GrahamLeto1
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Integrating Quickbase and FastField
Quickbase has a long history bridging the gap between the field and office, across many industries. For instance, we keep construction projects on time. We manage on-site installations. We track health and safety issues to ensure compliance. In 2023, we added FastField to the Quickbase family to transform your mobile workforce. FastField is a powerful mobile forms solution that adds capabilities like signature capture, as well as image capture with annotation, to streamline your entire field workflow. Two products, bringing larger solutions together. In a recent study, we found that 58% of people spend less than 20 hours per week on meaningful work that drives results for key projects. The rest of that time is spent searching for data, often buried in spreadsheets or piles of paper. We have a term for this wasteful problem: Gray Work. Quickbase and FastField are two products designed to work together to crush Gray Work. Try it out Haven’t seen FastField in action for yourself yet? We’ve got you covered. Quickbase customers can now access a free 30-day trial of FastField, with no commitment needed. It’s easier than ever to try out FastField, now that you can start the trial from within Quickbase. Data integration With Quickbase and FastField under one roof, our team has worked hard on a two-way integration to connect the two platforms. Once you've started a new FastField trial from Quickbase or connected an existing account to your realm, you can click a button on one of your Quickbase tables to begin creating a corresponding mobile form in FastField. As you lay out your mobile form, you can decide which fields from your Quickbase table to include and which ones to exclude, like the fields that are needed just for back-office logging. This allows you to create a shorter, more focused workflow for your field workers. Going in the other direction, we are making it easier than ever to take data captured on mobile devices via FastField and store them in Quickbase. When a FastField form that was created from a Quickbase table is filled out and saved, the data is automatically saved to the Quickbase app. No additional set up required! Dispatching a form Once you’ve created your mobile form in FastField, it’s time to put it to work. Dispatching is the process of assigning a form to someone to fill out. Let’s take the example of a solar company running safety inspections – you’ve already got an inspections table set up in Quickbase, and you have a matching FastField inspection form created as well. It’s Friday, and you’ve planned out a schedule for the following week that determines which job sites each member of your field inspection team will visit, and when they need to be there. You can use our FastField connector in Pipelines to automate these dispatches and assign an inspection to an individual. You can even dispatch the form with some fields pre-filled, such as the site address and the date/time the inspector should arrive on site. All of this keeps expectations clear and keeps field workers focused on the task at hand. Administration We also have some new capabilities for administrators, to make it easy for a Quickbase account administrator to manage their FastField account as well: Single sign-on: When accounts are connected, your users will be able to sign into FastField using their existing Quickbase credentials. Easier access to billing: If you have an annual subscription to FastField, and you signed up for it with Quickbase, you will now be able to see your FastField billing info from the Quickbase Admin Console. With Quickbase and FastField together, you can get easy mobile access to your critical workflows and applications for field teams on-the-go. All while giving your back-office teams access to the data they need, when they need it. The integrations between Quickbase and FastField help to seamlessly connect your field and business operations. Learn more about how to access and use these integrations from these Help articles.Upcoming Changes to JavaScript in Quickbase
If you’ve ever used JavaScript to modify UI or enable a non-native workflow in a Quickbase app, this post is for you. We know that adding custom code to an application can be a valuable way to extend Quickbase. However, we need to provide this capability in a secure and supportable way. To that end, Quickbase provides the ability to use custom code in code pages. On the other hand, we also see builders inserting custom code into places it was never intended to be used. To improve the security and stability of the platform, we are changing the way Quickbase handles custom code. Specifically, we are changing how the platform handles JavaScript and unsupported HTML tags in places other than code pages. Code pages are where custom code has always been supported, and we encourage app builders to insert it there. We will roll out these changes throughout 2021. This post will cover the background on where custom code is supported in Quickbase, and why it’s important for us to make a change. You can also find details about our plan below, and how that impacts you. Table of Contents Background Upcoming Changes Product Alternatives Next Steps FAQ Background For years, Quickbase builders have inserted JavaScript outside of code pages. This has been done to customize the UI or to automate workflow (such as reloading the current page). Yet custom code such as JavaScript was never intended to be used in a Quickbase app, except in code pages. Builders have shared many solutions like this on our community forum. You might see them called "Image OnLoad" or "Branding OnLoad". Because the added JavaScript code cannot be sanitized by Quickbase, it could open a security vulnerability that a sophisticated, malicious, builder could take advantage of. “Sanitizing” is simply making sure that an input into a field is what the software intended. For example, to sanitize a field that says “Image URL”, we would ensure it only accepts a format like https://mywebsite.com/images/banner.png and that it only contains secure content. None of the code within a code page can access the native Quickbase document object model (DOM). When you write custom code such as JavaScript in a code page, you are creating a new web page from scratch. This is why it is more secure to restrict JavaScript to being used only in a code page The Quickbase platform includes many security measures which protect you against the risks mentioned above. For example, when you create a new app, any API call pointed at that app must include an application token. We have put in place policies to control cross-origin resource sharing (CORS). And we allow realm admins to restrict what type of content may be embedded as an iFrame within their apps. But the work of building a platform with world-class, enterprise grade security never stops. Our software engineers and system architects are always searching for opportunities to improve. Changing how JavaScript is handled in Quickbase apps is the next step in that journey. Besides this security issue, it's impossible for us to test inserted JavaScript as we make changes to the Quickbase platform. A routine upgrade to an open source library, a change to styling, or to the DOM may cause these custom solutions to break without warning. As we progress with projects like the UI Refresh in 2021 and beyond, these kinds of changes will become more frequent. In order to move the platform forward in a safe, secure, and sustainable way, we must close the loopholes that allow builders to insert unsanitized custom code into their apps. Upcoming Changes There are three areas of the product that need to have the loophole closed. We will close one area at a time, every two months starting in April 2021. Rich Text Fields, where customers could unintentionally allow end users to insert JavaScript. This area was closed in the April 2021 release. Note: This does not include Formula-Rich Text fields. Custom Branding, where customers typically insert JavaScript to modify the UI in non-native ways. This area was closed in the June 2021 release. Formula Fields, where customers can write scripts to automate workflows. Examples of these include cascading deletes and executing multiple actions when a user presses a button. This area will be closed in the August 2021 release. This includes Formula-Rich Text fields. When an area