Custom component have disappeared from the toolbox

Anvil Q&A
1

The toolbox in an app with dependencies used to show all the custom components defined in the dependencies.

This morning the toolbox doesn’t show the custom components.

2

That’s interesting - I just checked and custom components from dependencies are showing in my apps. Standard troubleshooting steps:

  • Does your app still depend on the app with the custom component? (Double check the app menu -> Dependencies dialog, in case it got deleted somehow)

  • Does the version of your dependency that your app uses provide a custom component? Eg if you depend on the Published version of an app (and you have published a version for that app), then custom components you add won’t show up until you publish a new version! (Solution: Either depend on the development version of your dependency, or use the Version History dialog in the depended-on app to publish a version with the custom component.)

3

Last week I created a “Common components” app with two custom components.
Then I created two apps that use “Common components” as dependency.
Then I published the two apps.
Until this point everything was working as expected.
Then I published “Common components”.
At this point the two apps were able to use the custom components, but they didn’t show them in the toolbox.
I cloned one of the two apps, and the clone had the same problem: it was able to use the custom components, but didn’t show them in the toolbox.

I tried to reproduce the problem with 2 brand new apps, but everything worked well.

Any suggestion on how to restore the custom components on the toolbox for my apps?

4

I exported one of the broken apps (the ones that don’t show the custom components in the toolbox) and imported it and the problem persists.

Then I created a new app and added forms and code trying to get the yaml of the broken imported app and the newly created one as close as possible and I found something that fixes the imported broken app: adding the new “card” role and importing the app, then the custom components are finally visible.

If I import the old app with this doesn’t work:

  [...]
  parameters:
    roles:
    - name: title
      components: [Label]
  assets:
  [...]

If I add a few lines, then the custom components are back visible:

  [...]
  parameters:
    roles:
    - name: title
      components: [Label]
    - name: card
      components: [ColumnPanel]
      display_in_toolbox: true
      title: Card
  assets:
  [...]
5

It looks like this is the new (compared to last week) behavior:

  • if the role “Card” does not exist or if it exists but “Show in toolbox” is unchecked, then the custom components are not visible in the toolbox

  • if the role “Card” exists and is visible in the toolbox, then the custom components are visible

Perhaps it has to do with the fact that “Card” is restricted to the ColumnPanel?

I will create the (useless to me) “Card” role and make it visible, so I can restart working with my custom components.

6

Hi Stefano,

Thanks for helping us narrow this down. This is now fixed!

Sorry for the slightly slow responses - we’ve been travelling to PyCon US, which starts tonight :slight_smile: