Forums - Feature Requests

Script as text

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 01:13:46 +0000

Hi Team
One thing that has become very apparent when trying to share scripts on this forum: there is no way to do this without a screenshot - or re-typing everything manually.

The current lowcode interface is nice, and promotes feeling simplicity - but is not always the most practical.
- The script does take up a lot of screen real estate so longer scripts are more difficult to visualise.
- There is no way that I know of as yet anyway to take a copy of the script as actual text, for example to paste in the forums, or share with others.

Feature request: would it be possible to create an alternate layout where the script simply appears as text (even if it can't be modified by typing and is used as it is now) with the ability to copy/paste this on forums or elsewhere like gist/github?
Or at least implement a function to copy the current script as text?

Many thanks once again,
Stam

BLOBs: Multiple feature requests

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 00:59:25 +0000

Hi team

first of all thank you for the fixes just pushed - list files works perfectly.

The intention with the lowcode script I was trying to use this in was to
1. browse a folder containing mp4 videos
2. upload them to the cloud for use in an app.

The first request is an issue I've had with LiveCloud as well: uploading a blob does not retain the filename or modifiable metadata for the file and essentially just contains a UUID and an extension. Therefore working with BLOBs is not possible unless I also create a kind of join table to include the BLOB UUID and metadata, whereas this could be solved easily by including the filename as a key in the cdbBlobs table. This is fine and it works but is extra work.

In Appli, this script uploads the BLOBs and populates a separate table with their IDs and filenames. This works but may not be the most efficient:

Screenshot 2024-10-11 at 01.37.49.png Size: 246.67 KB Downloads: 3

So the first question is: can I use blobType in livecloud with the filename instead of the extension to make up for this? (I attempted to create. new key in the cdbBlobs table but that caused catastrophic errors only solved when I deleted the project...).
The second question is: was there an easier way to achieve the tasks shown in the script above?

If not, then the first feature request is: would it be possible to consider adding a "description" key in cdbBlobs that could for example be populated with the filename by default?

Another issue I've had with BLOBs is that create blob has been implemented as a non-blocking action - but there is as far as I can see no way to set up a callback/notification for when upload has been completed. Since there is no batch upload in Appli (as far as I can see), that means this is a stepwise process and there is no way for the app to know when the process has been completed.

So my second feature request is: please consider implementing callbacks for BLOB actions in Appli and BLOB handlers in LiveCloud
As far as I can see there is no easy way to periodically poll this from Appli so I dont' think I can work around this; and in LiveCode + LiveCloud it would mean setting up a recurring handler to check if the number of records in LiveCloud matches the number of records the handler knows it has uploaded - again a lot of extra and possibly error-prone work.

If adding a callback isn't feasible, is it possible to have an option to make this a blocking action, so the script cannot proceed until upload is complete?

Many thanks once again,
Stam

Buttonbar

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 23:31:28 +0000

Hi team,

great product... I'm guessing this can be done manually, but would be a nice timesaver to have a buttonbar control... ideally something that can combine buttons with popovers configurable in settings. Maybe also with an 'action button' as in material design.

Stam

Part of this would require "sticky" buttons which I can't see a way to do in Appli at present (did I miss a setting?)
Ideally would also require a "popover" control (eg as in FileMaker Pro). I guess a roundrect could be used (although I'm always partial the arrow).

Users upload photos.

Fri, 10 May 2024 23:49:23 +0000

I have an app which needs the user to be able to upload their own photographs (ideally with tags / comments / titles / ...)

I kind of guess there is some way, and I've just missed it. If so, could someone point me to the docs that describe it.

If not - please make it a (high-ish priority) feature request.

(How am I ever going to replace tripadvisor without this feature :-)

Appli Player requests.

Wed, 08 May 2024 00:12:43 +0000

Of course, these may be documentation requests rather than feature requests ....

1. There doesn't seem to be a way to remove an app from the list of "My Apps".

2. The list screen has a switch at the bottom for "Show Included". What does this do ?

3. "Patch Notes" Is this the best name ? Would "Release notes" be more standard (and less nerdy) alternative ?

4. Opening the player could check if there is a later version available. This is particularly useful because it is HARD to search for the Appli player on the IOS App Store. I tried a whole bunch of strings before finding that "Canela Software" would get me there.

5. The list of apps on the My Apps screen could show (badge of some kind??) which apps have an update available.

6. Apps on the My Apps screen should be collected together by Project.

A better way to have multiple similar controls.

Tue, 07 May 2024 13:53:48 +0000

I have an app with multiple buttons, each of which should do an almost identical thing:
log the fact that the button has been pressed (and the date, time, ....)

