Quickbase November 2024 Release Notes

• • New
  • Enhancements
  • Beta opportunities
  • What’s fixed in Quickbase
  • Feature retirements

New

FastField integration—now generally available

Quickbase’s integration with FastField, our powerful mobile data collection solution, is now generally available (GA)! Bridge the gap between the field and the office through these integrated features:

• Create FastField forms from Quickbase tables
• Send FastField form responses to Quickbase
• Sync lists and data tables between accounts
• Automate FastField dispatches through Pipelines
• Access FastField from Quickbase or through single sign-on (SSO)

In addition, FastField’s new AI Form Converter lets you turn paper or PDF forms into robust digital forms in seconds.

To start a 30-day trial of FastField or link your accounts, go to the Permissions page of the Quickbase Admin Console.

Learn more about FastField

Note: Only realm admins who are also account admins can start a trial of FastField.

Document Creation—now generally available

Document Creation became generally available on October 31, when we introduced the following key updates:

• PDF versions of document templates for preview and download
• Improved Header & Footer toolbar options with buttons that make it easy to add current dates, page numbers, and total page counts
• Field markers available in the Header & Footer sections
• Improved accessibility of the Document templates builder page
• New documents default to Letter page size

In the custom email builder, you can now also generate and include documents when emails are set up on a schedule. (Previously, you could only include them on a trigger-based email.)

More improvements are also coming by the end of this month:

• Builders can include table, summary, and chart reports from any table using the report element in the Document template builder page
• Editable HTML tables will support grouping rows

Realm admins on the Team plan can start a 30-day trial of Document Creation from the Admin console.

Learn more about Document Creation in our help center.

Link related data by importing into lookup fields

Builders now have an easier way to import records with related data or link related data in integrations. Now, any lookup field that is marked unique on the parent table can be used to match instead of reference fields.

For example, when importing Tasks, instead of needing the Record ID# from the Projects table to populate the Related Project, you can choose to use the Project Name if it is marked unique. Quickbase will automatically perform the mapping for you.

This feature is available in the following areas:

• UI Import—When importing data through the UI, any lookup field marked unique will show in the drop down of fields to choose from.
• API_ImportFromCSV—Users can pass in data to lookup fields marked unique into records_csv and clist in API_ImportFromCSV.
• RESTful Upsert Records—Users can pass in data to lookup fields marked unique into the data array in Record Upsert.

As part of this, we improved validation. Previously, if you accidentally attempted to send data into a lookup field, Quickbase ignored the column. Now, Quickbase returns the following error: You're trying to import data into a lookup field. When Quickbase does this, it automatically links to the correct parent records. The source of the lookup field must be unique, so Quickbase is not able to import into the lookup field. To resolve this error, builders need to remove the lookup field from the API call.

AI Smart Builder for Pipelines—field mapping suggestions

When building complex pipelines, it can become increasingly difficult to find and map fields in steps. That's why our Quickbase AI will now offer suggestions! 

These suggestions could be references from prior steps or a combination of references and text for each field that can be mapped in a Pipeline step. They are based on the overall structure of the pipeline (pipeline name, channels, step names/notes, field name, etc.).

For example, when sending an email, you can view a suggestion for the Body field. This feature will be available on November 21.

Enhancements

Exchange—pro apps are here!

You can now find pro apps in the Exchange. Use the filter next to the search bar to quickly find pro apps that fit your needs.

Pro apps are applications built by expert Quickbase builders. These builders have expertise in industries such as construction, manufacturing, and Quickbase realm governance. You'll see them among other apps in the Exchange with the Pro app tag.

Platform performance

We regularly improve performance across Quickbase to help customers solve more complex problems with larger datasets. Apps automatically benefit from these types of improvements after rollout.

Learn more about Quickbase performance and scale in our help center.

Summary and chart reports

We've optimized sorting and grouping operations within reports that summarize information by 100-300%. This improvement will roll out progressively over the coming weeks to these reports:

• Summary reports
  • Standalone
  • Dashboards
  • Forms
• New-style chart reports
  • Standalone
  • Dashboards (updated version)
  • Forms (legacy version)

Forms

In our updated version of forms, we’ve improved form responsiveness, navigation, and interaction. This enhances users' experience with complex forms with many table reports. More improvements will roll out over the coming months.

Admin Console Connected (ACC) tables—new service account fields

The following new fields will be available in the Users table to identify service accounts and the users assigned to them:

• Service Account
• Service Account Assigned Users

You can take advantage of the new data for your existing connected tables. The new fields will be available for selection if the connection owner chooses to add new connected data fields to the respective table.

Learn more about ACC tables.

Pipelines

Service accounts available in Pipelines

By November 26, you can use service accounts when building pipelines. Switch to any service account you have been assigned to from the user menu in the top navigation. Learn more

QuickBooks Online channel

We've added another resource to the QuickBooks online channel: Payments. You can now start your pipeline on Payment Created and Payment Updated in QuickBooks.

Outlook channel

We've rearranged the fields in the Send an Email step to better align with the actual user interface of Outlook.

