About pipelines

In Quickbase, use pipelines to automate workflows by connecting different apps and services. Pipelines are part of a Quickbase realm, but they're not part of an app. Pipelines are connections between apps, tables, and their data. They also connect Quickbase to other services.

What you can do with pipelines

Pipelines are the tool to automate tasks without writing code. This includes things like moving data, sending notifications, or triggering actions. 

• Automate repetitive tasks
  • Send a Slack message to your team whenever a new Quickbase record is created
• Connect multiple apps
  • Create a Jira ticket with feedback from a customer
  • Use Google Calendar to send a Slack message when a specific event has been created
• Move data
  • Automatically update information from a Formstack Form, into records in a Quickbase application
  • Export a CSV from Quickbase to Box
  • When a row in a Google Sheet is created, update a specific Quickbase table

Pipeline basics

In a pipeline, you select a channel, and then add a step.

• Channel—service or platform, such as Quickbase or an email app
• Step—an event in a channel or task that a channel can perform

Depending on the channel, the steps are a little different, but they are all organized into different types of steps. The types are:

• Trigger—an event that the channel waits for that starts the pipeline.
• Action—something the channel does.
• Query—a search for objects in the channel’s platform. Depending on where you are, the object can change based on your channel.

Learn more about channels in Quickbase.

Build pipelines

All pipelines are created in the pipeline designer. In the designer you add steps, select channels, and configure what the pipeline does. The drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to build and visualize workflows and add logic to do exactly what you need. How or when a pipeline runs is related to the pipeline type. The types are:

• Triggered—started by a specific event in real-time. For example creating or deleting a record
• Scheduled—runs on a set schedule
• Manual—runs when someone clicks a button. This is like a scheduled pipeline with no schedule. 

After you create a pipeline, it is available on the My pipelines page. This is where you can find information about your pipeline like type, name, tags, channels, last run date, error alerts, and if it is on or off.

Quickbase channel

One of the most commonly used channels is, of course, the Quickbase channel. Use this channel to do things in Quickbase. 

The actions available for the Quickbase channel include:

• Records
  Everything at QB works off of records and fields. Use this action to:
  • Triggers for changes to records
  • Create, update, delete records
  • Find records
• Bulk records sets
  This action creates a a temporary table with all your records, and then you can commit it and import it to QuickBase to do a bulk change. This is more efficient than records one at a time.
  • Use to perform record actions on many records at once
• Attachments
  Manage file attachments in Quickbase and other cloud file locations like Sharepoint, Box, or an API. Use this action to:
  • Upload file attachments from other cloud file locations to Quickbase.
  • Add files to Quickbase from other cloud file locations.
• Quickbase APIs
  Interact with Quickbase APIs or webhooks. Learn more about Quickbase APIs at https://developer.quickbase.com/.
  • Use to make API requests
• Automation admins
  Find and get information on legacy automations

Pipelines require authentication because pipelines are part of a Quickbase realm, but they're not part of an app. For example, someone can make a pipeline that creates records, but they need to have access to create records in a specific app. By default, Quickbase uses your username and password for verification. 

Start building

Most people build pipelines after they build a few apps, to connect their workflows. Whether they're simple or complex, we recommend designing before you start building. Learn more in Plan your pipeline. 

You can build complex pipelines that:

• Span many tools
• Have many steps in them
• Include conditions
• Transform your data
• Use date and time conversions
• Schedule pipelines to run at selected intervals

Explore examples in our channels articles or get inspired by some pipelines use cases. 

Learn more about the steps and options when you create your first pipeline in Create pipelines.