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WesChristensen's avatar
WesChristensen
Qrew Member
3 years ago

Is QuickBase the right tool for my project?

This is a bit of an unusual request. I am in charge of a little neighborhood project. I've collected almost 700 vinyl record albums from neighbors who no longer want them. I want to distribute them to the 15-20 other neighbors who do want them. Because of the pandemic and for scheduling purposes, I don't want to just put the albums out on a table and invite the neighbors over to pick through them. So I have entered them into an Access database.


Since I am certain that there will be some albums chosen by more than 1 neighbor, I am developing an algorithm that will allow me to distribute them fairly.

What I need now is a way for the neighbors to let me know which albums they want. I thought about just sending out a printed list and letting them mark the ones they want, but this has a couple of problems. It is messy and error prone both for them and for me. And there are almost 700 albums.

I think a cloud-based application is the ideal solution. It would allow each neighbor to "log on" to the master list. They would see a list of the albums with title, artist, rpm (33, 45, 78), and condition (Mint, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor).

Those fields would all be read only. There would be one data entry field where they could enter a priority number (1-10). It would be great if they could sort the list on different columns. When they are satisfied with their choices, they tell the app to send the list to me. I would then merge the lists from all of the neighbors and apply my algorithm.

Is this something QuickBase can do? If so, point me to where I can read up on how. If there are experienced consultants available, I'd be happy to pay one to get me started.

Thanks,

PS: If this is not a good application for QuickBase, I would appreciate any suggestions for alternatives.

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Wes Christensen
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3 Replies

  • The problem will be that there is a monthly cost to using QuickBase. It's not a free tool.

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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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    • WesChristensen's avatar
      WesChristensen
      Qrew Member
      Yes, I know that. I plan to be completely done with this project in a couple of weeks and I have a 30-day free trial.

      My question is whether this is doable with QuickBase?

      If the project should go a week or so past the 30-day trial, what would my cost be?

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      Wes Christensen
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      • MarkShnier__You's avatar
        MarkShnier__You
        Icon for Qrew Legend rankQrew Legend
        This can definitely be done with QuickBase and QuickBase does allow for an application to include everyone on the Internet.  EOTI

        That means that anybody can use your app if they have the link and they don't need a user ID.

        but the practical problem once again is the timing and how long they will let you string them along on a 30 day trial before they turn it off.  The typical minimum monthly cost is about $600 a month unless you can negotiate a lower price with the sales department.

        So the problem is you have 30 days or so to learn enough to write the Platform and communicate its existence to your neighbors, and that seems possible but ambitious.

        If you wanted some help for an hour to get the app written contact me by email. But I would have to charge for my time.

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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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