AdamHoover1
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Updates to Pipelines Channel Limits
Here at Quickbase, we’ve always been focused on removing complexity and confusion from the process of solving business challenges. That’s why we are excited to announce that this October we are starting the process of introducing an exciting change to the way we align the integration channels in Pipelines with your Plan. The change will consist of two updates that are designed to open the door to a wide range of new connected solutions in Pipelines. There will no longer be a limit to the number of channels that can be enabled and used for each account We’re introducing a new tiered channel access model, bundling our integration and automation capabilities into categories that align with our pricing plan tiers We will be rolling these updates out to accounts in waves throughout the remainder of Q4 '22, and all customers should expect to see the change go live before the end of the year. Eliminating Channel Limits As more and more integrated solutions are created with Pipelines, one piece of feedback that we’ve heard loud and clear is that you need more than just 3 or 5 integration channels to create truly comprehensive solutions for complex interconnected workflow. That’s just one of the reasons that we’ve decided to remove those limits for all of our customers. Introducing New Plan Tiers As we seek to reduce confusion, we also understand that it is helpful to have clear expectations. To help with this, we are grouping Pipelines channels in a way that aligns with the identity and purpose of each of our plan tiers. NOTE: It’s important to know that you should not expect any interruption in service or negative impact as these changes roll out. We recognize the importance of the Pipelines that you are already using, which is why we are automatically granting your account access to any of the channels that you are already using, even if they are now outside of your plan tier. Moving forward, you will see that there is a clear delineation between the types of channels that are aligned with each plan: Team Plan To align with the mission of the Team plan, we are including the Quickbase channel, all the built-in Pipelines utility channels, and any channels that integrate with Communication and File Management tools Business Plan At the Business plan level, you will unlock access to any channels that integrate with Point Solutions and Workflow Enhancement tools, in addition to all of the channels included in the Team Plan. Enterprise Plan In addition to the channels included with the Team and Business plans, customers at the Enterprise plan level will also have access to integrate with on-prem databases and Enterprise-grade systems of record. To see the full catalog of planned and currently available channels and discover how each channel aligns with your tier, visit this link.Quickbase & Procore - Partnering to Fuel Integrated Business Innovation
Introducing a new partnership between Quickbase and Procore As we continue to invest in our mission to help Quickbase customers see, connect, and control their most complex projects, we are always looking for opportunities to add more valuable capabilities and offerings. That’s why we are so excited to announce our new partnership with Procore, the industry leading construction management tool that is purpose-built to help construction companies, specialty contractors, and property owners take control of their construction project outcomes. Working together, Quickbase and Procore unlock innovative business-led solutions for the unique workflow challenges faced by teams during each phase a project, from planning and procurement to construction and closeout. This partnership is made possible by our new Procore channel in Quickbase Pipelines. We have been developing and testing this new integration between Procore and Quickbase throughout the year, and based on feedback from beta participants we have already added support for more than a dozen different data types in Procore, and nearly 100 different pre-built triggers, actions and queries. This new integration opens the door for us to help you extend Procore and create integrated apps that address the real-time workflow requirements specific to your organization, which Procore doesn’t support. Add more detail to project data in Procore by integrating custom Fields and Data Types managed in Quickbase Automate project workflows and resource allocation with Quickbase Pipelines to enhance team productivity and collaboration Connect data siloed in both SaaS and legacy systems using pre-built Pipelines channels aggregate data and uncover new insights In addition to our new integration, we are also excited about the opportunity to spend more time with you, our customers, as we join Procore at more industry-specific events. We are looking forward to being at Procore’s upcoming Groundbreak 2022 conference, where we hope that those of you planning to attend will join us at out our session on Integrated Technology Strategies with Anthony Chiaradonna (CIO, Consigli Construction), or just drop by our booth to chat! Getting Access Turning on the Procore channel in Pipelines If you already have an idea of what you want to do with our new Procore channel, then you’ll want to know how to get started. As of today, the Procore Channel is not yet visible to all customers by default. The channel will become visible to all customers as part of our October release, but if you’re so excited that you want to start using it now then you’re in luck! All customers who have purchased one of our Building Project Bundles have already been given access to the Procore channel Customers that haven’t purchased a bundle can still request early access by creating a new Support Case to let us know that you’re interested Once the Procore channel has been made available to your account, any account administrator can navigate to the Pipelines tab in the Admin Console to turn on the channel for Pipelines users. Getting Started Once you have access to the Procore Channel, it’s time to create a new Pipeline! As always, you’ll need to authenticate to give Pipelines access to Procore when you create your first Pipeline with the new channel. Once authentication is taken care of, here are few ideas for Pipelines that you may be interested in trying: Syncing projects in Procore with a Projects table in Quickbase Making bulk updates to project assignments, adding/removing users from projects Creating and update a file that is currently stored outside of Procore To learn more about how to begin implementing those ideas, check out our Help topic where we cover authentication requirements, channel capabilities, use case examples and more.2022 Quickbase Connections Investments: Easier Management and Governance of Pipelines
We all know that in the world of software, things move pretty fast. If you’ve been keeping up with all the recent product releases here at Quickbase then you’ll certainly agree that we’re no exception! For the most part, all that speed is typically a good thing, but we’ve learned that if you don’t stop once in a while, you can miss things. That’s why we make the conscious choice to periodically stop and take stock of how all these new product updates are working for you, our customers. Over the last year, we’ve listened to feedback from many of you about different aspects of the Workflow Automation and Integration capabilities that are supported by our Pipelines technology. One theme that has come through clearly is that Quickbase customers need to be able to move fast too, and that requires tools that make it easier to manage and govern Pipelines at scale. We recognize that each of your organizations has its own unique IT ecosystem and policies, and it’s clear that this means that everything from our access controls to our error notifications must be flexible enough to adapt to your needs. In response, we made it a high priority to begin working on a couple specific updates to Pipelines that we believe will begin to unlock the speed and scale you’ve been waiting for: User Level Access to Pipelines Channels Pipeline Error Notifications Governing User Access to Specific Pipelines Channels In our May 2022 release, we introduced a new set of permission options that give realm administrators the ability to control access to individual Pipelines channels at a user level. This update is a bit unique because it was actually driven by conflicting feedback that we had received from customers! As Pipelines usage began to grow, we discovered that our customers have a surprisingly diverse range of philosophies on how to manage access for their users. Open Access - On one end of the spectrum there are companies who prefer to simply open the flood gates by granting all users access to build Apps & Pipelines, removing any barriers standing between their teams and innovation. Protected Access - Customers at the other end of the spectrum have talked to us about their need to keep access restricted in order to protect themselves from data security or integrity risks that their users could inadvertently introduce if they are not trained properly. This granular new set of permissions gives admins the flexibility to choose exactly how much they want to fine tune the access that each individual user has to the integration capabilities of Pipelines. With nuanced controls that are easy to find and easy to configure, we are already hearing about organizations who are implementing policies to increase the amount of access a user has as they pass milestones like receiving their Pipelines Builder Certification. As a result, Pipelines are creating value and addressing challenges without adding risk! You can now access these new permissions by simply toggling on the “Use new permissions options” feature in the Permissions tab of the Admin Console. Proactive Notifications for Pipelines Errors Another change that we introduced in May was to automatically notify the owner of a Pipeline about any errors that Pipeline may be encountering. The Pipelines Activity view has always provided insight into any errors that may be occurring when a given Pipeline runs, but as we began to collect feedback on how best to ensure that users were made aware of these issues, we realized that it couldn’t be as simple as sending out an email for each and every error. While sending one email per error might work well for simpler Pipelines that run infrequently, in many scenarios we found that this could lead to your inbox being flooded with hundreds of emails in a matter of minutes! To address this, we added a counter to track the number of errors that each Pipeline encounters in a given day. That way, we are able to send an email for the 1 st , 10 th , and 100 th , errors that particular Pipeline encounters that day, ensuring that your inbox doesn't get flooded with redundant emails. Of course each individual error can still be seen from the Activity feed once you're ready to start troubleshooting. This means that you'll quickly be made aware of any issues that need to be addressed, you'll still have access to the detailed logs, and you won't need to worry about us overloading your email server. Beyond adding tools to manage and govern your Pipelines, we are investing to improve many other aspects of our Pipelines technology as well. You can read more about the improvements to usability we’ve introduced. And as a reminder, Quickbase Automations is being retired in favor of Pipelines. On June 30 th , 2022, the ability to create new Automations will be disabled. You can read more about this process and the timeline to retire Automations here.Changes to the Automations Feature in Quickbase
