URL changes in new navigation

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In addition to visual changes, we’ve also made a change to our URL path.

Important

Legacy URLs remain fully supported. Existing, native workflows will not be interrupted. Some code pages may not work immediately. See the Code pages section in this article.

Why are we changing the URL path?

Changes to the URL path provide a smoother, more intuitive experience. Here are some of the benefits of the new URL path:

  • Efficiency and shorter load times—The new URL path will help us continue to improve performance and page load times

  • Standardization with current best practices—The new URL path aligns with patterns commonly seen on modern websites. This helps us meet expectations customers have for modern platforms.

  • Content hierarchy for easy learning—The new URL path includes content hierarchy, so it’s easier for users learning Quickbase to understand how to manipulate and use the URL path.

URL path changes

Legacy path

Parameter

Example

Notes

realm + hostname

example.quickbase.com

Hostname is .quickbase.com

app or table id (or table alias)

db/bs2bs23t7

URL contains either the app id or the table id, but not both. You can also use a table alias in place of a table id.

action

?a=q&

Action is prepended with a=

In this example, ?a=q& takes you to a report

additional search parameters

qid=1

In this example, this parameter specifies which report to view

Updated path

Parameter

Example

What changed

realm + hostname

example.quickbase.com

Unchanged

app and table id (or table alias)

/nav/app/bqznq565g/table/bs2bs23t7/

  • Begins with /nav

  • Lists both app and table id (you may also use a table alias instead of a table id. Learn more)

  • Calls out app/ and table/ before each respective id

action

action/q?

  • a became action

  • = is now /

  • Action itself is unchanged. For example q still refers to reports.

additional search parameters

qid=1

Unchanged

Code pages

When Open Beta for new navigation starts on May 8, two types of issues may impact code pages:

  1. Resolved: JavaScript features that do not work across domains

  2. Gathering information from the URL path

Quickbase addressed the first issue type July 21, 2024 when we released an update. 

The second type of issue may require you to make changes to your code pages before they will work with new navigation. Making the recommended changes will also help your code pages be more resilient to any future changes.

Resolved: JavaScript features that did not work across domains

When Open Beta began on May 8, new navigation elements were part of the URL path realm.ui.quickbase.com. However, code pages remained on realm.quickbase.com. To protect your information, browsers did not allow certain JavaScript features to interact across these two locations.

The most common JavaScript features used in code pages that did not work across domains were:

  • document.referrer

  • window.parent

How did we resolve the issue?

On July 21, 2024, we released an update to new navigation. The update removed the .ui from the domain and resolved issues caused by the two separate domains. 

Recommended changes

While these changes are no longer necessary, making them helps ensure your app follows best practices.

Within Quickbase code pages, a common use case for document.referrer is going back to the previous page after taking some action on the code page.

Instead of using document.referrer, use window.history.back().

If you’re using document.referrer to get information about the prior page, look at the recommendation in the next section of this page. This is an opportunity to update another JavaScript pattern that will be more resilient during future Quickbase changes and browser security feature changes.

Gathering information from the URL path

Some Quickbase code pages may rely on the URL path and query parameters to gather information from the app.

How will the issues get resolved?

URL path issues will not be resolved unless you update two places:

  • Query parameters in the link that opens the code page

  • The code page that’s opened, so it can consume those query parameters.

Recommended changes

When a code page relies on information provided through query parameters or across code pages, use custom query parameters or pass information via eventing with window.postMessage instead of relying on URL paths or query parameters used by Quickbase.

For example, a code page may have code that looks at the current URL path or query parameters, such as ?a=dbpage. The purpose of the code is to identify the current app ID or action. With URL updates, the path and some query parameters have changed. That code may no longer work.

To resolve the issue, update the link that opens the code page to provide the app ID in your own custom query parameters.

Then, update the code page to consume those query parameters.

Example:

This is a Formula URL link to a code page that uses the path to get the app ID:

https://myrealm.quickbase.com/db/abc123?a=showpage&myTargetApp=abc123

Instead of relying on the abc123 app ID in the path, provide a personal query param:

myTargetApp=abc123

This will always be available to the code page, even if there are additional changes to the URL path.