case. Elena shared a code page for designing a gardening layout planner tool. The page uses the Open AI pipeline channel to fill out record data based upon how the garden is drawn by the User. The Code page is a draggable quadrant like a square celled excel spreadsheet. Users draw a garden plan into the quadrant. Then using a header with drop down lists to define plants, soil type, that are in the selected cells on the quadrant. Next the code page generates values to be inserted into a table in Quickbase. Some of the feature ideas were to include suggestions from AI about plant placement, watering, soil all based upon the plant type in the generated records. The User now has a document with facts about the components of the garden design. It's a neat idea! The problem appears when the amount of data becomes overwhelming to the AI. The code page is generating a json array to send to OpenAI and that is where it seems to not work. The problem with the example is the number of key value pairs became too large and the AI was unable to process the data easily and at a reasonable cost. Good feedback from Jacob is to use the image itself or convert the data values into a series of questions and send the questions to open AI to produce the results. The reasoning is that AI is build upon language and may be more effective/ efficient than sending chunks of data. We all were pretty excited by this observation. The meetup began to wind down and we were beginning to say goodbye when Tammie King appeared in the Teams call. Since Tammie snuck in late, she asked about the cool excel like code page. So we talked about it some more. Again, we all were pretty excited by the garden designer code page. Then we talked about hanging out at Empower and then we called the meeting to a close. Jacob recommended the Pocket Pub as he felt it was nice the last time. While at the Pocket Pub we were witness to a storm front rolling over our heads. The news forecast was for tornadoes, lightening. The weather event was windy for about ten minutes. Some of us got dust blown in our beer before we could cover them with our hands. Then it rained and we continued our conversations.62Views2likes0CommentsApril 2025 Qrew Meetup Event
Portland Qrew is meeting the forth Wednesday at 3PM PST at Harder Mechanical Contractors and also on Teams. We'll talk about Empower a little more, key takeaways, plus deltas and other interesting gossip. Then we will talk about current projects, new changes and challenges. Anyone can show off work and cheer each other on to higher heights. We ask attendees to bring problems to solve and then work together to provide a solution. Anyone willing to share is welcome to have a problem solved by a team of very nice people who all love helping. Afterwards I suspect we will go out somewhere and welcome recommendations. If you would like to join remotely email jharrison@harder.com directly and he will send you a Teams invitation.27Views0likes0CommentsMarch 2025 Mobile Qrew Meet Up Recap
Hi Mobile Qrew! Thank you to all who were able to attend Wednesday’s Mobile Qrew Meet Up. Here’s what we discussed: Jenny Gomez, Technical Support Engineer, started off the meeting with a deep dive into data tables including what is it, how it’s different from lookup tables, advantages, and limitations. FastField's data tables provide a more dynamic and efficient solution compared to lookup lists, with real-time updates, individual row modifications, and integration with external data sources like Google Sheets and QuickBase. Next, she shared four different ways you can use data tables in FastField. Data tables can be created from scratch, from an Excel/CSV file, or by connecting to a Google Sheet or QuickBase table. The process involves configuring columns, setting up keys, and naming the table, and more. During our meeting, we spent a lot of time discussing various formulas, settings, and potential solutions to consider when connecting, syncing, and reporting on connected data tables from the field. This meeting is one of my favorite Mobile Qrew Meet Ups we’ve hosted because Jenny shared many important details that harmoniously merge the Quickbase and FastField experience. I highly recommend watching the recording in full and be sure to join the FastField Office hours hosted on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to ask follow up questions. Here is the link to the recording: https://quickbase.zoom.us/rec/share/NAKgrKNsiKPOXHgYbCzvkVcRxXocxtJdm1jxUFjfogpLBy25hVSzAVPLm16kxSMQ.ToAF2qQXa32Z0gYJ?startTime=1742399719000 Resource files from Jenny: https://mergemobile.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/27657201966733-Data-Tables https://mergemobile.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4446538238093-List-Filtering-By-Another-List https://mergemobile.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/34933397969037-Data-Tables-Filtering-by-Quickbase-Records In lieu of our normal bi-monthly Mobile Qrew Meet Up, our next meeting in May will be a webinar: “AI capabilities in Quickbase and FastField” on Thursday May 22 nd . We are still working to get the event registration page set up but will have it available on the events page in April to register.26Views0likes0CommentsQuickbase AI Beta Tools Now Available - Contest!
