Debugging Workflows

Debugging workflows in Quickbase is faster than in applications coded from scratch. That's because we automatically build the underlying structures for you.

There are different ways to debug a workflow depending on how you built it: as a pipeline or as a formula.

Debugging Pipeline-based workflows

For workflows you build with our Pipelines feature, Quickbase notifies you if there’s an error. We email the pipeline owner with information about the error. You can also track a personal RSS feed with your pipeline’s activity.

Once you begin troubleshooting, view our activity log. This provides all the details you need about each step in your workflow. The activity log shows:

  • When each workflow was triggered
  • Which steps ran
  • The result and output of each step

You may also need to review the setup of your workflow to determine the problem. Our interactive pipeline designer helps you explore and remember how the workflow was built. Custom step names and notes quickly orient you so you can fix the problem.

Debugging formula-based workflows

When building a workflow using a Quickbase formula, we provide all the basic features of an integrated development environment (IDE) to support you:

  • Line numbering, syntax coloring, and parenthesis matching - help you build or troubleshoot the formula
  • Real-time error handling - immediately alerts you about syntactic issues (like data type mismatches or invalid field references)
  • Pop-up errors - appear if needed when you save your formula
  • Formula checker tool - detects runtime errors