If your knowledge is that basic perhaps some basic web development courses would be a place to start, the web is littered with them, rather than expecting the developer to do that. It's a bit like complaining your new car does not come with a driving course
2 Likes
I disagree with this part of your statement. Webinars to me are not outdated, but a critical method of communicating information. It allows watchers the opportunity to interact with the presenter and ask questions and allows the presenter to interact with the watchers to ensure that the information is being received properly.
Here are just a few examples of how webinars are still relevant and useful:
-
As I study for the LSAT (Law School Admission Test), I have purchased study guides from LSATMax. While the study guide is read-only and the practice tests provide you with the right answers and the videos explain the logic behind the test questions, it does not allow me to ask questions. As a result of the feedback, LSATMax recently started doing webinars to allow its users to interact with the instructors and ask questions about the logic behind the questions and the best way to prepare to answer them.
-
At work, I can provide a compare and contrast about webinars. Up until May, our department manager regularly engaged with her employees on a quarterly basis through webinars. They provided a way for her to ensure that company policies were properly communicated and understood and allowed employees to engage with her to ask questions and propose alternative solutions. An example of this would be something that I did. When she took over the department last year, she changed one of our performance metrics from Average Handle Time on a call to Calls Per Hour. I disagreed with this decision and as a result of the webinar, was allowed the opportunity to explain why I felt it was a bad decision and how it would impact us as employees. She was receptive to my discussion and opened up a department-wide vote to allow the employees to choose which performance metric they would prefer. This increased the morale of the department. Sadly, in May she was promoted and transferred to another department and our new department manager is not as engaging with us. This has led to a decrease in overall morale.
-
In the context of Wappler, @Hyperbytes's webinars have been vital for many users, both new and experienced. For starters, and this is a big plus @Hyperbytes so I appreciate it when it occurs, it allows users to see some of the common mistakes that can be made (in real time) and how to trouble shoot them. Additionally, it allows users to interact with @Hyperbytes and other users to ask questions and propose alternative ways of doing things.
As I continue to learn how to use Wappler, I have read every piece of documentation provided, watched the videos, and watched the webinars. I would advocate for webinars over recorded videos or reading documentation for the main reason that webinars are interactive and the other two formats are not. In addition, as it currently stands, the documentation and recorded videos assume that a user would be familiar with steps that might have been covered elsewhere, whereas in a webinar, each step is explained (even it if was covered in a previous webinar).
When I review some of the questions that get asked in this forum, I notice that in some instances, the issue is because a step has been missed because of the user did not read the documentation in the right order. I also notice that users do not use the search function to see if the question has been asked previously. These issues can be fixed with a webinar because of the interactivity it provides.
For the above reasons, I feel that webinars are not an outdated way of providing information and communicating with people.
5 Likes
My 20 pence worth 
Trial ended this morning and I paid for a yearly subscription as planning on redoing our performance science apps. I have struggled a little with Wappler, mainly as my web development skills arenāt as good as they where. However Brians tutorials have been brilliant, we and we have barebones up and running, log in, admin, add roles, delete, and now working on a Dashboard so users can see their metrics.
My biggest issue has been creating a nice dashboard, tried importing templates to no avail, but using the docs and the hiding elements managed to put together a crude dashboard with toggle for sidebar. So there is plenty of info. I have found some things trickier like restricting pages and filtering database to user logged in etc, but getting there.
I do hate the subscription model of apps though, would rather purchase and own. If anyone wants to make a nice admin dashboard tutorial then some beer could be on me
Andrew
1 Like
Have you tried Forest Admin?
Your webinar examples donāt convince me Iām afraid. Thereās many ways to achieve the same results. Eg. Your second example; that could have been a conference call, or a Zoom meeting. Iād much rather concise videos that show me what it is I need to know. I find the webinars too long and very slow.
Even though I think Iām able to make this myself, this demo would be great. Iām new with docker so that would help out. When are you planning to have it ready?
Thatās why I do both webinars and videos.
I personal like short videos specific to a topic but live webinars allow people to interact with me while doing them, ask questions and seek clarification. This canāt be done with a simple video. The reality is that no one solution will keep everyone happy, I give up my own time for no payment to help other users. There is no requirement for anyone to use them if they are not to their taste
1 Like
Iāve read through this whole thread before submitting this response.