Changes to the Automations Feature in Quickbase For the most up to date information on our Automations End of Support and Retirement plan please refer to our most recent post which you can find here. We’d like to take a moment to share some news about our plans for the future of the Automations feature in Quickbase. If you are using the Quickbase Automations Feature in any of your Quickbase Apps today, or are planning to create a new Automation in the near future, then this post is for you. Workflow automation has taken many forms in Quickbase over the years. Whether it’s been a simple email notification, a dynamic form rule, or even a complex script triggered by a Webhook, one thing that’s clear is that workflow automation is only going to increase in importance for customers and use cases of all kinds. To meet those evolving requirements, we have spent the last year growing and improving the workflow automation capabilities of our powerful new Pipelines technology. Now, as we continue to look toward the future, we must also evaluate the role of older and less flexible features like Quickbase Automations. Table of Contents The Future of Automations Background Timeline Migration to Pipelines Next Steps The Future of Automations We have made the decision to begin the process of retiring the Automations feature. Over the next 18 months, we will be slowly phasing out the Automations feature from the Quickbase platform, and in January of 2023 Quickbase Pipelines will become our one-stop shop for all your workflow automation and integration needs. We know that this will mean a change for those of you who are still using the Automations feature today, and we are already working hard to ensure that this will not disrupt your business or your processes. Background Over the years since introducing the Automations feature, we have continuously gathered feedback, and learned about the wide range of processes and workflows that Quickbase customers need to automate. These workflows often stretch across multiple systems, and increasingly require business logic that is more flexible and scalable than we had ever imagined when we first introduced our Quickbase Automations feature. Fortunately, our Pipelines technology is here to help us meet these growing workflow automation challenges. Timeline Over the next 18 months we will be following our standard feature retirement lifecycle, and taking several steps along the way to retiring the Quickbase Automations feature. Timing Retirement Phase Description June 22, 2021 End of Sale We will focus on making sure that all our customers have the information and resources they need to successfully plan for the migration of their Automations to Pipelines. Even though the Automations feature will still be available to existing customers, we encourage customers to begin using Pipelines to implement new workflow automation ideas moving forward. June 30, 2022 End of Support Your existing Automations will continue to run without interruption, but you will no longer be able to create new Automations or get assistance with the building and configuration of Automations from Quickbase staff. During this time, we encourage you to migrate any remaining Automations to Pipelines at the earliest possible opportunity. TBD End of Life Automations is officially retired. This means that it is fully removed from our product, and remaining Automations will cease to function. Migration to Pipelines We have been continuously adding new capabilities and tools that will make it easy for you to migrate your workflow automations to our newer and more powerful Pipelines technology. Not only will this ensure that you don’t experience any disruption to your business or your processes, but it also opens the doors to new workflow ideas that can connect across multiple systems. Unlimited Automation Usage The introduction of Pipelines was a huge leap forward for Quickbase, and in February we took that even further by announcing a change that made automating workflow between Quickbase Apps with Pipelines unlimited for all customers. Easy Migration Our exciting new Automations to Pipelines migration capability is now live and ready for everyone to use. This tool is visible on each of your Automations and can help you convert almost any Automation into a Pipeline with just a couple of clicks. Learn more in our June release notes and help topic. Expanded Use Cases By adding support for things like the “previous value of a field” in March, you can see that we’re committed to supporting every Automations use case. Information and Resources We are continuously creating new resources and content to help you get started with Pipelines, which you can always find here.Automating with Pipelines: Information and Resources
Automating with Pipelines: Information and Resources Pipelines provides Quickbase builders with the tools to easily design automated workflow that can connect across their Apps and other third-party systems. With Pipelines, you don’t need to write code to integrate your data and unlock the true potential of your apps. The technology that we’ve put into Pipelines builds on the lessons that we learned with our older Quickbase Automations feature. As a result, Pipelines is able provide a comprehensive foundation to support both the automated workflows that have become a core part of many Quickbase Apps, as well as new processes that require a greater degree of flexibility, connectivity, and scale. Now that this exciting technology is powering the future of workflow automations and integrations for Quickbase, we are looking forward to continuously expanding its capabilities and empowering innovative new business solutions for years to come. Ready to get started? Jump ahead to the specific resources you’re looking for: Find out how to get access to Pipelines Learn about migrating Automations to Pipelines Get guidance and resources on building new Pipelines of your own Why Now is the Perfect Time to Get Started with Pipelines Whether you have new ideas for automated workflows, or you already have Apps that use the Quickbase Automations feature, now is a great time to build that use case in Pipelines! Here are a few reasons why: Increased Value without Increased Cost Pipelines can automate workflow both in, and between, Quickbase Apps, at no additional cost. In February, we made sure you would never have to miss out on the benefits of Pipelines by making usage of the Quickbase channel unlimited for all customers! (Learn more here) Joining a Passionate Community With more than 1,000 companies already getting value from Pipelines, usage growing over 100% per month, and nearly 50 