Forum Discussion

ScottRobertson's avatar
ScottRobertson
Qrew Trainee
6 years ago

When to use Automation vs. Form Rule to modify a field value

I have reviewed all the standard documentation around Automation within University.QuickBase.com and Help.QuickBase.com, but cannot find a rule of thumb for when you should use Automation vs. a Form Rule when attempting to change field values.

Is the only difference that an Automation will only fire once the record is saved and a form rule can perform actions "live" while editing a record? I'm running into the "40 Derived Field Limit" within my Form Rules and before totally restructure my fields/formulas/logic to avoid using a derived field, I'd like to understand if this is something an Automation could help with.

My Specific Example (I have 40+ different "due date" fields)
1. When a checkbox changes from unchecked to checked
2. Change a date field to be 3 business days from today's date (the actual rule is Change "Due Date" to the value in the field "Due Date Formula" field = WeekdayAdd(Today(),3)

Thanks!
Forms
Quickbase Automations
  • ChayceDuncan2's avatar
    ChayceDuncan2
    Qrew Cadet
    6 years ago
    My rule of thumb is commonly around where/how edits are taking place. If edits are being made outside of the form - such as via Grid Edits, Button clicks, another automations etc - then stick with automations as they will still fire in those situations. Form rules only work as the name implies, on forms. 

    Your description is accurate - Form rules are real time, and automations operate after the fact, but automations also work outside the form.

    Form rules are good for real time data entry and checking, such as controlling the user interface with show / hide. I'd advocate form rules when doing entry where you're trying to enforce a process - like when value is entered - require comments etc. If you're using form rules to populate background data or log things out that is more administrative, such as who approved something - you can probably get away with using automations to save space with form rules.

    In your specific example - either would probably work. But you may want to go with automations for the reason I mentioned first - if anything happens outside the form - that forces one of your boxes to go to checked, automations will still be able to pick that up.

    Chayce Duncan | Technical Lead
    (720) 739-1406 | chayceduncan@quandarycg.com
    Quandary Knowledge Base