I knew Anvil since some months ago but I didn’t have the time to dig on it until recently .
I am amazed!
It is a game changer.
Previously I had to learn JS+CSS+HTML+Python+AWS_Services * and how to interconnect all that…
Now I can’t believe how seamless & simple* you have made that whole thing to be.
* Let’s be honest, you still need to understand the other stuff to some degree.
Within a week, (including the time to learn+understand Anvil) I have created a multi-user web app with security, Database, reading external resources, able to display on PC/Mobile and even offer to install as an App on smartphone.
My head had to spin a few times until I understood how the Anvil-pieces where fitting together, but at the end, I could clearly see it all, remove code/libraries/dependencies and make it all extremely simple.
When trying to make the initial load a bit faster I could, with no effort, move functions from browser to server and even pack them all in one to reduce the number of calls. Amazed how simple it was.
I cannot imagine how complex the whole Anvil-development has been to make such a complex thing (front-end & back-end together + all in Python) as simple as it is. Deliciously simple!
And the Anvil Development UI is really light! In other platforms I need to keep and eye on that as the browsers memory start to grow, but Anvil-UI seems not to bother my browser.
There were many things I had to search around, read multiple times, but with the help of what I found on the forums and some poking, I got all as I wanted. Cloning existing Apps is really helpful to play with some specific pieces of code (like jsfiddle.net
and similar, but for full web-stack).
I only wish I could use Anvil as AWS (pay for use, but always without limits). I know that keeping such level of tracking is not a simple task, but it is my ‘wish’.
Another suggestion: Documentation, explain UI and code “side by side”.
Until I understood the code behind the UI I could not figure out how to play with the components.
PS: My App shows nothing unless you are a registered user, so I don’t put it here. It allows users to create events, join/leave them, and display who is attending what. Like meetup but for a closed group of people and super simple.