million automated steps triggered in April alone, there is a wide range of insights and experience available to you in our growing Community of Pipelines Builders. Ask questions, start conversations, or even join us at Empower to learn how your peers are introducing creative new solutions of their own. Growing and Evolving Capabilities If you’ve already seen Pipelines, you may have noticed how easily it allows you to connect disparate systems to design workflow that’s far more advanced than what’s possible with our older Automations feature. The intuitive drag-and-drop designer opens the door to thousands of new use cases, allowing you to test and implement multi-step automations with branching logic, record searches, and loops. Even if you haven’t struggled with the limitations of Automations, here are two of the many recent examples of how we are continuously enhancing the capabilities of Pipelines: We recently introduced the “On New Event” step for the Quickbase channel, allowing you to build more efficiently by creating just one Pipeline that runs whenever a record is Created OR Updated OR Deleted. (Learn more in the Help Center) We also added the ability to use both the previous value and the new value from a field when a record is updated and triggers your Pipeline. This allows your Pipeline to compare the difference between the two values, or log and track changes your records over time. How to Get Access to Pipelines The good news is that the power of Pipelines is only a few steps away. Once you have access, you’ll be able to start building Pipelines of your own. Check if you already have access to Pipelines If you’re new to Pipelines, you may already have access and not even realize it. You can find out for yourself by logging into Quickbase and checking to see if the “Pipelines” tab is visible next to the My Apps tab in the upper left: Pipelines will appear for Account Administrators and Users who have been granted access Contact your Account Administrator If the Pipelines tab isn’t showing up for you, don’t worry! Getting access is still easy once you know who to ask. Any Quickbase Account Administrator at your company can turn on access to Pipelines for you by following the simple steps found in this help topic. Simply reach out to them, and let them know that you need access to Pipelines. Not sure who to ask? Let us know! If you don’t know who your Quickbase Account Administrators are, then the best thing to do is simply contact our Customer Care Team. Just open a new case and a member of our staff will be happy to help you get in touch with the right person. Managing your Existing Automations Once you have access to Pipelines not only are you able to start creating new automated and integrated workflow, you’re also able to convert your existing Automations into Pipelines whenever you’re ready. Moving your Automations to Pipelines allows your automated workflow to continue running without interruption, while opening the doors to the flexibility, scalability, and speed that makes Pipelines such an exciting part of the future of agile business workflow here at Quickbase. Automations to Pipelines Migration Tool To make it easy to move your existing Automations to Pipelines, we are introducing a new Automation to Pipelines migration capability that can turn your existing Automations into powerful new Pipelines with just a couple clicks. This tool will be available for all customers on June 21, 2021, and you can see just how easy it is to use this exciting capability here: Check out our Automation Migration Help Topic for more detailed documentation of this new Automation to Pipelines Migration capability Building and Testing New Pipelines In order to make it easy for you to get started, we've collected some resources and guides that can provide clear steps and inspiration for your next workflow automation use case. We also recommend checking out the great sessions from our recent Empower 2021 event. Register here to access all the content from Empower 2021, or click here to login if you are already registered. Directory of Pipelines Worfklow Automation Resources Resource Description Link Template Records: Copying parents and children Many companies have a standard set of child records which need to be created when a new parent record is created. For example, the onboarding process for hiring a new salesperson should always include the same curriculum of training courses. View Here Cascading deletes When deleting a record, what happens to its related child records? If those child records become obsolete once their parent record has been deleted, you can use this process to clean up the data. Download Guide Trend reporting To get real-time insights into your team’s progress against key business goals, it can be helpful to see how your data is trending over time. This process snapshots data and creates a history in a related child table which you can use to create trend reports. View Here Dynamically Creating Child Records This application allows you to create a dynamic number of child records from a formula numeric field derived from the duration between a Start Date and End Date fields on the Parent record. Example App Basic Pipelines Navigation and Anatomy Learn the ins and outs of the My Pipelines Page and the key parts of a Pipeline. You’ll want this basic understanding before reviewing any of our other Pipelines sessions. Empower 2020 Trending Your Data with Pipelines and the RESTful API In this session you’ll learn how to use Pipelines and the new RESTful API to build rich trending reports that track how your data changes over time. You’ll walk away with examples of the syntax needed to accomplish this and use cases to help you and your company get more out of your Quick Base data. Empower 2020 Data Transformation Two Ways Using Pipelines Learn how to build a multi-step pipeline to search and react to soft data changes in your Quick Base records. In this session, we explore two ways to perform Data Transformation using pipelines. The first utilizes in-app Quick Base formula fields and native Pipelines Condition options. The second method