Update on the retirement of Application Webhooks UI and QB Actions

I absolutely agree with the above...

BEFORE you sunset a working function, make sure the follow-on function works at least as well as the replaced item. Webhooks are a simple, direct function that can easily be understood as they are within the table using them. Pipelines are a complete disaster for understanding where and how and when they really work....and don't come back with looking at the results as that can take 15 minutes to decipher. THE BIGGEST grip in daily use of pipelines is the complete chaos in presentation. If I've got five pipelines, no problem, but with tens, or hundreds, the presentation and sortability is beyond frustrating!!!

Thanks for all the comments so far, everyone. I want to ensure Qrew members see that we're reading these comments, and there's a plan to address the concerns being raised soon. 

I disagree with Jim at "From there forward the process is easy."

When I'm adding a field value in the new pipelines designer it can sit there and take a few seconds (or even longer sometimes) to record the value and then be able move on to the next field. It can be pretty painful.

Just FYI no joke.

A client I support just this minute Teams'd me this question below.  I know he is building a pipeline to create a record and he will have like at least 50 or more fields to populate.

[12:01 PM] 

Mark, do Pipeline steps hang for you when you build?

[12:03 PM] 

It takes me 10 seconds per field I want to pair up. I am wondering if this is typical

Actually creating an Webhook is (well would have been) a great suggestion. He has all the field names, and all the field IDs and the payload of a web hook to add a record is very repetitive pure text, so quick to copy paste edit. 

yes, another reason not to deprecate Webhooks. 

there is also a webhook syntax I have used to create an audit table of fields that have been changed. It uses ImportFromCSV (I think that is the API) to quickly create child record for field name,old value and new value. 

Agree 1000% with what has been said here thus far.

Brian - If you take 1 thing away from what we are saying here, it's that rather than spending development effort is taking away functionality, your customers are screaming for the replacement solution (pipelines, new forms, new reports, etc.) to work how we know they can and should.

I'm not sure how development resources are allocated, but for things as important as pipelines and forms, there is no use in creating them, leaving them 50% functional, and moving onto something else.

There are "nice to haves", like a New Exchange, AI Smart Builder, ACC tables, and there are "ABSOLUTELY NEED TO HAVE YESTERDAY" like pipelines and new forms working 100%.

Each month we see release notes for items that don't address the REAL needs that the hardcore users have. The ones who create the applications, who answer questions for the community, who drive this thing forward.

I'm sure I speak for everyone in saying that we really appreciate the outreach to the user base, but we'd like to see more response to the biggest issues we are facing.

I second everything that's been said here. The decision to phase out actions and webhooks seems to entirely disregard the user experience of building pipelines on a large scale and the massive level of frustration that comes with it.

I use pipelines for one and only one reason; when there is absolutely no other way to accomplish my goal. If it can be achieved via actions, webhooks, code pages, or even a third-party tool, I'll utilize those features over pipelines without hesitation. Why? Because, in actions and webhooks, my work will be reliably saved and my changes won't unexpectedly revert. I will not have to wait 10-20 seconds each time I want to add a new field. My action/webhook won't unexpectedly crash after spending hours perfecting it, and when there is a failure, I will be reliably notified. I don't need to worry about my action failing when I change a field name. I can easily access my actions and webhooks within my app rather than opening pipelines in the shared developer account and searching through hundreds to find the one I'm looking for. If I'm lucky, I remembered to tag it.

While the new pipeline builder does improve on some of these issues, it is far from where it needs to be, and it's shocking that those involved in this decision believe that we are anywhere close to ready for this change. The autosave feature is still unreliable, and it is just as likely to fail/crash for no discernable reason. The loading time to retrieve apps, tables and fields has not noticeably improved, as and many others have mentioned, neither has the trigger time. I'm also finding field usage reporting to be inaccurate even after the long-awaited improvements were made.

I sincerely hope our shared experiences and frustrations are taken into account, and either the decision to phase out actions and webhooks is rolled back, or the necessary improvements are made to pipelines well before the end of sale date.

I hate to pile on, but I just had a Pipeline lose 50 "Fields required for subsequent steps", so I will need to add them back now.  I had suggested to my client who built the pipeline that they make backup copies along the way but he didn't.  

Hi folks, just wanted to send a quick update on this. Again, thank you to all who have given feedback about webhooks retirement and about how you are currently using the feature. Our team is actively considering how we might revise this plan, and we hope to share more details with you soon.

Ideally it makes sense. In practice pipelines don't have drag & drop. They have click...wait...drag....wait....drop...uh oh, didn't drop correctly....drag again...wait...

There are still so many functional problems with pipelines if anyone over there thinks they are ready to replace webhooks and actions then I'd love to show you how they actually function in a large app.

I'm willing to make a list of issues if it will do any good...