New to Wappler general questions

Wappler General
#5

Wait until you interact further with the community and developers here. Never be afraid to ask a question, discuss an idea, or share your creations. At every step the support is FREE, the advice comes from experienced users with full stack backgrounds from across the board, then there is the direct interactions with Wapplers developers. So don’t be shy! Join in, take part, and sit back and learn as we all share our projects, questions, and answers. Relaxed environment and among the best communities on the web, no doubt there.

Welcome to Wappler!

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#6

Cheers Dave! Very Comforting to know there’s a friendly community willing to help. I imagine most of my initial questions will be quite noob but I will do my best to figure out stuff on my own first and only ask when I’m really stuck or need pointing in the right direction.

One quick question while I’m here typing… One of my app ideas require performing tasks at certain times of the day. For example, send an email at 1pm everyday. Is this going to be possible with Wappler? (or taken to extreme, being able to create an alarm clock type app)

Cheers!

#7

With the recent addition of a node server type, new server actions to support this may be possible. But even without, you can easily setup server actions to perform functions that are called on a schedule using cron. So in a word, Yes. :slightly_smiling_face:

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#8

Perfectly summarised.

If you search this forum you’ll see a number of posts from people in exactly the same position as you so it’s well worth doing some browsing. The key thing to note about Wappler is the way it’s split into two halves in the way it works - Server Connect are the script on the server which do the core work with data and security and App Connect which is the front-end part which communicates with those scripts to generate the output on the page. I’ve said this many times before but this is the bit which took me longest to realise but once I did I was sorted.

I’ve just finished a complete e-commerce website with custom cart, delivery calculations, payment processing, order management, etc. built entirely with Wappler. It’s launching any day now so I’ll be sharing a link to it. I now feel 100% at home with Wappler and am rebuilding a number of sites I previously built in Wordpress which is making them soooo much better.

Welcome aboard @askewd :slight_smile:

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#9

Thanks @sitestreet Cheers the tip re server & app connect, I shall bare this in mind.

Can’t wait to check your site out once launched. :blush:

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#10

Hey! Thought I’d keep to this thread for now rather than starting a new one as my questions are all still very general ‘overview’ (ie "can wappler do this or that) . Once I start digging in properly I’ll put my questions into proper individual threads.

OK so just a couple more…

  1. With wappler, do you need to create a separate wappler project for phone apps & a different version for browser sites, or can you “create once, deploy anywhere”. ? Ie all. In one project file.?

  2. I designed this website but I didn’t develop it www.youpromo.org it has a dynamic price calculator on the home page. Is this possible & fairly easy in Wappler?

Cheers :sunny:

#11

Hi Dale,

Your mobile apps front end will be a different project than your web app front end, but they can share the backend api server actions. For example, you can have one project for the webapp and backend, and then a second project for your mobile app, which utilizes the backend of the first.

No problem with getting your dynamic price calculator in place.

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#12

Hey! I’ve been watching videos & tutorials. I am struggling somewhat to find my initial “starting” point. I mean, the videos are good but they are not that noob friendly and assume quite a lot of preexisting knowledge. It’s cool, I’m just having to ask a few more questions here than I’d like, and spend more time digging around.

For example - the first recommended video “your first bootstrap 4 page” talks about adding frameworks & “CDN”. He pops up a menu that is filled with words such as “cyborg” “lux” “minty” “yeti” etc. Then he proceeds to add the CDN one. But WHY? How would a new user like me know when & what to select? What even IS CDN and how does it compare to the “superhero” one, which sounds much more fun? :joy: Are they just themes? Or?

Likewise how would I know whether to select framework7 or Appconnect or bootstrap… And what happens if I select none of them? Do you just have to pick one for each project or can you add more than one?

The tutorial is showing me things I could emulate, but not helping me understand WHY those things are being done. It’s the WHY that is important to a newbie & will facilitate learning.

Finally, there’s much talk about databases, understandably. But do I need 3rd party software to make these databases in the first place? Or can they be generated & edited in Wappler?

Maybe I’ve missed some tutorials, or maybe I’ve just not watched enough yet. But yes, I feel like I need some gap-filling tutorials & if anyone can recommend me best ones I’d appreciate that.

I’ll be fine once the first few things “click” into place in my mind.

Cheers :sunny:

Ps are there any experts near me (Norwich, UK) who would be willing to give me a few days wappler basics ‘boot camp’ course? I’d happily pay for your time.

#13

Yes, those bootstrap names are just different themes with different colours, fonts button styling etc.
People often choose CDN (Content Delivery Network) because it will load those bootstrap files from a network of servers around the globe and usually delivers those couple of files to your end user quicker than LOCAL (which just downloads them to your PC/project and then eventually the server of where ever you host it).

Framework 7 I believe is a framework use to build apps, and unless you’re trying to build a native iPhone or Android app you wouldn’t use it.

App connect is the lifeblood of Wappler. It basically is Wappler and I couldn’t really imagine a web project without it.

For the most part you’ll always add bootstrap 4 and app connect. Although it might do it all automatically now anyway, not sure. But that should be your starting point for all standard web projects.

Databases. You can build the database structure and test data etc all within Wappler. But something to mention , unless you are using a Docker project, you will need to have database already created somewhere that Wappler can connect to (so on a web host, virtual server or for development on your own PC as part of a virtual server setup). Once Wappler is connected to the database though, you can and should (in my opinion) manage it all in Wappler.

