As Quickbase continues to add new features, it’s important to stay up to date so you can make improvements to your existing applications. If you’re new to citizen development and Quickbase applications, these tips and tricks can help as you start your journey. We received great feedback on the first two articles in this series. If you missed them, please check them out here and here. These articles are quick reads, and even if you did check them out before, some of these Quickbase productivity tips may apply to your apps now, even if they didn’t in the past.
Data Management
Control what’s in view. For large tables, it’s a good idea to scale back the visibility of some fields. At the bottom of the Field Properties form, you’ll find the Advanced section.
By default, the Searchable, and both Reportable options are checked.
Searchable: This setting comes into play whenever you use the global or table search. For most user cases, we’ve found only a small percentage of fields need to have this enabled. For very large tables, managing this setting can produce dramatic results.
Add this field to all new reports: Or in other words a default report field. You’ve most likely run into the default report as a global search result, or after clicking on a report link.
This field may be used in reports: Managing this setting can de-clutter the field list in the report builder. Thankfully, you don’t need to mark these settings field by field. In the advanced options of the field list you’ll find:
This is where you can add Reportable and Searchable as columns. Once this enabled, you can check and uncheck them en masse:
Also note, the Field List has the option to filter for Reportable or Searchable fields:
To manage the default report fields all at once you’ll need to go to the Default report settings. The quickest way to get there is to click on the Table heading you want to update, click on the ‘More’ menu, and then ‘Change reporting defaults.’
From here, you can use the left and right arrows to move fields in and out of the default columns list. Also, it’s on this page where you can change the default column behavior.
But Wait, There’s More
Also on the Default report page is the Default dynamic filters setting:
As well as the Default sort order:
One Final Suggestion
Consider doing periodic purges of deprecated fields. With the previous strategies, you can do a pretty good job of hiding lesser used fields from the end-user experience. However, over time, having excess fields may make it a bit more cumbersome for you to effectively act as the application administrator. Remember that next time you’re writing a formula field and you’re not sure where it is [Actual Finish Date] or [Actual Completion Date] that you need to use.
Ready for More Tips?
This is just a small taste of what can be easily done with just a few clicks. If you’re interested in finding more ideas and tips, Quickbase has some great resources:
If it’s something you’re not sure you can handle yourself, MCFTech is happy to help. We can provide Application Audits to help you understand your applications and make recommendations for improvement. We also offer Quickbase training to make you the most effective citizen developer you can be. Contact us today to get started.
Curious to learn more Hacks and Shortcut? Contact us now to schedule a free call