In some cases, application users simply have access to your application; they can sign in, enter data, run reports, and so forth. However, you can also develop an application that incorporates data about your users. For example, you may have developed a project management application that allows you to assign tasks to your users and track their progress. In the Assigned To field, you'll want to be able to select from a list of users.
For applications like this, QuickBase lets you create dropdown menus which list your application users. Not surprisingly, these are called User fields. The Assigned To field in the following image is a good example of a user field.
User field values are tied directly to a user's QuickBase user account. This means that you can perform a lot of nifty tricks with user fields. You can use them to generate automated email notifications. For example, when a new task is created, you can specify that QuickBase notify the user listed in the Assigned To field. You can also use user field values to control access permissions or to create reports that focus each staff member's attention on only those records that apply to them. Read more.
A User field lets you select one user from the dropdown list. QuickBase also offers a List-User field that lets you select more than one user from the dropdown list. List-User fields work in much the same way as User fields; however, there are some restrictions. Read more about List-User fields.
You may not want to include all of your application users in a user field dropdown list and you don't have to. QuickBase lets you specify who appears in user field dropdowns in two different ways:
Specify the Default Set – The set of users that should automatically appear in user field dropdowns. You can see who is in the default set by selecting Users > Manage users. On the Manage Users page, the Show in User pickers column displays membership. If a user's checkmark is green, he or she is a member of the Default Set and appears in user dropdown lists. To remove a user from your application's user dropdown lists, un-check the user in that column.
Specify a Custom Set for a particular field – What if you want a user to appear on some lists but not others? No problem. For any User field, you can set a field property that tells QuickBase to use a custom set of users. On the Choices property, select Custom user set and click Add Users. Add only the users that you want to appear in the drop-down list and save the changes.
If you've established a relationship between two tables, and one table includes a reference field that's a user field, the default or custom set of users won't be reflected in the reference field dropdown. In the details table, the dropdown for user reference field includes only users you added to the master table.
Why do some user names appear in red?
When you click a dropdown list in a user field, one name appears in red, while the others appear in black. Why? The red color means that:
the user was once was (but is no longer) a member of the default or custom set and the user populates this field in your table AND
at some point, someone selected this user to populate the field
So, QuickBase displays the user in red to prompt you to either add the user to the default set or to remove the user from the record.
If you add the user to the default set, the user will appear in black, just like the other users in the list. If you remove the user from the record in which he/she appears, the name will disappear from the user field dropdown.
What about built-in user fields?
Built-in fields (Like Record Owner and Last Modified by) don't let you create a custom user set, because in order to function properly, they must include all application users. For example, if a user is not in the Default Set, but creates a record (and therefore becomes the "record owner"), QuickBase must be able to record that user's information.
Click Users > Manage users.
On the Manage Users page, click the checkmark that appears in the Show in User pickers column for any user who should appear in the user dropdown.
Click a table name in the table bar of your app, then choose Customize --tablename-- Table > Fields.
Click the field name to access a field's properties.
On the Choices property, select Custom user set. QuickBase displays all of the users currently in the default set.
Modify the set of users as desired, using the Add Users and Remove User buttons.
Click Save to save your changes.