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MichaelTamoush's avatar
MichaelTamoush
Qrew Captain
3 years ago

Automations being phased out?!

With the recent email informing us that automations will be phased out over 6 months, the first person who has daisy chained automations and tries the tool to migrate those....let me know if it works! :)

This caught me off guard, considering they have been reassuring us automations were not going anywhere.

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Mike Tamoush
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Pipelines

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  • IvanWeiss's avatar
    IvanWeiss
    Qrew Captain
    3 years ago
    I have to say I was really disappointed to see this.  I knew at some point it was going to happen but I GREATLY prefer automations to Pipelines for Quick base to quick base functionality and simple things.  The interface is just so much easier and faster.  Plus pipelines does not support a lot of functionality yet.

    On top of all of that, I still have a lot of work to do to get the javascript out of my app and now this is another one I need to work on.  As a "citizen developer" where this is not my full time job it is frustrating to stop new development so I can rework functioning parts due to features being removed.  

    I am all for pushing the platform further but it seems like we have half baked tools (the migration tool failed on the first 6 migrations I tried) and not a full functioning system in pipelines and we are eliminating proven automations.

    Just my rant as this is very frustrating to me.

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    Ivan Weiss
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    • MeredithMoore5's avatar
      MeredithMoore5
      Qrew Assistant Captain
      3 years ago
      100% with you Ivan.

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      QuickBase Girl
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    • MarkShnier__You's avatar
      MarkShnier__You
      Icon for Qrew Legend rankQrew Legend
      3 years ago
      Ivan,

       On the JavaScript issue, here's another way to look at it. QuickBase is bound and determined to get a higher security clearance than they had before. I'm not an expert on the different levels but for example SOC 2,  is an example of a security level achievement which needs to be passed with a thorough audit by independent auditors. By having that certification it opens doors for them to get into whole industries or sectors where they have been blocked. Perhaps US federal regulated industries or certain healthcare industries or maybe one day industries where financial information and credit cards are stored. 

      I figure that's a good thing because the bigger QuickBase gets the more engineers they can hire and the quicker we get more features. Typically when they develop new features everybody gets to use them and not just the giant accounts.

       As for converting your existing JavaScript, QuickBase is probably obligated to tell you that you have a theoretical security risk by allowing use of JavaScript in your applications.  We all know that for most of us that security risk is purely theoretical.   Your existing JavaScript will work forever they have not announced that it is ever going to break.  

       So it is up to you as to when and if you convert that JavaScript. For my clients my focus has been on knowing whether or not if we did need to make a change to a button for some reason would I know how to change the button to make it compliant. But I have no intention of suggesting a project for all of my clients to review all of their uses of JavaScript and remove it from the apps. In my case I prefer to let sleeping dogs lie and I will worry about updating buttons when and if I ever have to change the functionality of that button.


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      Mark Shnier (YQC)
      Quick Base Solution Provider
      Your Quick Base Coach
      http://QuickBaseCoach.com
      mark.shnier@gmail.com
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      • IvanWeiss's avatar
        IvanWeiss
        Qrew Captain
        3 years ago
        Hi Mark, I think you might have misunderstood what I meant.  I do not mind at all the javascript change from a security standpoint.  I fully understand it.  My point was when retiring features that require a lot of work from developers in the community do one at a time.  If the Javascript end of life is coming up in a few months dont start the clock on automations until after that.

        I know it seems like 18 months is a long time away...  But I have some things that are not supported in pipelines to my knowledge.  Like a table to table import.  So what do I do there?  I assume their answer is it will be supported before automations is retired but get the replacement product 100% up to speed before announcing a retirement of an old one.  

        And most importantly finish your first retiring on functionality before adding a second.

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        Ivan Weiss
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  • MarkShnier__You's avatar
    MarkShnier__You
    Icon for Qrew Legend rankQrew Legend
    3 years ago
    I have not had time to successfully test as yet, but I can tell you that the conversion tool that they have does not handle all the nuances of what Automations.  I believe that  will be working intensively over the next 6 months on improvements to the migration tool to be able to Auto Migrate the vast majority (but probably not) all the functionality of Automations.

    I see that there is a webinar scheduled which I plan to attend to demonstrate the automation tool and that would be a great opportunity to put into the chat a question as to the roadmap for expanding the scope of the types of automations which can be Auto Migrated converted into pipelines.  

    For example I tried to do a test on one today which involve deleting records and it came back and said that the conversion tool currently does not have the ability to create a pipeline which deletes records. So obviously they will do that and it would be good to know the roadmap timeline for when these additional Auto Migrate features will likely come in.
    We do have 18 months to get all the automations converted over into pipelines so having that road map the timing of these enhancements will give us some idea of which ones just to leave for a few months until the enhancements in the conversion tool come along and which to maybe tackle now if there is no plan to handle that feature in the conversion tool.

    I do know that they did not take this decision lightly and they feel that the technology platform that supports Pipelines is so much more reliable and scalable to that of Automations, that it in fact is in the best interests of the users, even though there will be some short term pain to get from here to there. 




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    Mark Shnier (YQC)
    Quick Base Solution Provider
    Your Quick Base Coach
    http://QuickBaseCoach.com
    mark.shnier@gmail.com
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    • EvanMartinez's avatar
      EvanMartinez
      Qrew Elite
      3 years ago
      To follow up on the webinar that Mark mentioned we are hosting two upcoming webinars on Pipelines to help users interested in them build up their knowledge. On July 8th we have The Future of Automating Workflow with Quickbase hosted by Adam Hoover and Bree Mackey from our teams and it walks through the future of automating with Pipelines and they will be walking through the migration tool and taking questions/feedback. On July 15th there is also a session on Leveraging Quickbase Pipelines to Automate Procurement Processes where Phillip Dennis, of Watkyn, a Quickbase Silver Partner, and Jorge Abadia, Customer Adoption Manager at Quickbase are goin to share how Quickbase Pipelines can help automate business processes to improve supply chain management.

      We wanted to make the announcement well ahead of the dates where we would be restricting the ability to create new Automations so that users who would be impacted have time to learn more about Pipelines and begin to make the transition. Beyond the migration tool we are going to be rolling out guides to some of the common use cases in Automations and how to build them in Pipelines so as users go to build new workflows they will have steps to help them walk through it. Feedback on ways we can make Pipelines more accessible to users and pain points they are experiencing today are very important as we begin this transition as it will help us to continue to provide resources and drive changes in Pipelines.

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      Evan Martinez
      Community Marketing Manager
      Quickbase
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      • MichaelTamoush's avatar
        MichaelTamoush
        Qrew Captain
        3 years ago
        Evan,

        If they can implement a Pipeline action that is a table to table import, that would be HUGE. Bare minimum, clear instructions on how to use Pipelines and perform a table to table import.

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        Mike Tamoush
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