will dive into the Advanced Query and newly integrated Jinja syntax to provide additional flexibility in your queries and Pipeline steps. This session references the "Pipelines Demo" app from the Exchange. Empower 2020 Create Your Own Template Copy Pipeline In this session, we use Pipelines to create and relate child records to a parent from either a template set of records or from another parent record. Utilizing Pipelines we are now able to improve on the possibilities provided by manual entry, automations, and the copy master detail wizard. This session references the"Empower 2020 - Pipelines Copy Template Demo" app from the Exchange. Empower 2020 Importing from table-to-table For those builders who save table-to-table imports to run periodically, you can use this process to automate a comparable import using a pipeline. View Here With these resources you can now build pipeline to automate many types of workflow. To learn more about building pipelines, check out our community post here: So You Want to Learn Pipelines.Introducing Unlimited Quickbase Channel Usage in Pipelines
Introducing Unlimited Quickbase Channel Usage in Pipelines We all rely on a wide range of tools to get work done every day, and for most of us the idea of being unable to use one of those tools is a scenario too horrible to even imagine. As our Pipelines technology becomes an increasingly vital tool in many of your lives, we recognize how important it is to keep removing any barriers that threaten your productivity. That’s why we’ve just made a change to Pipelines that will give you and your teams the freedom to experiment with new processes, test and adapt your existing Pipelines, and automate workflow between Quickbase Applications, all without worrying about limits getting in the way. Starting on February 18 th , 2021 usage of the Quickbase Channel in Pipelines will not be counted toward your limit of available Step Runs. With this change our goal is to remove a big obstacle that has been standing between you and the innovative new workflow solutions that you've been thinking about. This post will provide some additional information and details about the change to how Step Runs are measured, as well as resources to help you maximize the value that your business receives from Pipelines No time to read the details? Skip ahead to our FAQs Background Whether you build Automations and Webhooks like a pro, use Pipelines every day, or just keep things simple with your Quickbase Applications, one thing that's always true is that the way we do work will continue to evolve, and your processes need to be able to adapt in order to keep up. That simple idea is a big part of the reason we continue to invest so heavily in tools like our Pipelines technology, which give you the power to automate workflow of all kinds, and connect processes across the Applications and Software that you rely on. When we introduced Pipelines, we knew that these benefits would be meaningless if we didn't also work hard to protect our customers from any potential risks that could be encountered over time. One way we've done that is to focus on building and maintaining highly scalable and reliable underlying technology. Another has been to create limits that help govern usage, protecting new users from accidentally DDOS'ing their own Applications, and reminding experienced problem solvers to be thoughtful about the design of their workflow when building new Pipelines. As we've continued to listen to feedback from our customers, one thing that's become clear is that these limits have had the unintended side effect of putting a big barrier between users and their ability to experiment with new processes. By making usage of the QB Channel in Pipelines free and unlimited, we're getting rid of the barrier that has been standing between you and the ideas you have wanted to pursue. If you're an experienced Pipelines builder then you can now enjoy the freedom to experiment with new ideas in Pipelines, testing and refining your business logic as much as necessary until you have a powerful integrated workflow that’s ready to add value. If you're comfortable with designing automated tasks and processes, but you've been waiting to take Pipelines for a spin, then this opens the door to our most flexible and scalable workflow automation tool ever. You can take your ideas to the next level, creating powerful multi-step Pipelines without having to worry about running up a bill. And if you haven't had a chance to start automating some of your more repetitive work, then we encourage you to take a look at some of the resources below. You'll find inspiration on what to try first, and guidance to help you continuously improve the user experience and value of your Quickbase Applications. Details about the Change As you may know, every Pipeline is configured by defining a series of one or more Steps that will run when the Pipeline is triggered, as long as their conditions are met. Steps can vary widely in complexity, ranging from something as simple as updating a single line of text, to complex evaluations of thousands of rows of data. That's why the basic unit of measurement for Pipelines is a “Step Run”, making it easier to track, monitor, and manage your Pipelines accurately, no matter how widely varied their workflow is. Step Runs are simply a count of the number of times that each individual step in the Pipeline has been asked to run, and then completed its work successfully. However, now that we've excluded the Quickbase Channel from your account limit we will be introducing 2 new sub-categories of Step Runs to help you keep track of exactly what's happening: Billable Step Runs – The number of Step Runs completed by Pipelines which do not use the Quickbase Channel, this is the measurement that shows how close you are getting to your Account limit Total Step Runs – The total number of Step Runs completed by Pipelines, including Quickbase Channel usage. This number is informational, and is simply there to provide helpful reference and clarity about usage patterns These changes will soon be reflected on your My Pipelines page as well, with separate counters for both new categories in order to provide you with more detail: Example Scenario John has a Quickbase account with an annual subscription at the Premier level. He has built several Pipelines that use the Quickbase Channel to automate tasks between his Quickbase Applications. On Friday 2/12/2021, he checked his Pipelines usage and saw that he has use 20,000 Step Runs during his current billing cycle. He also noticed that he only has 10,000 Step Runs remaining before he hits his Billable Step Run limit of 30,000 Step Runs per year. On Thursday 2/18/2021, John is happy to find out his usage of the Quickbase Channel will no longer count toward his Billable Step Run limit, and that he can continue to run his existing Pipelines without worrying about having to pay more money or being cut off. Over the next few months John continues to add more Pipelines, automating even more work between his Quickbase Applications and consuming 50,000 more Total Step Runs, but he is happy to see that his Billable Step Runs have not gone up from the 20,000 Step Runs he had already used before the change. Resources How-to's Build better trend reports with Pipelines - Automate routine work to save time, improve morale, and reduce risk. Many companies use automations to supply the data for trend reports today. Did you know you can power trend reports using pipelines? Generate template records with Pipelines - Perfect your unique business processes by automating routine work in real-time. Learn how to use Pipelines to generate a set of template child records removing manual work without losing the value of highly flexible processes. Improve your monthly insights with Pipelines – Creating the ability to analyze your Quickbase data by month can help you unlock the insights of your data but building and maintaining it all can take valuable time. Learn how you can build monthly reporting in QB and power it with Pipelines. This walkthrough even includes an example app where you can test and learn. Training and Documentation Getting Started with Pipelines – In our Quick Base University lesson learn how to use pipelines to enhance the capabilities of your Quickbase and third-party apps. Join Chantelle and Sam as they build their first pipelines. Pipelines Help Documentation – Our help resources will walk you through accessing Pipelines, setting up a Quickbase channel Pipeline, and the full roster of channels you can access. Pipelines Webinar Series – Our 4-part webinar series teach you how to more easily create Pipelines to automate workflow across multiple systems. It highlights connecting to Quick Base Apps, Salesforce, Marketo, Outlook, Box, and even shows show you how to use Pipelines to integrate with third-party API’s Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Learn More So You Want to Learn Pipelines! - One of our Best Practice Consultants, Bree Mackey, gathered a collection of resources including example apps, articles, and previous Empower presentations to give you a crash course in unlocking the power of Pipelines. Automatically book meetings on your Outlook calendar using Pipelines - Do you ever find yourself manually booking meetings in Outlook, based on project work you’re tracking in Quick Base? Find out how to replace that manual step with the power of Pipelines. How to Accelerate Your Workflow with Email and File Management - This How To will take you into how to use Pipelines to solve for three key problems: manual data re-entry, inaccessible order documents/forms, and scheduling delays. FAQs What qualifies as usage of the Quickbase Channel in Pipelines? Every Pipeline is configured to run a series of one or more Steps when the Pipeline is triggered. A “Step Run” is the basic unit of measurement for Pipelines, and it is used to count of the number of times that each individual step in the Pipeline has been asked to run and then completed its work successfully. When a Step is added to a Pipeline, it is typically configured using the pre-built capabilities of a Channel. The Quickbase Channel can be used to configure Steps that interact with a Quickbase Application and request, add, or modify data when the criteria is met. Anytime a Pipeline runs, and completes Steps that are configured with the Quickbase Channel, it is considered Quickbase Channel usage and will no longer count towards your Billable Step Run limit. How are Step Runs calculated when a Pipeline uses more than one Channel? Any Steps in the Pipeline that are configured with the Quickbase Channel will no longer add a Billable Step Run when triggered, but Steps in the same Pipeline that are configured with any Channel other than Quickbase will still count as usual. When can I expect to see a change in my usage? Right now! If you have Pipelines that use the Quickbase Channel you may already be able to see a change in the rate at which new Billable Step Runs are being used. I need to do anything in order to activate this change for my Account? Not at all! Your account has already been updated to ensure that usage of the Quickbase Channel does not count towards your Billable Step Runs, and you are free to begin enhancing your Quickbase Applications with powerful automated workflow that is ready to scale as much as you do. Where can I see the number of Step Runs that have been used for my Account? There is a gauge right on the “My Pipelines” page that shows the exact number of Billable Step Runs which have been used during your current billing period. We are also adding a counter to show your Total Step Runs right next to your Billable Step Runs as a helpful point of reference. What is the difference between “Billable Step Runs” and “Total Step Runs”? Billable Step Runs are the cumulative number of qualifying Steps Runs that have completed successfully during your current Billing Period. Any Step Runs that use a Pipelines Channel other than the Quickbase Channel qualify as Billable Step Runs. Total Step Runs is a count of all Step Runs completed by Pipelines over the same period as Billable Step Runs, regardless of the Channel used. This provides a view of the Pipelines usage on