Wordpress user looking at Wappler thinking about switching has some questions

[Toby_Bear]

Hey Wapplerians,
I’m a designer who occasionally uses Wordpress with Elementor. I’m happy to jump across to something that suits my needs better and was interested in Webflow initially and then Wappler came into view.

I have a few questions and concerns and thought this would be a great place to lay them down so if anyone could answer some or all of the following that would be fantastic.

1. With Wordpress I often use a cache plugin, a lazy load plugin and also an image optimisation plugin. How would these things be handled with Wappler?

2. Where can I research the growth of Wappler as a platform? - This is something I need to do if I’m to feel confident making the jump to it form what I use now.

3. I have two personal websites and also one I did for an NPO - with the latter, it’s small to medium size and uses Stripe payments. How difficult would it be to rebuild in Wappler?

https://dunedincurtainbank.org.nz

4. It also uses a CMS to edit text and add images - how do I replace the Wordpress functionality of a CMS with Wappler?

5. I have a site for my design portfolio that uses a lazy load to speed things up, but it’s a one page site, so it is a little slow due to loading a lot of images. With Wappler, would it be possible to have the top part load in first, and then only start loading the sections once you start to scroll down?

Also - would this site be relatively quick to make with Wappler?

Freelance graphic designer in Dunedin | SHAPE CREATIVE

6. Finally - is there anything else I should know if thinking about making the jump across? Are there any people here who’ve moved from Wordpress to Wappler and care to share their experience?

[sevenrice]

So I know this is not answering your questions but why are you looking to move from WordPress?

[Toby_Bear]

I like the idea of cleaner code and the potential to make forays into taking more control of the site. With the themebuilder and theme I have in Wordpress I sometimes feel I’m working against the theme or theme builder to achieve what I want.

There’s also a bunch of other annoyances like updating the site to see how it’ll look and even the responsive view in my theme builder not being wholly indicative of what the site will look like.

[ben]

I can think of many more compelling reasons to move away from WordPress, without mentioning security. The only thing going for WordPress is the speed at which a website can be produced. After that, speed has disappeared to a trickle.

But to answer your questions:

1. There is no built in cache or image optimisation; Wappler does have Lazy Load
2. Wappler is barely one year old. In that time in excess of 5,000 web developers are using it.
3. With the included API Connector, linking to Stripe is a breeze. Personally I have linked to the Square payment gateway which is very similar.
4. Building a bespoke CMS is one of the strongest parts of Wappler
5. The built in Lazy Load is for images only. The best way to load the first parts of the page is to utilise a Service Worker. Although your site looks great, I am through with parallax effects, they do not work on most handheld devices. Personally I would go for a Single Page Application (SPA), which is so easy to do with the built in Routing system
6. You should be warned that Wappler will throw your current ideas of web development into disarray. Even after working with Wappler since the start, I still have moments where I overthink the problem when Wappler makes web development so easy and, above all, fast.

[psweb]

You should be warned that Wappler will throw your current ideas of web development into disarray. Even after working with Wappler since the start, I still have moments where I overthink the problem when Wappler makes web development so easy and, above all, fast.

This is the story of my life Ben, i am constantly doing circles trying something in the most difficult way, and then after an hour of messing around i try something seemingly stupid through Wappler and it just works.

The issue with Wappler is, it is almost too powerful to document every single thing you could do with it, just like the php documentation, they can explain each command, but there are 100 ways you could combine those commands, and get a very different result.

Take this as a prime example of something i tried to get working the other day.

I have a form with an upload field, but i wanted a custom upload field like

I only inserted the html part without the script tag, test it out on the live site, and i notice that the filename does not populate over the “Choose file” wording, it just remains “Choose file” even after the upload has been selected.
Sounds simple, i include the script tag and make some minor adjustments for my naming conventions, test it out, and it still does not work.
Eventually I decide, I will just use the Wappler built in bindings, and bind the file input file name into the label tag, and of course it just worked, without me having to look up what properties or parameters are accessible through various scripting technologies for an input field.

Append to this a default formatter and I land up with the page displaying “Choose file” and once the upload file has been selected, the file name itself, as i wanted from the start.

The second part of this issue is that in some cases i think Wappler just assumes people will innately “just know” certain things, such as, in my case, i did not want the original name of the file stored in the database, and i wanted the file renamed, to whatever the client wanted it called, as well as that chosen name stored into my database. Here is an example.

So the client sets the image name, to avoid a database full of DSC5490.jpg etc.

Sounds easy, I go into the Server connect side of this, and think can i just rename the image after upload, but Wappler does not really reflect this functionality.

As can be seen the Template makes no mention that it is capable of pulling the dynamic $_POST parameters from the client side form, there is also no Lightening dynamic data picker to the right of the template section, so I just assumed it was not possible. The Server Connect rename as well as the save addons are the same as the above image, none showing a dynamic picker.
After watching multiple Wappler videos, multiple DMX videos, i find some obscure area in a video where @Teodor types in a $_POST parameter manually, so I do the same.

And it works perfectly.

This turned into a far longer story than anticipated, however those that know me will be used to that, anyway the point I am trying to make is that, as each part of Wappler replicates using multiple scripting technologies into various GUIs, the power is unlimited in my opinion, and documenting each part of the functionality would be an almost impossible task.

[ben]

Paul, tips like this make my day. Thank you for sharing

[mebeingken]

As can be seen the Template makes no mention that it is capable of pulling the dynamic $_POST parameters from the client side form, there is also no Lightening dynamic data picker to the right of the template section, so I just assumed it was not possible.

This bit me too… and could be avoided with a quick change to the tooltip, if adding the bolt isn’t feasible.

[Freddy_Blockchain]

Wordpress

• Quick results
• Simple Setup
• Quick and dirty
• You mess up with Plugins
• You search for plugins which does only a but also provides b, c and d.
• Security Risk
• As more as you fill up your WP it slows down
• People use Caching and stuff like that
• Customization is a pain in the a…
• Costly when using more plugins
• User Roles
• Easy Admin / CMS for managing posts
• Multilang is done quicker
• You reach limits as soon as your community grows
• ACF can be complex
• Plugin incompatibility
• Seo friendly
• Shitty code/html output/overload
• API can be messy, depends on Plugins
• Lots of workarounds needed if smth doesnt fit.
• Design / Themes depends on premium quality and plugins. Some Plugins dont work with some theme.
• Development speed depends on plugins. Some plugins are dead with dev.
• No installation, webbased start
• DB‘s by default via Mysql. Quirks possible…
• Adding custom code is harder to implement.
• Can‘t do real native apps (Offline possible via full LAMP/WAMP install on that device).

Wappler

• You need DB knowledge
• You need basic understandment of Web environment like sessions and form handlings etc.
• Doesnt provide you a CMS out of the box.Instead Wappler is the CMS
• Nearly no limits if we talk about CRUD
• Complete solid, custom solutions for long term projects possible.
• Multiuser development via git possible
• Multilang needs to be done yourself
• Long term better solution
• Robust, clean and fast
• Clean API implementation possible
• Nearly no workarounds needed
• Endless possibilities
• User roles possible (needs to be done)
• Insanely active user oriented development
• Seo is granulary possible
• Adding custom code is beautiful and fun
• Needs installation if Wappler (Mac. Unix, Win)
• Supports different DB‘s Maria, Mysql, SQL Win, SQlite
• With wappler you COULD develop a complete custom „Worpress“ clone.
• Native Apps possible (Offline).

If you can read and interpret basic html / code (php, javascript) and know what a DB is and how it works or design one, then wappler is so powerful. Also if you wanna learn coding, then thats your choice.

If you never worked with a DB and cant read HTML or dont know what Stackoverflow is, you wanna stay comfy then Wappler may be not your first decision.

In other words: WP is a tool to make Websites, while Wappler is a tool to have a tool which makes, whatever you want…

[max_gb]

Hi @Toby_Bear, welcome to the Wappler community. Not knocking you or Wappler in this reply, but it would be good to know what your future intentions actually are.

Remember, Wappler is not a platform like Wordpress or any other CMS, but it is a tool to help you build web and mobile applications.

If you are looking to build static sites with very little interaction with third-party services, databases or things like forms and email processing, (dare I say) maybe Wappler isn’t the best tool for you. If you need to make more dynamic sites and apps then definitely jump in to Wappler and download the trial.

There are other tools if you’re just looking to make static sites that maybe better for your needs. I’ve used tools such as Webflow and Pinegrow in the past for simple sites that produce clean code.

[kfawcett]

You can build your own CMS with Wappler, if you so desire, although it may take more effort than it’s worth. It would require building a “back end” (i.e. admin) interface to allow your users to create posts, and then you could display the info on the “front end” pages. Just like Wordpress has pages to show a list of Posts and to show the individual posts, you would need to create those two pages, along with the backend page to edit the post.

In addition, Wappler lets you build both server side code and client side code, along with desktop apps, mobile apps, etc, but if Wordpress has everything you need then you might take a look at Pinegrow instead. It already has a bunch of Wordpress Post Actions built in for easy insertion.