is closed, builders will no longer be able to insert new JavaScript or edit the JavaScript that has been inserted into the area. With these series of changes, we will not remove or modify any existing custom code. We will not intentionally break any existing solutions that leverage these techniques. But a change to styling, a change to the DOM, or an update to a technical library could cause a solution to unintentionally break without warning. And, if a solution breaks for one of these reasons after the area has been closed, builders will not be able to edit the JavaScript to fix it. After we close each loophole, builders will no longer be able to insert or update JavaScript in that part of their apps. For example, imagine you have a formula that contains JavaScript. You need to update the formula, so you open the field properties. In that case, we would pop up a message warning that the field contains unsupported content. If you click Save without removing the JavaScript, you will see an error message preventing the save. You may hit cancel at that point, to back out and keep the previous configuration of your field. We encourage you to continue extending your ecosystem of apps using custom code. You can use custom code such as JavaScript in code pages, even after we close all the loopholes above. NOTE: The vast majority of custom code that's inserted into Quickbase apps outside of code pages is JavaScript code. However, the product changes above will not just restrict where JavaScript can be used. Those restrictions will apply to all custom code that is unsupported outside of code pages. The only custom code that may be used outside of code pages is: Simple HTML tags such as "a", "div", and "img". (See a complete list of supported HTML tags) Any native HTML attributes for those tags. (Such as the "width" and "height" attributes of the img tag) CSS style code which is included in-line, as part of one of the supported HTML tags above As a reminder, iFrame HTML tags are not supported outside of code pages and they will be affected by the product changes above. Product Alternatives Many agile companies extend their Quickbase apps today using custom code. This is a crucial tool for flexing and adapting to a fast-paced business environment. The intended workflow for Quickbase to interact with custom code is by having a formula-url or formula-rich text field as a button or link. Clicking on one of these would open a new browser tab, or redirect the current tab, to the code page. Custom HTML, CSS and JavaScript can be included in this code page. If desired, the page can close itself and redirect to the original page. For example, see the animation below: We will also work to make this even easier in the future. Over time, we will address the majority of extensibility needs in a few ways: Our ongoing product initiatives have an increased focus on customization and power natively. We know will not be able to build a native setting, switch or toggle for every possibility. Yet we conduct research and make data-informed decisions on where more flexibility makes sense. We will continue to absorb small items into future product iterations that customers need so custom code isn’t needed. Examples of this include, but are not limited to: Ability to use Now to get the live time a formula-url was pressed, rather than when the first page loaded New formula functions like UserRoles() and NameOfMonth() More control over the behavior of formula-urls Allow app builders to use JavaScript in certain areas outside of Code Pages. These would not allow arbitrary code to be inserted. Instead, they would support specific methods of extending a Quickbase app with custom code. For example, let's consider the new dashboards in beta as of February 2021. These new dashboards allow app builders to create filters which apply to all reports and charts on the page. We could allow a developer to create a custom chart type, which connects to the dashboard filter. So when an app user clicks that filter, all the reports and charts on the dashboard would update - including the custom-coded charts. This would allow builders to create their own chart, and have it behave natively and seamlessly for their users. We have many plans in this area. While this is not an overnight deliverable, we are confident in the research we have done and our roadmap to deliver on this promise. Programming languages like JavaScript are powerful because they are open-ended. You can use JavaScript to solve virtually any problem if you have the time and technical know-how. But Quickbase is a no-code platform. Quickbase is powerful because of how fast it allows you to build and update apps, deliver value and unlock insights within your data. So we will always focus on accelerating that speed and ease of use. We do not intend for Quickbase to become a full-fledged integrated development environment (IDE). Next Steps First, we want to be as transparent as possible, so app builders are aware of any risks in their applications. To that end, builders will begin seeing a warning in areas that have unsupported content in the near future. This will not prohibit changes to these areas of the platform. Are you already thinking about some of your apps which use these JavaScript techniques? If so, please start planning how you can migrate to supported solutions. We have been logging Quickbase apps that contain unsupported custom code. Those logs are only able to cover apps where you've updated the app’s structure recently. So if you have an app you're unsure about, you can update the properties of any field or table to get it added to the logs. That way, if that app does contain JavaScript or other types of unsupported custom code, it will appear in the logs the following day. On February 11th, we'll send an email inviting account admins to a Quickbase app so you can see where inserted JavaScript is being used. If your account admin does not receive that email, it means that our logs do not show any inserted JavaScript in your account. Review the list of FAQs below. If you still have questions or need help, don’t hesitate to reach out to our Care team by submitting a ticket. We're happy to help identify alternative solutions. However, please note that we will not be able to interpret or troubleshoot custom code. If you find yourself in need of more hands-on assistance, we recommend engaging with one of our QSPs, whom we can help you connect with. FAQ What is JavaScript Insertion? JavaScript Insertion occurs when custom JavaScript code is added to any part of a Quickbase app other than a code page. Some examples include formula fields, rich text fields, and custom branding. While officially not supported, these techniques are used to more deeply customize an app’s UI or workflow. While this has never been officially supported, the platform was not explicitly blocking this as it should have been. As we have added features to the platform over the years, many of the reasons why these techniques were used have become obsolete. What is changing with regards to JavaScript Insertion? We will begin restricting app builders from inserting JavaScript in formula fields, app branding, and rich text fields. Builders will no longer be able to insert new JavaScript code in those areas. We will also block edits to any existing JavaScript in those same places. These areas were never intended to allow for JavaScript insertion. You can still insert JavaScript in a Code Page, which is the appropriate place in a Quickbase application. Will these changes only affect inserted JavaScript code? The vast majority of custom code that's inserted into Quickbase apps outside of code pages is JavaScript code. However, the product changes above will not just restrict where JavaScript can be used. Those restrictions will apply to all custom code that is unsupported outside of code pages. The only custom code that may be used outside of code pages is: Simple HTML tags such as "a", "div", and "img". (See a complete list of supported HTML tags) Any native HTML attributes for those tags. (Such as the "width" and "height" attributes of the img tag) CSS style code which is included in-line, as part of one of the supported HTML tags above As a reminder, iFrame HTML tags are not supported outside of code pages and they will be affected by the product changes above. When will these changes take place? Throughout a series of releases in 2021. After the April 2021 release, users