Audit logs

New filter option for actions

Realm admins can now filter their audit trail by specific actions. The new filter is available both on the Audit Logs page in the Admin Console, as well as an additional input property (topics) for the Audit Log API.

This filter can be applied in combination with the other existing filters. Admins can also list several actions (separated by commas) to widen their search. This helps ease the investigation process by enabling more focused searches that locate events much faster.

Events for tables and dashboards

We’re continuing to enrich the content and number of events you can track in your audit logs.

• The dashboard_create and dashboard_update events now have a hyperlink to the respective resource.
• In addition to the existing event for accessing and viewing a code page or a rich text page (dbpages), we’ve added events for creation, deletion, update, and edit mode access.

Find more details for all new events in our Audit Log Library app.

Short month formula function 

The NameOfMonth() formula function has been enhanced to provide the abbreviated name of the month. For example, NameOfMonth("01-20-2020", short) returns Jan.

Updated legacy terms

On the App management page, we updated the terms master and detail records to parent and child records to be consistent with the rest of Quickbase and to promote more inclusive language in our product.

Across the platform, the report group previously named Mine is now Personal reports, and the report group previously named Common is now Shared.

Connected tables—Zendesk API token authentication

Zendesk has announced the deprecation of password access for their APIs. For that reason, we're changing the authentication of Zendesk connections for connected tables (Quickbase Sync) to use a Zendesk API token instead of a password.

A benefit of Zendesk API token authentication is that organizations with single sign-on (SSO) or two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled in Zendesk can create Zendesk connections in Quickbase for connected tables. This wasn’t allowed with password authentication.

Soon after November 17, when you create a new Zendesk connection or update an existing Zendesk connection, you will be required to use an API token created in Zendesk.

Existing Zendesk connections that use a password will continue to work until you turn off the Password Access for APIs setting in Zendesk for your organization, or until Zendesk stops supporting password access at the end of 2025.

Sidebar navigation—flexibility for smaller screens

We've improved the way sidebar navigation elements on various pages resize to better serve smaller screen sizes.

When the sidebar is open, users on small screens will also notice we've added an overlay to prevent accidentally clicking on elements on the main page while navigating.

Additional improvements will be added here over the next month.

Form rule validation

We’ve increased how frequently form rules are validated. Now, validation runs each time form rules are saved. Previously, it only ran if they contained certain derived field types. This ensures your form rules are always valid as the schema of your app changes.

Excel import limit increased

You can now import up to 50 MB (decompressed) from Excel. We’ve increased the limit from 25 MB to 50 MB.

Note: XLSX files are natively compressed—the file size you see on your system may not directly correlate to the decompressed file size.

Roles list—new details

Administrator roles (those set with Edit App Structure and Permissions) are intended to have full permissions across the application. To help development and troubleshooting, roles configured with partial permissions will now display in the role list as Admin* with a message providing more details on hover.

 

Beta opportunities

FEATURE	DESCRIPTION	STATUS	HOW TO PARTICIPATE
New forms on Quickbase mobile	Mobile users can use the new forms experience to add, view, and edit records while on the go.	Public beta	Sign up in our early access app

What’s fixed in Quickbase

Note: Pipelines bug fixes take effect on November 19. All other fixes take effect on November 17.

