Summary of Pre-fill functionality: Pre-fills fields in an Add Record form with dynamic data or static data from existing Quickbase records. With this single feature, it extends FE in powerful ways and more use cases.
Notes:
This function takes an existing digitized form, configures the Add Record version with pre-fill values, and creates a Formula URL field in Quickbase to hold the “Add Record with pre-filled data” URL.
The pre-fill values can be pulled from any table in the app the form is digitized to.
A field doesn’t need to be on a form to be pre-filled and populate the QB record.
When the “Add Record with pre-fill” is used inside an app, like an Edit or Print URL button, it pre-fills with the current data in the QB record. If that URL is copied and used outside of QB, it freezes the pre-fill values into the URL, so it is still an Add Record form and doesn’t pull any live data from QB.
Pre-fill values can be from these field types: Text, Numeric, Related Parent/Reference, or Lookup fields of the same Text or Numeric field types.
Use cases:
Anywhere a field or fields need to be pre-filled in an Add Record form (whether the form completer sees or can edit that pre-filled field or not), and that data can come from any QB record in the same app. Single Form Engine Add Record forms can be made into many versions in one step, specifying things like location, event, relationship to a parent record, or anything else that is needed or adds value, and the user does not have to know or enter.
To create a pre-fill form:
1. Digitize the form and Save as usual.
2. From the “Publish to Quickbase” dropdown menu, choose the “Add” Link option.
3. In the popup below, choose the table in your app where the pre-fill data will come from (which is also where
the new Formula URL field will live). Give that field a name that will display in the QB field button and at the
top of the form for form completers.
4. As below, then choose the Target Table and Field in the form that you want pre-filled (it does not have to be
on the form), and the Source Field that you want the pre-fill data to come from. Then click the + sign to add
the pre-fill configuration, and add any additional fields in the form you want pre-filled, and their source fields.
5. When you are finished click Create and the Formula URL field configured to pre-fill will be created in the
table you chose in #3.
6. When you go into your QB table you’ll see the new Formula URL field as a button like below. Clicking it
renders an Add Record form with the pre-filled values from the record it is in. You can copy the URL for any
of the buttons and email or paste them as links anywhere needed, and the form completers will get the pre-
filled Add Record form, populated from any record in the table.
Each time you go through this process to create a pre-filled version of a form, a Formula URL field is created in the table that has the pre-fill data. After the URL field is created, the form background image and fields on the form can be changed in the Form Engine, but the pre-fill conditions cannot be seen or changed in the Form Engine. A new pre-fill URL and button needs to be created for new or changed pre-fill needs for a form.
Replacing dynamic pre-fill with static pre-fills:
The easiest way to generate the Add Record URL with static pre-fills is to create the pre-fill URL as usual and copy the URL from a QB record with the data you want pre-filled. This puts the pre-fill fields in the URL itself. So the copy of the URL will freeze the pre-fill values into the URL, and that URL with static pre-fill values can be pasted and used anywhere outside of QB.
NOTES on Multiple Pre-filled fields:
Like with Edit Record forms, the source data for the pre-filled fields on a single form always comes from a single QB record (including any lookup fields to its parent record). So when creating pre-fills you can only choose one table to be the source of the pre-fill data for a form, as highlighted below. You can’t choose more than one source table per form, and if you try and change the source table after you’ve created pre-fill values, it will warn you that your Pre-fill Values will be deleted and you start over.
You can pre-fill fields in multiple records, to one or multiple tables, in the same form, and that can be very powerful. Those can include auto-relating records in forms to existing parent records, or otherwise coding or distinguishing multiple new records on a form from each other. It adds a dimension to data capture that is beyond what can be done in native QB without writing code, and it is still data-driven from QB.
Example - Quickly setting up a simple pre-fill data set and URLs:
When you have an existing QB table that has the fields and records with the pre-fill values you want to use in a form, you’d use that table. But what if for example you need to have an order form that pre-fills the Location so you can use the same Form Engine form in multiple locations without having to ask the user to choose their location, and you don’t have a table that contains a list of the Locations in the QB app?
If you add a Location table with just one Location field like below, and import or create a record for each location, then you have what you need to turn a single Form Engine order form into location-specific order forms for as many locations as you need. Just digitize the form and create a pre-fill condition that fills in the Location from the Locations table (whether or not the Location field is used on the form), and create the URL, and you’ll now have location-specific URLs for the form that are specific to each Location, usable anywhere, like this is for these 4 locations:
A key point is that unlike other Add Record form URLs, you now get your location-specific URLs from this new table in your QB, they aren’t accessible in your Form Engine library. Though you still control them all from the master form in your library, so you can change fields, background, etc…in the master form and the changes will propagate to all these form versions instantly. You just can’t change the prefills or the tables in the master form, you’d need to set up new pre-fills in the master form and have it create another Formula URL field. You can create as many pre-fill versions of a master form in your library as you like, there is no limit.