Diagramming Your QuickBase Apps

How to create blueprints for your app before you build

Benjamin Buday

Sales Engineer, Intuit QuickBase

#EMPOWER2015

Benjamin Buday

Sales Engineer, Intuit QuickBase

From Boston, Massachusetts

Two years with Intuit QuickBase

Trains users, builds proof-of-concept apps

May have seen/heard him on QuickBase webinars!

#EMPOWER2015

Diagramming a QuickBase App

Agenda

•What is diagramming?

•Why should you diagram your app idea?

•What are some ways I can diagram?

•Defining Basic QuickBase Terms

•Diagramming Examples

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What is Diagramming?

Diagramming is creating a visual display of your new app idea, showing how data will flow through the app.

TasksProjects

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Why Diagram an Idea First?

• Helps you decide what tables you’ll need

• Helps you decide how to relate them

• Helps you avoid unnecessary relationships, tables and fields

• Helps you decide in what tables fields should go

• Provides blueprints to any future owners/builders

• Can be used as reference to help new builders start their own apps

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What are some ways I can diagram?

• Software

– Microsoft Visio

– Gliffy

• By hand

– Paper

– Whiteboard

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Defining Terms

• Tables

• Records

• Fields

• Relationships- Special Fields

• Lookup Fields

• Summary Fields

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Defining Terms - Tables

• Tables – containers that collect similar records

- A Projects table to capture projects

- A Tasks table to capture Tasks

- A Customers table to track your clients

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Defining Terms - Records

• Records – like a document – captures specific information by way of fields. Tables are comprised of similar records.

- Projects

- Orders

- Activities

- Calls

- Customers

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Defining Terms - Fields

• Fields – pieces of data hold a specific value and are part of a record. Many field types exist and can be used for a number of purposes.

- Text fields

• Project name

• Description

• Status (multiple-choice)

- Numeric fields

• Financial values

• Quantities

- Date fields

- User Fields

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Defining Terms - Relationships

• Relationships – relating tables to one another. Relationships allow you to tie records of differing tables together, such as Projects and Tasks, or Customers and Activities.

- Relationships are chiefly one-to-many, meaning one record in a table can have many records from another table, such as one Project having many Tasks.

TasksProjects

ActivitiesCustomers

Invoices

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Defining Terms – Lookup and Summary Fields

• Relationships allow you to make two special fields that interact with data between two related tables:

- Lookup fields – allows the details/child table to look up to the master/parent table and pull information down

- Summary fields – allows the master/parent table to summarize numeric and date values from the details/child table

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Defining Terms – Lookup and Summary Fields

• Relationships allow you to make two special fields that interact with data between two related tables:

- Lookup fields – allows the details/child table to look up to the master/parent table and pull information down

- Summary fields – allows the master/parent table to summarize numeric and date values from the details/child table

TasksProjects

Fields

• Project Name

• Project Manager

• Priority

Fields

• Task Name

• Assigned to

• Status

• Hours Allocated

• Project Name

Fields

• Project Name

Lookup Field

#EMPOWER2015

Defining Terms – Lookup and Summary Fields

• Relationships allow you to make two special fields that interact with data between two related tables:

- Lookup fields – allows the details/child table to look up to the master/parent table and pull information down

- Summary fields – allows the master/parent table to summarize numeric and date values from the details/child table

TasksProjects

Fields

• Project Name

• Project Manager

• Priority

• Hours Allocated for All Tasks

Fields

• Task Name

• Assigned to

• Status

• Hours Allocated

Summary Field

Fields

• Task Name

• Assigned to

• Status

• Hours Allocated

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Apply Your Knowledge

• Thinking of building a new app? Try diagramming it first and see what your preferred diagramming style is – your methods will evolve the more you diagram

• Have an existing app? Try diagramming it. Since app diagrams can be good blueprints for future app managers, try taking an existing app you built or inherited diagramming it out.

• Get some more ideas from QuickBase experts. QuickBase Sales Engineers will be on-hand during Empower and would be happy to help you get started with diagramming. Also, our QuickBase Service Providers would be happy to help.

THANK YOU