Anvil Documentation Suggestions [ON-GOING]

[Nusnus]

Hey,

Per the advice I got here, I will start a single thread where I will document places in the official documentation that I think could use some attention

So…

In this page: https://anvil.works/docs/integrations
The link under the text: Authentication - Log users in with their Google accounts
Leads to invalid location, as can be seen by clicking on this copy&paste of the part of the doc.

Along with my reading of the docs I will reply with more issues I find.

Thanks!

[p.colbert]

And I’ll start collecting links from my other posts on this topic, from other threads. That way, Anvil Central will have fewer places to look.

Explicit listing of exception hierarchy for each integration

…so that we can know what things can go wrong, how to detect them, how to ignore/forward specific exceptions, and take a decent stab at how to handle the rest.

I would add, an explicit list of Anvil Exceptions, for the exact same reasons. It’s much easier to devise a coding strategy for handling Exceptions if you have some idea of what things you might need to prepare for.

[stefano.menci]

I don’t like the way the search box works: it shows max 5 results and it never finds anything on the API reference.

I always end up googling for my search terms site:anvil.works/docs.

[p.colbert]

Perhaps that should be a one-click option (button) in the Docs? It might save Anvil Central the trouble of maintaining their own search engine.

[stefano.menci]

I have the feeling that (1) they show only 5 results because they are feeling lucky and (2) they sanitize your search terms and don’t find what you are looking for.

I like the search on the forum that shows the first 5 results with a More... link to see the full list.

[stefano.menci]

Another issue with the documentation (I think): the functions about Google Drive described here are not listed in the API reference.

[p.colbert]

Same for Anvil Timezone helpers.
API reference: https://anvil.works/docs/api/anvil.tz
Docs: https://anvil.works/docs/server/dealing-with-timezones
Related forum entry: Time Zone issues

[p.colbert]

Something very fundamental:

API docs are missing anvil.server.call, anvil.server.callable:
API reference: https://anvil.works/docs/api/anvil.server#functions

[rickhurlbatt]

Is this thread still active?

If so, clicking the blue help icon from the Background Tasks window opens the help window but it will not navigate or scroll to see the rest of the page.

Edit: Scheduled tasks does not scroll either. Others tested do scroll.

[bridget]

@rickhurlbatt Yes, it is! Thanks all for pointing these out

[p.colbert]

An issue with set_default_error_handling:

Does not show how to tell relatively innocuous “errors” (temporary loss of connection) from more serious ones. This distinction is essential if one is to provide an informative, helpful message to the user. Ideally, there should be a list or hierarchy of exceptions that we can refer to, to make this distinction in our code.

For example, the common “Connection to server failed” error: Where would I find the type of that exception, so that I could properly identify it and/or trap it?

[p.colbert]

Also see: Wrong link in the documentation

[p.colbert]

AttributeError: ‘DatePicker’ object has no attribute ‘text’
is not consistent with
https://anvil.works/docs/api/anvil#DatePicker
which says that it does have a member named text.

[stucork]

Global Variables - what am I missing here?

I am trying to implement global variables. Seems easy enough… When I follow the doco as outlined here https://anvil.works/docs/client/python/modules#global-variables When I then try to implement the same techniques into my code, I get errors like ImportError: No module named Globals Looking at the styles of the icons in the left hand menu, I notice that they are different to the demo sidebar app. https://sidebar-navigation.anvil.app/ So I’ve read elsewhere that this is probably due to the…

The Clone apps could do with updating to new style forms/modules

https://anvil.works/docs/client/python/modules#global-variables

[stefano.menci]

Clicking here does nothing:

[bridget]

Thanks all (@stefano.menci, @stucork, @p.colbert) for your recent additions.

I’m picking my way through these, and they’re all on our issue tracker

[hjp]

Please add in something similar to:

““Before you can create credentials for the Google Drive Integration, you must first add the Google Drive API to your Project. Click here to go to the Google API Library””

@ https://anvil.works/docs/integrations/google/linking-google-and-anvil

Location: “Scopes for Google API’s”, and then move both sections up to precede the OAuth Consent Screen setup since the scopes have to be added first.

Bonus Task: A paragraph pertaining to Google Webmaster and Google Search consoles would be convenient, as well as a mention that the TTL on DNS records are enforced on the last propagated entry, and therefore once you set it to a smaller window the DNS refreshes at the new interval. (60s for DevOps, 5 mins for Staging, 24 hrs for Production)<= pragmatic

[stucork]

referencing a documentation issue: (List_columns - cool feature, incorrect docs):

[heidi]

Thanks! Didn’t know about this thread!

[p.colbert]

Documentation often speaks of “the Published version”. This can be misread very easily, as there are usually many different versions over time, all of them being “Published” at one time or another. Developers can even switch to an earlier (or later!) Published version at will.

Since this confusion keeps coming up, it looks like a wording change may be in order. I’d like to suggest “the currently-Published version” instead.