Custom HTML Questions

Anvil Q&A
1

So I’ve been extremely happy with how fast I have been able to get my app going on this platform. I’m now planning to convert over to pro that I’m getting closer to my launch date and was curious about a few custom HTML questions since now I will have access to this.

  1. I’m assuming I can build any bootstrap HTML template or custom html template I have and just use anvil data to display in say custom graphs, UI components etc right?

  2. Any gotchas or things I need to be aware of from those that have used custom HTML?

I want to spruce up my dashboards and such and wanted to probably use some of the bootstrap dashboard items along with the anvil data so just wanted to make sure I am aware of any limitations before I get started. I’ll be reading through the docs as well, any feedback is appreciated.

As an example I was thinking some type of template like https://adminlte.io/themes/AdminLTE/index.html# backed by anvil data and components, etc.

Thanks again for a great platform.

1 Like
2

Just my opinion…

There are a lot of things to get right when converting an admin template like that one (I started doing it myself). Things like making sure your drop zones work properly when you cannot know completely in advance what is going to be dropped where.

The material template Anvil provide is testament to the fact it is possible. I just think it’s difficult, hence why i use Anvil :slight_smile:

That said, if you want to give it a go, I’ll help out where & when I can, though I’m no HTML/CSS expert.

3

yea I figured that might be the the case. I mainly wanted “prettier” graphs and dasbboards in my app and wasn’t sure best approach in anvil.

I like my material UI layout I’m using just was hoping for prettier dashbboard type items and wasn’t sure if i could somehow use bootstrap ones in my app

4

I guess I could always just play with CSS and see if I could do something like https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/07/designing-simple-pie-charts-with-css/ now that I"m on the pro plan I’m going to play with this a lot more since most of my data and forms all now work the way I want, just need to start making things look visually appealing.

5

It’s possible to import external JS libraries (I have some examples scattered about the forums), so you could probably add your preferred charting library that way. I assume the built in plotly ones are not to your taste?

6

Yea not really I prefer the react look/feel dashboards I’m looking around at some bootstrap/js ones now to see if I can set those up.

7

https://mdbootstrap.com/wp-content/themes/mdbootstrap4/content/jquery/tutorials/bootstrap/tutorial-3/10/index.html is sort of what I’m looking at probably doing

8

Bear in mind you have access to the Plot.ly API from within the client-side of Anvil, this might well allow you to style your plots as you wish. Here’s a tutorial https://anvil.works/blog/dashboard.