QuickBase Desktop is a Microsoft Access database with some VBA code that mirrors QuickBase databases to MS Access tables and their attached files to your hard drive. It also features a sync button that posts changes made to the mirrored tables back up to the QuickBase server. The sync button also pulls down changes from the QuickBase databases to the local MS Access tables.
NOTE: QuickBase Desktop does not yet support application tokens. To use this tool, you must leave application tokens disabled for the application you want to download. If tokens are required, disable them manually.
-read about tokens: https://www.quickbase.com/help/app_tokens.html
- read how to disable tokens: https://www.quickbase.com/help/app_tokens_disable.html
QuickBase Desktop is packaged as a zip file:
https://www.quickbase.com/up/6mztyxu8/g/rbw/en/va/QuickBaseDesktop.zip
for MS Access 2000 users
or as an mdb file:
https://www.quickbase.com/up/6mztyxu8/g/rc2/en/va/QuickBaseDesktop.mdb
for either MS Access 2000, 2002, 2003 or 2007 users
The zip file will install MDAC 2.8
For users of MS Access 2000,2,3,7 you can use the QuickBaseDesktop.mdb file and then just open it in MS Access 2000,2,3,7.
For users of MS Access 2000,2, if you don't have MDAC 2.8 installed then you'll get an error message about a missing reference for "MSADOX.DLL - v 2.8". This means that you have to install MDAC 2.8.
MDAC 2.8 gets installed automatically for MS Access 2003 and later. For MS Access 2000 or 2002 users you'll find in the QuickBaseDesktop.cab file a file called Mdac_typ.exe. Double click this file to run the installation of MDAC 2.8. Winzip knows how to open up .CAB files as well as zip files.
You can also get Mdac_typ.exe directly from Microsoft for free over the Internet.
MS Access 2000 users please open up the attached file below with WinZip and double click on setup.exe. This will take you through the install process and even install an icon in your Start menu. The icon on your start menu will run QuickBase Desktop in MS Access runtime mode where the database window is hidden and inaccessible. If you want to run in the normal mode then don't use the icon and open the QuickBaseDesktop.mdb file directly by double-clicking on it. It lives in the C:\Program Files\QuickBaseDesktop folder.
New features include:
QuickBase Desktop now runs from the command line for unattended scheduled backups. All you have to do is invoke QuickBase Desktop with a command line something like this:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\ART\Office\MSACCESS.EXE""C:\Program Files\QuickBaseDesktop\QuickBaseDesktop.mdb" /cmd MyPassword
or if you want to supply both username and password you can do this:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\ART\Office\MSACCESS.EXE""C:\Program Files\QuickBaseDesktop\QuickBaseDesktop.mdb" /cmd password=MyPassword username=MyUsername
After you install QuickBase Desktop you'll have a shortcut to it on your "Start" menu. If you right-click on this shortcut and choose "Properties", you'll see the command line that works for your system. Just append to this command line
/cmd YourPassword
where "YourPassword" is actually your password. If you run QuickBase Desktop with this command-line then it will perform a "Sync All" and shut itself down. You can use "Windows Scheduler" (built-in to most versions of Windows) to run this command line for you automatically every week or every day!
QuickBase Desktop now downloads file attachments.
A Sync All button syncs all your local QuickBase databases instead of just the highlighted one.
QuickBase Desktop will mirror QuickBase databases with restricted fields as long as you have read access to restricted fields.
QuickBase Desktop will sync QuickBase databases with restricted fields as long as you have read and modify access to restricted fields.
QuickBase Desktop allows you to use your views. Click on the "One Record" button and select your view from the drop down list at the top of the form.
If you click on the "Many Records" button without closing the form you will see the view selection criteria and sort order applied to the grid view as well.
QuickBase Desktop enforces required fields through the "One Record" and "Many Records" editing of records.
The MS Access tables named "qdb_dbid" that mirror your QuickBase databases have field descriptions that represent the actual field labels in QuickBase.
QuickBase Desktop does not delete records stored locally if they have been deleted on the server. This was designed this way for two reasons. If in QuickBase Desktop you have spent alot of time updating a record and you sync then it would be deleted if the copy on the server was deleted. Instead you are shielded from accidental loss of data entered in QuickBase Desktop. Also it is expensive to determine if a record has been deleted as every record has to be retrieved to make sure it still exists for every sync.
User fields have not been modified when the user changes their profile by changing their first name or last name. The user field still contains the same user. So records that contain a user field that contains a user who has changed their user profile, do not have their Date Modified field changed as a result of the a user changing their user profile. As a result QuickBase Desktop knows of no change affecting such records. Any subsequent synching will not retrieve the user's new first or last name until some other change is made to the record. NOTE: User fields display in MS Access as User IDs instead of names. This is only a display issue and does not affect the resynching of data back to QuickBase.
Remember that all QuickBase text fields are Memo fields in QuickBase Desktop.
If you want to join tables in QuickBase Desktop use the Queries that are named with the same name as your QuickBase tables. However if you want to do a join on QuickBase text fields, you'll have to change the field type of the corresponding QuickBase Desktop memo field. Let's say this field's FID is 16 in your QuickBase table with a dbid of bbxmlkjhl. Go to the QuickBase application and create an application variable called
"Field Size of FID 16 in DBID bbxmlkjhl"
and set its value to
255
To learn about application variables please read:
http://quickbase.intuit.com/developer/node/1963
Then redownload the QuickBase database to QuickBase Desktop. The field with a field identifier of 16 is now a text field with a size of 255 characters.
Most fields used for joining tables have fewer than 256 characters in them so this should not be a problem.
You're all set to do joins. The field type will stick to "Text" even if you sync back to QuickBase.
Please follow the link below to access the release notes: