In some areas visual editing is not comfortable.
And that’s ok.
I understand that making a really good visual expression editor is not so easy.
In fact, amongst all the nocode tools with their millions of fundings I didn’t see any solid solution.
So that’s fine.
But then we must have the option to write and edit expressions by hand without problems.
As I see, many of the nocode editors are moving in this direction. Wappler should too. For example, this can be a relatively simple and effective step forward.
Wappler definitely made my opinion go from ‘coding is too daunting and unrewarding to learn’ to ‘I should pick up some coding courses’.
I think Wappler in 2-3 years will bring many no coders into the low-code realm.
I almost gave up several times in the beginning… it’s just very frustrating to not being able to make an SQL query you want with the UI. And the gap is bigger when you don’t know SQL, because you need to first start understanding the basic queries that you have outsourced to Wappler’s UI tools. And THEN learn how to make your more advanced query.
However, spending a day, or a few days, or a few weeks on challenges like these actually teach you very real and transferrable skills.
So I’m grateful Wappler put me through so many frustrating days
@nickneustroev, this is a great idea (code editing in Design view via a popup)! I would break this out into a Feature Request post and allow the community to vote on it.
Now that frontend and backend extensibility is released(mostly).
I hope they pivot their effort in what I believe is the core of the business: the desktop/studio app.
Hopefully they can finish also all their components that they have already in the pipeline and forget about anything that can be delivered via extensibility and delegate that to the community. Some extensions will be released for free and maybe others will need to be funded by those interested in them.
This will free up some resources and allow the team to work on the core of the business.
Wappler could host a private NPM registry. And host community extensions there. They could use verdaccio for that.
Once they have full control of the registry they can provide a directory of them in the UI and start working on marketplace features which are a whole beast on their own.
I can relate to your journey. Wappler definitely helped me to push to learn coding and recently I re-did my front-end with React, while still using my Wappler backend/server connect API’s.
If you’d like to pursue React / Vue I recommend going this way, making a front-end with React, using Wappler server connect API’s.
I also learned how to code a backend with Nodejs and create API’s but I didn’t see much value over using Wappler’s server connect for this as it’s basically the same. So I don’t think I’ll “migrate” my Wappler backend to full-code.
I hope that in the future Wappler refractors Server connect to Typescript + es6 to make it “more modern” and easier to custom code tough
Ohhhh i see, i assumed to much from that initial comment of yours.
I 100% agree with you.
I have so many little things id personally would love interms of ui, like simple things of just defualts, like opening the formatter and just defaulting to the code, instead design section.
I suppose my dream would also be like IntelliSense (i think called IntelliSense) in the code view, and bouns of extension on vs code haha
It is a relief to hear that someone has already come this way.
If it is ok, can you tell us a bit more about your decision? What were your reasons for going this way?
That seems reasonable. But for me it is not only about convenience and habit.
I want to use frameworks that are also used by many people around the world.
So I can learn easily, explore other projects and practices, easily get professional help, easily assemble a team, easily get a job, etc.
Wappler world is still small (despite its huge potential).
This is the main reason why I want to switch to code.
Maybe it may help, if you join and gather all of your requests in one list.
So the Wappler Team sees it and also so you can track it, mark the progress and also don’t forget to bump most important items occasionally.
Agree! It is one of the most desirable things for me too.
Btw, if anyone is interested in it too, please support this FR.
React has many professional component libraries so it helped making my app look much better without spending additional time on design
I needed to use/integrate a lot of third-party libraries so I had to do a lot of things in code to progress anyway
To be able to hire new front-end developers in the near future that have experience in React etc as well
Above all, I wanted to learn how to do it all in code
Yes in that case it makes sense to learn it all in code
It’s actually quite easy to learn React, and I recommend to definitely use Typescript as it makes your life much easier. For the Nodejs/Backend side, I recommend to learn Prisma to manage your database queries / connection.
Somehow I also relate with all points that you mentioned. I personally coming from bubble to ship product faster, until they become inflexible at some points. Then I found Wappler that remind me back to Dreamweaver era.
I do also write the feedback about documentation that for me more into like compilation of tutorials instead of definition of every feature in the Wappler. Which could help me to understand the fundamentals instead of the workaround for specific cases / example.
I would love to contribute my spare time to enhance the documentation to be more descriptive for each feature (love the way bubble link each field to the documentation page).
Fantastic and honest post! I read the whole thing (and some parts twice) and I really appreciate it. I’m just about to get started on my “web developer” journey; your transparent and personal post just made me even more sure that Wappler is the correct way to get my journey started.
Maybe in the future we will be able to learn best practices of development within Wappler itself, by studying professionally prepared projects.
I usually get some kickback when I make these comments. But none is necessary. I represent a small segment of people who bought Wappler to ease themselves into new app technologies and have been very frustrated with things that I search to undertstand & so often have to scour the internet outside of Wappler docs and then try to come back into Wappler to see if my understanding is applicable in Wappler.
When I started out learning html, php, mysql queries & connections to save & display data and rudimentary javascript nothing helped more to learn the principles than Working Examples. Modifying functions by trial and error to see the effects, researching other code examples and bringing them into a project to see how they worked and how I could modify them for my needs. Same with jquery, different flavors of javascript.
Wappler Top-Down brain trust consistently resists this – insisting that Visual Approach Wappler UI is more than sufficient to complete every step to the end.
In fact, making a Tutorial project’s completed code exposed for learning is pooh-poohed.
Unlike with open-source front and back end stacks.
The 100% Visual Approach does not teach the proprietary logic BEHIND so many Wappler methodologies. Which is why the Forum over the years is filled with “why this, why that?” after the fail occurs. Then long threads trying to get to the bottom of the confusion.
The dependence on proprietary App Connect for everything to work, is, of course, an understandable PRO & Con decision that does make Wappler a very useful tool.
But the Learning Curve & inconsistent applicability of Docs to This Version of Wappler has been a hassle for this geezer .
My learning curve is massively accelerated by being able to trace and analyze a complete efficient, Professionally developed Learning Demo application PARTICULARLY in the Mobile App arena and Desktop app platforms.
I guess I have worked around much of this stuff by finding the smallest subset of Wappler features that I can use, documenting all the code for myself in a snippets file, and using those methods again and again.
In that process I’ve resisted using new tools such as database manager in order to keep focussed on my simple subset that I can rely on.
I also upgrade Wappler versions every 18 months to minimise disruption.
Many people think I’m stupid, but I know different!
This is Brilliant – How they Document All of their Components
I wish Wappler would devote some finances towards converting its Docs into this kind of Website.
Aligned with many here. I also started with Wappler and, after some hits and miss, I moved to Node+Vue/React.
As several wrote before, Vue/React have much larger communities and libraries.
I wonder how much more growth Wappler would have by embracing Vue/React as frontend frameworks.
From a user perspective:
the lerarning phase would increase users’ market value because not relegated to a smaller niche
the webapp would be future proof and not subject to Wappler’s market success
the much larger communities would skyrocket Wappler’s adoption
But Wappler’s business decision is understandable because it increases control and it forces the users into staying in Wappler ecosystem.
Yet, I would still suggest Wappler management to consider adding Vue/React as a way to exponentially sustain growth. If done right, it would make Wappler the official dev environment for most, a bit like Dreamweaver in the old good days
.