Tabable Server Actions question

So I am finding Wappler 4.01 wonderful, apart from the tabbed server actions part, I think its a wonderful idea, but it seems to be slowing me down personally quite a bit.

Wappler 3.9.9 I could have a Server Action selected on the left and view the entire action while coding on my page, so it was easy to reference back when working on a particular module of my web app.

Wappler 4.01, I am having to click the tab to show the action, remember the name of the var I set, or repeat etc. and then go back to my code to enter it in.

I do understand in an ideal world, this would never be an issue if the data pickers always gave us exactly what we need, but i often need to refer back to the Server Action to see whats in there while adjusting my code.

Anyway, I am just wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same, or if its just my elderly, stuck in my ways brain fighting against the updated technology. Quite possible.

Paul if there is something not appearing in some datapicker on your page better report this as a bug so we can fix it …

Also as discussed quite a few times already, when the split tabs option comes in Wappler, you will be able to see server actions and pages side by side.

Thanks Teo, wasn’t quite sure exactly how the split tabs was going to look, and was wondering if that will make this a little different, I will just wait rather and see what that brings.
I will see which particular things I am struggling with in the data pickers and post bug reports on them as i go.

I am slightly glad to hear you comments - as what you describe is the main reason why I’m still on 3.99. I’m certainly looking forward to the split screen feature. The data picker has always been ‘temperemental’ but I had hoped it would be less so in 4.0.1. It’s misbehaviour even 3.9.9 has tempted me to switch to 4.0.1, but I think I’ll wait a little longer.

When you say you’re finding the new version ‘wonderful’ neverthless, are there generally features which should make me switch anyway? UI themes is obviously a big addition.

(I’m sure I’ll find it wonderful too in due course, once the split screen feature is in place and a few outstanding issues are resolved.)

Please be more specific explaining this in a separate bug report topic.
Hope you guys understand we can’t fix something we’re not aware of :slight_smile:

I think there are reports about missing properties fairly regularly. This issue tends to get fixed, but then seems to return. As I’m using 3.9.9 at the moment, I don’t expect bugs I encounter to get fixed, though I suppose they might be bugs in 4.0.1 also.

Below is a typical example. I click to see view/edit properties (1), but none appear. I try adding another insert action and the properties appear (2). In this case, clicking back where I started (3) I can see the existing properties. Tricks like this sometimes work, sometime they don’t. More often than not, I’ll edit the code manually, perhaps creating a new dummy action first to help with the syntax. Sometimes restarting helps, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes an update fixes such a reported issue, and then perhaps another update breaks it again. That’s what I meant by ‘temperemental’. Of course, much of the time they work fine and are great - but the feaure has never felt robust.

Tom, can you please report issues in separate topics? It’s really hard to follow these when they get buried in comments.

As I suggested, I assume it’s not very useful to report 3.9.9 issues and I wouldn’t expect them to get fixed.

(Also, the issue of disappearing action properties has been reported umpteen times over the years. It’s a sort of feature which I hope will disappear itself one day.)

Hey Tom, for me personally, the speed difference in v4.0.1 vs v3.9.9 was a huge improvement, it is really responsive and snappy, that alone was well worth it.
I think it was due to the new M1 version of Wappler.

As far as the times where I struggle to find some bindings, I find it is far less often in v4.0.1 than 3.9.9, so that is also better. The times it doesn’t work are tricky to track down as sometimes I think it is because I am inside a content page or a partial, and when i test it from the main page then suddenly it all works as expected.

In other words choosing the binding from the picker may give {{content.server_action.query1}} vs {{server_action.query1}} and I have to manually change it, or using the bootstrap 5 form generator with a multi update may give all the values as {{serverconnect[0].update.data.first_name}} vs {{first_name}} like it does not know it is part of a repeat.

Other times I think its because I have moved around action steps in a server action so many times while trying to get something working as I want, I am pretty sure moving steps that were in repeats previously to other repeats messes with the schema. Sometimes once I get my server action perfect, I often recreate it from scratch cleanly without all the moving steps around and it works better. I have even taken powerful text editor comparison tools like bbEdit and done a compare of the moved around server action vs my newly generated clean one and it has listed multiple differences.

All in all I think 4.0.1 is well worth the update, and certainly not more buggy so win, win.

