We’re excited about bringing you increasingly easy to use features, functionality, and simplified product navigation. Our goal is to make the QuickBase UI so seamless that you will forget to thank us. 

Our first step toward improving the UI is to fully separate the presentation layer from the functional layer.  This way, we can make UI changes without affecting QuickBase functionality.  Over the next few releases, we will be modifying and restructuring the code that produces the look and feel of QuickBase. We will also begin to update the UI make QuickBase easier to use.  The process of changing the structure of code without affecting the way the UI looks or behaves is called refactoring.  

What does this mean for you? If you have created custom code that directly refers to, or relies on, the internal HTML page code, you may need to change your code to work with our refactoring changes.  We recommend creating custom code using our public APIs only; if you implement code outside of those APIs, we cannot guarantee that your code will work with future releases.

To determine whether you will be affected by the code refactoring and prepare for any changes you will need to make, read about our plans for:

• Refactoring in the December 2011 release

• Refactoring in the February 2012 release

Refactoring in the December 2011 Release

In our December release, we will be rolling out the first portion of the code refactoring: specifically, updating the code in the Application Dashboard page, top menu bars (shown below), and footer to use standards-based HTML, CCS, and JavaScript.

Top menu bars

If you have added custom headers and footers using either the Realm branding or application branding features, you will not need to make any changes.  Your headers and footers will behave correctly when we release the code changes. 

However, if you have made custom code modifications to these areas without using one of the supported branding features, or if you have created custom code that directly refers to, or relies on, the internal HTML code of the Dashboard page, you may need to update your code with the release.

For a preview of some of the visual changes the code refactoring will enable, visit our Beta application: https://beta.quickbase.com/db/bgpc6tuxe

To see what has changed behind-the-scenes, view the source code for any page by right-clicking on the page and selecting View page source or View source, depending on which browser you are using.

You can try your code in our Beta environment before the December release, as follows:

1. Register for an account on the Beta site at https://beta.quickbase.com/db/main?a=reg&what=trial

   Note: Your regular QuickBase login does not work on the Beta site.

2. Create a new application from scratch to try out your code in the Beta environment.

   • For dashboard HTML sections: Click the Customize this page link on the top right of the dashboard, and then copy and paste the HTML from your live application into text sections in the Beta application dashboard. Save your changes and verify that they display correctly.

   • For custom application branding: Verify that your branding elements still look the same by going to the Customize menu, and then selecting Application. In the Settings tab under Branding, copy the information from your live application into the same fields in your Beta application.

3. Please notify us if your Application Dashboard or custom branding does not render as expected, or as in the current QuickBase environment. You can click the Send Beta Feedback link next to your user name on any QuickBase page to send us your comments.

Refactoring in the February 2012 Release

In February 2012, we are releasing both behind-the-scenes code refactoring and UI improvements for the tabs on the Customize > Tables page. 

Customize > Tables page before the February release

We also will be changing the URLs of several of the tabs to include the table dbid instead of the application-level dbid. For example, the URL for the Emails tab will change from https://www.quickbase.com/db/<application_dbid>?a=emaillist to https://www.quickbase.com/db/<table_dbid>?a=emaillist. With this change, we can display the contents of each tab more rapidly for applications with many tables.  

Learn more about the changes we will be introducing in Febrarary 2012 by reading the QuickBase Release Notes.