The main thing I would think for Wappler is to increase your Conversion Rate ā Incentivizing, Exciting the Trial User, Encouraging the TRIAL USER to COMMIT to a Subscription, To Upgrade to PRO.
My years of pursuing Tools on the internet convinces me that you are in a Unique Bubble of Time, a Unique Opportunity to Convert ādevelopersā to Wappler. But, I feel that you are underestimating how many NEWBIES or Semi-Newbies would jump on Wappler NOW if you gave THEM much more immediate VISUAL BANG POW!
Wappler is in some stiff competition for tools for apps. Looking at other peopleās projects is not convincing. But, within minutes of installing a Trial if Wappler encouraged a prospective kick-the-tires Trial User with ONE Installable Project that Immediately pulled out all the stops and enabled the Trial User to see this project on their own browser, page by page, you would have a higher conversion ratio!
The Dynamic Real Estate Project is NOT what I am talking about. Its usability as a Teaching Tool is very limited. All of the data should come not from a json file. It doesnāt duplicate the standard CRUD pages with a live database.
Wappler has certain ways of performing actions that are not to be found in the Majority of tutorials & videos on the internet.
I have years of experience with web development using Generators such as Dreamweaver, (including buying a bunch of DMXZone components), Appgini, PHP Runner, etc.
Using something like PHP Runner made development much quicker than Wappler.
For instance, as soon as you started to make a new website for php & live data forms you got a choice to use a new database or connect to an existing. Pre-Docker this was a Mamp or Xampp database.
Filling in localhost, username, password & database name immediately connected, showed you it was connected and immediately created the table views. The program was ready to generate queries, show results & selecting Insert, Update CRUD basic pages. Pages generated immediately & then you whittled down fields to show or not include in Updates. etc
The main thing is that the data connection to start developing happened immediately.
The connection page was generated that then allowed alternate connections to be added by the same process for online servers.
What was useful was to SEE from the generated menu each page & to analyze it in the code view. Within 5 minutes you could see the sequence of pages & start modifying the deeper actions. It made developing a demo to START with super quick.
For instance, from login to views, to searches, to updates, to inserts, to deletes, to permissions for which users or groups had access to which functions.
It had many drawbacks that Wappler does not. But, the main thing for Newbies was to generate the necessary basic pages immediately from fairly simple choices.
I have no problem with all the different ways to install different databases & with how to generate sql queries.
But my settling down to really implement a Wappler project from scratch would have been so much easier with a Training Project such as I have described.
When people advise āGo look at Tutorials on the webā as if that solves a new developerās problems so that they can return to Wappler ā the advice glosses over that Wappler has a very specific toolset. The Wappler way relies on a lot of DMXZone Extensions.
A newbie has no way of knowing, from the myriad of ātutorialsā done over the years, if THIS method will enable them to return to Wappler and start using the vast array of Extension methods embedded in Wappler.
What would be very Helpful for Newbies that want to work with Wapplerās Customized code from DMXZone extensions, etc, is an installable Project that Loads & connects to a database (before even using Docker). It shows the standard CRUD pages for working with a form, updating, deleting, searching, login authentication, new user registration, etc.
Then a Newbie can see the whole project in its folders & files, see the scope of functions, see what standard files are loaded for every page, Inspect the Connections, compare what happens if a framework is changed or modified.
Because Wappler has certain ways of performing actions that are not to be found in the Majority of tutorials & videos on the internet.
it would be great if Wappler spent some money to develop just such a Project with all the basic pages, functions, BEST USE examples.
THIS ALONE would enhance your capture User ratio when the Trial is installed
One Completely Working Project with Log-in & with instructions on how to install the database ā or a Wizard to get the data tables up and running.
The Teaching Tutorial would be a Stand-alone category that goes step by step with in-depth notations & images & videos ā not a look here & then look over here series of explanations-- all centered around the Complete Working example that loads in Wappler & includes the CRUD pages, etc.
2 Likes
Not going to be covering everything and canāt guarantee best practice, just how I do things, but a lot of what you speak of is under development by me and should start rolling out within a week or so via the Wappler Virtual Academy and The Wappler YouTube channel
3 Likes