Once I have more solid, recreate-able data for bug reports I will send them through, for now I just used the coffee lounge so it can be more of a discussion just to get user input.

Thanks a lot Paul. I wonder if the new version is faster on Windows too. I haven’t used the betas enough to know. I have a Mac mini with an M1 chip. If there’s a big speed difference, I might switch to using that for Wappler.

I fiddle around with server actions a lot, particularly putting in steps for testing etc. which I’ll later delete. I’ve never thought of recreating them from scratch though.

I actually did a bug report on that @TomD just to show the differences of a tiny little file with only 3 steps, a repeat, database update, set value.

Obviously with so little in there, the file size difference will be virtually nothing, but on a massive server action where you are bringing in external APIs that were inside repeats when you added their schema data, and then dragging that out of the repeat later on the file sizes can start building up like crazy.

I just keep an eye on file size, and if I know I have been playing hungry hungry hippo lots inside that server action, then i recreate it from scratch once its perfect, and normally see a decent size decrease.

Multiply that by 100 server actions in some projects and things can become a little snappier with all the small size decreases. Patric has been assigned to it, so im sure it will be fixed soon.

I have no words to show my dismay that you are using Windows while the poor mac sits and waits to be played with, bahahahah.

Before all the Windows people kill me, it was just a joke, I like windows too, but love mac.

I just saw that - very interesting.

It’s used quite a bit - indeed I’m typing on it now, using the same mouse/keyboard I use most of the time on my Windows computer. I’m probably too set in my ways.

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Same here.
While purchasing a new system this May, I toyed with the idea of going with an M1 Mac, but finally bought Asus.
Two things that stopped me from switching:

  1. Shortcuts. I use a ton of Windows schortcuts across various apps. Mac has cmd and option stuff, which do not make sense to me.
  2. Value for money. Looking at the tools I use, M1 did not propose any significant speed improvements to be honest. And comparing the hardware and ports and screen size etc, value for money was much higher in my Zenbook Duo 14.

As for W4.0.1, it is indeed very snappy in Windows as well, compared to others.
I have read this a lot, but in our office the workflow does not require having the server action open to the left. Or at least not for me.
So I have zero complaints as such, except for the usual bugs that sometimes I post, sometimes I don’t - but this has become sort of an expectation with any version.

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I have been using a mac for about 10 000 years now, or at least it feels like it, and just yesterday I found a new shortcut that I wish I knew ages ago, would have saved me hours.
For any mac users interested. When you copy a bunch of files, such as images from one folder to another and it finds duplicates, it often only gives, replace, skip, cancel, but if you hold down the alt key the skip changes to Keep Both, and then it just suffixes duplicate files with copy.
So yes Mac has its quirky shortcuts.

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I use these a lot too and Windows is far better in this respect (IMO). You can create shortcuts to run menu commands on a Mac, but to do so for many applications is not feasible. This is something built into Windows - you don’t have to create them.

You mean you don’t miss having everything visible at once - eg Split view with App and Server connect either side? I certainly imagine I would miss this but perhaps I would get used to it. The sort of thing I think would be more difficult would be working on a complicated form, where in pre-v4 you can easily see everything sending requests on the right (inputs etc) and check the corresponding POST variables on the left. Also, I suppose I just like seeing everything at once, on a large monitor.

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We don’t use form generator to be honest. We do import form in SA, but never create UIs with form generator. So probably that’s where the difference could be.

Apart from that, data picker has improved A LOT in past 3-4 months, so even less requirement to peek into SA to write expressions in code.
Before these improvements, we just used to test the expression in browser console and copy paste from there (still do when pickers fails), so didn’t need peeking into SA too much even then.

What do you mean test in console? like with dmx.app.data and dmx.parse or do you use some others too.

Yes. These two. And somtimes just take a look at the response JSON tree in Netwrok tab.

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@Teodor, IMHO the data picker and data binding system needs a serious redesign… I’ve not enough time to report the bugs and inefficiencies, I just code many things by hand.

That works well for me so I’m not complaining, just responding to your request for Data Picker bug reports.

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@TomD One more thing. Wappler 4.0.1 UI/Icons/Text is super crisp on Windows now. I used to see screenshots of Mac users and wonder why everything looks so hazy in Windows. Not anymore.

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