will no longer be able to insert JavaScript into Rich text fields. After the June 2021 release, users will no longer be able to insert JavaScript into Custom Branding. After the August 2021 release, users will no longer be able to insert JavaScript into Formula Fields. Why do we need to make these changes? Custom JavaScript inserted into these areas is not sanitized by Quickbase. This opens the platform up to potential attacks from malicious users, to modify pages or gain access to protected data. Such custom code is also impossible for Quickbase to test. This means routine changes to the platform could (and do) cause a solution to break without warning. Closing these loopholes allows us to provide a more supportable, enterprise-grade platform. It also enables our support resources to triage and troubleshoot more effectively. How are we informing customers of this change? On February 11, 2021, we will email Account Admins who will be affected by this change. The email will include a link to a Quickbase app which will help you locate inserted JavaScript in your apps. We will email those Account Admins before we make each of the product changes above. Those changes will take affect with our product releases in April 2021, June 2021, and August 2021. Application Managers will also see warnings in apps that include inserted JavaScript. For example, a message will appear if you edit the properties of a formula that includes inserted JavaScript. What will happen with existing JavaScript solutions? We will not be making any changes to existing objects that contain inserted JavaScript at this time, or during any of the releases mentioned above. That means that solutions that leverage inserted JavaScript should continue to work as they were designed. However, builders will not be able to save changes to these objects after their respective release. After the April 2021 release, you will not be able to make changes to JavaScript within Rich Text fields. After the June 2021 release, you will not be able to make changes to JavaScript within Branding. After the August 2021 release you will not be able to make changes to JavaScript within Formula fields. As always, these solutions might break as a result of a routine change we make to the Quickbase platform. For example, upgrading a technical library, or changing either our styling or our Document Object Model (DOM) could cause inserted JavaScript to stop working. What will happen if a builder attempts to save changes to an object with inserted JavaScript? After we close each loophole, builders will no longer be able to insert or update JavaScript in that part of their apps. For example, imagine you have a formula that contains JavaScript. You need to update the formula, so you open the field properties. In that case, we would pop up a message warning that the field contains unsupported content. If you click Save without removing the JavaScript, you will see an error message preventing the save. You may hit cancel at that point, to back out and keep the previous configuration of your field. What will happen if I copy an app with inserted JavaScript? Customers should be able to copy applications with unsupported JavaScript. The inserted JavaScript will carry over to the copied app. As with any inserted JavaScript, after we close down the area it is inserted in, builders will not be able to edit it. Should I remove all inserted JavaScript from my Quickbase apps? We are not removing or modifying any existing inserted JavaScript. You can continue to use your apps that contain inserted JavaScript. But, while we are not intentionally breaking any solutions that rely on inserted JavaScript, these solutions could break as a result of a routine change to the platform, like a change to styling, an upgrade to technical libraries, or a change to the Document Object Model (DOM). As we progress with the UI Refresh Initiative, these changes will become more frequent, increasing the chances that your apps could break. If you want to avoid that risk, you should explore alternative, supported solutions to the problems you’re solving with inserted JavaScript. What if I need help? If you’re still not clear on exactly what is changing, or have a specific question about your account, you can always submit a support case to our Care team. Also, our Quickbase Solution Providers (QSPs) are a network of professional services firms that you can contract with to help you plan for and execute any changes to your apps that you might deem necessary as a result of this announcement. They can help you identify and implement alternative, supported solutions to the problems you currently solve with inserted JavaScript. If you are working with a QSP already, you can follow up with that partner or find a potential partner here. We also have a list of partners who are providing services offerings to specifically handle JavaScript issues. If you would like a referral to a partner or potential partners, submit a support case, and a support representative can provide this for you. Can builders still insert JavaScript into code pages? Yes, users are encouraged to use code pages to leverage custom code for their Quickbase applications. These code pages should be used standalone, rather than attempted to be “injected” into a Quickbase page. What if I need help identifying my inserted JavaScript? The first place to look is the Inserted JavaScript Usage app. This is a Quickbase app that lists where inserted JavaScript is used in your apps. It includes details such as Field ID for formulas that include inserted JavaScript. On February 11, 2021, we will email a link to this app to Account Administrators. We will send this email only to accounts we've detected are using inserted JavaScript. Not sure whether a specific app includes inserted Javascript? You can check this by opening the app in question, then making any schema change. For instance, you could add a new field or update the properties of an existing field. Then, you can check the Usage app one day later. We update the Usage app daily. So if the app in question still does not appear in the Usage app then you do not need to take further action. Will Copy Master and Details buttons be affected? No, as long as you are using your Copy Master and Details button as it was originally generated (i.e. no changes were made to the formula) it should not be affected by these changes. If you have Copy Master and Details buttons, you may have received a warning in your application about the presence of unsupported content. To be clear, after the August release, you will not be able to edit these formulas. However, unlike other formulas that contain JavaScript, these buttons will continue to work as designed and do not need to be replaced with alternative solutions.JavaScript - Rich Text Field Change in April Release
Rich Text Field Change in April Hello builders! Earlier this year we announced some upcoming changes to how Quickbase will handle unsupported code (like JavaScript) when it is placed outside of code pages. Read our recent blog post for more details on what is changing, why we need to make these changes, when changes will happen, and what you can do to prepare. The first of those changes will take place in April 2021. As of 04/23/2021, users will no longer be able to insert unsupported content (like JavaScript) into scalar Rich Text fields. This change DOES NOT affect Formula-rich text fields. This means that users will not be able to save changes to Rich Text field values that contain unsupported content like JavaScript or create and save new records with JavaScript in a Rich Text field. Instead, users will receive an error message warning the user about the unsupported content that exists in the field, and changes won’t be saved. Users WILL be able to save changes to other fields in these records. Check the Inserted JavaScript Usage app to see if we detected any app(s), table(s), and field(s) that contain JavaScript in your account. To see exceptions that will be impacted by the April release, look for Exceptions with the value “3. Found in field output, field mode: user entry” in the Reason field. For more information on what’s changing in the April release, check out our release notes page. If you have questions or need help, you can reach out to our Care team by submitting a support case, or you can engage one of our Quickbase Solutions Provider (QSPs), who are ready to assist. - The Quickbase Product TeamIntroducing the Code Page Samples App
