April 2024 Qrew Notes
Attendees: Jen Clarke, Elena Larrabee, Lee Gilmore, Jim Harrison, Diego Alvarez This months meeting was a collaborative event. We wound up talking the entire time. Usually we are problem solving on different projects. This time there weren't any pressing problems to solve. We started the conversation with our current projects. We started the meeting talking about what we have been working on this past month. Elena is settling in at Quickbase to build Apps for Quickbase Customers, which sounds very interesting. Jen is growing her team and getting some much needed assistance. It is always good to have a plan b and it sounds like Jens work is important enough to require a plan b, well done Jen! Diego showed Dashboards he is building for the Team in Arizona. The dashboards are looking very useful for the teams in Arizona. Next we talked about Empower and what is happening with Quickbase in general. Overall the consensus is we are looking forward to Empower. It was brought up that we should get together for a local Empower for the Qrew. After some conversation with the Harder leadership, we are hosing virtual Empower at the HMC office. How it turns out is up in the air. There will be bagels, so it should be fine. It feels like this is a solution with many benefits as long as the expectations are within reason, for example there will be cream cheese for the bagels. Afterwards we headed to Prost for a pint of German ale and some German snacks. Community Email and Notifications are still offline but I will keep posting here to let folks know there is a light on.April 24th Portland Qrew Meetup 3PM
The April Qrew meetup is scheduled for April 24th at 3PM. I haven't even thought about a presentation so if anyone has anything he or she wants to present, let me know. If no one wants to present, the event will be collaborative as that tends to be very useful. We can also chat about the new Community and the Beta Navigation if anyone is interested in seeing what that looks like. Location: Harder Mechanical Contractors Address: 2148 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Portland, OR 97212 Time: 3 PM PST - 5 PM (and then we usually hang out till 7) RSVP: email jharrison@harder.com Remote Access: email jharrison@harder.com and we will send a Teams invitationMarch 2024 Meetup Notes
March Qrew meetup was a collaborative event. The event was not only useful but a lot of fun. We started out talking about Mobile Quickbase versus FastField forms and the pros and cons of each. The general consensus being there doesn't appear to be much benefit in either option, except for adding records to a table - in a limited fashion and Quickbase does that already. It's great to have these conversations and we are all looking forward to the rich opportunities Quickbase develops with either one of these offerings. Next we moved on to my collaborative effort: Pipeline export, import process with YAML. Lee Gilmore, walked me through the process of exporting the YAML, updating slugs and then importing to a different User account. The entire process is super easy and I am relieved I don't have to go figure it out myself. Thank you Lee! I now have some maintenance to do to move personal Pipelines into our Service Account. Next Jen Clarke asked about updating existing Pipelines via YAML instead of using the Drag and Drop interface. Reason being, her experience is once the Pipeline reaches a certain level of complexity, the interface slows down. The user interface slow down reduces the flow of building and maintaining. Reduced flow increases frustration causing Jen to think about alternative ways to update the code. We exported a long process (that is really cool) and examined the YAML. In the process of looking at the YAML together, the idea of adding a field or modifying a query was made a little less daunting. Hopefully we get the opportunity to work on more YAML coding in the coming months. The idea of YAML coding leads me to make it a goal to become fluent in reading and writing YAML and completely skip the drag and drop UI experience. Once the service account in Incognito mode problem is resolved, having that knowledge opens Harder to adopting Pipelines for simple tasks like garbage collection and logging. It is likely this is the area we will begin to leverage Pipelines for the time being. After all that Pipeline YAML stuff, we headed over to Steeplejack for a pint and some food and continued our conversation about Quickbase, Elena's new job (congratulations) and our plans or goals for the future. It was another excellent meetup and left us all looking forward to the next one in April.February 2024 Crew Meetup Notes: Gantt Plug-In
Attendees: Esther LaVielle, Jen Clarke, Lee Gilmore, Jim Harrison, Pierce Wagner, Pat Wenger, Loren Sallee Lee Gilmore presented on the Gantt Plug-In for Quickbase. The Plug-In is available in the Exchange. Once installed and setup properly, the Plug-In is accessed via a button from the App where the mapped records are maintained. Users open the plug-in, make changes to the schedule and then close the plug-in at which point the changes are saved back to the originating App. While a User has the plug-in loaded, it becomes locked for other Users to avoid data collisions. Lee presented on the following topics: Plug-In Display is not alterable. The plug-in is a separate code page built by MCF and is no longer supported. To customize reporting, use the Gantt plug-in to set schedules, then use the Gantt Report type in Quickbase to output the desired information. Critical Path setup requires understanding of scheduling.As Tasks are added, connect the Tasks together to determine Critical Path, drag tasks up and down to set sequence Using Lag. Adding Lag in the Task visually displays as blank space. Alternately incorporate Lag into the Task. The result visually appears as a filled bar across the schedule. Can use positive Lag from Start to Start or Negative Lag. Additional structure in the App would need to be designed and built around the Plug-In to be useful. Can I Import/export tasks? You enter data via Quickbase App into the mapped Gantt tables. When the Plug-In is loaded the Gantt is updated with the imported data Rudimentary Scheduling tool for defining ones own schedule but not for more complex scheduling, ie where the schedule is delegated by the Client/Customer/Owner. Plug-In could be used as a log of what happened during a project. Instead of using it to plan the project, one can record changes over time and then load the plug-in to display a chart. Printing from the Plug-In is not an option Thanks to Lee for an excellent presentation. If you are interested in learning more about the Gantt Plug-In Lee is available for events and shows upon request. He is also a very nice human.There is also a video Lee made available to share upon request. If interested, email Jim Harrison and I'll send you a copy. ------------------------------ Jim Harrison transparency = knowledge + understanding : The Scrum Dudes ------------------------------January 24th Qrew Meetup Notes
