November 2024 PDX Qrew Notes

Attendees: 
Dorian Gibson GSM - 
Jen Clark GSM -
Lee Gilmore QB -
Jonathan Miller QB -
Elena Larabee QB -
Nico Cantillo QB - exec cust success
Esther LaVielle QB - QB
Kennedy Maxey Big Sky Montana, joined last year, subs, project management
Tammie King - work tracking apps, client transfers
Pierce Wagner HMC -
Jim Harrison HMC -
Diego Alvarez HMC -

Big Qrew this month! Many attendees from Quickbase came to the event to see Johnathan Miller. Unfortunately Jonathan was held back by the storms of fall in the PNW. To give some scale to the events, there were hurrican force winds at the coast and we made the news-drama! Better luck next time Johnathan. Luckily we have Teams and got to see Jonathan safe at home.

We started the meetup with introductions and an opportunity to talk about ourselves, where we work and what we do. After introductions we asked if there were any collaborative or problem solving questions from the Qrew. Tammie K said she had some questions about time, as in what is Quickbase time and how to handle it in Notifications expected to send during local time programmatically. Good Question Tammi!

The time problem is in the Photo Shoot Scoop App. The App is a scheduling tool with reminder Notifications. The App uses EOTI for Customer access and an Internal App for photoshoot process management or scheduling. One feature sends a reminder email to the photographer the night before the photo shoot. The uncertainty appears when asking how to calculate the correct time to send the email in Pipelines. The uncertainty continues on what happens to the email time when daylight savings time changes. These are very good questions Quickbase could spend a help page explaining expected behavior of time and how to manage the problem globally and locally. The current solution is to press the button a day before the shoot at the right time. Lee Gilmore had and idea and some information at the ready.

Lee said time setup is available in the new custom email feature allowing specifying a send time. The details to the time setting is it is in UTC. We were not certain how to handle time zones and changes due to Standard or Daylight savings. Also several attendees mentioned that Pipelines time is UTC and Builders really want to use a formula to determine local time. I would love to see an article in the QB Help that investigates the detailed scenarios for this time problem. Time is not easy to solve, it is generally easier to use UTC globally and then make corrections at the local instance.

Next we had a new Qrew join the event from Montana. Kennedy M says they are rolling out a database. The database is designed to handle warranty tracking for real estate properties, job locations and current or upcoming projects. The system uses EOTI for customer login. We are looking forward to hearing more from Kennedy in the coming months.

Another new PDX Qrew name, Dorian G also attended remotely. This month the introduction and update is they are maintaining current processes and getting comfortable with QB. It takes about a year to get comfortable with Quickbase and we look forward to being a part of the experience.

This month Jen C is working on variances in inventory, how to manage inventory, working with a Customer (co-worker). Service App on FF.

Diego A is currently working on Pipelines and running into an error. The Pipeline step to search a table is confusing in  that the next step pretty much requires a loop through the results. Since Pipelines allows Builders to Search Quickbase and not add a loop it is easy to get into a state where the process fails. I suspect it is part of learning how to low-code ones way into a solution. Learning Pipelines is next level in Quickbase and takes time. It's good that Elena was able to provide an answer and Diego is back on the way to completing the Pipeline.

Pierce W says this past month has mostly been working in Workato.

Jim H gave an update on a SQL process. We have a Training Library and genreate Training records for Quickbase Users based upon their Job description, it's complex and was written using variables and a WHILE loop. The old method was very slow and limited in scale. The new method takes advantge of Uniqueification and UPSERT methods recently released by Quickbase and it is awesome! In other processes that once took thousands of Integration Reads and minutes to complete, we can UPSERT an entire dataset and instantly update or add records all based upon the unique field and not the record id.

Next Elena mentioned the kanban overlay is working. We got a demo and the page is looking very professional. Code pages are really an end game for the low-code builder, releasing them from constraints built into the Quickbase UI. In Elena's example a dashboard with an iframe loads a code page designed as a Kanban report replacement. The features setting the Code page apart from native Quickbase Kanban are impressive and really should be how Quickbase offers these solutions. The nice thing is Quickbase offers a solution for the Builder to make it all work all based upon gumption.

Another attendee Jonathan M gave an update on the roof and an introduction. Jonathan is now the PNW Quickbase rep, congratulations! This month was spent planning for this new position, Qrew meetups and learning about tire chains. We are happy to hear the roof is good.

Nico C just came back from a Customer Qrew Okto engagement. The event focused on using Document Creation & Secure Links to provide a solution for a Contract life cycle form. Nico was really excited about the solution and wanted to give a presentation. The soultion uses Secure Links to EOTI in this case a Vendor. The Vendor opens a form, fills out the form and submits it back to the Owner. The Owner receives the form, does some work and then sends a printed document to the Vendor. The solution also allows for setting end dates to expire the link, meaning if EOTI gets a hold of the link it may not work.

Esther L gave an update on scheduling all the Qrew meetups for December. Next goal is getting more presenters at the events.

Lee G gave an update on the Thanksgiving planning app. Everyone agreed Marshmallows do not belong in Macaroni & Cheese.

Last thing I recall discussing is the announcement of Empower 2025. Empower is taking place in New Orleans. Event dates are March 31 & April 1st. Some mention was made that Ben Simon is planning something with Beignets, we look forward to enjoying some Beignets with Ben.

We went to the Pocket Pub, Lee likes it and the Jalapeno Poppers are very nice.