Growing wappler user base

Wappler General
1

Hi there, wappler is a great product, we all know this and it’s value increases if the community of people who have invested in learning to use it increases.

The product deserves to be known and growing the community is a win win in my opinion.

Wappler has 3 major users, developers looking for an easier and faster way to get things done, designers who want to up their game into the developers world without the need for coding and total newbies trying to be full stack.

All these people have one thing in common, they all need time to learn the platform. Most developers are used to open source like laravel etc and an experience with wappler will hook them for sure but they need to invest the time to learn it.

Wappler shines when it comes to database driven applications, to experience the true power of wappler, you need to be able to use it’s awesome power for dynamic application development. Again you need time to learn it. The question is these learning phase is at who’s cost, currently to use wappler for it real worth which is in database driven application, you must subscribe for pro which is not expensive for some people but on the high side for some other people. Developers immediately see the value since they have paid projects. This is not so with others.

I think the team should look into a model where anyone can use the complete power of the platform for learning at no cost. Meaning you can download, have a full experience without being limited by cost.

I don’t have a fully formed idea of how to do this while you make more money but I think I have something that you can work with as a base idea.

My rough idea is that you have a practice mode in wappler. In this mode users can download, join the community and are able to create a single project using the full power of wappler. This project will be limited to working only on the localhost of the single computer where it is installed and you cannot export it out, you might not even give access to code view etc. Do all what you have to do so that the project cannot be used for live deployment.

This way you increase the people in the top of your adoption funnel across all segments from developers to total newbies, alot of students world wide can start learning to use it and you will get more conversions on a regular basis.

This is really not a feature request since it does not benefit existing subscribers but a way I feel the community can grow. People, what do you think?

2

I think that learning to use wappler and exploit its potential does not take much time for those with computer programming skills. unlike this, I believe that there is a lot of confusion and too much traffic on the community and so pro subscribers may find solutions to their problems too late. in the case of your idea, I believe that a second community must also be created.

3

Hi Jayd,
There is a trial period included for each of the plans. The yearly pro plan gives you 14days fully functional trial. In our 17+ years experience in creating these tools (as DW extensions) we believe this trial is enough to get the idea and get started with the basic docs of database tools.

4

Hi @Jayd, I think the biggest issue here is. Where does Wappler start and stop their training, considering that Wappler is so full featured, it makes it very difficult.

A user can not use the built in API tools effectively if they know nothing to start with about API’s in general. They might fumble around and get some simple stuff working but if you already know how to work with API’s and only need to learn how Wappler interacts with an API then the learning process will be much easier.
So does Wappler try and teach how API’s work first and only then teach how Wappler interacts with them?

The same issue applies to Databases, does Wappler just teach how Wappler works with databases or do they have to teach major sections of SQL so users can get the most out of it.

Even down to the simpler stuff, Wappler supplies a way to place an image on your page, that unfortunately does not mean when a user places their image, it will be correct, their image size will probably be to large, their dimensions will probably be wrong etc. So does Wappler teach how to use image editing applications as well, and do they teach concepts of images, like formats, megapixels, aspect ratios, etc.

The point is Wappler can not be responsible for teaching image editing, video editing, asp, php, javescript, jquery, sql, and how Wappler has been designed to work with each.

Even the community which is very strong right now will possibly have to become more highly moderated over time and as this product gets a larger user base.
Right now for the team to spend tons of time on single users that just ask question after question about how do i make a calendar, then how do i make a form, then how do i make a … whatever, that is actually quite unrelated to Wappler, is answered constantly, but as time moves on I think the core team would have to spend more time answering only Wappler related stuff and leave the other questions for the community to try and assist with rather.
I am just as much to blame for asking these sorts of questions too, so I am pointing fingers at myself as well.

With all the above, I do understand what you are saying, a new designer, with a Wappler 2 week trial of the Pro version might have some difficulty trying to learn the Full Stack in 2 weeks as well as how Wappler works with it. If they were just learning Wappler, then it would be enough time, but not to learn it all.

It might at some stage be a good idea for Wappler to offer their full Pro version that only allows a single project to be created and a longer trial period for designers that have a lot to get through possibly, although at the current pricing for Pro Educational Monthly of 29 Euro I really do not think it is a big ask for a Designer that has already had 2 free weeks to pay for all the stuff they learning and able to do.