Forum Discussion

IvanWeiss's avatar
IvanWeiss
Qrew Captain
6 years ago

Assistance converting app to allow use of predecessors

Hi everyone,

I built an app with task management in mind and everything was working fairly well.  I got a request to utilize predecessors as often our tasks are very interdependent.

Makes sense to me.

So I converted my start date to a work date field and converted my end date to a work date field.  I see all the data remained so that looks okay (phew).

I added a duration field.  Now what I need to do is convert the due date to a formula due date so I am utilizing start date + end date.  Otherwise my predecessor properly moves my start date but not my end date.  How do I do this conversion and maintain my data integrity?  I am nervous this is going to foul something up here....  Unless I should just let it be and not make this type of conversion in a real app.

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Ivan Weiss
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App builders
  • MarkShnier__You's avatar
    MarkShnier__You
    Icon for Qrew Legend rankQrew Legend
    6 years ago
    Preas are always a bit tricky. I suggest making a copy of your app, with data and making your changes there first to ensure they worked. Then if all good, do the same changes in live.

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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
      6 years ago
      Thanks Mark.  What I meant was, more specifically, how do I take the due dates which are populated throughout the table (nearly 5,000 records already) and not lose the data in it.

      What I need to do is create a duration field on my form and make it required.
      Convert the due date to a formula work date field based on [Start Date] + [Duration]

      However, when I do that I am going to lose all of my due dates that are currently in active tasks....

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      Ivan Weiss
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      • MarkShnier__You's avatar
        MarkShnier__You
        Icon for Qrew Legend rankQrew Legend
        6 years ago
        Once again, a reminder to do this first in a copy of your app.

        The first step  is to create a formula duration field.  I think that you have that already.

        Then you convert that to be a duration field.  When you change a formula field into a scalar field (a data entry field) Quick Base will drop the individual 5,000 duration calculations into the data.  So you have not lost those durations.

        Then, you will change the field type in the end date field to be a formula work date and make the formula.   Then test every thing.

        A comment, in my experience, it's a royal pain to do the predecessor relationships manually, so much so that people simply will not do it.  So the only practical way is to have say project templates where the tasks are identified for the various standard project types, so that a user can grab a std template and click to create the set of tasks for their Project.  Then adjust from there.  

        So just go into this knowing that if you have not done so already, you will need to be figuring out what your standard tasks sets are and a process to let users grab them into their Project record.

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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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