If I was doing it in Livecode, I could :

1. put the buttons in a group, and have the group script do " .... logmessage(the short name of the target) ..."
or
2. have a behaviour script that did logmessage(the short name of me), and use that for all these buttons
or
3. at the very least, do "logmessage(the short name of me)" in the script before copying/pasting/duplicating the buttons.

I can't see any way to do anything similar in Appli - currently I am copy+pasting the buttons, and then editing each one to change the text string of the button name in the code.

Set scroll position

Tue, 07 May 2024 13:40:20 +0000

Both for table and layout elements it would be desirable to be able to set the scroll position.

For example, I have a simple tracker app, with either a table or layout to display previous events, in chronological order. I want the most recent events to be immediately visible - though all events should be visible by scrolling.

So, after refreshing the table or layout, I would like to do something like
refresh layout "mylayout"
set the scrollposition of layout "mylayout" to

Combine the Values

Fri, 24 Feb 2023 19:44:26 +0000

This is a really cool action.
I assume that this is where one would create comma-delimited links to database records in a possible to a one-to-many and many-to-many relationship with records.
An example, please.

List of URL options

Fri, 24 Feb 2023 19:36:57 +0000

Allows APPLI to launch a URL to their respective applications. It opens the default applications based on the custom URL schemes.
Is there a list of any other URL schemes? There are a few URL schemes listed in the documents.

Better support for very common app pattern(s)

Sat, 18 Jun 2022 21:48:45 +0000

The kind of data-driven apps that (IMO) no/lo-code is well suited for have a number of common patterns.
One in particular is so common it's almost ubiquituous:
- an 'overview' page (either layout or table element) showing all/some of the records of a table.
- a button within the per-record part of that display which takes you to a view or edit page
- a button which adds a new record, and takes you to a page almost identical to the view or edit page above

It is wrong (IMHO) that you need to write *any* code at all to achieve this. There should be an option in the right-hand pane while editing a button which allows you to specify that this button changes screen (and gives maybe a drop-down of other screen to select which one to go to), and sub-options to indicate whether new record or the recordID of the current record in the layout.

On those lines, the sample app for contacts has 3 almost identical pages - add, detail and edit. As far as I can see, these have each been described (at some length), though they vary only very slightly (labels on the cancel/save/add buttons, whether or not the 'back' button is visible). There ought to be a way to share the commonality of the pages. For instance, if you decided to add a field (or rename a field like 'first name' to 'given name') you'd have to do it in multiple places.

So there's an additional tiny feature request - copy/paste screen.

auto-create form

Fri, 17 Jun 2022 23:59:25 +0000

I know you can already import a CSV file, and automatically create a (data) table from it.

It would be nice to have a simple "wizard-like" way to create an edit/input form for that table; i.e. create an input field+label for each column in the table, just arranged in a single column in the order of the columns. It might be that the user then deletes some of them, and re-arranges them, creates some responsive geometry - but this would be a definite time-saver compared to manually creating then adjusting each field in turn.
Perhaps allow the user to manually configure one field, and then copy those style characteristics to all the other fields.

Input fields with verification

Fri, 17 Jun 2022 23:52:41 +0000

It would be good, and I think very valuable for no/lo code, to be able to specify a type/verification for input fields.

That is, you create a field, and can specify that it is :
- a date, or time, or date+time
- a number
- an integer
- a Zip (or ZIP+4) code
- a (US) phone number, or international phone number
- etc.
As many of those kind of well-known, often used, 'restricted' field contents as you can.

And also allow lo-code to create a function handler to handle custom verification. Maybe in some sense this is already possible for lo-code - but this would make it super-simple and integrated with the built-in verification scheme.

Sort order for 'layout' element.

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 19:32:22 +0000

When you use a database to fill a layout element, with 'multiple rows' selected, you can set the order of display.
However, this is limited to a singe key - it really needs to be multiple keys. Even the simple example (Contacts) is not effective - having e.g. all the 'Smith"s in random order rather than sub-oder by first name.

A 'table' element allows sorting by multiple keys - though I can't remember how to do that, or how get there. The navigation is, I find, sometimes unclear.

Also, the 'nocode' dialog for layout has no 'cancel' button, while the 'table' one does - no big deal, but an unnecessary inconsistency.

Another example of navigation doubt - the IDE opens in 'project selection' screen, but once I've opened a project, I can't find a way to get back to the project selection screen to work on a different one (of course, I can simply close the IDE, re-start it, type in my password - and then select a different project).

Tooltips everywhere.

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 17:31:10 +0000

Along the top of the appli IDE there is a row of icons - each with a tooltip.
However, the rightmost three (option, sync, account) - arguably the most important - don't have tooltips.

Similarly, in the rightmost pane (once I've selected, say, a layout), each item has a tooltip - EXCEPT the no-code and low-code icons at the bottom.