Forum Discussion

BrittanyLipinsk's avatar
BrittanyLipinsk
Qrew Trainee
5 years ago
Hey Paul,

If I understand correctly, you are trying to trigger an email notification in a child record if the Formula-Checkbox-Field in the parent record changes to true, is that correct?

If that is the case, this could pretty easily be done using "Quickbase Actions".  Pretty simple steps:

  1. Go to your Child table & create a checkbox or something, this will serve later as the notification trigger.  We will call this Child Box A
  2. Create a new Quickbase Action in your Parent Table.
  3. Select "when a reservation is modified" (or added/modified if you want), and select your Formula Checkbox Field under additional criteria.
  4. I would also set under the "If all these conditions are true" section to only execute if said formula checkbox field = true
  5. Then perform an action - would be to edit a related record, select the correct child table.  Set this to change Child Box A to true when these situations occur.
  6. Now you can go to your Child Table & set up an email notification.  If you aren't familiar with them, these will trigger anytime a certain criteria is displayed on execution.
  7. Set up the notification in the Child Table to when a record is modified, and then make sure you click the box for Child Box A that we created.  And again, filter to only continue if this box is equal to true.
  8. From there, you can pick exactly what you want displayed in your email notification & who it should go to.


Let me know if this helps - I am definitely not a QB expert, but I've been using it for several years & always love learning new tricks.

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Monster Monster
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PaulStreit's avatar
PaulStreit
Qrew Member
5 years ago
Hey Monster,

Thanks for responding so quickly!

First, when you're talking about a "Quickbase Action", you mean a "Quickbase Automation", correct?

Second, I thought the automation wouldn't consider the parent record as "modified" if just a formula field changes value, meaning the automation won't trigger unless the parent record is edited and saved. Is this wrong?

I will try your suggestions out and report back.

Thanks!
Paul

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Paul Streit
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  • BrittanyLipinsk's avatar
    BrittanyLipinsk
    Qrew Trainee
    5 years ago
    Hey there Paul,

    It's been about a month since I worked with QB Actions, but I am about 99.99% positive it will work with a formula field.  And here is the Quickbase Actions section.  It's still fairly new.  This could also probably be done in automations, but I just tend to prefer Actions:



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    Monster Monster
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  • MarkShnier__You's avatar
    MarkShnier__You
    Icon for Qrew Legend rankQrew Legend
    5 years ago
    Notification only fire when a record is edited and saved or added and saved. They do not trigger when a formula field changes through the passage of time or for example a summary field changes through the passage of time or through child records being added.

    It does not matter what causes the record to be edited so this could be the result of an API running or a human pushing a 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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  • PaulStreit's avatar
    PaulStreit
    Qrew Member
    5 years ago
    Hey Monster,

    I added the fields and action as you suggested, but the action doesn't trigger even though the formula checkbox changed value. I think it's because the action only triggers if a record is edited and saved or added and saved, meaning it won't trigger when a formula field simply changes. Thoughts?

    Thank you,
    Paul


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    Paul Streit
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    • MarkShnier__You's avatar
      MarkShnier__You
      Icon for Qrew Legend rankQrew Legend
      5 years ago
      Paul,

      You should set up an Automation which Trigger off some change in the Parent Record.   The Action will be to update the child records where their [Related Parent] field is equal to the [Record ID#] of the Trigger Record and set a date time field on their records to the current date time.

      I have not tested that lately as to if that will fire slowly enough to trigger individual record changes to fire separate Notifications.

      If they do not fire slowly enough to fire individual record change notifications, then the solution will be to daisy chain one Automation to trigger a send notification.  So the first one will update a date time field #1, and then a separate Automation will trigger on date time field #1 and in turn the Action will be to update datetime field #2 which will trigger the email notification.


       ​​​

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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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      • PaulStreit's avatar
        PaulStreit
        Qrew Member
        5 years ago
        Mark,

        I set up both an automation and an action as you described. Both have the same issue - I somehow have to trigger an email notification when a formula field checkbox is true.

        Is there a way to detect the change in the formula field, then update a trigger field and then save the record which would trigger the automation?

        I included some formula URL code in my original post but it didn’t work, not clear why.

        Thanks
        Paul