your account with Quickbase Channel usage included. This number is informational, and is there to provide helpful reference and clarity about usage patterns. When does my Step Run usage reset? Step Runs are reset at the end of your billing period. This means that Annual customers are given a large pool of Billable Step Runs which only resets on the next billing anniversary for the Account. The Billable Step Runs gauge on the My Pipelines page has an indicator to show how much time remains before the next billing period begins, and customers who need to increase their allotment of Step Runs can always purchase additional Step Runs when necessary. How can I get more information about this change? If you have additional questions about Pipelines or the change to Billable Step Runs, we always encourage you to reach out to your Account representative or submit a support case to our world class Customer Care team.Introducing the new RESTful API
Introducing the new RESTful API With a platform as flexible and powerful as Quickbase, it could be easy to forget about all the different processes and tools that businesses rely on that go beyond their Quickbase apps. One thing that we have always understood however, is that there is no limit to the innovative new ideas that our customers can dream up. We're always looking for new ways to make those ideas possible, investing in features and enhancements that continue to make it easier for inspiration to become reality, and for businesses to perfect the processes that make them unique. That's why I'm so excited to introduce Quickbase's entirely new RESTful API. The RESTful API provides a modern and intuitive new experience to help our community of app builders and developers extend their workflow beyond the native capabilities of their Quickbase apps. Whether your business process needs Quickbase to integrate with third party software tools, to aggregate data from multiple systems, or even to support a new end-user experience with a customized mobile and web interface, there's is no limit to what's possible. Integration Offerings The introduction of our new RESTful API enhances our already robust suite of integration capabilities, and allows us to provide comprehensive support for the widest possible range of custom use cases with the following tools: Quickbase Pipelines Quickbase RESTful API Quickbase XML API Those of you who have already begun using the Quickbase Pipelines technology, which we introduced earlier this year, will find that the new capabilities of our RESTful API can be leveraged within a Pipeline to facilitate an even broader range of integration and automation scenarios. By supporting all 4 of these tools, we believe that there is now a path for any Quickbase builder to quickly solve even the trickiest business challenges. Supporting Two APIs The best news is that our existing XML API, which has already helped thousands of customers to build, integrate, share, and administer their Quickbase applications, is not going anywhere. By supplementing, rather than replacing, our extensive XML API offering, we are able to offer a new suite of flexible and intuitive API calls that fully support JSON, without disrupting any existing scripts or extensions that are running successfully today. So, if you already have calls configured to use our existing API, you can be sure that they'll continue to be processed safely and securely as always. Of course, now that our RESTful API is here, you'll want to take advantage of its scalability and easy implementation. Our team has been hard at work, designing the RESTful API from the ground up to ensure that we provide a consistent experience, with capabilities that we will continue to expand on and invest in for years to come. Basing our design decisions on industry-standards and best practices helps us create APIs that are easy to understand, accelerating the ability for developers to quickly solve new challenges. Additionally, continued access to our XML API ensures that nobody loses the incredibly broad range of powerful capabilities that many of you have spent years helping us enhance. Today, the RESTful API already supports the majority of scenarios that our builders are using our XML APIs to facilitate, including the full range of App, Table, Field, and Record management API calls. With the ability to address such a wide range of use cases, and with our team geared up to continuously add powerful new capabilities, the RESTful API is ready to be your one-stop-shop for any new integration challenges or use case ideas moving forward. Getting Started To make it easy to get started, we recommend using the new RESTful API Portal, which houses both documentation and implementation tools that are intuitive enough for developers and experienced business builders. Use the portal to learn about, plan, and try out any of our API calls as you begin thinking about the next problem you'd like to solve. With interactive documentation at your fingertips, it's easier than ever to test new extensions, plan new integrations, and even begin to migrate and streamline existing logic that you still have running on our XML API. Now that access to the RESTful API is available to all Quickbase customers, you can build your next integration today! Next Steps If you want to jump right in, we encourage you to start with the RESTful API Portal, but if you're interested in reading about how our team has thought through some of the specific decision points involved with these new capabilities then click here to learn more.Introducing the new RESTful API