The Portland Qrew meeting was Wednesday January 24th at 3PM. The location (as always with gratitude) Harder Mechanical Contractor Offices. Attendees were Lee Gilmore, Esther LaVielle, Elena L, Jen C, Oh and me. Elena gave a presentation on the conclusion of the work done at the December collaborative meetup. In December we worked on a Date Range problem. The problem was to identify matching records on a table that fall within the same date range and do something around a quantity (numeric value) field. (two date fields per record - two records, limited quantities). The date range comparison includes any of these options where there is overlap: (before to during, during to during, before to after, during to after) where the record with the formula query is compared to all other records in the table to find a match. That's the gist of it as best as I can explain it without an editor. At the last meeting we went over Formula Queries, the theory of filter logic (order of operations) etc. and poked at the formula query Elena had started from different perspectives. Near the end of the meeting and several tries, Jen mentioned something that solved the problem and Elena was able to write the filter to meet all the date range requirements. Success! Yesterday Elena talked about the solution and how well it is working. She then showed us around the App a little and talked about what's next. Thanks to@Elena Larrabee for presenting on the fly. After Elena's presentation, we talked about exporting Pipelines to YAML to import into a service account. @Lee Gilmore mentioned he has a working solution for this process. We are planning a Qrew meetup where we go through the steps together. We also briefly looked at theGantt plug-in. We began with how to install and configure the plug-in and then what can be done with its features. Lee mentioned he has some experience working with the Gantt Plug-In and with that it was decided he is going to give a presentation. With the presentation, general conversation and questions concluded, we headed over to the Pocket Pub for refreshments. We all really like the Pocket Pub. ------------------------------ Jim Harrison transparency = knowledge + understanding : The Scrum Dudes ------------------------------January Qrew Meetup Event is Scheduled. Please RSVP
Hello all, The January Qrew meetup is scheduled for January 24th at 3PM. We are looking for one of the Qrew to do a presentation on a project completed in the past year. Please let me know you are interested in practicing your presentation skills. Planning to attend? Please go to the community page, click the event and then click RSVP. Looking forward to another inspiring conversation. ------------------------------ Jim Harrison transparency = knowledge + understanding : The Scrum Dudes ------------------------------November 2023 Qrew Meetup Notes
Attendees: Ripley, ElenaL, JenC, JacobM, LeeG, PatW, JimH The Portland Qrew met at Harder Mechanical Contractors Headquarters Wednesday at 3PM. Jacob made an informal presentation on his experiences over the past several months with understanding AI and its value. The presentation began with a survey to the group to gather our level of knowledge and interest in the topic. We stopped throughout the presentation to discuss philosophy of AI, ethics and business concerns. The topics covered by Jacob during the presentation include, different versions or products he has researched, what AI can do and some limitations, security concerns, privacy concerns, the AI overlord and who owns your instance. Finally we looked at how to build a process using actions & pipelines ( which are the same words but different from QuickBase terms and how confusing is that?). The presentation was excellent and stirred ongoing conversation as the evening progressed. After the presentation we headed over to The Pocket Pub for more spirited conversation of AI learning, human learning, Open Source, the future of work and a recommended reading list. It is inspiring to sit and discuss these topics with this group of amazing people. Each month I am amazed at the thought and open minded conversation that takes place. The November Qrew meetup left me with many thoughts that will rumble around in my head over the next month or more. I'm interested to see if researching AI takes any of our group in a different direction or adds another course of action. The biggest takeaway for me at this point is to identify the benefits of leveraging AI to solve most of a problem. I am still going to have to understand the solution or how the solution works or doesn't work, so I can get it to work. I think the point is to get mostly there by leveraging the library of the Internet. At this point, to me what building useful AI means is like an automated Search engine, clean data sets could become a potential commodity. Instead of writing code to make a thing, we'll build the datasets and processes around those datasets that should provide a solution with less researching. Once again a great way to spend the evening with the Portland Qrew. Moving forward, the December Meetup is a collaborative event, so bring your problems and we'll look for solutions together. After hours Book Qlub Patricia wants to Cuddle - Elena 1066 and all That - Jim Sapiens (and sequel Homo Deus) - Jacob Tribe - Elena How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion - Daniel H. Wilson ------------------------------ Jim Harrison transparency = knowledge + understanding : The Scrum Dudes ------------------------------Portland Grew Meetup is Scheduled for November 22nd at 3PM.