If you choose a Docker project, you can create the database initially in Wappler so that part is easier. Creating a Docker project will limit your deployment options, but it could make other things easier. It’s not for everyone though and may not suit your project.

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#14

Wow @Philip_Jthank you so much you wouldn’t believe how helpful that reply was! That just joined so many dots for me! I feel like I’ve finally found the start point. Thank you!

Just a couple of related questions…

You say those bootstrap options are themes, which makes sense, but it sounds like CDN (and I assume ‘local’) are not themes but are options that determine where & how the themes are stored? So, does that mean that if I choose one of those I ALSO still have to choose a colour theme as well? Ie cdn AND superhero?

Great re databases. So I could use something like AmazonSimpleDatabase? Are there any databases you guys would recommend that work particularly great for Wappler? Fast stable & expandable?

Wonderful!

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#15

If you’re going to make use of Wappler’s Theme Manager then you’ll want to stick with Bootstrap Local. If you’re adventurous and want to style the theme yourself then you could use either the local or CDN option for delivery. You don’t have to choose a colour option, I believe they’re based on the Bootswatch templates. They’re just available to get you started faster.

I’d probably avoid SimpleDB as it’s a NoSQL product unless of course you have a specific reason for using a NoSQL database over a relationship-based product like MySQL?

#16

You can use the standard Bootstrap 4 local theme if you want to further customize it, use the Theme Manager: https://docs.wappler.io/t/theme-manager/19557

If you just want to use the standard Bootstrap 4 colors, you can then use the CDN option.

#17

If suggest doing what @Teodor mentioned and use a local standard bootstrap installation (not a preset theme) and use the Wappler theme manager to customise the look and feel. Seeing as how you come from a design background that might be more suited.

In saying that though, when you’re just starting out and learning the ropes in Wappler (ideally not on your main projects, i.e. start out just building some simple sample things or just muck around) I’d just use one of the themes (like flatly or whatever).

Learn a bit more about Wappler then when you start on your two ideas/projects use the theme manager to customise the bootstrap components to your liking.

#18

Amazing cheers!

Yes as a designer, it’s the building of the interface & theme part I enjoy the most. So just to clarify, I need to use “local” for custom designs. If I did choose CDN or a theme, is there any fast way to modify it at a later date (without code) or would I be ‘stuck’ with it?

Re database, I’ll start researching options. My only question there is, if I initially build a database in wappler, is it quite straightforward to export that to the external server if & when required?

Really appreciate this help! Cheers again

#19

Wappler is like a wrapper over the top of your database. If you use the database manager you’re not actually editing a database within Wappler, you’re just using it to manage an external database that can be hosted virtually anywhere.

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#20

While I find it’s useful to have quick access to the database schema - for reference, I haven’t so far used the Database Manager, beyond trying it out. It’s partly because it has, from my point of view, a fairly serious bug (but one whiich probably wouldn’t be a problem generally). Apart from that, I don’t know what advantages there would be over using Navicat (for example). I wouldn’t expect it have all of the features of a dedicated tool like Navicat and nor would I need many of them. However, when I see issues relating to tasks which are trivial in Navicat (like copying database schema), it makes me think I’ll wait a little longer before investigating Wappler’s Database Manager further.

I think you are/were a Navicat user. I would be interested to know why you think you should the Database Manager and what advantages you’re finding. With the ingenuity that goes into the development of Wappler, it’s quite possible that I’m missing out on something. On the other hand, using Wappler doesn’t restrict the use of other tools - which is a good thing of course.

#21

True, and I’m still using Navicat for designing my database further. But I guess my comment relates back to when I first started and I tried many different db tools and found them all quite a bit daunting.

There’s lots going on in them and a lot of it doesn’t really relate to what’s needed for a simple(ish) webaite or web app like the op mentioned.

What changed my mind more recently was that I switched to using docker and plan to deploy a new docker container for each client (this may change between now and launch) and having the db scheme built in Wappler means I can easily sync/set up the db schema with each new docker target I create (which would be a new client). If I create the db schema outside of Wappler I need to recreate it (naturally I can import through Navicat etc)

I still use Navicat to test things, manage data imports, database design etc and find it the best of the bunch I tried, but for keeping track of database changes and ease of deploying to new docker targets I choose the Wappler db manager

#22

Thanks Philip. What you say about Docker is interesting. I’ve only tried out Docker on my local computer. It’s something I shall explore more at some point. I imagine I could still manage databases with Navicat if I use Docker, as with any other target; eg witih Navicat, I can copy database between clients almost as easily as I can copy image files. However, they’re not synchronized. In most cases I wouldn’t want them to be, but I can imagine situations where this could be a useful feature.

#23

Working on a new newbie series now but just into my busy season so time is limited. Series will be a quick start to optimise the 7 day trial period

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#24

Ah sounds perfect! That was my main worry - starting 7 day trial with no underlying knowledge & then stabbing randomly at buttons for 7 days hoping for things to make sense. Some apps are easy to figure out in a day or two, but with power comes complexity & wappler does seem very powerful! Lots to learn & understand before you can really even ‘try’ it.

So thank you. I look forward to your videos. :sunny: