4.21.24
New
ALM: QBL & Solution APIs
QBL
Explore a new way to observe the Quickbase schema you create with QBL (Quickbase Language). QBL is a textual representation of Quickbase schema. This is a new way to view a full description of all settings and schema objects in apps and pipelines that you are building.
Use QBL to get details of a Solution that includes descriptions for all tables, fields, all their properties and settings, roles, and relationships. Learn more about Solutions.
Over the next few months, we'll be adding more components. Learn more about this release and what's next in our blog post.
Solution APIs
Interact with and utilize QBL using Solution APIs. Three new RESTful API endpoints include:
- Export API—export the QBL for a Quickbase Solution
- Create API—create a new solution with the same schema as QBL you already exported
- Update API—apply changes to Solutions schema using QBL
With Solution APIs, you can do things like build and test changes in a dev app, and then apply those changes to a production app. This means you can make updates faster and easier.
Learn more about QBL and Solution APIs in the help center.
QBL and Solution APIs are included for Enterprise customers. They are available, with some limits, to Business plan customers until December 31, 2024.
New platform analytics tile for user agents
Realm or account admins access Platform analytics to understand how their entire Quickbase ecosystem is being used, including their license costs. This will be released to all accounts by May 1, 2024.
To help customers understand their usage of billable API calls by user agent, we’ve added a new tile to platform analytics.
We've also added the ability to drill down into this data through the tile in the Platform Analytics tile in the Admin Console. The tile is named API calls by user agent.
This shows the amount of billable API calls consumed by each user agent. To provide summary-level information, Quickbase attempts to simplify the user agent string. This allows some version information to be available, while still providing high-level billing information.
For example, the user agent
???;Mozilla/5.0 (X11; CrOS x86_64 14541.0.0) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/122.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
displays as
???;Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 Chrome/122.0.0.0 Safari/537.36.
Quickbase can't account for all variations in user agents. Full details can be found by exporting the data, or using the Platform Analytics API.
User agent is a standard mechanism for clients (like browsers and integrations) to communicate what type of device and software it is. Browsers send an agent by default. Integrators writing custom code should always include an identifying user agent in accordance with the HTTP RFC spec.
Learn more about Quickbase Usage Pricing in our help center.
Enhancements
Dashboard upgrades
Dashboards have a major overhaul with our latest release, packed with enhancements to your builder experience. These upgrades are bringing more space, more reports, and more data while making it easy to organize and style your dashboard.
Here’s what’s new:
- Infinite scrolling on dashboards allows you to add more reports vertically
- With fluid widget reordering, widgets now seamlessly make room for each other as you move them around
- Top-aligned tabs help consistency meet convenience with tabs at the top of the dashboard, with easy drag-and-drop reordering
- New widget styling has a sleek new look with rounded corners, resizable from every corner, and minimum/maximum sizes
- The Spacer widget is a way to add space or a divider to your dashboard helping with more control over organization and layout
- Inline filter title updates for adjustments at any time
- For more flexibility you can now add widgets from the toolbar or the widget menu
- Easy upgrade using the Try upgraded dashboards button, and then explore an interactive preview for your existing dashboards
Learn more in our blog post.
You can also see the dashboards in action in a few different Empower sessions. Register for free and fill up your schedule.
Email a record
We’re excited to announce a new enhancement to the new form experience—emailing a record. Share data and keep your team updated. Specify the recipients and the subject, and then add a custom message. Preview the email in a new tab to make sure you're sending the right data. This is a new option in the More menu on a form.
Performance Improvements for Forms
We implemented a series of general improvements to optimize speed, efficiency, and overall user experience on forms. Specific enhancements have been made for the following scenarios:
- When there are reference fields on the form
- When the form is in view mode and there are User and List-User fields
Changes for managing support cases
In preparation for our rollout of new navigation, the My Support Cases page no longer displays navigation at the top.
