Forum Discussion

PeterGacek's avatar
PeterGacek
Qrew Cadet
4 years ago

Workflow Best Practice for Project Status Dropdown

I've been working on creating new functionality for my company's CRM and I've had a lot of great support from this community and Quickbase but it sounds like we're going to be completely re-building ...
App builders
BlakeHarrison's avatar
BlakeHarrison
Qrew Captain
4 years ago
If your process is complex enough that you have multiple tabs / forms setup to allow for proper data entry, I would definitely suggest against switching this process to a show/hide setup with Form Rules. To me, controlling a process using Form Rules is entry-level development. You're getting started, your process isn't terribly robust, etc. Controlling your process using a combination of multiple forms for different Roles or functions (Add/Edit/View) is the next level up. Combining this with the use of buttons to allow the user to navigate to various forms within the same Table/Record would be the next logical progression. This allows for an even more complex business process, but can have its' drawbacks with regards to maintenance. 

I would suggest looking really hard at your processes and see if there are natural breaks where you might be able to separate these into different Tables altogether. Using "Sales" as a general process, many companies can further break this down into Business Development, Customer Management, Accounting, etc. From your post, it sounds like you may want to consider breaking your setup into something like a Pre-close and Post-close structure that would then allow you to streamline each of those and make for a better user experience.

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Blake Harrison
bharrison@datablender.io
DataBlender - Quickbase Solution Provider
Atlanta GA
404.800.1702 / http://datablender.io/
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PeterGacek's avatar
PeterGacek
Qrew Cadet
4 years ago
Blake,

Thanks for your response, it definitely gives me some things to chew on. I would certainly consider myself entry-level when it comes to Quickbase as I've only been working with it for about two months in between my normal hours as a project manager for my company.

I figured the show/hide setup with form rules was a rudimentary approach, which is what prompted me to seek out some advice here. I've  played with some buttons, roles, formulas but it's hard to wrap my brain around completely re-designing our current CRM as it wasn't built with a dynamic workflow in mind.

So, I suppose instead of a drop down being enacted, I should work to create buttons to access forms within the same table. I think we have SOME natural breaks in our process where I can inject certain things, but like I said, the current app doesn't utilize much in the way of a workflow. We have yet to include any automations (which I know are going away) and I currently don't have access to pipelines although I'm not certain a solution lies in there as we're not really tying in any SaaS tools.. yet. 

I'll go back through university and re-watch some app building process videos but do you have any suggestions on where I should focus my education next?

Thanks again for the feedback!


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Peter Gacek
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  • BlakeHarrison's avatar
    BlakeHarrison
    Qrew Captain
    4 years ago
    I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but, if you're that new to Quickbase, and you're working on an "in production" application, I would encourage you to reach out to a QSP - myself or someone else - that can at least help you plan any changes. Purchasing 5-10 hours of a professional developer's time will give you plenty of time for them to understand your application and make design suggestions that won't break your application. You'll probably even have time left over that you can use for consultations during the course of your build.

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    Blake Harrison
    bharrison@datablender.io
    DataBlender - Quickbase Solution Provider
    Atlanta GA
    404.800.1702 / http://datablender.io/
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    • MichaelTamoush's avatar
      MichaelTamoush
      Qrew Captain
      4 years ago
      Blake -

      Regarding the idea of using different forms once you reach a certain complexity, versus form rules:

      I also like this approach, but have constantly fought one battle and wonder how you deal with it. The permanent 'Save' and 'Cancel' buttons on the top of the page (I know you can remove the ones on the bottom of the form), will always take you to the default form. So I struggle with what to do about that. If I have a user on an alternate form, and their muscle memory has them click one of those buttons, they will get lost. How do you combat this?

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      Mike Tamoush
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      • BlakeHarrison's avatar
        BlakeHarrison
        Qrew Captain
        4 years ago
        I make them click 2 buttons. One button that will navigate to the View of the form I want them to use and a 2nd button for them to switch to Edit on that form. Typically, I disguise it as "Do X Action" for the View button and "Yes, I really want to Edit This" for the Edit button. Or something similar that would make sense in context. Many times, I will also put a message at the top of the form above the "Yes, I really Want to Edit This" with some type of warning message advising the user what they are about to do, etc.

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        Blake Harrison
        bharrison@datablender.io
        DataBlender - Quickbase Solution Provider
        Atlanta GA
        404.800.1702 / http://datablender.io/
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