Getting started with Database connections

Wappler General How To
#1

Hi! I’m still trying to get my head around wappler & the supporting tools I’ll need to make anything. So many concepts to take onboard, wish there was a “wappler for absolute dummies” book available :sweat_smile:

So anyway, looking into setting up a database and considering options. I was just reading the thread on here about Google Firebase & it seems like a good option to use… Possibly an ‘all in one’ solution? (ie hosting & database etc)

But now I’ve just also seen the latest 3.2.0 update notes and it seems there’s some very cool & easy integration with “Amazon AWS”.

As a newbie, would I be better off to build a site around Firebase or AWS? … Or have I mixed my concepts up & maybe they are different things altogether? :flushed::grimacing:

Also, when I read mention of “docker” is that good for any websites, or just for making phone apps?

So sorry for my extremely noob questions. It taking me a while to grasp everything, but am persevering!

Cheers

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#2

I agree with your post as I’m struggling to understand this. The concepts of Wappler seem super basic, like viewing the tutorials etc are straightforward, but I just don’t know where to start. I see Docker, but is that used for production or just for testing? Then people deploy to their local server, others to a remote one. Some use hosting providers, some use Firebase, like what on earth is the difference with all of them!

The documentation on Wappler seems very poor as it seems more like a collection of just posts vs any logic to them, like some topics have multiple videos on the same one. Then some of the videos I’ve watched you can barely see, like some Wappler tutorial video where it’s blurry and doesn’t even fill the whole screen on YouTube. Then the Wappler 2 tutorial video the guy says he forgot to show how to set up the database in it. Like it’s just sloppy almost and I wish there was proper documentation vs what there is today.

My main issue is the 7 day trial. Mine is almost up and I’m not any further ahead than I was at the start. I’m fine to pay for this, but I couldn’t even get anything working on my trial (I’m pretty convinced Wappler for Mac is broken or something as I can’t get anything to work, it freezes constantly, doesn’t save my database settings, won’t close popups when you press the close button etc, and it’s a brand new machine). So sucks I guess I won’t be able to consider using Wappler as 7 days was just too short. :frowning:

#3

I’ve been using Wappler on Mac since its first release.
On the current versions there are very few problems, database settings save, does not freeze, pop ups close etc

There is a transition period getting used to Wappler, I came from a Dreamweaver back ground. (I’ve not use dream weaver for over 2 years now)

If you need extended time for the trial why not just pay for an extra month? If you don’t like it after that then cancel it.
Sometimes change is hard and takes some time to get used to, but I can assure you its worth the effort. Our productivity has gone through the roof since using Wappler.

#4

I personally don’t use Docker, Firebase or AWS. I agree it can be confusing.
Personally I use the simple old way, just upload it to the server and it works.

#5

That’s what I just said in my post. I’m fine paying for a month to use it, but it hasn’t worked at all in the 7 days so not really down on paying for something I can’t even get to work at all. My MacBook is a 16" and is 2 weeks old. I’ll create a new project, I click the gear for Project Settings, it opens the window, I press cancel or close and nothing happens. Press over and over, it will not close. I have to quit Wappler and start over, then it works. I’ll be fine for a few minutes, I add a database connection to it, try to use it in a server action and there’s no databases showing. Go back to database tab and it just says “loading…” forever. I’ve posted on here for help and didn’t get any responses to my requests.

If it was just a matter of needing more time to evaluate it then that would be one thing, but I haven’t even been able to try building an app because I can’t get beyond the first screens. I just tried using DigitalOcean Docker, and it set it up fine, deployed it, but when pressing Save in Project Settings, the green alert appears in the bottom right saying something about db has been saved, but the popup won’t close. I cannot get that window to close, so I hit cancel, then it closes and doesn’t save anything. Restart Wappler and it will work this time on that screen, but then try to do something with the database or elsewhere and it gets stuck again.

The only way I can ever get it to connect to a database is if the database is deployed with Docker. If I try to manually add one, I can’t ever pick it from server actions, it shows there’s no databases, and only shows the Docker one. If I edit the docker one and change it to SQL Server, it shows a Wapper popup that says “no Microsoft SQL driver found.” If I add MS SQL to the database tab it works fine, no driver issue, I just can’t actually utilize the database. Then I go back to the database tab and both of them are gone and replaced with a “loading…” message, and clicking add database, delete etc does nothing. I reboot, and it still just shows the loading message.

Really not sure, obviously it sounds like something on my end if yours has worked fine from day 1, but I have no issues with any other program I use other than this one. Maybe I’ll try it on Windows 10 in Parallels to see if I have the same issues just to rule it out that it’s Mac. It’s hard to describe the issues, like they aren’t just my lack of knowledge, they are buggy things that you can tell just aren’t correct or aren’t working the way they are supposed to. Everywhere you right click as well it just opens a menu saying “Speech” and then says “Start speaking” or “Stop speaking.” So doesn’t really give me confidence in using this for my business apps. Disappointed as I had high hopes, but is what it is! :slight_smile:

#6

OK have you tried uninstalling Wappler and reinstalling?
There is a certain folder that you MUST delete manually on the Mac to get it to uninstall correctly, personally I use ‘Clean My Mac’ and it does it automatically.