Introducing the new RESTful API With a platform as flexible and powerful as Quick Base, it could be easy to forget about all the different processes and tools that businesses rely on that go beyond their Quick Base apps. One thing that we have always understood however, is that there is no limit to the innovative new ideas that our customers can dream up. We're always looking for new ways to make those ideas possible, investing in features and enhancements that continue to make it easier for inspiration to become reality, and for businesses to perfect the processes that make them unique. That's why I'm so excited to introduce Quick Base's entirely new RESTful API. The RESTful API provides a modern and intuitive new experience to help our community of app builders and developers extend their workflow beyond the native capabilities of their Quick Base apps. Whether your business process needs Quick Base to integrate with third party software tools, to aggregate data from multiple systems, or even to support a new end-user experience with a customized mobile and web interface, there's is no limit to what's possible. Integration Offerings The introduction of our new RESTful API enhances our already robust suite of integration capabilities, and allows us to provide comprehensive support for the widest possible range of custom use cases with the following tools: Quick Base Pipelines Quick Base RESTful API Quick Base XML API Quick Base Sync Those of you who have already begun using the Quick Base Pipelines technology, which we introduced earlier this year, will find that the new capabilities of our RESTful API can be leveraged within a Pipeline to facilitate an even broader range of integration and automation scenarios. By supporting all 4 of these tools, we believe that there is now a path for any Quick Base builder to quickly solve even the trickiest business challenges. Supporting Two APIs The best news is that our existing XML API, which has already helped thousands of customers to build, integrate, share, and administer their Quick Base applications, is not going anywhere. By supplementing, rather than replacing, our extensive XML API offering, we are able to offer a new suite of flexible and intuitive API calls that fully support JSON, without disrupting any existing scripts or extensions that are running successfully today. So, if you already have calls configured to use our existing API, you can be sure that they'll continue to be processed safely and securely as always. Of course, now that our RESTful API is here, you'll want to take advantage of its scalability and easy implementation. Our team has been hard at work, designing the RESTful API from the ground up to ensure that we provide a consistent experience, with capabilities that we will continue to expand on and invest in for years to come. Basing our design decisions on industry-standards and best practices helps us create APIs that are easy to understand, accelerating the ability for developers to quickly solve new challenges. Additionally, continued access to our XML API ensures that nobody loses the incredibly broad range of powerful capabilities that many of you have spent years helping us enhance. Today, the RESTful API already supports the majority of scenarios that our builders are using our XML APIs to facilitate, including the full range of App, Table, Field, and Record management API calls. With the ability to address such a wide range of use cases, and with our team geared up to continuously add powerful new capabilities, the RESTful API is ready to be your one-stop-shop for any new integration challenges or use case ideas moving forward. Getting Started To make it easy to get started, we recommend using the new RESTful API Portal, which houses both documentation and implementation tools that are intuitive enough for developers and experienced business builders. Use the portal to learn about, plan, and try out any of our API calls as you begin thinking about the next problem you'd like to solve. With interactive documentation at your fingertips, it's easier than ever to test new extensions, plan new integrations, and even begin to migrate and streamline existing logic that you still have running on our XML API. Now that access to the RESTful API is available to all Quick Base customers, you can build your next integration today! Next Steps If you want to jump right in, we encourage you to start with the RESTful API Portal, but if you're interested in reading about how our team has thought through some of the specific decision points involved with these new capabilities then click here to learn more. ------------------------------ Adam Hoover Product Marketing Manager Quick Base Cambridge MA 617-250-2432 ------------------------------RE: Getting Started with Pipelines Webinar AMA
Hi Austin, that's a great question! You are correct that the search step itself will only count as 1 step-run. If 100 records then meet the query criteria and an action is taken for each of those records (e.g. add, update, delete), then that will count as 100 step-runs. That means that the full Pipeline would consume 101 step-runs each time it is run. However, if 100 records are searched and only 25 meet the criteria for the action to be taken, then that would only count as 25 step-runs. I am excited to share that we are working on bulk record capabilities like import csv, and you can expect to hear more about that as soon as it's available. Of course, as you mentioned, Notifications behave differently when you use a bulk action as opposed to modifying each record one at a time so you will need to configure your Pipeline accordingly. ------------------------------ Adam Hoover Product Marketing Manager Quick Base Cambridge MA 617-250-2432 ------------------------------RE: Introducing Pipelines - Webinar Q&A
Hi Jonathan, that's a great question! When records are produced/modified in Quick Base by Pipelines, the built-in fields will not be available to modify. That means that the "Date Created" and "Date Modified" fields will automatically reflect the Date/Time that the Pipeline ran. The "Record Owner" and "Last Modified By" fields will also be assigned based on the user token, meaning that your name will be reflected in the scenario you described. That said, you can certainly leverage any editable user field, and you can even use that to capture the value from the "Last Modified By" field in your trigger. That would allow you to capture the name of the user who actually took the action that caused the Pipeline to run. ------------------------------ Adam Hoover Product Marketing Manager Quick Base Cambridge MA 617-250-2432 ------------------------------
