Custom Component Development

Hello

Would it be possible to develop custom components and add them as a framework like bootstrap etc.? Or would it be possible to let custom components to be developed by Wappler or any 3rd party company?

Thanks
Claudio

Are you asking if the team would allow developers to build extensions for Wappler? If so, I highly doubt it. The team has been extremely good at adding requested features weekly. If there is a need, these guys are usually on top of it.

You can run Javascript in Wappler. There is no need for extra requirements for this. You can find examples in the forum.

Your suggestion can be like this.
You have made a basket application and it would be nice to share it with other wappler users. Pre-built javascript applications or server connect applications can be shared between users.

If I remember correctly, a request has already been made.
@george can give you a clearer information.

Bubble developed a plugin marketplace some time ago. People started creating business around this idea. Bubble takes a 30% cut of any plugin sold or subscribed to.

What happened? The development and improvement of components by Bubble team stagnated as they started reliying on third party developers to add components.

In the end you were paying more for your plugins than for the bubble app itself.

Plugins are OK, marketplaces are OKā€¦just be careful of what you wish. It might turn into something you didnā€™t expect :slight_smile:

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Dreamweaver is a perfect example.

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Wordpress is another example of why I would not recommend doing this. Plugins can cause havoc for a developer that uses them and for the developer that develops them.

Iā€™m converting away from Wordpress for that very reason. I am tired of the constant headaches that plugins provide, however I am not able to do what I want on a Wordpress site without them.

By using Wappler and developing the website/application from scratch, I do not have to worry about that anymore.

As @brad mentioned, the Wappler team is extremely responsive to requests for improvement. If it is not possible, they will tell us that it is not possible, why it is not possible, and point us in the direction of how to accomplish it on our own.

One thing to keep in mind is that any member of the community and post a ā€œHow Toā€ tutorial or video on how to do something in Wappler and both the Wappler team and the community will greatly appreciate it. Just look at @Hyperbytes and @psweb, they have both done it successfully.

For example, someone recently posted a feature request for a translation component. I would be surprised to see that incorporated as a component because it would depend on an API. However, that is not to say that someone could not develop a tutorial using Googleā€™s Translate API and post it on the forum for everyone to use.

While it is ultimately up to @George, @Teodor, @patrick, and the rest of the Wappler team if they want to allow third party plugins and components, I would be hesitant about using them unless they came from a reputable source. The Wappler team has proven itself over many years for the high quality of their work and responsive support and I would not want to start using third party plugins and components and find myself in the same situation that I currently am with Wordpress.

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@scott I could not agree more with you!
Although I love open source, it has become a place where developers create plugins to create recurring income and at the end, the platform itself becomes just a place to showcase various plugins. What you describe is why people like us love Wappler. It gives almost 100% freedom, to build in no time top quality solutions. This way we can compete the Marketplace approach which I believe is dying.

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Hmmm, will have to add that to my ā€œGive it a go when you have some time free!ā€ list

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Got to say I do not like this idea. As scott says, plugins are not really something that fits with the Wappler approach
For we the open nature of Wappler is itā€™s greatest strength, pretty much anything can be done if you put your mind to it and can be done in a way that alloys it to be exact what you need, Plugins always mean compromise.
I abandoned Wordpress eventually because of the vulnerability of plugins, so many were badly written and exposed your site to serious security flaws.

Bubble needed a plugin marketplace as it is a custom platform, and developers are locked into what they allow and little else

So for me stick with straight forward HTML/CSS/JS so you can add whatever you need via external API or libraries and know you are in control

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I agree with most of the comments above; Iā€™ve also used software where essential features are never added to the core product because of plugins.

However, I also use software where additional features are added by ā€˜sponsorsā€™ who particularly need them, and these features then become available to all users of the software. I expect the Wappler team may not be in a position to consider such an approach at the moment in any case. Itā€™s just a thought.

Eg I might want to contribute towards a feature I particularly wanted, such as Draggable / Sortable Elements and for which there is quite a bit of interest. As it stands, I canā€™t imagine the Wappler team would have time for requests which are outside what they already have planned, but perhaps in the future, if the team expands, it might be possible.

Iā€™m not quite sure what @Claudio meant by:

A development contract could be an option for our company.

ā€¦ but it may have been something along these lines.

