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GeoffreyHarmuth's avatar
GeoffreyHarmuth
Qrew Captain
7 years ago

Trigger post service e-mail review

I want to trigger an e-mail to be sent when a record is saved and the [status] field changes.  I was thinking of using an external platform to design/send the mails for this (mailchimp?).  Does anyone have experience in setting this up?  I'm just looking at best practices. My plan is as follows:

1) Job finishes - status changes to [closed]
2) e-mail automatically sent to client to request a service/product review
3) Clients response is sent back to a quick-base table.
4) I can then use this data in various ways etc.


The only issue I can think of is that mail chimp requires the customer to be a "Subscriber" - This is not always the case since we have new customers all the time, so we wont necessarily be marketing anything, but rather getting a review.  

Some insight would be greatly appreciated

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  • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
    QuickBaseCoachD
    Qrew Captain
    7 years ago
    If you did this all in Quick Base then you would not need to go through the steep learning curve of how to trigger and external 3rd party app and then get that survey info back into Quick Base.


    I suggest a separate App for this purpose as it will need to be open to everyone on the Internet and I strongly prefer that those apps be stand alone as opposed to just an extra table in your app.


    There are probably some posts here or knowledge base article on best practices for everyone on the Internet apps, but the main thing is to have a form for Add and a form for View. The View for is just a blank form saying thank you for your survey,
  • GeoffreyHarmuth's avatar
    GeoffreyHarmuth
    Qrew Captain
    7 years ago
    Doing it natively in quickbase will be great, just need to check the following:


    1) If the application is "open to everyone on the internet", how will this affect privacy of information being submitted?  im not sure i fully understand this "open to everyone" concept.  I will do some research

    2) How does quickbase natively send an email with a [button] to let the user create a new review record?
  • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
    QuickBaseCoachD
    Qrew Captain
    7 years ago
    The security is far from iron clad, but the nature of the information is that it is not that interesting to try to hack.  I don't have all the links handy to best practices, but more or less you set up a Role and lock down everything that your can to not let the users in that Role do anything but add a record.  Hence the View form which just says "Thank you for your Survey"  So that is they start to hack around with the URL to see a different rid, they will just get the Thank you form.

    As for triggering the email, I suggest having an ACTION create a survey request form in the EOTI Role and then set up an "Open" Type Notification which can go to any email address, not just a user.
  • GeoffreyHarmuth's avatar
    GeoffreyHarmuth
    Qrew Captain
    7 years ago
    Ok so i'm starting to understand what you are saying - Makes sense.  One thing that i just need to clarify:

    An action creates a new record - Survey request. 
    Client will then get an e-mail notification to ask if they can please complete a survey for us.

    1) In actual fact has a "New record" has been created, waiting for them to edit it?
    1) How will I create a button in the email for them to follow the link and complete the information?
    2) From a CSS point of view - How "nice" can i make the e-mail look?
  • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
    QuickBaseCoachD
    Qrew Captain
    7 years ago
    OK, good point about that editing. Never mind the Action. That was muddled thinking on my part.  I think that when the project is completed you need to trigger an email which contains a link to create a new Survey record, as the EOTI Role can only create but not edit or View records.

    If you make a hyperlink field to Add a record, then it will look more attractive in the email notification.  I can help you with that.

    The form can probably achieve the standard of "not unattractive".  So like not Jennifer Anniston, but still not unattractive.  But it will not be as beautiful and as flexible as a 3rd party service like Survey Monkey where that is their business to be beautiful.   You can have your logo on the form.
  • GeoffreyHarmuth's avatar
    GeoffreyHarmuth
    Qrew Captain
    7 years ago
    Jennifer Anniston, ha ha!  i like that analogy.  OK,  so let me wrap my head around this;

    how would the new record that is created be tied into the related project without the e-mail link sending something (other than to just add a new record) to quick base when the record is created?  What i am saying is that the review will be unrelated to the job that was completed.
  • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
    QuickBaseCoachD
    Qrew Captain
    7 years ago
    The Survey record can be a child of the main Job record, but via a cross app relationship.  So the formula for the button will be very similar to the typical native Add Child button that you see all over your app.  Except that the child would be in another app, not just in another table.
  • GeoffreyHarmuth's avatar
    GeoffreyHarmuth
    Qrew Captain
    7 years ago
    I see, so the button will then have the "Information package" for each individual project that tells quick base who the parent is.


    The button that gets sent in the e-mail will automatically associate the customers response to the related project.  Does it display as a button or just a URL in the e-mail?
  • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
    QuickBaseCoachD
    Qrew Captain
    7 years ago
    Well if you just put the URL field for Add Survey into the email Notification, it look to the user like a URL that you would see at the top of any Quick Base screen - so that is more like the Wicked Witch of the West as opposed to Jennifer.

    But if you make a formula Rich text field like this

    "<a href=" & [my add survey user field] & ">"   & "Click here to begin our Short Survey" & "</a>"

    Then it will be a nice looking link.  It may even be possible to color the words.

    "<a href=" & [my add survey user field] & ">"  
    & "<font color=blue>Click here to begin our Short Survey</font color>"  & "</a>"
  • GeoffreyHarmuth's avatar
    GeoffreyHarmuth
    Qrew Captain
    7 years ago
    Mark, why would suggest that a separate app be used for this purpose?  purely from a security point of view?