EstherLaVielle
Community Manager
Joined 4 years ago
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March 2025 Pipelines Qrew Meet Up Recap & What to look forward to in April
Hello Pipelines Qrew, Thank you to all who were able to attend the Pipelines Qrew Meet Up on Wednesday. Here’s what we discussed: James Malone and Matthew Tillinghast from Juiced Technologies shared a pipeline solution that entailed creating a master app that consolidates all the timecard records, allowing for better data management and reporting for their customer. James went through details of the pipeline process, including handling record creation, updates, and deletions. He discussed the challenges they faced, such as dealing with unique field constraints, mapping field names across different applications, as well a certain error message. James used placeholder parameters in the pipeline call definitions to easily accommodate new data requirements from different source apps and found callable pipelines to be very helpful in making this solution scalable across the 25 source apps. We had lots of comments and great questions that were addressed in the meeting. Missed the meeting? Here’s the link to the recording. Our next Pipelines Qrew Meet Up will be on Wednesday April 16 th at 12pm EST. The agenda is nearly finalized. I’m hoping the Pipelines product team will be available to answer questions about new features that will officially go live at Empower and include a customer use case from our friends from Accenture. Thank you and have a great weekend! Best regards,November Pipelines Qrew Meet Up Recap
Hello Pipelines Qrew! Thank you all who were able to attend Wednesday’s Pipeline Qrew Meet Up. Here’s a recap of what happened: 1) Brittany Scheid from Simitree Healthcare Consulting shared her Pipelines Use case on how she uses Pipelines to automate the workflow of onboarding and provisioning employees/contractors. She went into detail and shared tips on how her workflow was planned and proceeded to break it down how she set up her Pipeline which included testable steps along the way. 2) To see more of Brittany’s workflow as well as tips she shared, I have attached a PDF of her presentation along with the chat file from the meeting. 3) During the call there were a lot of great resources shared that helped Brittany with creating and managing her Pipeline. Quickbase API GUIDE Jinja Ninja with Ryan Pflederer Become a Jinja Ninja E-Course in Quickbase University User Status Overview Gmail + feature to test multiple users A special thank you to all who shared resources above and tips in the chat! 4) Missed the call or want to relisten to the recording? Click the link below. No password required! https://quickbase.zoom.us/rec/share/VWzTQ-DdJTrREIaBqbTsNM562P9Xu3BkFzX3ll_wPRL9cI94zrSqSo3LY8WdF2MR.tF806pvVBgm3zn4Q?startTime=1731516805000 Our next Pipelines Qrew Meet up is on Wednesday December 18 th ! Tammie King has volunteered to share her use case our last Qrew Meet Up of the year, so I’ll update everyone as soon as we finalize the agenda. Invites will be shared from Zoom soon. Thank you all for a great meet up!September 2025 Qrew Meetup Recap
Thank you to everyone who joined yesterday’s Pipelines Qrew meetup. Here’s what we discussed: Rob Mersereau, Sr. Implementation Consultant, shared an encore of his Empower 2025 talk using a Mardi Gras example to show how to integrate Quickbase with Google Calendar through Pipelines. He noted that this use case can be applied to Outlook and SharePoint. Key highlights and tips: Link to app for following along Connect & Import: Rob demonstrated linking multiple Google accounts to Pipelines to pull Mardi Gras parade events into Quickbase—one record per event. Qrew Tip: Name Quickbase fields clearly with “gcal_” prefixes so AI auto-mapping works smoothly. Push to Calendar: He showed sending Quickbase parade plans to Google Calendar, writing back event IDs and clickable links for seamless updates. Qrew Tip: Always double-check your pipeline is turned on—this is the top cause of sync issues. Keep Data Fresh: Rob recommends using Bulk Record Upsert in Quickbase to quickly update or add records and track changes. Qrew Tip: Use Google event IDs as merge fields to prevent duplicates and enable reliable two-way sync. Build Gradually: Start with simple one-way flows, then add Teams alerts, Maps API calls, or multi-way sync as your workflow grows. Missed the meetup? Here’s the recording Attached is the participant guide to follow Rob’s examples. October is EmpowerPro month! Be sure to register for EmpowerPro October 7-8. Afterward, the Qrew will host a 3-part series, EmpowerPro Product Talks, on October 22, 23, and 28. More details coming soon!September 2025 App Builder Qrew Meetup Recap
Hi Qrew! Thank you to all who were able to attend yesterday’s App Builders Qrew meetup. Here’s what we discussed. Dashboard design and personalization tips: Sam Lange covered tips on how he uses new dashboards and shared best practices and tips that anyone from beginner to expert builders can use. A couple of highlights include recommendations to match your dashboards to client branding using color pickers and hex codes — access the link to the App Builder community page for color picker and hex code page recommendations from the Qrew. Same also recommends enhancing dashboards with embedded live elements like clocks, weather, and custom greetings via Code Pages. Check out the Code Page Discord for resources, help, and real-life examples from the Qrew. He also shared examples on how he uses emojis and colors to buttons and pages for better visual cues. I loved the look of those! Dashboard Performance Pro tips: Limit dashboard clutter by keeping no more than 5 reports per widget type per tab and leverage tabs or buttons to spread content and minimize heavy filters and drill-downs to keep dashboards snappy. Host images in a public or open-access files table to avoid broken links. For quick data input, use “quick save” buttons with grid edit forms backed by automation pipelines, and configure drill-down reports so filters applied on widgets pass through properly, reducing report duplication. Missed the meeting? Here’s the recording. Plus, kudos to all who engaged in the chat and Q&A — your questions and insights made the session richer! Continue the conversation the App Builder Qrew Group page. You can access all the links shared in the chat, the PDF shared by Sam, and get questions answered from the community. Thank you and we hope you are able to join our next Pipelines Qrew Meetup on September 24th. Best regards,September 2025 Dashboard Tips Discussion Continued
