Central Question
What does “automation” actually mean inside Quickbase?
It is tempting to treat every automatic behavior as the same thing. Something happens, Quickbase reacts, and therefore it must all be “automation.”
But Quickbase contains several mechanisms that react to different kinds of events, operate at different times, communicate in different ways, and have very different capabilities.
Before we build anything, we need to know which kind of mechanism we are looking at.
Course Premise
Start With the Event, Not the Button
This course will not begin by memorizing where Quickbase places automation controls in its interface.
Instead, every automation problem begins with three more fundamental questions.
1. What happened?
Did a record change? Did a date arrive? Did a schedule run? Did something external occur?
2. What does Quickbase know?
Does Quickbase know merely that a record changed, which field changed, the record's current state, or something about its previous state?
3. What should happen next?
Should someone receive information, should another record change, should data be queried, or should an entire workflow execute?
Mental Model
The progression of the course
Information
Automation begins with data and record values.
Communication
Quickbase can communicate information to people.
Events
Something happens that gives the system a reason to react.
Time
Dates and schedules introduce another kind of cause.
Conditions
Rules determine whether an action should occur.
State Changes
Records move from one meaningful state to another.
Workflow
Events, conditions, and actions become an organized process.
Pipelines
The earlier concepts converge into multi-step automation.
By the time Pipelines appears later in the lab, it should not feel like an unrelated advanced feature. It should feel like the natural continuation of concepts we have already been using.
Vocabulary
The Main Automation Terms You Will Encounter
Quickbase automation terminology has evolved over time. Some mechanisms are older, some are newer, and some overlap in capability. For now, our goal is not to memorize every option.
We only want to establish a useful first-pass definition for each term.
Alerts
Platform communicationAlerts are Quickbase-generated communications associated with the platform or application environment.
They are conceptually different from builder-created workflow emails that react to your application's records.
Notifications
LegacyNotifications are legacy event-driven automatic emails that respond to record activity.
A record may be added, modified, or deleted, and a Notification can react to that event.
Reminders
LegacyReminders are legacy automatic emails driven primarily by dates stored in Quickbase records.
Their defining characteristic is that time can cause the communication even when nobody edits the record.
Subscriptions
Report deliverySubscriptions deliver report information according to a schedule.
Instead of asking what changed on one record, a Subscription asks what information a report should deliver and when it should be delivered.
Custom Emails
ModernCustom Emails are the newer Quickbase automatic-email system.
They bring several record-change and scheduled communication capabilities into one contemporary configuration system.
Pipelines
Workflow automationPipelines go beyond merely communicating information.
A Pipeline can perform sequences of operations such as querying records, evaluating conditions, creating or updating data, interacting with other systems, and continuing through multiple workflow steps.
First Major Distinction
Communication and Workflow Are Not the Same Thing
We are going to deliberately simplify the automation landscape for our first mental model.
Later lessons will refine it, challenge it, and expose exceptions. For Lesson 1, however, this distinction is extremely useful.
Mental Model
A deliberately simplified starting model
Quickbase tells you something
Alert
Platform communication originating from Quickbase itself.
Your app tells someone something
Automatic Email
Record or time-driven communication configured by the app builder.
Your app does something
Pipeline
Workflow automation performs operations rather than merely sending information.
Remember This
Automation does not automatically mean Pipeline
A requirement that says “send someone information” may be completely satisfied by a native Quickbase email mechanism.
Building a Pipeline simply because Pipelines are more powerful can create unnecessary complexity.
Communication vs. Action
Ask What Result the Business Actually Needs
Consider three requirements that initially sound very similar.
Requirement A
Tell Alice that her Task changed.
The required result is communication. Nothing else necessarily needs to happen to the application.
Requirement B
Remind Alice two days before the Task Due Date.
The required result is still communication, but the cause is now the passage of time rather than a record modification.
Requirement C
When the Task becomes Complete, create a history record and update another related record.
The requirement has crossed from communication into workflow. Quickbase must now perform operations against data.
Different Causes
Not Every Automation Begins With a Record Change
One of the most important habits in this course will be identifying what caused something to matter.
Record Activity
A record is added, modified, or deleted.
Something changed.
Record Date
A stored date becomes important because time has moved closer to it or past it.
Time changed the meaning of the record.
Schedule
A recurring clock reaches Monday morning, the first day of the month, or another scheduled time.
The calendar caused the automation to run.
Mental Model
Three causes we will investigate
Record Change
Something changed in the data.
Record Date
Time changed the meaning of the record.
Schedule
The calendar caused the automation to run.
Course Design
Why We Are Not Starting With Pipelines
Pipelines can perform sophisticated automation, but beginning there would hide several simpler concepts underneath a large workflow tool.
First understand communication
We need to understand triggers, recipients, dates, conditions, permissions, reports, and record values before those concepts become steps inside a workflow.
Then understand workflow
Once a business requirement requires operations beyond communication, Pipelines will enter naturally because the simpler tools no longer satisfy the requirement.
Remember This
Power is not the same thing as appropriateness
The most sophisticated Quickbase feature is not automatically the best feature for a requirement.
Throughout this lab, we will favor the least complicated mechanism that correctly solves the problem.
Orientation Check
Classify the Requirement Before Choosing a Tool
We are not trying to produce perfect answers yet. The purpose is simply to begin separating communication, time, reports, and workflow.
“Tell the Assigned To user when this Task changes.”
Show Discussion
This is fundamentally a communication requirement caused by a record event. We should investigate Quickbase automatic-email tools before assuming a Pipeline is necessary.
“Send managers the Open Tasks report every Monday.”
Show Discussion
This is scheduled delivery of a view of the data. A report and Subscription immediately deserve investigation.
“Create another Quickbase record when a Task reaches a specific state.”
Show Discussion
The requested result is an operation against application data, not merely communication. This is the kind of requirement that eventually moves us toward Pipelines.
Experiment
No Quickbase Experiment Yet
Lesson 1 is intentionally an orientation lesson. We have not configured any automation because we first need enough vocabulary to recognize what Quickbase is doing when we begin experimenting.
Starting in Lesson 2, we will move to a simple Tasks table and begin observing how Quickbase interprets record activity.
Student Outcome
What You Should Understand Before Moving On
At the end of Lesson 1, you should be able to hear the word automation without immediately translating it into Pipeline.
Instead, begin by asking:
What caused this requirement to matter?
Is the requirement communication or workflow?
Is a record event involved?
Is time involved?
Is a report involved?
Does Quickbase need to change data or merely communicate it?
Next: Lesson 2
Records as Events
We will create a simple Tasks table and investigate what Quickbase actually means when it says a record was added, modified, or deleted.
More importantly, we will begin separating the event itself from the resulting state of the record.