I have not used the update in Wappler for quite some time, due to things not always going right, every time there is an update I install and reinstall. (Thats just my personal choice)

With the DB if I am working on something locally I personally use MAMP Pro for it. Most of the time I work with a live server so I can see if there is any speed issues whilst I’m designing it.
In the ‘Target’ bottom of the screen I have that set to the live server (which is set up in Project Settings/Targets
It may be worth you posting a few screen shots of how you have things set up, sometimes its easier to see rather than explain.
I’m sure there is a simple explanation to why you are having the issues, but I can assure you it does work very well on Mac (I use both desktop and MacBook and it works with no issues)
One thing I will say with Wappler is sometimes things are done in a different way to what they were in DW so it can take a little time to get used to.
I’ll help as much as I can :slight_smile:

#7

Thanks, let me try the Clean My Mac option as I just dragged Wappler to the trash and then downloaded it again to reinstall it. Glad to know it works well on Mac as I don’t own any PCs so just didn’t want to invest in something I won’t be able to properly use.

I think part of my issue is that I need to use MS SQL but when using Docker etc it’s only MySQL and PostgreSQL. If you have a moment and don’t mind I’d love if you could check my post here Any SQL servers I add to the databases tab don't appear on the server actions tab as it does have screenshots on it showing what I mean.

I’ve tried watching various videos but I don’t get the expected results. Basically as you can see on that thread, I add MS SQL to databases which works fine, all tables show etc. But when I go to server actions, it never shows up in the list of databases. In training videos, when they click “Database Connection” as the step, it lists their databases to pick from, and also has a Connection options or something button that pressing it opens the editor to modify the SQL database config. I don’t ever get that, I just get a dropdown to pick connection which always shows it’s empty. I must be missing something super basic here just can’t figure out what it is.

I’ve tried depoying on Docker, local, Heroku, and they all do the same thing. What’s really weird is for a day or so when I’d add Database Connection to the server actions step it would actually give that connection settings option, but then it changed yesterday and just acts like in the screenshot for some reason on my post.

I’ve never used dreamweaver or done any manual coding as I come from Bubble, but I’m technical and can learn things pretty quickly. Just all these issues I’m having so far seem more buggy than lack of knowledge!

#8

OK, have you set up your connection in connection options.
When you add a DB connect you name it and then click the ‘Connection Options’ and set it up in there and save it, once it is saved then you will be able to select it (don’t forget to click the link button for it to work on every page)

The screen shot you have put up is of the database manager (you don’t do queries from there)
In the screen shot below you can see there is a DB connection and then the Queries below it.

connection
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Make sure you set up you connection first (in action steps), before you connect database manager.

Hope that makes sense, would defiantly do the reinstall though.

#9

Thanks, yeah I’ll reinstall just because I’m not getting the expected results. See in your screenshot how when you do the DB connection it shows Connection Properties where you type the name, and then can pick Connection Options? I don’t get that on mine, it’s literally just this:

image

You can’t even type in that “Name” dropdown either. Clicking it just shows Empty List as the results where as in your screenshot it has that folder icon to pick a db and so on. I used to have that until yesterday.

Question though, when I add the Microsoft SQL database to the database tab, should it not appear under DB connection, clicking that little folder icon where you pick the database? When I did have this working that would only show the Docker database, but none under the database tab.

My second issue though is even when this did work, it wasn’t possible to add MS SQL in the connection options. This person here has the same issue with sadly no resolution MS SQL cannot connect. Driver error? . It was suggested that some drivers are needed on the SQL server, but this is an Azure SQL database so I can’t install drivers on it.

#10

to manually remove the folder for removing Wappler:

  • Locate and delete the Wappler user folder
    /Users/username/Library/Application Support/Wappler
    or shorter: ~/Library/Application Support/Wappler
    (You can choose in Finder / Go To Folder ~/Library/Application Support first)
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#11

Did a reinstall, no luck sadly. Some errors seem better, like I can actually close and save the project options popup. The database screen under database connection does work now:

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But if I type a name and press Connection Options:

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I just get this:

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So weird, if I go to the database tab, it shows the db one created with the Docker on DigitalOcean:

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But as usual, clicking the little folder icon shows nothing:

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I think I’m probably just in over my head here as it can’t be this complicated to make work! I appreciate your help, but I think it’s time to call it quits on this. Thanks so much and take care!

#12

Hey guys, I’m the original poster. The thread seemed to have gone off on its own journey there, but I’d really appreciate any answers to my original post. Thank you.

Gunnery wrote:
“Personally I use the simple old way, just upload it to the server and it works.”

That sounds super simple - but! still assumes so much existing knowledge. I don’t know any “old ways”. Upload ‘what’ to the server? And to ‘which’ server? I still need to know how to make a database & which database product/type to use etc… And that leads me full circle to my original question, and where I’m at now, trying to figure out where to start & the best/easiest service to use.

Warmest regards

#13

What do you want to build?

#14

For now, I just want to get a very basic test project up & running, one that covers the basics and let me test wappler out with. My long term hope is to be able to build decent sites myself instead of relying on others (such as the programmers we currently use).

For a first test project I’d like to simply have wappler pull data from a database and display it as a simple list on a webpage. Then I’d like to get it to push data to the database. Let’s say it’s a contact address book app. Simple fields like name/age/email.

Second step in my learning process would be to give it a user login system, and each user has his own address book. If I can get that working I think I would then be in good shape to tackle more daring things, such as adding payment system etc.

Cheers

#15

Then use docker, nodejs as server model and postgresql as database for your local environment. You need to set that in your target.

And if you want to check how deployment works you should probably choose Heroku as it has a free plan and it is integrated with Wappler.

All covered in the docs and the forum.

AWS is a conversation for another day and firebase is very specific.

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#16

Thanks, I will research postgresql and try to figure out how I build the start of a database in it. :+1:t2:

#17

I suggest you to check the Database Manager docs:

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