Forum Discussion

AustinK's avatar
AustinK
Qrew Commander
3 years ago

Re: PIPELINE CAUTION! Renaming fields will break your pipeline!

I guess I don't see why they would remove automations if that were the case. Seems like a weird decision that is not in line with previous ones like where they left actions when automations were brought out. I don't know about you but I don't even touch actions at this point yet it is still there just in case I need it. There may be some specific use cases for it, who knows. Pipelines may end up replacing automations capability fully when it is ready but as of now it is causing us to switch to other systems.

If automations as a whole are failing or they think the system is crumbling then I'd get why they would want to remove them but they seem fine to me. Of course I don't have the same data they have on how they are working or what their end goals are here. I would think leaving them in makes the most sense as many people like using them and would be fine not touching pipelines I think.

3 Replies

  • MichaelTamoush's avatar
    MichaelTamoush
    Qrew Captain
    Just to update: This is a recognized bug and is apparently in their backlog. I'm thinking if they have such a big backlog of bugs that they can't get to this one that is pretty significant, maybe they should let us keep automations for now...

    Bug ID: QBE015997

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    Mike Tamoush
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  • BlakeHarrison's avatar
    BlakeHarrison
    Qrew Captain
    Pipelines is not their first attempt to improve upon the automation capabilities of Quickbase. This is just their most recent. Prior to their divestiture from Intuit, Quickbase was utilizing the technology that Intuit had purchased from ItDuzzIt, another connector service. This was also an uphill battle, but it was such an improvement for those of us that were lucky enough to have access to it. Unfortunately, Intuit kept the technology post-divestiture and I'm guessing that Quickbase has been looking for a suitable replacement ever since.

    At present, they now have 4 different technologies within the platform that allow for some level of automation or integration - Webhooks, Sync, Automations, and Pipelines. I doubt that Sync will be going anywhere any time soon, if at all, just because it provides features that are different enough from Pipelines that it wouldn't make sense. I'd guess Webhooks is safe as well, as it could act as the first step towards integration for those users who might not yet need something as complex as Pipelines. Automations, though very useful, is very limited in its' ability to accept / process business logic other than simple triggers and was built based on usage assumptions from 5+ years ago. I agree that the implementation of Pipelines has left a LOT to be desired, but it is a better technological approach overall.

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    Blake Harrison
    bharrison@datablender.io
    DataBlender - Quickbase Solution Provider
    Atlanta GA
    404.800.1702 / http://datablender.io/
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    • MichaelTamoush's avatar
      MichaelTamoush
      Qrew Captain
      Completely agree that Pipelines has the potential to be much better than automations. I see where they are going and agree with the direction, I just think that there are SO many bugs, lag times, and other issues right now - forcing us to get rid of automations before they have sufficiently worked through the flaws puts us Developers in a tough spot.

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      Mike Tamoush
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