[nshkrsh]

Welcome to Wappler @Toby_Bear

1. lazy load works out of the box. image optimization maybe done with custom code only as of now.
2. refer the Wappler showcase
3. API are easy to integrate with Wappler, including Stripe. Brian had made a Stripe integration tutorial here
4. you can create a custom CMS with Wappler. there is no ready to use solution in Wappler like with Wordpress.
   what we do: for simpler websites, we just use oxygen builder with wordpress. for more complicated websites requiring larger set of dynamic functionality (and a larger budget ) we prefer to use Wappler.
5. lazy load will work like that. suggest you use better hosting for faster load times, even on scroll. if you can, use CDN like cloudflare railgun, bunnycdn, keycdn, or similar.
   making shapecreative.co.nz in Wappler. honestly, no, if you try Wappler for the first time, it’ll take some time as Wappler has a learning curve. but if you want to create a lot of dynamic web apps - it’d be awesome after the learning part is done.
6. we did kinda jump from wordpress+webflow+hand-coding to wappler. and it has been quite good. Wappler’s visual development tools are like. no. other. just incredible.

hope this helps.
do not hesitate to ask more questions.

[scott]

we prefer to sue Wappler.

Please do not sue Wappler, we love Wappler !

I am just joking, I know you meant to say “use”.

[nshkrsh]

fixed it. thanks.

[Toby_Bear]

Thanks very much for the detailed replies everyone. I really appreciate the time taken here to complete the feedback.

I’m likely going to stick with Wordpress for the time being as it provides 70% of what I need out of the box. It’s tricky as in my design work I like to use the best tools most of the time and by using Wordpress I’m constantly reminded of limitations, but also I’m limited by not knowing HTML, CSS and JS.

Webflow interests me a bit, as that seems to be a cleaner way of making sites without coding but comparing that to wordpress is a whole seperate conversation to be had elsewhere of course.

Just fo the record re the parallax comment, in the replies - I’d disabled all but one instance of that on mobile.

So yes, Thanks again for helping me make my mind up. As a designer, web design is not something I’m fully committed to at this stage so I’ll stay with what I have for the time being.

Cheers! - I’ll be keeping my eye on the Wappler communities and showcases.

[scott]

@Toby_Bear I can appreciate your position, but I would encourage you to continue looking at Wappler.

For my projects, I do not touch JS or CSS (with one exception, but that was as part of a tutorial where @ben explained what he was doing and why he was doing it.

As far as HTML, I rarely touch the code directly. While Wappler has a code view, primarily I use the design view and it benefits from being visual. 90% of what I am doing in my project as I convert my Wordpress site to a Wappler site is done by point and click. 5% is API based which can require utilizing code view because my situation is specific when it comes to a commerce solution, but the Wappler team and community is here to help as need be. The other 5% is database work and while there are many programs out there, I prefer to use MySQL Workbench because of the integration of a visual modal that can sync back and forth with the actual database and its free!.

If you are like me, what you currently have with Wordpress is working for you, although there are are irritations. I would recommend that you continue to look at Wappler, watch the tutorial videos on the Youtube page, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO6KNYNmOwBetYIczr71vJw and ask questions

[Toby_Bear]

Hi Scott,
Your comment certainly reels me back in a little. I posted on the Webflow forum as similar message as here and received no reply, which is disappointing and an interesting counterpoint to the very helpful replies I’ve had here.

What plan of Wappler are you on? - I’m still somewhat interested in trying to rebuild my site in Wappler. Does the basic plan allow what I’d want to do? - ie release three sites, one of them with CMS? - then after that I’d look to adding another 2 or 3 sites a year.

Also, is it a known thing for front end designers to collaborate with full stack developers to hand off front end designs?

[scott]

I’m on the Pro plan, you can see the different plans and descriptions here, https://wappler.io/pricing/

I am not sure about collaboration efforts as I work alone with the advice and support of the Wappler team and community.

[mebeingken]

Also, is it a known thing for front end designers to collaborate with full stack developers to hand off front end designs?

My preferred way to work. I’m so much more productive when a designer handles to look and feel, and I deal with functionality.

[Toby_Bear]

Thanks - that’s good to see.

I see there that they do pay as you go options too, in that you can pay monthly. Would it be possible to use Wappler for say 2 or three months at a time then not pay for when I don’t use it and still have a CMS that would allow for example altering text or adding new content to an existing structure?

[Logan]

The beauty of Wappler is that once you stop using it you still have the code. So yes once your plan is finished you’re not required to use Wappler, though I think you’ll find that you will want to.