New location for help button in the Pipelines Designer
We are changing the position of the help center in Pipelines Designer. Now, open the help center from the toolbar on the designer canvas.
Enhancement to user caching
As we continuously refine performance and scalability, we're changing the way users display throughout an app or account. Today, Quickbase displays users in red if they are denied. Moving forward, the display color may take up to a few hours to update for all users. However, permissions and user access continue to operate normally. This change will progressively roll out over the coming weeks.
Open Beta
New Navigation— Open beta available May 08
Starting May 8, account admins will have the option to let users try updated navigation. In the new navigation, the menu bar across the top moves to the left and becomes a collapsible sidebar. This move gives you more valuable screen space while keeping tables within easy reach.
Learn more about what is changing in our blog post.
Account admins control user access to new navigation
On May 8, all users with access to the feature can try the new navigation by turning it on in user preferences.
Read our help article for detailed instructions.
Account admins control access to the feature. Starting May 8, users will see navigation options in user preferences by default. We understand that change takes planning and training. If you don’t want users to try the new navigation yet, turn off navigation options for your users on the Permissions page in the Admin Console.
URL changes and code pages
In addition to visual changes, new navigation includes a change in Quickbase URL pattern. Legacy URLs remain supported. Existing, native workflows will not be interrupted. However, code pages will be impacted by the change in two ways:
-
Code pages with JavaScript that includes
document.referrer
andwindow.parent
will not work when Open Beta begins on May 8.-
We are working on a version of new navigation that works with code pages that use this JavaScript. It will be released during Open Beta, and we will announce the change in release notes.
-
-
Code pages that use the URL path via
window.location
ordocument.referrer
may not work with new navigation because of the URL pattern change.-
Review and update code pages to use custom query params in links to the code page instead so they will work with navigation updates.
-
Learn more about these impacts and recommended changes in our help article.
New navigation rollout plan
We know how important it is to know what experience your users have when they sign in to the platform. To help you plan, we’re sharing additional details about how we’ll roll out new navigation in the coming months.
Open beta May 08, 2024
Default experience: Legacy navigation
- Account admins: In Admin Console, control if users see navigation options in user preferences
- All users: Turn on new navigation in user preferences
GA July 21, 2024
Default experience: New navigation
- Account admins: In Admin Console, control if users see navigation options in user preferences
- All users: Switch back to legacy navigation in user preferences
Q1 2025 Account and user controls deprecated
Default experience: New navigation
- All users will only have access to new navigation
Smart Builder—build pipelines with AI
Get ready for the May 8th Empower release! Smart Builder in Pipelines builds pipeline drafts from text descriptions in different languages to automate your workflow. Smart Builder sets up the steps for your workflow so you can configure your channels, add logic, and automate.
- Update workflows from manual to automated on-demand
- Go from idea to automation in minutes
- Describe the workflow you want to automate in natural language and the Smart Builder creates a pipeline for you
Smart Builder works especially well for simple, linear workflow automations. Future updates will include improved accuracy for more complex use cases such as pipelines with logic steps or searches and loops.
Note: Currently, each time you select Yes, build it your Smart Builder session ends. Refreshing or closing the page will also remove your AI Smart Builder session history. To start a new session, just type a description of the workflow you want to automate.
We measured it—building a pipeline with 4 steps, custom names, descriptions, and notes manually takes an average of 4-5 minutes. Using AI, you can generate a pipeline with the same elements, in just 30 seconds!