The Event is planned in the Events calendar. Putting this up here so it shows up in the Discussion too. If anyone has any comments y'all can leave them here. ------------------------------ Jim Harrison transparency = knowledge + understanding : The Scrum Dudes ------------------------------October Qrew Meetup Notes
We had another successful Portland, OR Qrew meetup this month. Lee, Jen, Brianna, Ralph and myself attended. This month's meeting was a collaborative session and to that effort we had Rich Text button problems to solve. First Jen wanted to use Grid Edit in a child report on a form and have the grid edit save the edits before navigating to another page. The problem when this is done, is the parent form has no changes and therefore the Rich Text button "class='savebeforenavigating' doesn't save the changes to the child records. The solution is to add a form rule to the parent form that enters the date/time into a field onload and now there is a change. Once there is a change to the parent form, the savebeforenavigating class is called and the child records are saved. Jen was happy with the results and so we moved on to the next problem. Next Lee wanted to display images as icon/buttons from a parent table but couldn't get the image link to work properly. We resolved the problem by adjusting the syntax of the Rich Text field and then went into explaining some of the syntax of Quickbase formula language and how it is separated from Rich Text HTML. We had solved two problems and it was getting close to the 2 hour mark so we called an end to this months meeting. Afterwards we headed over to Izakaya Kichinto for some snacks and a drink or two. Next month we are looking for a presentation. Lee mentioned AI and I think there may be some interest in learning more about how it can be used with Quickbase. Thank you again to everyone for attending. The meeting was successful as we worked together to learn and solve problems, which is always fun. ------------------------------ Jim Harrison transparency = knowledge + understanding : The Scrum Dudes ------------------------------September 27th Meeting Notes
This months attendees were Curtis, Annie, Natasha, Ralph, Jim, Pat, Ryan, Jen & Elena plus remote attendees: Lee, Matthew and Brian. Matthew Frye and Brian Tiu from FastField Forms presented the solution to offline mobile forms at the September meetup. There were good questions and a spirited discussion ensued. From here it seems many attendees have good use cases to try out with the new service. We appreciate Matthew and Brian for the presentation and taking the time to answer our questions. After Matthew and Brian of FastField Forms departed, the group continued to discuss mobile forms ideas and scenarios using the FastField service. Ideas were bounced around with whether Users would have accounts in one or both services. There were use case ideas for using the service for Equipment inventory, remote time card entry, safety observations and more. The ideas discussed all ended with excitement to go try it out. Then we moved into some collaboration requests before ending the meeting. Elena asked a follow up questions about ongoing work in FormStack integrations with Quickbase. Next Jen C asked about ideas for a project she is working on and alluded to bringing her laptop next month.Finally Curtis wanted ideas for how to link an attachment field in one app to a formula rich text clickable (magic) button in another app. The suggestion is to use a pipeline to write the attachment link back to a text field in the App containing the clickable button and reference that field in the Rich Text magic button formula. Before we ended the meeting a special gift from Ben Simon of Quickbase was presented to Elena for supplying the problem in last months collaboration meeting. The Qrew T-shirt was presented in appreciation for being the first to present a problem to a room of strangers. I also received a T-Shirt from Ben, I'm guessing for being awesome. Thanks Ben! Once the formal meeting adjourned, Ralph, Jen, Elena and I headed over to Ecliptic Brewing for a pint and some food. Next months meeting is another collaborative meetup. Jen and Elena are planning to bring their laptops and we will work on solutions. If you're interested in working on a problem or assisting with a solution make certain to register for the monthly Qrew meetups, there should be a reqistration in this Group somewhere. ------------------------------ Jim Harrison transparency = knowledge + understanding : The Scrum Dudes ------------------------------
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About Portland (OR) Qrew
Come meet up with members of the Portland, Oregon Qrew here!
Owned by: LeeGilmore, LeeGilmore1, and JimHarrisonCreated: 2 months agoOpen Group