ISSUE	AREA AFFECTED	DESCRIPTION	WHAT'S FIXED
QBE019024	Pipelines	A subset of tables failed to acquire Pipelines usage information for their fields.	Field usage is properly displayed.
QBE020047	Pipelines	Trigger steps added from Smart Builder in an empty pipeline were not recognized as such.	When adding steps with Smart Builder to an empty pipeline, trigger steps are recognized correctly.
QBE020046	Pipelines	Users could add steps using Smart Builder to a pipeline while the pipeline was running. (Pipelines were not impacted, however.)	The Add steps button is now disabled while a pipeline is running.
QBE020045	Pipelines	When multiple new pipelines are suggested in the AI Console, users could build more than one.	When building one of the suggested pipelines, the other suggestions have their Build button disabled.
QBE019867	Pipelines	The Create Object step in Salesforce resulted in an invalid field error.	The Create Object step now works as expected.
QBE019980	Pipelines	The Build a pipeline option in the AI console was not disabled for users that don’t have permission to build pipelines.	Build a pipeline is now disabled in the AI console for users without permission to do so.
QBE019981	Pipelines	When using AI to add steps, some button and help text used inaccurate grammar when referring to a single or multiple steps (like Add step for multiple steps).	Button text now reads Add a step for a single step and Add steps for multiple steps.
QBE020071	Pipelines	In the Gmail channel, emails in the form "Name, name" <email> were misinterpreted if the name contained a comma.	Emails are now interpreted correctly.
QBE019966	Navigation	When users interacted with elements near the new navigation sidebar, it would sometimes expand unintentionally.	We made the target area to open the sidebar smaller.
QBE019879	Navigation	When going directly to an app dashboard’s URL, App settings was highlighted instead of App home on the sidebar.	App home is now highlighted on the sidebar after opening a dashboard’s URL.
QBE019944	Navigation	The Save as option in a chart's report settings was unresponsive when using the new navigation.	The Save as option works as expected in a chart’s report settings.
QBE019949	Navigation	The delete confirmation message did not appear when deleting a table record while using the new navigation.	The delete confirmation message appears as intended.
QBE019993	Navigation	When creating a code page with a name that’s already in use while using the new navigation, the error message displays in the old navigation experience.	The error message for creating a duplicated code page name no longer switches from the new to old navigation experience.
QBE019925	Navigation	A second horizontal and vertical scroll bar appeared unnecessarily when using Search this app in the new navigation.	Searching an app in the new navigation no longer results in a double scroll bar.
QBE019973	Navigation	In table reports, links with table aliases resulted in an infinite redirect loop when using the new navigation.	Links formatted with a table alias now work successfully when using the new navigation.
QBE019992	Navigation	Table aliases were not properly translating into DBIDs in the URL when accessed in the sidebar navigation.	DBIDs now appear when the URLs using table aliases are accessed in the sidebar navigation.
QBE019994	Navigation	The Send test email confirmation page switches from the new navigation to the old navigation unexpectedly.	The Send test email confirmation page remains in the new navigation experience.
QBE019991	Navigation	When navigating across different apps using sidebar navigation, users were always taken to the homepage rather than the last visited page of the app.	Users are now directed to the last visited page of the app when navigating between apps in sidebar navigation.
QBE020035	Navigation	The visibility of the sidebar table settings link for certain roles was inconsistent with the settings button on the table bar.	The sidebar table settings is visible when appropriate and consistent with the table bar settings button.
QBE020031	Navigation	When using the sidebar navigation, the error message for deleting a subscription that has already been deleted switches users from the sidebar to top navigation experience.	The error message keeps users in the sidebar navigation experience.
QBE019979	Navigation	Dashboard names were cut off unnecessarily on smaller screen resolutions.	Dashboard names are displayed as expected on smaller screen resolutions.
QBE020011	Navigation	Elements of the relationship diagram could become inaccessible when using sidebar navigation.	All relationship diagram elements stay within the viewport.
QBE020051	Navigation	The page was being reloaded unnecessarily while users were creating new reports in table settings.	The page no longer reloads unnecessarily.
QBE019986  QBE019855  QBE018720	Forms	Using commas, quotes, and semicolons in multi-select fields in new forms returned errors when saved. It also changed or created other values.	Commas, quotes, and semicolons can now be used as expected in multi-select fields in new forms.
QBE019467	Mobile app	Navigating to a drill-down report from a filtered gauge chart on a dashboard resulted in a No records found message.	The mobile app now displays the correct drill-down report from a filtered gauge chart.    This issue is fixed in the latest mobile app version 1.66 (available in Google Play and the App Store).
QBE019901	Performance insights	In performance insights, looping API calls from an unknown user agent had incorrect grammar.	Performance insights detecting looping API calls now use correct grammar.
QBE020032	Custom emails	When custom emails was locked for editing ALM, users were shown the wrong type of message.	Users are correctly shown an Access needed message when custom emails is locked for editing under ALM.
QBE020037	Custom emails	Custom emails in the sandbox did not include a list of who the email would be sent to in the live app.	All scheduled and triggered custom emails from the sandbox now contain a list of who the email would be sent to in the live app.
QBE020053	Custom emails	Custom emails intermittently incorrectly identified a recipient as invalid, preventing the email from being sent.	Custom emails now recognize recipients correctly.
QBE020055	ALM sandbox	There was an instance where records could not be created in a sandbox of an app with a cross-app relationship.	Records can be created in a sandbox without issue.
QBE019956	Document Creation	Roman numeral lists were incorrectly converted to decimal format.	Roman numeral lists now display correctly.
QBE019934	Document Creation	Custom coloring set in the shading of an editable table was not properly rendered.	Custom coloring renders properly in this situation.
QBE016010	Reports	Color sections in a value from a summary report formula were not applied in new charts, charts embedded on new forms, and new dashboards.	Color sections in a summary report formulas are applied successfully in these charts.

Feature retirements

End of life

Outcome Suggestions

With the release of Quick Insights in October 2024, the Outcome Suggestions feature has become redundant. Quick Insights enables you to identify trends in your data directly in your apps. As a result, we are deprecating the Outcome Suggestions feature.

Quickbase mobile—offline

On January 10, 2025, the mobile offline portion of the Quickbase mobile app will reach End of Life and will not be available for users.

With the addition of FastField, Quickbase now offers two mobile applications:

• The Quickbase mobile app—designed for unplanned work on the go.

• The FastField mobile app—optimized to support the planned work that field teams are doing, even without internet connectivity.

To streamline functionality, the mobile offline capabilities of the Quickbase mobile app will be retired. FastField's advanced and robust offline mode will be the primary solution for field workers, providing superior capabilities and supporting a wider range of use cases.

Learn more about FastField or start a free trial on the Permissions page of the Quickbase Admin Console.