Visual Designer is too big on 1920x1080 screen

[kfawcett]

Wappler Version: 6.0
Operating System: Windows 11
Server Model: N/A
Database Type: N/A
Hosting Type: N/A

Expected behavior

Flow Designer should shrink based on user’s screen resolution or provide some way to scroll or move the canvas horizontally.

Actual behavior

When you have multiple If/Then/Else you cannot see all actions and there’s no way to scroll. Intermittently I can manage to get the cursor to change to the grab hand and I’m able to grab the canvas, but it doesn’t seem to always appear. In the video below it doesn’t appear at all.

How to reproduce

Untitled: Oct 12, 2023 8:23 PM

[brad]

You can zoom in and out in design view. Maybe that will help?

[Cheese]

Further to Brad’s suggestion you can also close the far left Workflow panel by clicking on the Workflow icon. Will give you a little more screen real-estate Keith.

[kfawcett]

Thank Brad. This is more for the initial view size and also the canvas should be able to move, but for some reason it doesn’t always work.

Here’s a video showing the ability to grab the canvas. I haven’t changed anything from the last video, but for some reason minimizing Wappler and reopening it allowed the grabbing to work.

Untitled: Oct 12, 2023 8:23 PM

[kfawcett]

@Cheese

you can also close the far left Workflow panel by clicking on the Workflow icon

Thanks @Cheese. Ideally the designer could be responsive so the user doesn’t need to collapse panels or zoom in/out.

[brad]

@Cheese

Further to Brad’s suggestion you can also close the far left Workflow panel by clicking on the Workflow icon.

This currently doesn’t work. Closing the left panel also closes the tab.

Workflows tabs no longer stay open

Wappler Version: 6.0.0 Beta 5 Operating System: Windows 11 Server Model: N/A Database Type: N/A Hosting Type: N/A Expected behavior Workflow tab stays open when minimizing the left panel(s) or when clicking on another workflow. Actual behavior The workflow tab is closed when minimizing the left panel. It also doesn’t stay open when clicking on another workflow. How to reproduce Open a workflow and then minimize the Workflows tab or switch to another model like Database Manager and then m…

[Cheese]

@kfawcett

Ideally the designer could be responsive so the user doesn’t need to collapse panels or zoom in/out.

Would be really nice if we could detach panels and move them around freely, for example on to a second display. As Electron is Chrome under the hood and allows for panel dragging (browser windows) am sure it can be achieved. Maybe something that could be considered for the final release of version 6…? Would certainly improve things considerably when it comes to resolution constraints!

[Cheese]

@brad

This currently doesn’t work.

Arrghhhhhhhhhhhh! ‘insert expletive here’.

[kfawcett]

That would be amazing. We had a feature request for it a while ago.

Dockable or "Break Away" panels

So, first of all, @George and his team has done an amazing job making the interface as simple and easy to use as possible, and it works great on single monitors. It works even if you have some widescreen monitors, like @psweb with his big 42" I believe. However, with multiple monitors I think there could be a little improvement. Most all web development programs allow you to move panels around so you can customize your workflow. Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Pinegrow, and yes, Dreamweaver…

George mentioned it recently in another post, so we might get it in a future release.

Wappler split tab feature discussion

YES PLEASE!!! Detachable windows would be very useful. Eclipse does this fairly well. Even without the detachable windows, you can quickly make the individual windows fullscreen and then go back, which makes it easy to use a split view. It’s also nice when you have multiple monitors to detach all property windows and place them on a secondary screen while maximizing the code/design window. They also make it easy to reset the windows (i.e. perspective). Here’s a quick example of those features…

[Cheese]

Right little hack around it closing the panel.

Open the Action and insert something benign within the Action like a Comment (for example), so the Action requires saving, but don’t save! Then click on the icon to close the panel.

Boyah!

It’s not a fix but a workaround I just discovered…

[George]

Well double click is just as good

Workflows tabs no longer stay open

Ah I see what you mean. When workflows are in “preview” mode they reuse the same tab editor that is also auto closed to save space when switching to other panels. You can see tabs is preview mode when it’s title is italic. For a tab to come in full edit mode and stay permanently open you just either need to make some changes to it, or open it by double clicking in the workflows tree. Then it will stay open forever.

[George]

Well 1920x1080 is really way to small this days.

