Understanding how QuickBase evaluates rules on a form

It's important to understand the order in which QuickBase evaluates and executes the rules on a form:

1. Depending on the conditions in your rule, QuickBase may evaluate rules in any of the following ways:

• When the form (record) is opened

• When the user clicks Save

• After the user clicks save AND QuickBase has checked to make sure the form can be saved

• After the value in a field is changed

2. QuickBase evaluates rules in the order in which they appear on the form.

Form rules and derived fields

Formula fields, Lookup fields, Summary fields, and Reference fields are all examples of derived fields; this means that the values in these fields are calculated based on the value in other fields on the form ("dependent" fields.)

When a form contains derived fields, QuickBase runs through all of the rules on the form twice, to ensure that all derived fields are updated properly. Specifically:

• When evaluating a rule with a condition that references a derived field, QuickBase updates the values of the derived fields before evaluating the condition.

• For each action that references a derived field, QuickBase updates the derived field before executing the action.

• After executing all the rules on the form, QuickBase updates all derived fields once again. If the value of any derived field changes as a result, QuickBase executes only the rules that reference the derived field once again.

Note: QuickBase runs through the rules on the form ONLY twice when the form contains derived fields. If the value in a derived field changes after the second pass, QuickBase does not run through the rules again.

Form rules and conditional dropdowns

Your form may contain conditional dropdowns; these are fields where the selection in one field dictates the available selections in another field (the dependent field.)

For instance, a form used to record automobile rentals may have two fields: Make and Model. When the user selects a Make, QuickBase ensures that the models that appear in the Model dropdown contain only models of the selected Make. In this example, the Make field is the independent field in the conditional dropdown pair; the Model field is the dependent field.

With form rules, you can change the value in the independent field in a conditional dropdown pair, but not the dependent field.

Form rules and grid edit

QuickBase will not evaluate or execute form rules when you update records using Grid Edit.

Related Topics

• Disabling a rule

• Deleting a rule

• Creating a Timestamp with Form Rules

• About custom forms

• Creating custom forms

• Associating a custom form with reports and roles

• Editing a custom form

• Copying a custom form

• Deleting a custom form