Forum Discussion

TimothyGregston's avatar
TimothyGregston
Qrew Member
6 years ago

Populating User Fields for workflow

I am trying to populate a work flow for my company based on two fields that will be filled out. Once the previous department completes their work i will have two fields populated. Product Line and Type. Based on those two fields i know who i want my workflow to go to.

known fields: Product Line, Type

stage 1: user
stage 2: user
stage 3: user
stage 4: user

So i need to populate all 4 users in the stage based on those two known fields. I would think that the fields for the different stages would be a formula user field but i am not sure. 

Thanks in advance

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TG
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Quickbase Automations
Tables and fields
  • XavierFan's avatar
    XavierFan
    Qrew Cadet
    6 years ago
    If I understand you correctly, you would want 4 separate Formula User fields for the 4 Stages.

    So create 4 Formula User fields, and call them [Stage 1 - Assigned User], [Stage 2 - Assigned User], [Stage 3 - Assigned User], [Stage 4 - Assigned User] - or whatever your naming convention is.

    For the formulas - you can do something like this:    (let's say this is for Stage 1)

    If (
    [Product Line] = "A" and [Type] = "X", ToUser("john@company.com"),
    [Product Line] = "B" and [Type] = "Y", ToUser("mary@company.com"),
    [Product Line] = "C" and [Type] = "Y", ToUser("bob@company.com"),
    ToUser("john@company.com")
    )

    Here - you're specifying the conditions for [Product Line] and [Type], and then outputting the correct user (based on their email for their Quick Base account).

    The last line is the default user for this Stage, if the previous conditions and assignments are not fulfilled.

    Then repeat this for the other Stages.

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    Xavier Fan
    Quick Base Solution Provider
    http://xavierfanconsulting.com/
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  • DonLarson's avatar
    DonLarson
    Qrew Elite
    6 years ago
    Tim,

    Is logic in the relationship between the Product Line, Type and the Stages?  Does Product Line A always set the user for Stage 1 and Stage 2 while the Type sets Stage 3 and Stage 4?   If not then your formula can explode into a unmanageable length.   

    If you have 2 Products and 2 Types that is four possible combinations.
    With four stages you now have 16 different formulas to set the User.
    If you have 10 products, it is gigantic.

    If you can drive it through the related tables like this:



    Every time you add a Product or a Type, you specify the correct User for the Stage. 
    If someone leaves or you expand the number of people, you only have to edit the Product Line or Type table to get the workflows updated.

    Better yet you build the forms and dashboards so that the Managers that own the Product Line and Type can maintain their data, and you will not have to edit the formulas because of an HR change.


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    Don Larson
    Paasporter
    Westlake OH
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