QuickBase: The Missing Manual

Chapter 11. Automating QuickBase with Formulas, Forms, and Dynamic Rules

You’ve learned the basics of creating and managing QuickBase applications. But with this chapter, you’ll take your applications to the next level. And once you see how much complex applications can do—automate fields with formulas, build custom forms that suck in data from external Web sites, bring your forms to life with QuickBase’s new dynamic rules—you’ll never again be satisfied with a prebuilt application designed by someone else.

Writing Formulas

If the word formula conjures up images of a mad scientist cackling over bubbling potions in a secret laboratory, you’ve been watching too many old horror movies. QuickBase formulas can’t turn Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde, but they can do seemingly magical things to your data by performing powerful calculations. Once you add a formula to a field, QuickBase performs the calculation automatically as your data changes. For example, you might use a formula to figure out the average number of hours each employee worked last month, or to flag the names of people who haven’t turned in a required form. You can write a formula to automatically fill in the name of someone’s manager when that person is chosen in a user field. Formulas can calculate bonuses, fill in the total on invoices, determine sales figures by territory, and much, much more.

Once you get a handle on the different elements that go together in a formula, you can build a formula of your very own to do just about ...