You could already collapse many panels like the left side panels like workflows and database managers bij just clicking on their icons on the left bar,

In the new workflow visual designer, we will be making the actions picker panel also callasable, so that will help as well.

But it is advisable to work on bigger resolution.

[Antony]

Hi there @George…

I have to say that I find your “too small these days” comment rather challenging …

I do much of my work on a laptop and travel around a lot, and anything bigger than 1920x1080 is just not legible…

… and my three laptops and monitor are all 1920x1080 max, and I’ve no intention of spending thousands of pounds on new ones right now…

It feels like you are telling me I really need to stay at home and spend a ton of money, which isn’t going to happen!

If you could ensure Wappler is still usable on a laptop at 1920x1080, I would really appreciate it…

[kfawcett]

Well, until we move to headsets that allow us to see at infinite resolutions while being away from our desktops, most laptops are at 1920x1080. I don’t spend my entire day in front of my desktop, so ensuring support for us that enjoy working on “too small” devices would be appreciated.

Regardless, the objects in the visual designer are way larger than most of the other elements in Wappler. Its default size/zoom could be reduced. The same goes for the action items. They’re 3-4 times the size of the category icons.

Just look how much bigger each step is compared to the items in other panels or the icons in my Windows taskbar.

[sid]

@George

Well 1920x1080 is really way to small this days.

That is so so wrong.
Any resolution higher than full HD does not make much sense on laptops because you then end up using the display at 150%. I don’t/haven’t used Macbooks, so not sure what the situation is there.

All monitors that our developers use (2 each) are full HD as well. Anything in higher resolution is very expensive - usually double the cost!

[TMR]

I use a laptop and use four screens in total, I use Wappler on a 27" monitor running at 1920 x 1080. I’m similar to @Antony as my laptop allows me to run things from anywhere on the planet (if I choose to do so), I prefer having my 4 screen set up as it saves so much time not switching between applications etc

There’s no way I’d even consider changing this set up for any software item, it would be interesting to see just how many of us are using Wappler on 1920 x 1080, my personal guess would be its quite a high percentage.

[karh]

@George

Well 1920x1080 is really way to small this days.

These type of comments genuinely make me worried about the future of Wappler.

Sorry to say this so directly, but you really gotta listen well to your customers and think with them. Not shift the blame and tell people to buy a bigger monitor instead of making it responsive.

Listen to the actual concerns of your users… Perhaps a solution can be to limit the new visual designer for bigger resolutions, perhaps that’s not a good idea. Either way - find out why we are concerned and try take away the concerns while sticking to your own vision.

[Cheese]

Playing Devils Advocate here. I think its all relative. Indeed a larger work space is far more accommodating and comfortable. Sometimes a shed is not big enough and you need a garage. Two bedrooms when you need three as your family grows. And its no different with being a Developer. Wappler is expanding and simply requires more space to operate, especially if you want all the ‘things’. As with a small house it becomes cluttered as more and more items fill it. Yes we can still live there but it soon becomes very apparent we need to resize. The Community requests more of Wappler as it moves forward. We have all experienced not being able to close our suitcase when off for a holiday and we leave things out or behind as we realise they just will not fit within the space available. Or we pay for extra baggage capacity and take everything we need with us…

[Antony]

@Cheese

Playing Devils Advocate here.

I hear you @Cheese… and if it is just Visual Designer that can only accommodate people who have “upgraded to a 3 bedroom house”, and all other parts of Wappler are all accessible to those of who don’t want to change, then that is fine. I just won’t use Visual Designer, as the current UI will stay with us.

As @karh says, it becomes worrying when there is an implied ideology that we all have to move to a 3 bedroomed house or Wappler may become unusable for us in the future.

That means we all need to stop travelling around using laptops and tie ourselves to a desk with a huge monitor. For many of us that just isn’t going to happen.

There needs to be an understanding that lots of us work from single laptop screens, and they are not physically big enough to accommodate seeing more than 1920x1080… so Wappler needs to continue to be usable at that resolution.

We are not Luddites, just people running a business that involves travelling to see our clients!

[Hyperbytes]

I use 3 monitors, 2 @1920 x 1080 and 1 @ 2560 x1440 (2K).

I use wappler exclusively on the 2K monitor as I find the 1920s too small and restrictive.

When I am forced to use 1920 on a laptop away from office I hate it.

Monitors are cheap, paid less than 200 GBP for my AOC 2k it’s not a huge investment and on my.opinion money well spent.