About Placeholders
In some situations—usually if you've imported data into an application—Quickbase may create placeholder values in User fields. A User field is a special type of field that stores references to Quickbase users. For example, if you're using an application to manage projects, you'd probably want to a way to assign tasks to the people who use your application. To solve this problem, you'd include a field called Assigned To and designate its type as User. This field would display a dropdown showing your application users. Whenever you share your application with someone new, Quickbase adds that person to the list.
Say you conduct an import to add records to a table that contains a User field. You might think that the data you're importing has a User field, but Quickbase may not be able to recognize the values as your application users. For instance, if one field has a value like "Harriet" you may know that value represents your boss, Harriet Kopekne, but Quickbase has no way of knowing. When possible, Quickbase actually does try to match values, but often the source data isn't helpful enough.
In these situations, Quickbase can't leave the user field blank, so it inserts a placeholder value in this field. You can easily identify a placeholder by the double-quotes that surround it. If you see a value with quotes like "Harriet" appear in your user list, you need to take action.
Note: If you import email addresses, Quickbase can immediately match a value with the Quickbase user who's registered with that email address, instead of inserting a placeholder. So, if you can, try importing email addresses into User fields instead of names. You'll save time later.
When you see placeholders in a User field, you should designate a real Quickbase user for that value. To learn how, read about converting placeholders.
Bulk removal
To bulk-remove all existing placeholder users in your app, go to the Manage Users page and then click Remove Placeholders. This option is only available when there are existing placeholder users present in your app.
