Features/functions

Features and functions

Below you will find varying ways that our Exact Forms Plus extension can work in conjunction with the new Quickbase Document Creation utility to get enhanced or advanced capabilities. The first one listed is very powerful since, as of the time of writing this, Quickbase has not provided a simple way of storing and time-stamping the document that gets created. We allow this for free (no cost) as long as you are storing to a file attachment field in your table.

We've also outlined additional capabilities beyond File Storage. These require a subscription to Quickbase Extensions and can enhance the document creation experience considerably.

File Storage

Now that our Exact Forms Plus service is installed as a button on your table, you can use it to store your document file.

Here is the code snippet behind the button labeled Red #1 in the following image:

Figure 1: File Storage. Sample of what the button might look like on a form.

Code snippet for the button (labeled Red #1 in the previous image):

"https://www.{...}.com/Juiced/DocumentMerge/doc_merge_UA.aspx?"
& "clientId=Q2"
&"&appid=" & AppID()
&"&tpdbid="
&"&tpid=1"
& "&fn=Quote"
& "&msid=" & URLEncode ([Record ID#])
&"&msdb=" & Dbid()
&"&faid=566                     // This is the file attachment field id# for Red #2 above
& "&efpdte=567"                  // This is the date timestamp field id# for Red #3 above
& "&docfmt=pdf
& "&stream=y"
& "&native=y

Save to a File Attachment field—in the code snippet, notice the options highlighted in green. The second highlight (&faid=566) represents the file attachment field (field ID) where you want to store the document. The third highlight is the date and timestamp field for when the document was created. The last highlight (&native=y) is required—it tells us to use the Quickbase Native Document Creation process.

To use other cloud storage options, like Dropbox or Amazon S3, follow these URL parameter options for either Amazon S3 or Dropbox (see the Amazon S3 and Dropbox sections on that page). See the notes on all of the above for more information.

Incidentally, this is the error message you might see if the last parameter is not used:

Subtable/subreport creation *

You can use our capabilities to create an embedded report within your document, which provides a professional-looking table of data (see Image 1: EF+ subtable). This also allows for subtotaling and grouping, which may not work as needed with the Quickbase Document Creation process. To take advantage of this capability, you need to do a few things. Add the subtable to your app (see EF+ setup instructions) and then add a new parameter to the formula URL button, as shown in the following code snippet. Then add a reference to your subtable within the document template itself with ~strid=3~ (yellow highlight in Image 1), which instructs our process to grab the subtable record ID 3 from the [Document Subtables] table. A further explanation can be found on our help site. See our Including Embedded Reports and EFPlus Configurator articles.

"https://www.{...}.com/Juiced/DocumentMerge/doc_merge_UA.aspx?"
& "clientId=Q2"
&"&appid=" & AppID()
&"&tpdbid="
&"&tpid=1"
& "&fn=Quote"
& "&msid=" & URLEncode ([Record ID#])
&"&msdb=" & Dbid()
&"&faid=566
& "&efpdte=567"
& "&docfmt=pdf
& "&stream=y"
& "&native=y
& "&stdbid=" & [_DBID_DOCUMENT_SUBTABLES]

Image 1 shows a sample of what the parameter looks like within the Quickbase Document Creation editor. The following image shows what our Exact Forms Plus subtable report looks like inside a document created by EF+ and the new Quickbase Document Creation.

Field ID#s *

Add fields throughout the document with our standard tilde notation ~. To add a field anywhere on the document, place a ~##~ where ## is the field ID of the field on the table. This helps streamline where you place data and abstracts the template from field name changes, since our process references only the field ID. If you use this notation, add a new parameter to the formula URL button, highlighted in yellow in the following code snippet.

"https://www.{...}.com/Juiced/DocumentMerge/doc_merge_UA.aspx?"
& "clientId=Q2"
&"&appid=" & AppID()
&"&tpdbid="
&"&tpid=1"
& "&fn=Quote"
& "&msid=" & URLEncode ([Record ID#])
&"&msdb=" & Dbid()
&"&faid=566
& "&efpdte=567"
& "&docfmt=pdf
& "&stream=y"
& "&native=y
& "&clist=3.209.273.311.448"
& "&stdbid=" & [_DBID_DOCUMENT_SUBTABLES]

Miscellaneous other functions *

These are functions not supported by the new Quickbase Document Creation process. The following items show what they look like after Exact Forms Plus has processed them for the Quickbase Document Creation process.

• QR Codes

• Checkbox

• Numbers to Words

• Date Formatting

• Euro Symbol

In the following examples, see what Exact Forms Plus supports for Quickbase Document Creation.

Note

We included a side-by-side sample of our checkbox and the new checkbox.

The following are the Exact Forms Plus settings inside the Quickbase Document Creation editor:

Notes on all of the above

The File Storage option is offered for no charge to Quickbase customers who use Quickbase Document Creation and want to use our extension, Exact Forms Plus, to store their documents. The other three features and functions described in this article require a subscription to Quickbase Extensions. If you use these options without a subscription, you may see the following message. To get started, submit a technical support case and we can help you get going.

EF+ setup instructions

To get Exact Forms Plus completely installed, follow these steps. See the Quickbase Extensions installation wizard overview for installing our extensions. When viewing that help page, follow the screenshot images after signing in to the Extensions Portal. Select the Exact Forms Plus tile, then select the green AUTHORIZE NEW APPLICATION button on the next page. This walks you through the installation, and you can follow the step 2 authorization instructions.