by jmantaro under Uncategorized

QuickBase introduced a lot of new screens and features to the product last spring, including some formula field enhancements. Amid all the changes, one useful feature didn’t get the attention it deserves: formula variables.

Did you know that you can use variables within a formula? This feature is a great way to save typing within a very long formula. If your formula is complex, variables also help you simplify the code. This makes the formula easier to read and troubleshoot.

For example, say you’ve got this string:

[Price] * [Quantity]

that needs to appear multiple times within your formula, like this:

if ([Price] * [Quantity] > 100, [Price] * [Quantity] *
0.9, [Price] * [Quantity])

You can define a variable to stand in for that string. Say you call that variable total.

Replace the code snippet with that variable (using a $ dollar sign to denote the variable), and your formula becomes much shorter:

if ($total > 100, $total * 0.9, $total)

Isn’t that tidy?

Actually, you need to include your variable definition within the formula itself, so really the entire formula would look like this:

var Number total = [Price] * [Quantity] ;

if ($total > 100, $total * 0.9, $total)

To learn more and see other examples, please read the help topic on formula variables. 

Hope this helps all you formula authors out there…

by Alex Chriss under Customer Stories

I met with one of our QuickBase Enterprise customers today and had such a good time digging into how they were using QuickBase.  Some of their apps solved big hairy problems and some of them were pretty basic, but a few things stuck with me:

1)      Regardless of the size of the problem, almost all of the solutions were elegantly simple.  Most were single table apps with simple but powerful dynamic forms and e-mail notifications to manage workflow. 

2)      Both IT & the Business users couldn’t stop smiling as they talked about their QuickBase use.  At one point the IT lead leaned back and said “QuickBase has taken so many headaches off the software development team!” 

3)      The Alternative is Costly! The business team lead walked me through an exercise he had to do for his budget department to detail  what their alternative was to QuickBase if we disappeared off the face of the earth.  He said it was very simple: to replace the ability for just his team of business users to create and manage apps in QuickBase, he needed 2 FTE’s to build apps and $500,000 to purchase alternatives.  WOW!

4)      Lastly, there is nothing better than seeing the passion for your product directly from your customers eyes.  No matter what business you’re in, if you get an opportunity to sit down face to face with your customers and you can see how passionate they are about your product or service or whatever, it will send chills up your spine!

A fun day for me!