https://helpv2.quickbase.com/hc/en-us/articles/31162224971284-About-Quickbase-AI Check out this new Quickbase Help Article that showcases new AI Features for our builders. I'm going out on a limb to try something new and see if I could get some responses by running a fun little contest. Please respond to the following questions below: If you have tried the new Beta AI features, what is your first impression of it? What AI features mentioned in the article will be useful to you? What features mentioned in the article would you like to see additional updates to that will make even more useful to you? Do you like trying out new Beta features or do you wait until they are officially released to the general audience (GA)? Any other comments to share? Folks who can respond to all 6 questions on this thread are eligible to be part of a contest where the most helpful response(s) will receive a $25 discount code to the Quickbase Swag Store.24Views0likes0CommentsNew update on Automations and and more as well as improvements to Pipelines
Update on the Retirement of Automations, Actions, and Webhooks features | Qrew Discussions Have you read the most recent update from our Product Marketing team? Click above to check out the latest update on Automations, Actions, Webhooks, and more by Brian Cafferelli that was posted two days ago. I wanted to highlight this for the Pipelines Qrew so everyone is aware of these upcoming changes, and start a discussion with the group for those with questions and feedback for the Community team to listen. What do you think of this latest update? Will it impact your current workflow? Do you need converting some items into Pipelines? If so, which ones? Let us know your thoughts below.22Views1like0CommentsMarch 2025 Pipelines Qrew Meet Up Recap & What to look forward to in April
Hello Pipelines Qrew, Thank you to all who were able to attend the Pipelines Qrew Meet Up on Wednesday. Here’s what we discussed: James Malone and Matthew Tillinghast from Juiced Technologies shared a pipeline solution that entailed creating a master app that consolidates all the timecard records, allowing for better data management and reporting for their customer. James went through details of the pipeline process, including handling record creation, updates, and deletions. He discussed the challenges they faced, such as dealing with unique field constraints, mapping field names across different applications, as well a certain error message. James used placeholder parameters in the pipeline call definitions to easily accommodate new data requirements from different source apps and found callable pipelines to be very helpful in making this solution scalable across the 25 source apps. We had lots of comments and great questions that were addressed in the meeting. Missed the meeting? Here’s the link to the recording. Our next Pipelines Qrew Meet Up will be on Wednesday April 16 th at 12pm EST. The agenda is nearly finalized. I’m hoping the Pipelines product team will be available to answer questions about new features that will officially go live at Empower and include a customer use case from our friends from Accenture. Thank you and have a great weekend! Best regards,16Views1like0CommentsMarch 2025 Qrew Meet Up Recap and What's in Store for April
Hello App Builders Qrew! Thank you all who were able to attend yesterday’s App Builder Qrew Meet Up. Here’s what we discussed: Maria Peralta, Community Content Manager, walked through the online Community site including how to create profiles, access resources, and engage with the discussion forums. She emphasized the value of the community for users to ask questions, share knowledge, and provide feedback to improve the platform. We are looking to make the discussion site a place to source topics for upcoming Qrew Meet Ups, speakers, and more. If you haven't already made a profile or checked out the community page, we highly recommend login and explore the site. We also addressed current user experiences faced by users of the site and are working on solutions to improving the search functionality and more. If you have any feedback about using the Qrew community site, let us know. We are here to listen! Missed the meeting? Here’s the recording to listen to. Our next App Builders Qrew Meet Up is on Tuesday April 15 th at 12pm EST. 2024’s Qrew Legend Mark Shnier will be sharing an address-to-address use case solution that he answered on a community discussion page. It’s a great opportunity to meet Mark and to see the solution live in action. Thank you and have a great afternoon!7Views1like0CommentsHappy Women's History Month!
From the Women's Leadership Group here at Quickbase to all of our rockstar female builders and developers, Happy Women's History Month :) Thank you for all of the hard work that you do both on and off the field, for being apart of this growing community, and for being the best Quickbase fan-women you can be! I'd like to take a moment and reflect on what it means to be a woman in tech these days. According to Women in Tech, at the end of 2023, women held approximately 35% of tech jobs in the U.S., this number decreasing to the mid- to low-twenties when it came to leadership positions, dropping to 8-9% of women in C-Suite positions in tech. Representation has improved drastically over the last 40 years, but the tech space certainly has a ways to go. With all the awesomeness of Empower at the end of the month as well as it being a lot folks' end of Q1, we will not be meeting this month, but keep your eyes peeled for updates on cadence come April. In the meantime, let's use this thread as an opportunity to celebrate one another - if you know of badass female builder, give her her flowers on this discussion thread!18Views0likes0CommentsMarch Realm Admin Qrew Meet Up Recap and April's Agenda
Hello Realm Admin Qrew, Thank you to all who were able to attend the Realm Admin Qrew Meet Up on Tuessday March 4 th . Here’s what we discussed: Mihir Molloth from the City of Philadelphia presented their governance strategy for managing Quickbase applications across different city departments as they faced challenges with legacy workflows, data silos, and knowledge loss when employees left the organization. The governance application tracks all Quickbase apps, allows reporting to leadership, and ensures responsible use of the Quickbase license. The governance app has three components: an intake form via Formstack, an intake management app, and a feedback/enhancement request system for app owners. To dig into the app, check out the Formstack intake form, and learn from words of wisdom from Mihir, check out the recording here. Some quick announcements! Don’t forget to vote for the finalists for the Qrew Legend award. Voting is open until March 14 th . Vote here. On the fence about attending Empower? We are sweetening the deal by offering a $200 discount code: QBMardigras Our next Realm Admin meeting will be on Tuesday April 8 th at 12pm EST. Andy Krumrai from Rockwell Automations will be sharing their governance strategy when using the Quickbase Sandbox for managing and updating applications. He’s got great tips to share so you don’t’ want to miss it. Thank you all and have a great afternoon.24Views1like0Comments