New custom email experience continues in beta
We’re introducing a new way to build custom, automated emails. Now you can create emails that:
- Bring together the functionality of notifications and subscriptions
- Offer more customization and flexibility, including CC/BCC fields
- CC/BCC option must be enabled in Realm Policies
- Introduce a record change element to quickly share changed data
- Generate audit log events to show when notifications are when they’re created, updated, or deleted
- Show up in logging and tracking when sent out
- Include more elements, like new forms, reports, and charts
Recent updates
Since starting the beta, we’ve released numerous improvements, many based on your feedback. Now, you can:
- Manually add email addresses when ignore recipient permissions is turned on for To, CC and BCC options(account setting must be turned on, available on Business + Enterprise)
- Populate the To option with email fields from the table
- Add markers to the subject line, like dynamically including a field value
for example A new task has been assigned to [Team member name] - Include custom HTML within supported guidelines
We’ve also made these improvements:
- By default, scheduled emails will no longer be sent if all reports in the email are empty. A new setting is available to override this.
- Added a Record link marker
- Made numerous bug fixes and other UI updates
Character and size limits for custom emails
To ensure stability for all applications, we're adding the following limits to emails:
- Email name—200 characters max.
- Email description—1000 characters max.
- Email body—1mb max.
Existing notifications will continue to work. However, to save any changes, existing emails will need to be updated to be under these new limits.
Learn more in our blog post.
Data Analyzer continues in beta
We’ve updated the Data Analyzer Template App as part of the continued improvements we’re rolling out while Data Analyzer is in beta. Install the latest version to unlock new functionality and enhancements, including:
- Lower minimum of records required for Data Analyzer to run (lowered from 80 to 20)
- Confidence scores are now generated for each factor and insights are generated for factors with a confidence score below 80%
- New link to the live chart in the original data table available in the factor details drill down
- Results are always displayed, even if no model was able to be created
Models created with the previous version of the template app will continue to work. Get the latest version from the Exchange.
Beta opportunities
FEATURE | DESCRIPTION | STATUS | HOW TO PARTICIPATE |
New navigation | We're redesigning Quickbase navigation to make it easier than ever to get around. Join us to help shape the future look and feel of the platform! | Closed beta | Sign up in our early access app. |
FastField | Expanded sign-on, access, and data integration. This is great for people new to FastField wanting to try it out, or people wanting to connect their accounts. | Closed beta | Sign up in our early access app |
What's fixed in Quickbase
ISSUE |
AREA AFFECTED |
WHAT WAS BROKEN |
WHAT WE FIXED |
QBE019090 |
Mobile |
Custom formula buttons were not working on Android and iOS for mobile app version 1.60. |
Custom formula buttons are now working as expected on both Android and iOS. The issue has been resolved in version 1.61. |
QBE019041 |
Forms |
When grouping a List - User Field with other fields on a new form, an error would occur when editing a record that wasn't related to editing the record. |
Grouping with List - User Fields is now working as expected, even when you edit a field. |
Feature retirements
End of life
Uppercase URL variants
We’re upgrading a piece of infrastructure and more formally enforcing case sensitivity in URL paths, like /db/bcdefghj.
With this release, only lowercase /db/ will be supported. There are a limited number of customers with traffic to non-lower case variations—our Tech Support team is reaching out to them. Any external traffic (like integrations or scripts) with this URL pattern will need to be replaced in those systems.
For configurations within Quickbase applications, customers can use Search and Replace in Schema. This feature will find references to /db/. With the Maintain case box unchecked, Quickbase will replace all versions (/db/, /Db/, /dB/, /DB/) with /db/.
SFTP Connections for connected tables– ending support for SHA-1
Quickbase is focused on continually helping our customers improve their security by using the safest security protocols and aligning with industry best practices for data security and integrity. For that reason, we have updated the SFTP connector used for connected tables (Quickbase Sync) to only allow connections to SFTP servers that use SHA-2. Learn more in our community article.
The current version of the SFTP connector (Version 1) will continue to be available until May 2024 to give connection owners time to transition their older SFTP connections to the new version (Version 2).
To update an existing connection:
- Select the user dropdown on the Global bar, then choose My Preferences.
- In the My Connections section, select the SFTP connection you want to update.
- Change the Client Version from 1 to 2 and re-enter the SFTP password.
- Click the Save button to save your change.