Text My QB Configurator overview

The Text My QB Configurator is where you set up Text My QB, the Quickbase Extension that sends and receives text messages (SMS and MMS) for your Quickbase apps. Instead of building configuration records by hand, you pick your app, tables, fields, and reports from dropdowns, and the configurator saves the setup for you. Texts are sent and received through your own Esendex account.

Available to: all roles with the Text My QB extension.

What you can do with Text My QB

Everything Text My QB does is driven by configurations. Each configuration belongs to one Quickbase app, and is one of two types:

You can have as many configurations as you need, across all of the apps you've authorized for Text My QB. For example, one app might have an outbound configuration for reminders and an inbound configuration that collects the replies.

Get started

1. Get your Esendex license key and phone number from your Esendex account. See Before you start.

2. Authorize your Quickbase app for Text My QB with Authorize New App, which opens the installation wizard. See the installation wizard overview.

3. Open the configurator. See Open the configurator.

4. Create an outbound or inbound configuration. See Create a Text My QB configuration.

5. Set up its tabs. See Outbound texting or Inbound texting.

6. Test it. For outbound, set Configuration Status to Test Mode and text only your own number. For inbound, enable it and text your Esendex number from your phone.

7. Set Configuration Status to Enabled.

8. If something goes wrong, see Text My QB Configurator messages and troubleshooting.

Before you start

• Set up your Esendex account. Text My QB sends and receives texts through your own Esendex account. If you don't have one yet, sign up with Esendex. From your Esendex account, get:

  • your Esendex license key, and

  • an Esendex phone number to send from or receive on. Esendex calls it a DID.

  You enter both when you create a configuration. To text numbers outside the US and Canada, you need an Esendex number for that country or region; see International texting support.

• Authorize your app. The configurator only lists Quickbase apps you've authorized for Text My QB. To authorize an app, select Authorize New App on the Text My QB extension page in the Extensions Portal (see Extension tiles and pages). This opens the installation wizard, which for Text My QB only authorizes the app:

  1. Authorization: choose a Quickbase user token.

  2. Application information: choose the app, and finish.

  Nothing is added to your app. See the installation wizard overview.

• Check the token's permissions. Text My QB reads and writes your tables with the user token you chose when you authorized the app. That token's user needs permission to view and modify records in your outbound table, and to add records to your activity table and messages received table. Without it, Text My QB can't read your records or save the results.

• Allow pop-ups. Adding, editing, and copying a configuration opens a separate browser window. Allow pop-ups for the Extensions Portal, or the window won't open. See Allow pop-ups below.

Allow pop-ups

If nothing opens when you select + Add Inbound, + Add Outbound, Edit, or Copy, your browser blocked the pop-up window. Allow pop-ups for the Extensions Portal site, then try again:

• Chrome and Edge: a blocked pop-up icon appears at the right end of the address bar. Select it, choose to always allow pop-ups from the site, and select Done.

• Firefox: a bar below the address bar says Firefox prevented the site from opening a pop-up window. Select Settings (or Options) on the bar, then allow pop-ups for the site.

• Safari: choose Safari > Settings > Websites > Pop-up Windows, and set the Extensions Portal site to Allow.

If a window did open but you can't see it, it may be behind your browser. Look for it in your taskbar or dock.

Open the configurator

1. Sign in to the Extensions Portal. You land on My Extensions.

2. Select Open next to Text My QB. The Text My QB extension page opens.

3. At the top of the page, select the blue Text My QB Configuration button. Next to it, Authorized Apps shows how many apps are authorized for Text My QB.

4. A window titled Text My QB Configuration opens over the page and shows your list of configurations.

To close the window, select the close (X) button in its title bar. Clicking outside the window or pressing Esc doesn't close it, so you can't lose your place by accident.

Note

If you see Text My QB configuration URL is not available. when you select the button, submit a technical support case.

The configurations list

The list's header reads Text My QB Configurator - Configurations. Above the list are two buttons:

• + Add Inbound: create a configuration that receives texts.

• + Add Outbound: create a configuration that sends texts.

Each configuration has one row:

If you don't have any configurations yet, the list reads No configurations found. Use the buttons above to add one.

When you select + Add Inbound, + Add Outbound, or Edit, the configuration opens in a separate pop-up window. When you close that window, the list refreshes on its own to show your changes.

To create a configuration, see Create a Text My QB configuration.

Copy a configuration

Copying is the quickest way to make a configuration that's similar to one you already have, for example the same reminder in a second app, or a test copy of an outbound configuration before you change the live one. Don't use a copy to test an inbound configuration; see the note below.

1. Select Copy on the configuration's row. The Copy Configuration dialog opens.

2. Under Configuration Info:

   • Config Name: starts as Copy of plus the original name. Change it to something meaningful.

   • Application: the app the copy will use. It starts as the original's app. You can pick any app authorized for Text My QB.

3. Under Tables, choose the tables the copy will use. Each list starts with the original configuration's table selected.

   • Outbound: Outbound Table (required) and Activity Table (optional).

   • Inbound: Messages Received Table (required).

   If you change Application, the table lists reload with that app's tables, and any table with the same name as the original is selected for you.

4. Select Copy. (Select Cancel to close the dialog without copying.)

The new configuration opens in a pop-up window. It has:

• Every setting and field selection from the original.

• The same Esendex license key and phone number.

• Configuration Status set to Disabled, so it won't send or receive anything until you turn it on.

If the copy's window doesn't open (for example, because your browser blocked the pop-up), the copy was still created. Close the Text My QB Configuration window with its X button, open it again from the extension page, and select Edit on the copy's row.

Important

• Field selections are copied exactly as they were. If you copied to a different app or table, check every field on every tab before you enable the copy, and pick the right fields for the new table.

• One inbound configuration per Esendex number receives texts. A copy of an inbound configuration keeps the original's number, so don't use an inbound copy as a test copy. See How texts flow in.

Stop using a configuration

Configurations can't be deleted. To stop a configuration from sending or receiving texts, open it with Edit, set Configuration Status to Disabled, and select Save. You can turn it back on at any time by setting the status to Enabled.

Inbound vs. outbound configurations

An inbound and an outbound configuration work together for two-way texting: outbound saves a unique message ID on each record it texts, and inbound saves the ID of the message each reply answers, so you can match replies to the texts that prompted them.

Learn more:

• Create a Text My QB configuration

• Outbound texting

• Inbound texting

• Messages and troubleshooting

Need help? Submit a technical support case.