Should I use Wappler?

Wappler General
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Hello Wapplers !

Im excited to be transitioning into the IT world.

I have built businesses before but i never worked in software so a newbie would definitely but an over statement !

I dont have any coding knowledge whatsoever so i was browsing for the right fit, and came across bubble.io ; after reading various articles and reviews , Wappler seemed like a good choice for various reasons.

My goal is to build a marketplace. Yes, something like an Amazon where sellers can provide their goods and we can connect the right buyers to them. There’s obviously a lot more to it , with many USP’s but that’s basically the bottom line… So my first question is would Wappler be a good platform to develop this with ? Especially for mobile apps where things have to be native to their cell phones ? Possibly when someone doesnt have a data connection ?

Next , are there mentors within the Wappler community ? The reason i ask is as i will need a little “hand-holding” to get strated and for minor questions. I definitely dont want anyone doing work for me , i want to learn but i would like to see if there’s anyone out there that’s willing to mentor me…

Looking forward to jumping into the Wappler family !

Have a lovely weekend and stay safe !

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Hi Maz! I am in same boat as you. I discovered Wappler a few weeks ago and have been really impressed with this community, they will help you while maybe not fully hand-holding they will help point you in right directions & do as much as can be hoped for. A LOT of info is already on this forum, you just need to dig a little.

What I soon realised, was that you can’t expect to just be able to launch the wappler software and figure it out like is possible with some software. You’ll need to understand a lot of ‘general concepts’ related to the web development world first. You’ll see many words mentioned like “docker” and “aws” and “framework7” and “ec2” and, for me at least, I’ve had to research & learn about each those before other things can make any sense. “Connecting to a database” sounds easy for experienced web devs but for me it’s required LOTS of investigation & research to make any sense. Ie, how do I make a database in the first place, where are they stored, what is SQL, what is a private key, etc etc etc. It seemed each question led to 100 more… but if you persevere it will slowly start to all fit together & make a kind of sense. I’m way off using it ‘in practice’ yet, but step by step I edge closer, and you will too.

Best regards!

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Welcome @Maz :slight_smile:

One quick bit of advice is to get your head around server-side (Server Connect) and client-side (App Connect). Here's a summary I posted a little while ago.

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Thank you @sitestreet ! I will be looking and reading into Server Connect and App Connect so i can familiarize myself with the process.

Would i be able to look at what you have built ? How long did it take you to build ?

Im assuming that the project doesnt get posted to the App Store or Play store ? Im concerned that the product wouldnt truly be mobile ? More suited to a desktop browser UI ? Your thoughts ?

Thank you !

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Thank you @askewd ! I appreciate everyone taking time to give me a little bit of direction here !

What i need to do here is to go through the documents and start learning. After all, this is a life long skill that i have to pick up so its now or never !

Thanks again !

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I've not yet created a mobile app but I do have an Apple developer account ready for when I do :slight_smile:.

Mobile apps are compiled into native apps so I don't see there being any issues with either the Apple or Google Play stores.

The biggest site I've built with Wappler (so far) is ukpaint.co.uk which has been done pretty much with no manual coding at all. It includes shopping cart facility, order processing, payment by Stripe, customer login area, staff area, etc. It was developed over quite a long time (over 6 months) but that was partly due to pausing during the earlier stages of Covid. I reckon about 2 months would have covered it start to finish, possibly quicker. If I absolutely had to then I reckon I could do it in under one month. But I never seem to have the luxury of focusing solely on one project.

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answers to your specific questions:

  • yes, Wappler is a good platform to develop with. we’ve built highly scalable and complex solutions with Wappler.
  • mobile apps in Wappler can be built with Cordova - it is not ‘native’ in the strictest sense - but is quite close to it. most ‘visual builders’ for mobile use cordova or similar html5 tech. the only one visual mobile app builder that works on native, that i know of is https://www.configure.it/ - but its quite expensive - never tried it!
  • PouchDB support has been confirmed by Wappler Team - this will allow to seamlessly manage offline-online parts of your mobile app.
  • we have Wappler Ambassadors and so many really helpful people in the community here - just ask.

feel free to DM me in case you are looking for some technical sessions to get you started with Wappler or something more advanced.

Welcome :slight_smile:

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@sitestreet
Thank you for your insight… I appreciate it !

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@nshkrsh
Dear Nishkarsh ,
Thank you you very much for your reply. There’s obviously a ton for me to learn here… Im starting to read up on all the documentation. What i know for a fact is that it will be a steep learning curve but with a community like this one , im sure i will be able to figure things out.
Thanks again and have a great day…
M

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Hello all ,

So i really dont know how to get started. I would like to start with a css template but cant seem to get that far… Is there a step by step tutorial ? How do i import my logo ? Images ? Im great at dragging and dropping but i have no idea how to get started … Would anyone mind just running me the first few steps ?

Thank You !
Maz

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Hi @Maz

I ran through these Wappler Webinars and they helped me, a bit old now but still relevant for you needs.

P.S. “Drag and drop” is a dirty word on this community :wink:

There is a bit to learn but the back-end (server connect) functionality is worth the pain.

Cheers

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To be fair, I find drag and drop, in the way it's implemented in Wappler, is extremely useful and use it a lot - eg to reorganise and manage items in the Server and App Connect panels. But I appreciate this is not what you had in mind.

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I’ve used Bubble in the past, along with other platforms like Dreamweaver, Wordpress, Webflow, Shopify, Wix, and so forth. The list of things I’ve used is much more extensive than that and would result in absurdity if I were to actually write it all out.

The reason that matters is I’ve always tried to find a solution that worked contextually for what I had to do. And because people have crazy ideas - I’ve had to often find crazy ways to implement them. With that being said, here is what I’ve learned:

All of them are niche-based, fit a specific idea of what a project should do, and once you find yourself outside of that container - you realize the platform won’t work or you’re going to have to seriously draw back on your project’s vision. Worse even is that you’ve wasted all that time and have to try something else.

The strongest value proposition - in my mind - to Wappler is that it has no limits. Absolutely none. There is no direction or idea that is so crazy or outside the norm that you can’t do it in Wappler. In addition to this, everything you do in Wappler will meet industry-standards in terms of design, code, and most importantly: Security.

However, let me forewarn you: No matter what choice you make, there will be frustrating moments. This is true on Wappler as it is true on Bubble or just writing the code yourself. Understand that development is, in part, problem solving. That is - you want to do X and now you have to figure out how to do it. A great portion of what you’ll be doing is covered in the documentation, and the majority of things you’ll be building are just variations of other things you’ve already done. But, there will always be moments where you’ll just rack your brain in frustration. And that’s okay. You’ll be better for it and tomorrow will be easier.

Wappler has a great community - as you’ve seen in this thread. I’ve been in many communities where people are just rude, arrogant, or kind of mean when you ask for help. I’ve never had that here. Wappler also is a platform that is on a fast development cycle. What that means for you is four things:

  1. New features are added very frequently. And by new features - I mean sometimes they’ll just create a new entire way of doing something that didn’t exist before (and they’ll refer to it as a minor update).
  2. You’ll have a voice and it isn’t unusual to see your suggestions implemented. The icons for the Bootstrap themes were my design and idea, for instance. Little ole’ me influenced the program in some way. That’s pretty cool!
  3. There will be minor bugs. When they come out with a new release, there will occasionally be bugs. But, they update the program usually within hours or days to fix. So, it isn’t like Windows where a bug exists for years or months. There is also an easy way to bring hidden bugs to their attention should you find any.
  4. You’ll wonder why in the world they are adding features X and Y. That is actually a strength because it shows that the team at Wappler aren’t just going with what favored users want - they add new functionality and features based off a wide-ranging user-base. This is a win for all of us in the end.

Good luck and the community will be here should you need it.

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100% This ^^^

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@Maz This YouTube Channel is really good at explaining technical concepts in a short/visual fashion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjnup-PuquQ&list=PL0vfts4VzfNjTHIOupS8u9cxTYtz5RPYU&ab_channel=Fireship

There are videos for all of the important topics:

Good starting point and overall informative =]

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Yep @TomD to be clear I was answering @Maz comment about this thing he mentioned and I was referring to the other things he is used to. Just helping to avoid a pile on, it’s not a good experience when you are learning!

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So ive been on wappler for 6 days and Ive learnt so much from just the community so Im grateful. The community in unbelievable; with that being said, my learning curve is going to be extremely steep but im getting somewhere… Thanks again.

@StevenM Yes, drag and drop might be a “dirty word” buttttttttt it would give newbies like myself a “starting point” . Your point is well taken and Im moving along here…

Thanks everyone !

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@drymetal I agree with everything you have said here x2, but lets put everything on the table here:

This is not my experience and you just have to look through the community to see it’s not that of everyone else either.

Don’t get me wrong I think Wappler is best thing since slice bread!! But as a new user I found some of the comments to be exactly what you have outlined it not to be. It started in my first week I excitedly posted some feature suggestions and sharing ideas. I then got a pile on from the community- mostly early adopters.

Then when asking questions I found the replies to be rude and unhelpful and told to go learn how to code before asking a question and not just from the community members mind you!

But I have to say it helped me understand the tone of this community and it means that I now know not to ask a question unless I am really desperate for an answer. And then I might PM someone else who I can see had a similar issue.

The good news is that it has prompted me to dive into JavaScript, CSS, node, MySQL and Docker.

I now use other tools to fill in the gaps where I feel Wappler is lacking (One shared recently with X Bubblers for which incited a pile-on and told to go elsewhere if I didn’t like how Wappler did it). I won’t be doing that again either!

So this is not everyone’s experience and maybe it’s because a lot if us newbies are late to the party or perhaps because some of us are coming from a business background are coming to this from very little coding experience.

My advice is to learn as much as you can, don’t ask a question unless you really have looked at every angle to your problem.

Don’t make suggestions and certainly don’t criticize the way Wappler works now - even if you are trying to be constructive.

  1. But do use Wappler it’s still the best on the market for bringing everything together!
  2. Do help other newbies as you see them come on, especially if they are coming from a nocode business background.
  3. Be kind to those learning for the first time even if you think its a “stupid question”.
  4. Just remember when commenting, you where once there too!

Oh and my promise is I will help you where I possibly can!

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Hey Steven,

I completely agree with you on the community end of things but this has been my general experience with any business. When you first start, people tend to mock you, at least the unsuccessful ones. When you start “rolling in” orders and making traction then they stop.

Same here, there are people that will hold your hand and say “Hey buddy , i’ll be your mentor” or other that would laugh for not knowing how to put together a PRINT “HELLO WORLD” command. Nevertheless; i have found that the few people that i have helped me out to be extremely resourceful. Please remember that everybody does bring something to the table. It might not be coding but could be experience in other domains that is priceless and intangibles that the wappler community can benefit from. The main problem i see with Wappler is that the instructional videos are extremely poor and i know (not at discretion to say) that there are step by step instructional videos that will be released. Thats whats really needed. From what i gather, its not really mobile friendly yet but im sure that the team are working on it.

Nevertheless; after 6 days, i did buy a pro subscription so my dedication and commitment to this will stay. Thank you for on-boarding me to the Wappler family. I hope i could be of help to others in the future like other have helped me out.

All the best !

Maz

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Welcome to the community Maz and happy learning!

I am from the second group indeed, but not because I like being like that but because I hate people that think time is free.

I have some rules which I try to live by when providing my time and knowledge.

When somebody posts a question here I will check how old is the account, how many cries for help vs helping others I can scan in the profile, general attitude, likes vs liked and solutions. Only then I decide if I will give away my time.

For new people what I like to see are posts where they say I’ve tried this, that and then but I haven’t been able to achieve x. Then I will gladly provide some info to steer them but I won’t take their hand ever. Too many times I have done that to get a “this is too complicated for me I quit”.

For old guys I must see that the amount of help received in the community is paid back or forward helping others.

Additionally I can tell you that in the year I have been here I have received enough requests for paid consultation via PM to start my own business. Thankfully I have a 9-5 job and a long-term Wappler consultation project. But that is the ultimate proof of respect for anyone’s time. I will always prioritize problems from these Wapplers over others even If I respectfully decline their proposal to pay for my time. I have spent more time helping others via PMs than in the forum.

I also have my own sense of humour and I am happy about it. The mocking is part of learning process :slight_smile:

In summary. From what I have read I think you understand online communities and their dynamics and you will have zero problems here. You are going to have a great time learning and building. So again…I welcome you!

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