Introducing the Code Page Samples App Hello Builders! We are on a constant journey to elevate the level of sophistication that can be achieved in Quickbase. From new aggregate capabilities, Pipelines, a refreshed UI and class-leading governance, Quickbase is a truly no-code tool. But to us, no code doesn’t have to mean “code not allowed”. While we are retiring iCal and vCard fields natively, those features can be achieved with a little bit of JavaScript and our new RESTful APIs. More recently, we announced that we will be changing the way the platform handles custom content (like JavaScript code) that is inserted outside of code pages to put security first. Combining this effort with our roadmap to build extensibility, we both analyzed product usage and spoke with hundreds of builders to understand common use cases and edge case scenarios for extending Quickbase. While we aim to provide as much native functionality as possible, we have a strong set of APIs that allow builders to extend the platform and innovate. Much of this can be achieved client-side, in code pages. To help builders take advantage of these techniques, we have collected examples into a new app, the Quickbase Code Page Samples app! This app is open to everyone on the internet. Use it as a guide to better understand how to take advantage of code pages, and how they can be used to extend the platform, solving for even more use cases. As we continue to listen and learn from you, we’ll update the app to include additional examples. Please note: this app's purpose is to highlight helpful techniques for code pages, and while this overlaps nicely with the need to move away from using inserted JavaScript, the app is not intended to be focused exclusively on that initiative. Over the coming months, we will publish additional blog posts dedicated to each technique. The first one, about Using Code Pages to Refresh with a Delay is available now. These posts will explain how a given technique works, and how it can be applied to your own apps. Keep an eye out for these posts over time. Finally, please remember that these code samples are provided as-is, and are not supported directly by Quickbase. Have a great week, -The Quickbase Product teamEmpower 2020 Product Announcements and Info - FAQ
Hello Quick Base Community! We just wrapped up the first ever Virtual Empower event and it was awesome! We are so grateful to have gotten the opportunity to engage with so many amazing customers despite not being able to gather in person. We got to make some exciting announcements related to the future of the Quick Base platform in the Product Keynote and provided even more information in many of the sessions that followed. If you weren't able to attend, or just want to make sure you didn't miss anything, check out this comprehensive FAQ on all of the Product Announcements we made. Have a question that isn't answered here? Feel free to leave a comment, or reach out to your account team. If you have feedback on any of these announcements, be sure to visit our UserVoice forum to share your thoughts. Table of Contents UI Refresh General New Table Reports New Dashboards New Report Builder Integration & Automation Pipelines RESTful APIs Mobile General Offline Data Entry Governance Platform Insights Sandbox Quick Base Admin Sync Platform Performance & Scale UI Refresh General What is the UI Refresh initiative? The UI Refresh initiative is an overarching project that encompasses a large part of Quick Base’s development effort for the next few years. The focus of this initiative is on delivering incremental customer value that leads to a modern, intuitive, flexible, and consumer-grade end user experience. What areas of Quick Base are included under this initiative? The primary focus for this initiative is to enhance the end user experience. We will initially focus on features that end users interact with daily such as reports, forms, and dashboards. More details on these can be found within the New Table Reports and New Dashboards sections of this post. We will then focus on app builder features that are directly related to those end user features such as building and consuming dashboards. The next set of features will be the report settings panel (see New Report Builder section) and settings or supplementary pages that are in scope of a larger initiatives (for example, the Pages page when working on dashboards). Do I need to rebuild my existing apps when features listed above are available? No! Apps will continue to be available and will get improvements on a regular basis. Some features, like the New Table Report, will get upgraded to the new experience through a phased approach. Others that are more of a pattern shift, like the New Dashboards, will need to be built by the builder. There are benefits to both models, but we are focused on ensuring a smooth adoption experience for our customers. Will Quick Base retire any existing features as part of this initiative? Quick Base is a mature platform that has been adding features for two decades. As technology evolves, so do user preferences. In order to provide the most value for the widest audiences, Quick Base will need to focus on the most valuable features. This does mean that certain, less used features, will need to be retired. Also, we may choose to retire features and instead provide better features to help solve the same customer problem (i.e. there won’t always be feature parity within this initiative). We will provide more details on this in context of the features that will be retired. Will I be able to use Quick Base in Dark Mode? We plan to make Quick Base available in Dark Mode, but not until we refresh the entire UI (including Reports, Forms, Settings, Navigation, etc.) so we can provide a consistent experience throughout the platform. How can I get involved and/or test new features early? First – be sure you are registered at quickbase.com/earlyaccess. Quick Base Beta programs (previously known as Early Access programs) first start with a high-touch, private, phase. The Quick Base product team will hand select the right customers – proactively reaching out to those who are a good fit. From there, programs expand where customers will be invited in small waves, based on the type of product, confidence and quality levels. If you are exceptionally passionate about any particular area, please discuss this with your account team. New Table Reports What are new table reports? As part of the UI Refresh journey, the first step in 2020 is launching a brand-new table report experience. This has been built from the ground up to provide a more modern and intuitive way for end users to get insights from their data. What are the benefits of the new table reports? Besides the improved visual style, our new table reports help you get work done more quickly. For instance, you can filter on virtually any column, expand the report in a full screen display, and display records in nested groups. When can I use new table reports? Since we’re updating a core part of the Quick Base experience, we’ll be releasing the new table reports in phases. Open Beta began on June 2 nd , 2020. We expect to default all users to the new table reports later in the year. Finally, at some point later we will remove the option to use the current version of table reports. How will the Open Beta work? During our Open Beta, anyone can try out the new table report experience. A toggle will appear on each of your table reports, which defaults to the current experience. You can toggle each of your table reports separately as needed. If the feature is in Beta, does that mean it’s unfinished? The new table report experience is ready for daily use, which means it includes all the major pieces our customers would expect. However, there are small details we’re actively working on. Our Open Beta phase will help us collect feedback from enough customers to enable us to deliver a table report experience that best meets the needs of the Quick Base community. What if the new table report doesn’t work for my app? First, you can toggle the new experience off so you can get your work done. Then, if you think you've found a bug, please submit a care case. If you’d like to submit an enhancement request please share your feedback on our UserVoice forum so we understand what’s blocking you from using the new experience. Is there a way to limit the New Style toggle to just