Extension for Live Anvil changes

I created an extension for Chrome that can let you view changes live on your Anvil App. Here is the extension in action

Live_Preview1

The Problem

Let’s just say you spent some time writing your code. Now you can’t wait to see it in action. So you run the app. You wait some time for the app to load (even more if you have slow internet or if your app is large). After that, you may have to perform login action and make some choices to finally get to the part you want to test.

And after doing all the steps, you realise that you made a really stupid mistake in your code. So you stop the app, make changes and again follow the same steps. But it appears that your code still isn’t working as intended.

In the end, you end up spending more time waiting rather than debugging.


This is where this extension comes in handy. You no longer have to restart your apps anymore. You just need to press a keyboard shortcut and your app will be updated automatically (as shown in the GIF above)

You can download this extension and view the instructions at Github

How does it work

This extension uses the same method for communication that the running app console does. It sends a message to the running app and lets anvil execute the code.

So basically, it will extract the code you just wrote along with some more details from the Anvil Editor. After that, the data will be passed to your anvil app. This is where the extension generates a form class from the transferred code and opens the form.


Please note that this extension is not stable and has many limitations.
Also, this extension was built for chrome so it will not support most of the browsers. I may build versions for other browsers later.

If you face any issues, please post them on Github

6 Likes

This is a God-send! I will be taking good advantage of this! (and giving it a good 1-2 QA thrashing while I’m at it :stuck_out_tongue: for good measure)

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Sure! Let me know if some problem pops up!

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