Sponsorship was the approach Bubble followed in the past before they implemented the plugin marketplace.

Itā€™s been a long time since Iā€™ve seen a feature sponsored by users and developed by Bubble so I believe they do not do this anymore.

The problem I see with this is that the needs of many are postponed by the money of a few :slight_smile:

So for example you have 50 votes for in-app DB management and zero money on one side of the scale and you have this niche feature with one vote and 5000ā‚¬ on the other side.

What would you do?

@JonL, I would put 1 Euro or 1 Pound or 1 Dollar or 1 coffee on the side of the 50 votes so they would have some money behind them. :slight_smile:

Yeah and DMXzone was the very worst of them LOL.

Hey guys, Iā€™m really surprised about the Wappler community - seems to be a very living community :wink:

So the use case we have as a company we would like to build a library of custom components we intially create and deliver it to our customers so they can use Wappler to modifiy it (limited knowledge because theyā€™re not web designers) . Thatā€™s why a ā€œhook-inā€ solution with additional JS etc. would not work in this case.

These are not web pages published anywhere but more like HMIs or SCADA systems running somewhere embedded. So even we would publish them as a common Wappler framework, nobody else would be interested in it because it is so specific.

So this is quite a bit a different approach using Wappler as an HMI designer than it was until now as a web designer and the question is if the Wappler team would like to extend the use cases and get into some new businesses. Of course this would require some stable APIs to let 3rd party devolpers come in.

The points in all the replies above I see too but it would not help us fitting our needs.

Thanks
Claudio

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This is one company that supplies APIā€™s for the interface
KP Chuang
Skype: Chuang.OAS
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Email: kpchuang@oasiot.com

Sorry:

This is a fair point and and obviously something which should be avoided. However, the result could be the opposite: the ā€˜money of the fewā€™ helping to fulfil the ā€˜needs of the manyā€™. Eg there could be a group of developers who might in other environments be prepared to pay for some tool to help with a project or with their work generally. They might be prepared to contribute a reasonable amount towards the development of a feature which would likely be of benefit, but of less importance, to others. I donā€™t think anything which would be of interest to only one or two users should be added to Wappler; it could cause it to become more complicated to use, and suffer from ā€˜feature bloatā€™.

So for example you have 50 votes for in-app DB management and zero money on one side of the scale and you have this niche feature with one vote and 5000ā‚¬ on the other side.

What would you do?

I donā€™t think it should be necessary - or desirable - to incorporate any niche features into Wappler. However, Wappler may need more tools to enable more niche features to be developed - and such tools may be of general use. So perhaps the 5000ā‚¬ could be used to develop the missing features. However, for that sum, it may be that the issue is needing a more skilled Wappler developer rather than features lacking in Wappler.

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Yes I agree. Wappler has already reached a point where you can develop almost anything. So if someone wants a very specific solution developed with Wappler he can ask someone to create all necessary Server Connect | App Connect | Database structure. Then he will be able to paste the files into his project, update the database and he will have what he needs.

Thank you

I think, to be fair, the view of this very much dependent on skill level
More experienced Wappler developers are happy to code things as they want them

Those coming from platforms like WordPress, Bubble, Wix, Joomla etc are used to doing everything with plugins and without any thought to the code side of things.

While I understand that approach, I would suggest that those looking at Wappler as a product do so as it does not have the ā€œpluginā€ limitations, producing standard code and running on pretty much any hosting platform available

Personally I think that would be a negative move for Wappler and I suspect that if ā€œPluginsā€ were available the forum would just be flooded with questions like ā€œI installed XXXX plugin but it doesnā€™t do exactly what any want, any suggestions on how to re-write part of it to make it ā€¦ā€ which would defeat the whole object of it all.

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@Hyperbytes Of course I see your point but why should Wappler not open the area for other use cases? I think it would attract much more customers which would be a benefit for all at the end.

@t11

Then he will be able to paste the files into his project, update the database and he will have what he needs.

Of course, but you end up saying that you should use an IDE for writing your code instead of using a great UI which presents you with all options. Is there any reason for a Desktop Environment? Bash does it allā€¦ :wink:

This SCADA tool only provides you the communication infrastructure but I donā€™t see a graphical designer like Wappler - thatā€™s why Iā€™m spamming the forums here :wink: