Forum Discussion

NicolasNicolas's avatar
NicolasNicolas
Qrew Member
9 years ago

Automate sending emails with tasks

My Project Management processes (App containing a Customer table, with related Projects with multiple tasks) require that I send my customers regular emails based on "tasks / mileposts" completed.  Ex.:

  • I order a product from ACME to be delivered to my Customer
  • I need to send an email to my Customer with an ETA of when they can expect to receive that ACME product
  • Later, when ACME knows the *exact* date of the delivery, they let me know
  • I need to send another email to my Customer with the better/specific date/time of delivery
  • etc.

A whole bunch of repetitive follow-ups --- which I would like to automate.

I have like 10-15 text templates which I re-use constantly, with maybe some minor customizations needed before sending.  So my question is:

Can I:

  1. Pre-configure / pre-enter those text templates in QB somewhere?
  2. Have "Tasks" *trigger" a new "event" (or I can select a drop-down) whereas a specific email text-template is generated, ready to be sent to my Customer
  3. I can make the required customizations --- and then send the email
  4. That becomes an "event" in my "Task" with a timestamp.


Thanks!

NotificationsEmail
Relationships
Tables and fields
  • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
    QuickBaseCoachD
    Qrew Captain
    9 years ago
    There are two directions here and I'm not sure which one you want to go.

    1. You can set up a selection of "Open" type email Notifications which would be triggered automatically based on tasks record being changed and certain conditions being true.  The email Notification can be set up to come from the [Last Modified by] so that the customer can "reply" if they have questions. The advantage of that method is that it takes no exyrta work as you need to update QuickBase anyways.

    2. You can configure URL to generate what is called a MAILTO command, which will call up your local email client such as  as Outlook or Gmail and prepopulate the TO, CC, BCC, SUBJECT and BODY.  You would need to click a button(s) to call up that templated email which you would hand tailor and then send.
  • NicolasNicolas's avatar
    NicolasNicolas
    Qrew Member
    9 years ago
    Even as I would LOVE to know more about the first direction (because I can see that it would be useful under certain circumstances / kindly point to more details in the help file somewhere if you can?  :smile: ), it sounds like the first kind would not permit customization before being sent automatically.

    Therefore, for this specific problem, I think the URL would probably be best --- We use Outlook.
  • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
    QuickBaseCoachD
    Qrew Captain
    9 years ago
    The mailto command is really nothing specifically to do with QuickBase.  It's a generic URL which all browsers recognize. 



    It will be a URL formula field type.  Since you are building a URL, you may not include any spaces or special characters, so all text in the subject and the body needs to be URLEcoded.  To get a paragraph break you use "%0A%0A" 



    I suggest that you start with a small formula and build it up step by step



    You can use a URL Formula to pre-populate many fields in your email message in addition to the recipient, such as the CC, BCC, Subject, and message body, like this:

    "mailto:" & [To:] & "?cc=" & [CC] & "&bcc=" & [BCC] & "&subject=" & [Subject] & "&body=" & [Body]
    &"%0A%0A"
    &"more body goes here"


    // the above text does the subject line, below that is the body
    // the %0A is a line feed type indicator. 

    &"&body=URLEncode("The following Go Truck had a Quality Problem:")
    &"%0A%0A"
    & URLEncode("Stat " &[Go Truck Status Code] & ", Shipped " & [Ship date])

    &"%0A" & "Thx " & "%0A" & URLEncode(UserToName([Last Modified By])) 
  • NicolasNicolas's avatar
    NicolasNicolas
    Qrew Member
    9 years ago
    Thank you SO much.

    So, I guess what I will do is to create a new table, that I will label "Email Communications" (with a T2T relationship with the "Customer" table, to be able to gain access to the email address field), and I will prepare each email template in there.

    How would I print a "timestamp" every time I use one of those fields?

    Thanks!
  • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
    QuickBaseCoachD
    Qrew Captain
    9 years ago
    Can you clarify this:
    How would I print a "timestamp" every time I use one of those fields?

    Do you mean to record somewhere the date / time that you pushed the button to create a Mailto email?
  • NicolasNicolas's avatar
    NicolasNicolas
    Qrew Member
    9 years ago
    Kinda -- I do realize it is kinda silly.

    There is a "log the edits" option on some text fields.
    I guess I am looking for a way to track when / whether a specific email was sent on a specific date?
  • NicolasNicolas's avatar
    NicolasNicolas
    Qrew Member
    9 years ago
    Concerning the "mailto:" & [To:]

    With a T2T relationship from a table containing the email address, how would I "call" the email field to automatically fill-in the TO ?

    Thanks!
  • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
    QuickBaseCoachD
    Qrew Captain
    9 years ago
    On the time stamp issue, when you get the MailTo command working working, post back and i will show you how to stamp the current date / time when the butotn is pushes and the put up that MailTo command.  .  

    On the email address field, are you saying that the email address that you need to send to is not on the table that you are launching from?  if that is the case you will need to describe any relationships you have in place as to where the email address is stored in your app and which table you are sitting on when you push the button.
  • NicolasNicolas's avatar
    NicolasNicolas
    Qrew Member
    9 years ago
    The email will be located in a separate table "Customers" / Field "email".

    The relationships are as followed:

    Customers --> many Projects --> many Tasks

    I will create the EmailComm table to live basically alongside the Tasks table:

    Customers --> many Projects --> many EmailComm

    (Does that make sense?  :smile:   )