admins? No. With our extended beta program offered up to this point, many customers have tried the new experience out on smaller applications to test before rolling the feature out to their larger applications. If there are bugs or issues that block daily usage, we are handling those on a case-by-case basis. Submitting a care case will be the best way to address this. If I prefer the current table reports, can I keep using them instead? Since we’re updating a core part of the Quick Base experience, there will be a long period of time (many months long) where you can switch between the current and new versions of table reports as needed. However, we will eventually retire the current table reports to provide a modern and consistent user experience. Will the new table reports display on my dashboards and forms? The new table reports will not be supported on the current version of dashboards or forms. In order to provide the best possible experience in those areas, we will be releasing new dashboards and forms. Once those new versions of dashboards and forms become available, they will support the new table report experience. Will you be updating the other types of reports and charts? Yes, our UI refresh project will cover many reports and chart types. Table reports are the most common so we’re starting there, but please look forward to future news about updating our other report and chart types. Will the new table reports include all the features of current table reports? We expect to strategically leave out select features from current table reports. Adding support for features which are rarely used within table reports today will be prioritized or deferred based on input from the Quick Base community. Where can I learn more? To learn more, you can watch the recording of the Virtual Empower session called “Future of the Quick Base UI” in the Virtual Empower recordings. Also be sure to check out our technical guide on new table reports on the community, Open beta has begun for new table reports along with the help guide here: https://help.quickbase.com/user-assistance/table_reports_new.html New Dashboards What are New Dashboards? New Dashboards are the second area of the product to be enhanced under the UI Refresh banner. They allow users to gain even more insight from their Quick Base application data through use of dashboard level filters and cross-application reporting. New dashboards also allow the flexibility to re-size dashboard widgets to create more customized and visually pleasing dashboards. What’s the difference between New Dashboards and what we showed at Empower last year? Executive Dashboards unveiled at Empower 2019 were created at the Realm Level. We decided to change direction slightly and use that technology to create the next generation of App Home Pages. You will be able to use nearly all of the functionality that you were excited to see last year including dashboard filters, cross-application reporting, and the new enhanced layout with the New Dashboards. What are the benefits of New Dashboards? New dashboards support faster business insights. By combining reports from separate applications, and then being able to filter those reports based on multiple criteria, you can quickly hone in on the data needed to make fast and accurate business decisions. Additionally, the enhanced control of dashboard widgets enables the creation of more focused and curated experiences for all end users. When will New Dashboards be available? We'll kick off a Beta program mid Q3 2020 and we plan to be Generally Available this winter. How can my I sign up to be part of Beta? Sign up directly through our Early Access Request form, here: https://qbearlyaccess.quickbase.com/db/bn5kksx3g What will happen to existing Home Pages? Will they go away? Will they automatically convert to New Dashboards? Eventually, our current App Home Pages will be fully replaced by the New Dashboards. Until you are able to do most of the same things they can do in today’s Home Pages using New Dashboards, you’ll still be able to create, update, and use existing Home Pages. We will not convert existing Home Pages to New Dashboards. You will need to build them once the feature is enabled. What if I like the existing App Home Pages? No immediate plans to stop allowing you to build them, but please let us know what you like about them so we can try to work it into the new world! Can customers display reports from multiple accounts (same realm) on a single dashboard? No concrete plans as of yet, but based on feedback we receive during Beta, we can evaluate ways to make reporting across accounts easier. Will New Dashboards be a Platform-only feature? No, New Dashboards is available for all plan types, as it replaces our current App Home Pages and its related features. There are aspects of New Dashboards that are being looked into, that may eventually be exclusive to Platform & above. Will New Dashboards be fully accessible from the mobile native app? This is currently being evaluated as we continue to work on New Dashboards. In the New Dashboards, will the data be actionable? Yes, this could take many forms-- through button widgets as well as drill down functionality. If New Dashboards are created in app, can you still report across applications? Yes! We’re excited to give you a supported way to display and filter reports across all of their applications in one place. How will roles & permissions work with New Dashboards? We know how important security is to our customers. We will always respect the application permissions our builders configure. You’ll also be able to set a role’s default home page to a New Dashboard. Will New Dashboards have a toggle to choose the new experience, similar to new table reports? Customers will need to build a new Dashboard in order to use the technology. We will not be migrating existing App Home Pages to the New Dashboards. I saw Executive Dashboards in Dark Mode at Empower last year. Will I be able to use Quick Base in Dark Mode? We plan to make Quick Base, including New Dashboards, available in Dark Mode, but not until we refresh the entire UI (including Reports, Forms, Settings, Navigation, etc.) so we can provide a consistent experience throughout the platform. How do I learn more about New Dashboards? View the recording of the Future of the UI session from Empower 2020 in the Empower on demand agenda. New Report Builder What is the new Report Builder Panel? As one of the next steps in the UI Refresh initiative, we'll be rebuilding the Report Builder from the ground up. Now, instead of having to navigate to an entirely separate page to make changes to your report, a drawer will slide out from the right-hand side of the screen allowing you to make changes to your report right in line as you're viewing your data. How will it be rolled out to reports? We plan to roll out the new report builder incrementally by report type. The first report type that will get the new report builder will be Kanban reports. Since Kanban was our newest report type, it was the easiest to hook into from a technical perspective. Then as we refresh each report or chart type, we'll be adding the new report builder into each one before we come back around to get them into table reports. When can I try out the new Report Builder panel? You should expect to hear more about our Beta program in Q3 of this year. Where can I go to learn more about the new Report Builder panel? View the recording of the Future of the UI session from Empower 2020 in the Empower on demand agenda. New Charts We saw some new charts last year, when will they be available? We’re currently working on upgrading our existing charting library to provide a more modern experience. As a part of this initiative, we’re investigating ways to add new charts to the platform, we plan to start adding new charts this winter. What new charts are you considering adding to the product? There are quite a few we’re considering but our short-list consists of Pareto, Heat Map, Radar, Hierarchy, and Geographic Heat Map. We’re also considering more advanced charts like Sankey, Box and Whisker, and Sunburst. I have a particular chart I’d like to see in Quick Base, where can I go to give my feedback? Please leave your feedback on UserVoice. Our PM team reads every piece of feedback you submit! Integration & Automation Pipelines Is Pipelines available to all customers? Yes. Pipelines is available for all customers and account types (Premier, Platform, Enterprise, Builder Program, QSP Accounts, etc.). See the table below to understand the differences between what’s included for each plan. Customers can purchase more step-runs and channels above and beyond their plan limits for an additional cost. Just speak to your account team for more details. Plan Name Step-Runs Channels Premier Monthly 2,000/Month 3 Premier Annual 30,000/Year 3 Platform Monthly 16,000/Month 5 Platform Annual 250,000/Year 5 Builder Program 6,000/Year 5 Enterprise Custom Custom Will Pipelines replace Automations, Webhooks, or Sync? If so, when? While there is no immediate impact on any of these capabilities, we aspire to get to a world where all customers’ integration and workflow automation needs are addressed with one consolidated technology. Customers should expect transparent and timely communication about any changes in this area. How can I find out what channels are available? You can find all currently available channels here: https://pipelines.quickbase.com/channels as well as in your Pipelines designer. How can I find out what channels are on the roadmap? You can find all upcoming channels here: https://pipelines.quickbase.com/channels. Please note the all future looking investments are subject to change without notice. If I don’t see a channel I want to integrate with on the roadmap, what do I do? Submit your feedback to our User Voice. We gather requests from all stakeholders and customers feedback and then run all requests through a decision-making framework to prioritize. Visit our User Voice here: https://quickbase.uservoice.com/ Is the on-prem agent available? Not yet. We are currently working on our on-premise ODBC agent. Currently it’s scheduled to be generally available this Summer. Does Quick Base count towards the channel limit? No. The Quick Base channel as well as all generic channels do not count against your channel limit. How is QB-QB activity accounted for in pricing? The Quick Base channel is included and does not count towards your channel limit, but step-runs that use the Quick Base channel will still be counted towards your step-run limit. Is there a limit to how many Pipelines/Steps I can create with a given channel? No. Once a channel (i.e. Salesforce) is enabled and used in a Pipeline, it can then be used in as many additional pipelines across as many apps as you want. Multiple builders can even authenticate with the same channel and use that channel in their own Pipelines (e.g. Every department can have their own builder login to a different Salesforce account, and it will still count as just 1 channel). What constitutes a step-run? A step run is defined as an automated action within a designed pipeline that has been run, including all API calls. The execution of each step in the pipeline counts as a step run. If there are iterations over a number of records, all actions (i.e., a step run), are multiplied by the number of records found. If a pipeline does not complete because of the logical conditions set or it fails mid-way, the subsequent steps are not run and therefore not counted toward the step runs limit. Can I track how many step-runs my pipelines are triggering? Yes, the graphs on the “My Pipelines” page show the number of step-runs consumed, and the number remaining within their existing limit. This data is updated in real time to give customers clear visibility into usage. If I use Automations, will I be able to see how my Automations usage has been historically to predict how much pipelines activity I’ll have? While there is currently no way to see this in Quick Base, we can share this data with you if you reach out to your account team. Do the step runs that my pipelines trigger count against my API call limit? No, all API calls initiated by Pipelines are whitelisted and do not count against your API entitlement. Will Quick Base stop a pipeline if it exceeds my step-run limit? Yes, we will automatically disable your Pipeline if your quota is exceeded. This is done so that we protect you from getting a large usage bill because of unexpected Pipelines usage. That said we will notify all Pipelines owners about their usage that trigger at 50%, 75%, 90%, 100% of usage. Customers can purchase more step-runs and channels above and beyond their plan limits for an additional cost. Just speak to your account team for more details. How can I learn more about Pipelines? There are several resources to learn more about Pipelines. First, you can find the recordings for all the Pipelines sessions from Empower 2020 in the Empower on demand agenda. You can also check out these community posts – How to use Pipelines to email a report at a specific time of day, Generate template records with Pipelines, and Build better trend reports with Pipelines. If you have a specific question, you can reach out to your account team. RESTful APIs What is the new RESTful API, and why should I use it? The RESTful API is a modern new API for the Quick Base platform, designed to make it easy for any Quick Base builder to extend their apps’ capabilities, developing custom interfaces and integrating with third party systems. [https://developer.quickbase.com/] Will I need to rewrite any of my existing scripts or integrations with the RESTful APIs? No! We will continue to support the XML APIs so that all existing scripts and integrations will continue to work properly. Moving forward, we encourage developers to leverage the RESTful APIs which is where we will be providing all new API investments and enhancements. Do I need to pay extra for the RESTful APIs? No. The RESTful API is offered as a supplement to our existing XML API. API calls from either the RESTful API or the XML API will be accounted for in the same bucket of total API calls, meaning that all API usage will count towards the existing API billing entitlements. Do I have to be a software engineer to use these? Who can benefit from these APIs? No. The interactive guide makes it easy for anyone to leverage the new RESTful API to design custom queries and instructions for Quick Base, which can be used within Pipelines, Scripts, or other iPaaS tools. Are these APIs just JSON versions of the XML APIs I’m used to? No. The RESTful APIs have been designed from the ground up in order to be more flexible and modern than ever. While they have been designed independently, there are some similarities and overlaps between the capabilities of the XML APIs and RESTful APIs because the underlying schema and data of Quick Base apps is the same. Will more APIs or features be added? Yes. The first round of APIs was designed to offer depth for the 80% of actions that our users need to perform. We will monitor how these are being used and prioritize additional features based on research. RESTful APIs for user management will likely be up next. How I learn more about RESTful APIs? You can read our blog post Introducing the new RESTful API, a technical discussion RESTful API: An Engineering Perspective on Designing Intuitive API Responses, or speak to your account team. Mobile General Will New Dashboards be available on Mobile? At the moment, the New Dashboards are not available on Mobile but we plan on rolling this out hopefully by the end of this year (2020). Will the New Table Report experience be available on Mobile? Currently it is not, but The New Table Report experience will be available on Mobile soon. With New Mobile Table Reports, there will be expanded functionality including custom buttons, enhanced scrollability, viewing more data, and an overall more modern look and feel to the table reports. When is Signature Capture going to be available? We do not have a firm date on when Signature Capture will be available, but it will most likely be in 2021 after we have modernized the full mobile experience. When is Geolocation going to be available? We do not have a firm date on when Geolocation will be available, but it will most likely be in 2021 after we have modernized the full mobile experience. Can customers build their own custom mobile apps? You can build custom experiences in your Quick Base applications that are designed specifically for mobile consumption (a prime example of this is mobile-specific forms). At this time, however, you don't have the ability to customize the app icon, menus, or branding, nor create and launch a custom mobile app into app stores. This functionality is something we're excited about developing and it's on the roadmap. Will I be able to create mobile-specific dashboards? We plan on rolling out mobile-specific dashboards by the end of this year (2020), around the same time as New Dashboards. Can I build or modify applications from mobile devices? We are not currently focusing on bringing the application-building process to mobile devices. This means that the best place to create or edit application schema like tables, relationships, fields, forms, reports, charts, roles and permissions, etc. is from the full site on a desktop computer. In a pinch, customers are able to navigate to “full site” from a mobile browser and complete some of these items, but this experience is not optimized at this time. Can I perform administrative work (i.e. add a new user) from mobile devices? The only way to do this from a mobile device is to navigate to “full site” from a mobile browser. That experience, however, is not optimized for mobile use and can sometimes be quite clunky. We are considering adding this capability to the native mobile app, but it is currently not one of our primary focuses. What is the pricing for the Quick Base mobile app? The Quick Base mobile app is available to customers on all plans – Premier, Platform, and Enterprise. Why do some aspects of a Quick Base application look and behave so differently on mobile vs. Desktop (i.e. Table Reports, some Home Page widgets)? We modify certain Quick Base elements to be optimized for mobile use so they do behave differently. We haven't optimized all of Quick Base yet but are actively working on creating first-class experiences for all end-user capabilities in Quick Base. What's coming next for the Quick Base mobile app? A more modern look and feel to reports, home pages, forms, and navigation inside the mobile app along with additional offline functionality like viewing records and reports. Offline Data Entry What is offline data entry and when will it be available? Mobile Offline - Data Entry is part of the larger Native Mobile App offering for iOS and Android. Mobile Offline – Data Entry enables end users to add new records to Quick Base while offline. Records added offline are added to a queue and will be synced when the end user restores internet connection. Offline Data Entry is available now for Platform Customers. What will customers be able to do in offline mode? (what can't I do offline?) At the time of GA, the Mobile Offline capability will enable users to add records of data while offline to applications that are selected by realm admins for offline use. As this is the first release for Mobile Offline capabilities, users will not be able to: Access (view / edit / delete) existing records view dashboards, reports, charts sign into Quick Base. There are also form features that are currently unsupported offline including: Form rules Lookup fields Rich text fields URL fields Formula Table fields Child Record URL button Child Record report link Metadata fields (Record Owner, Record ID#, etc.) Will there be a cost associated with Offline Data Entry? The Mobile Offline-Data Entry capability is available and included for all customers on the Platform plan and above. How many applications can be available offline at once? Customers are able to set 20 apps to be eligible for offline data entry per realm. End users can select up to 5 applications per device. How do I make an application available offline? In order for end users to utilize the capability, Realm Admins must select which applications are eligible for offline data entry on the Apps page of the Realm Admin console (similar to data change logs). Once the Realm Admin selects which applications are eligible for offline, end users can / must select which of those applications they would like to have access to on their device offline. Will I be able to change what apps are available for offline data entry while staying within my 20-application limit? Yes, realm admins will be able to choose any 20 applications they like and change those selections at any time. If there are existing records queued for upload they will upload normally. When the person goes online again, and information is refreshed on their device the app will no longer be available offline. How do I know when an app is available offline? Apps that are downloaded and ready for offline use will have a green arrow icon below the title on My Apps. How safe is this capability from a security perspective? Records added while offline are stored on the mobile device and are completely encrypted. Once internet connection is re-gained, the records are automatically uploaded to Quick Base and are no longer stored on the mobile device. This is a more secure way of recording data than by manually recording data on paper and then having to duplicate the process once internet access is available. Roles and permissions are respected even when a user is offline – so this means that they won’t be able to see, edit, or do anything that their role doesn’t permit them to do when accessing Quick Base online. Will we ever support form rules offline? We will continue to learn from our customers about how we can best support certain rules offline and are currently listening to feedback to best inform that decision. What’s coming next for Mobile Offline? In continuing to improve on our Mobile Offline capabilities, we will be working on enabling users to view existing data while offline. Why can’t I do everything offline that I can do while online? This is the first of the Mobile Offline capabilities that we plan on releasing and we will continue to expand on Offline functionality. Our goal is to further support you, our customers and provide you with a more seamless Quick Base experience, even while offline. How do I learn more about Mobile Offline Data Entry? You can read this technical guide in our community, or find the recordings of the “Building on Mobile” and “Mobile Redux Quick Hit” Empower 2020 sessions in the Empower on demand agenda. Governance Platform Insights What is the Platform Insights feature? Platform Insights is a feature that gives Realm & Account Admins both a broad and detailed view into how Quick Base is being used at their company. Why is it beneficial to customers? In the initial GA of this feature, customers will be able quickly & deeply understand: how Quick Base is impacting their company, and over time how the adoption of new apps is (or isn’t!) going which apps are growing / declining which users are increasing / decreasing their activity What are the intended use cases of Platform Insights? You want a holistic view into what's going on in your Quick Base ecosystem You want to understand what apps are used the most You want to compare trends amongst your Apps and Users You want to understand platform usage over time ... we will continue adding new metrics & functionality to this feature for the foreseeable future! When will Platform Insights be available? The Beta launch for Platform Insights is Q3 2020. It will be available for customers who have signed up for the Early Access app, with “Platform Administration” or “Platform Infrastructure” checkboxes marked. If we receive positive feedback from Beta, we will be pursuing GA in Q3/Q4 2020. What metrics will be available in Platform Insights? Daily App Users (DAU) = this is the sum of the number of users who accessed each app, each day. This metric can help paint a picture of how the Quick Base platform is being adopted overall. Example 1: If Melissa goes into 5 separate Quick Base apps on Tuesday, this counts as 5 Daily App Users Example 2:If Melissa goes into 5 separate Quick Base apps on Tuesday & Billy goes into 7 apps on Tuesday, this counts as 12 Daily App Users Example 3: If Melissa goes into 5 separate Quick Base apps on Tuesday (5 DAU) and 3 apps on Wednesday (3 DAU) and Billy goes into 7 apps on Tuesday (7 DAU) and 4 apps on Wednesday (4 DAU). This counts as 12 Daily App Users on Tuesday and 7 Daily App Users on Wednesday. This also combines to 19 total Daily App Users over the time range % and # of Users licenses consumed= this is the # of user licenses that are currently distributed in a customer’s account, and compares it to the # of user licenses they purchased % and # File Attachment Space used= this is the # of MBs of file attachment that are currently used in a customer’s account, and compares it to the # of MBs of file attachment space that they purchased Days since last reset= this is how many days have passed since a customer’s contract period started. It is generally 30 or 365 days. For customers who have used Pipelines, this concept will be familiar to you Where is the Platform Insights feature located? How do I access it? This feature is located in the Admin Console, which you can get to by clicking the “Manage my Account” (or “Manage my Realm”) button on your My Apps page. Then, within the vertical navigation pane on the left, click the tab “Platform Insights” Who has access to Platform Insights? This feature will be available to customers who are on Platform (or higher) plans. Realm-admins & Account-admins will have access. Is the data in Platform Insights updated in real-time? There may be delays of up to 10 seconds, but yes, it is essentially real-time. Will I be able to export the data from Platform Insights? We're investigating how we can allow you to export this data into a CSV, or by leveraging an API. How many days in the past can we analyze in the drill-down page? By default, we show you the previous 90days of activity… We are gathering feedback from customers on how much more/less time they would like to analyze. How does Platform Insights differ from Admin Sync feature? Admin Sync is a great way to get exports of the current Users, Apps, and Users with access-rights to each app. Platform Insights is a curated and interactive area where Admins can get summaries, and also understand trends over time of their key metrics. How can I learn more about Platform Insights? First, you should sign up for the Beta program at [quickbase.com/earlyaccess, which will put you on the list to receive updates from our product team on this feature. Monitor our community site for more announcements. You could also reach out to your account team if you have specific questions. If you have feedback you'd like to share, add it to our UserVoice forum. Sandbox Why should I use a Sandbox? The Quick Base Sandbox feature supports your company’s overall governance strategy for Low-Code application development. With Sandbox, you can build, test and verify changes to an application in a safe development environment, without impacting its working functionality. Do all applications need to use Sandbox to make changes? No, not all applications need a Sandbox to make a change. Sandbox can be turned on/off at an application level. We recommend using Sandbox at your discretion for business-critical applications. However, if preferred, Admins can require Sandbox to be used for all applications to make changes in the Admin console. Does it support multi-stream or multiple sandbox development? No. At present it only supports a single Sandbox per application. We are continuing to add capabilities, and this is under research as a potential roadmap item. Does it support version control? No. At this time, it does not support versioning and cannot roll back to previous version of the schema after changes have been published. This feature is under research as a potential roadmap item. Can I control publishing privileges? Yes. Users can be given different privileges regarding sandbox base development and publishing of those changes. The details can be found in the help file here. Will automations work in a sandbox? No, automations do not presently work within a Quick Base Sandbox environment. Does Sandbox support the new Pipelines offering? Currently, a Pipeline cannot be modified via Sandbox. All Pipelines are modified in the Pipeline area of the product. However, a Pipeline can be directed towards a Sandbox instance, where the Pipeline process and outcome can be tested in a safe environment. What is the cost associated with Quick Base Sandbox? The Sandbox feature is available as part of the Platform level plan. Customers with a Premier level plan will be able to purchase Sandbox as an SKU at an additional cost. Talk to your account team for more details. Is there a difference between sandbox capabilities if I am a Premier customer versus a Platform customer? Yes, there is a difference. Sandbox is included as a Platform customer and Premier customers can purchase the add-on SKU to access. As a premier customer with the SKU, you will be limited to only 50 records per table in the Sandbox version of your app. This may impact some of the verification you can carry out, especially as it relates to dashboards since you will have a small part of the data set. What’s coming next for Sandbox? Sandbox is a priority in our 2020 Roadmap, including enhancing the current functionality. We are currently in a research phase with Sandbox that will inform future enhancement work. How do I learn more about Sandbox? To learn more, check out the following blog posts to better understand the Sandbox offering and its use cases: https://www.quickbase.com/blog/sandbox-best-practice-for-application-development https://www.quickbase.com/blog/sandbox-low-code-unleashing-citizen-development-across-enterprises https://community.quickbase.com/blogs/brian-cafferelli1/2020/02/27/manage-updates-to-your-business-critical-applicati Quick Base Admin Sync What is Quick Base Admin Sync? Admin Sync is a way to pull Admin Console data into a Quick Base application. From here users can see what’s going on with their account at-a-glance, organize their apps, organize their employees, and stay up-to-date with your account in one central Quick Base application. Where is Admin Sync located in Quick Base? When you create a connected table, you can select Admin Console to pull account details and sync them into one of your applications. You can pull a list of your account’s users, a list of your apps, and a list indicating which apps your users have access to. What is the key functionality of Admin Sync? You can use this tool to create your own account management application, customized to fit your needs. The app access table can be connected via a many-to-many relationship with your users and apps tables. What are Admin Sync limitations? There is a limit of 3 Admin Console connected tables per realm and 500,000 records for the Access connector. Connected tables using the Access connector cannot be synced hourly. How do I learn more about Quick Base Admin Sync? See more information in this blog post and in this help article. Platform Performance and Scale I heard that Harrison said something about customers having “multi-gigabyte” tables in the keynote? Our table limit is 500mb! Our production table limit is indeed 500mb. This limit is meant to be right in the middle of offering builders flexibility to solve complex business problems but tight enough to prevent performance and scale issues for most application designs. In general, size is the enemy of speed, so if you need to manage larger data sets, and you are actively engaged in monitoring, maintaining, and optimizing your Quick Base applications, we encourage you to engage with your account team to determine the best option to allow your data to continue to grow.Re: Pipelines Sharepoint
The SharePoint channel for Pipelines does not allow you to move files from one system to another. The channel is designed to allow you to integrate data from Quick Base and other 3rd party systems with information in SharePoint Lists. A SharePoint List is simply a table of data - like an excel spreadsheet or Quick Base table - with rows (Items) and columns (metadata) that is stored in SharePoint. You can use the SharePoint channel for Pipelines to trigger basic actions on Items in a List (create, update or delete), or to update data in another system when an Item is added/updated/deleted. Since SharePoint document repositories are also considered Lists, you can use the channel to trigger actions involving the metadata for these Items, but you cannot edit the contents of a file (i.e. edit a word document or spreadsheet), or move files from one system to another. It seems like this functionality would be valuable to you, so please consider posting your feedback in our UserVoice forum! ------------------------------ Graham Leto ------------------------------RE: Getting Started with Pipelines Webinar AMA
We will be continuously adding new channels to Pipelines so that you can integrate with the systems you need to run your business. If you don't see a channel for the specific solution you're interested in connecting with, please let us know by submitting your feedback to our UserVoice discussion forum, where other customers can comment on/upvote your request. ------------------------------ Graham Leto ------------------------------