Hi Folks! We just concluded our App Builder Qrew meetup featuring SamLange1 and wanted to take the discussion online to see if anyone had any questions about what was shared today. Attached is the Dashboard Tips and Tricks pdf from Sam as well a links shared in the chat during our meeting below: General Dashboards help New Dashboards Release Notes Dashboard enhancements Home pages: https://helpv2.quickbase.com/hc/en-us/articles/4570339299220-Using-the-app-home-page https://helpv2.quickbase.com/hc/en-us/articles/4570350362644-Customize-the-App-Home-Page Limits in Quickbase Most Common Functions that affect performance Color Hex Color Codes https://www.colorhexa.com/ Color Wheel HTML Color Names https://wavget.com/typeitin/ Quickbase Support Center - All Functions and Operators Recording to today's Qrew meetup: https://quickbase.zoom.us/rec/share/j1lBaThMmrMGAQgGdVQMFfNUoVrEgP8kri6wE0kJpLKlY9WMYe6xeMlrbfXH6ez8.ZRqUm7WIOWAITYax?startTime=1757433186000 Got questions? Post below and Sam, Maria, and Esther will follow up. Thank you!August 2025 App Builder Qrew Meetup Recap
Hello Qrew, Thanks to all who were able to attend Tuesday’s App Builders Qrew Meetup. Here’s what we discussed: Secure Links for External Access Matt Burger shared how to create secure links that allow external users to access specific records without needing a Quickbase login. He also covered advanced features like setting access windows with start/end dates and a centralized control panel to reset all links regularly for enhanced security. Qrew Tip on Secure Links: Always include an expiration or reset mechanism in your access key formula so older links automatically become invalid whenever you update permissions. Access Keys + Real-Time Bulk Upserts Andrew Carbejal-Everts showcased the GetAccessKey() formula that extracts multiple parameters from the URL, maintains them across tables, and enables instant bulk record operations using Table-to-Table Import. To learn more about Andrew’s use case, he wrote a blog to accompany his use case for folks to follow along. Tip from Andrew: Use custom buttons and hide native Quickbase navigation in secure-link workflows to ensure the access key stays active as users navigate the app. Resources shared during the meetup: Secure links FAQ FAQ: What you can access with secure links Builder Program Link QBU: Quick HIIT - Secure Links Video QBU: Quick HIITS Secure Links Supplement PDF QBU: Common URL Parameters Supplement QBU: Quick HIITS Secure Links Presentation Missed this meeting? Here’s the recording! Our next App Builder Qrew Meetup will be on Tuesday September 9 th at 12pm EST. Sam Lange, Director of Innovations at ISTA Solutions, will be sharing Dashboard design tips and examples that will make you want to update the dashboard experience for yourself and end-users! Thank you and have a great afternoon!Office Hours Cancelled August 4th to the 8th. Returning Monday the 11th.
Hello! Sam Trachy's office hours is cancelled this week and return Monday the 11th. If you need help with any challenges, feel free to post a discussion question on this site, join Discord to ask a question, or open up a support case with our tech support team. Thank you!July 2025 Qrew Meetup Attendee Raffle Winners!
Please congratulate the following Qrew members who won a $50 gift card for attending Qrew meetups on July 9 th and 23 rd ! Congrats to Allyson Hewitt, Allan Heaps, Erin Sullivan, and Bruce Basinger for winning the $50 gift card raffle drawing! I will reach out to each winner this week to send them their raffle prize. Thank you all for making time to attend the Qrew meetups in July! We look forward to an exciting August agenda and hope you can attend our next meetups.Re: Could not parse XML input
Thanks for sharing the details. I don’t know the full context, but will try to help where I think I can: The error you're seeing — Could not parse XML input: not well-formed (invalid token) — typically happens when non-standard or special characters (like †or “) are copied into a field and passed through a Pipeline step that tries to handle or convert it as XML. These characters often appear when text is copied from a rich-text source like Microsoft Word, PDFs, or emails — and they don’t translate cleanly to plain text or XML. ✅ How to Prevent This: Strip Non-UTF-8 Characters Before Sending Pipelines doesn’t currently auto-sanitize text, so if you're sending field data into an API call, XML body, or webhook, try adding a transform step to clean it. You can use a “Text Replace” step or a Code step (if using a webhook) to strip or replace problematic characters. Use a Text Cleanup Formula in Quickbase (Optional) If the field is being used in an automation regularly, consider creating a formula field that sanitizes the input: NotLeft(RichTextToText([Multi-line Field]), X) // X being character count limit if needed You may also use nested Substitute() functions to replace known bad characters with cleaner equivalents. Educate Users or Use Input Rules Since it’s a copy/paste issue: Consider adding helper text near the field like “Paste plain text only (use Ctrl+Shift+V)”. Use a form rule or text instruction field to warn about pasting from formatted documents. Let us know if you've already done these steps and what the results are. If you need further clarification, you can put in a support ticket for the technical support team to follow up directly with you. Here's how to do this: https://helpv2.quickbase.com/hc/en-us/articles/4570259530644-Get-help-from-Quickbase-Technical-Support
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