Sneaky Anvil Updates

[rickhurlbatt]

User Feedback is such a valuable thing in development but if you release updates that are not hugely publicised, you miss out on some of that feedback.

Given that the Anvil Team is so good at releasing these sneaky updates, I thought I would create a post that anyone can update with new features they see and some feedback on it as a way of letting Anvil know that we the community have seen it and appreciate it.

This also lets others know what is new they may not have noticed.
Please feel free to add.

[rickhurlbatt]

1. The dotted vertical lines in code showing indentation levels… Love it! Simple and effective.

[mark.breuss]

@rickhurlbatt Nice Idea!

2. Anvil Apps are now installable as progressive Web Apps:
   
   

Love the path, I’m excited what more PWA features will follow!
Cudos to the Anvil Team!

[david.wylie]

Hi - can you tell me where to find that?

[p.colbert]

If I remember correctly, in Chrome, under Windows 10, it’s “Create Shortcut” below.

So far, I haven’t seen that in Firefox or Edge.

[rickhurlbatt]

3. Tab indentations used to be made up of two consecutive spaces but not are essentially one double width space.

[hugetim]

4. For custom components, it’s now possible to categorize (and order?) the properties in the sidebar of the designer view (by editing the .yaml file), as demonstrated by the Anvil Extras slider, for instance.
   
   

[p.colbert]

This post from @stefano.menci

Programmatically access data about my Anvil apps

Long time ago I played with an app that creates a dependency chart across all my apps. I get the list of available apps with https://anvil.works/ide/apps. Then I use https://anvil.works/ide/apps/export/ to get the yaml of each app. This would give me tons of information on each app, but something was still missing for a complete dependency chart (I don’t really remember what was missing, I haven’t used it in a while). One problem with this is that you can only see the apps shared with the tea…

[p.colbert]

strptime on the client

[p.colbert]

client_writable_cascade()

[rickhurlbatt]

Instant custom domain configuration and redirection.

It used to be done within 24 hours but now seems to be instant!!

[nathanguyette]

I looooove that! (Plus extra characters)

[robert]

I recently changed a custom domain on an app, which still takes a bit, but it mostly seems to work very quickly for new ones.

*Note: This sentence was changed three times by Grammarly, who apparently thinks my writing is unclear…

[nathanguyette]

Not sure if this was an update… Seems like custom component properties got some new types…

[meredydd]

Is something “sneaky” if it was in the newsletter?

• DataGrids are now responsive: Make your tables wrap easily on mobile devices with the new wrap_on property

• Expanding FlowPanels: Want to use FlowPanels, but make components expand into all horizontal space? Use the new expand layout property.

• Datetime improvements: We’ve brought better date and time support to client code, including strptime

• Style your alerts with CSS using the new role argument to the alert() function

[nathanguyette]

I wouldn’t say sneaky, but I don’t check my email that much, and would like to see this information published to the main channel of announcements, or different channel.

[owen.campbell]

Whereas I have a different account for each of my clients, can’t remember which ones I’ve requested the emails be disabled and get “ahem” copies of the newsletters!

[divyeshlakhotia]

Although to be honest, I don’t think I have ever received an email from Anvil until this September. Been here for more than 4 months

[stefano.menci]

Here is my pleasant surprise of the day.

In the past, when a databinding expression failed, it used to be just that: a failure. Anvil wouldn’t tell you what failed or why. I sometimes didn’t even use databinding because it was difficult to debug.

Now there are nice diagnostics telling you which databinding of which control failed.
And you can even click on it and the form appears.
And the control is selected.
And the focus is on the databinding.

[p.colbert]

Print a warning for undefined component events

When I define an event for a component, I set the event name in the component properties and I create a function with the same name in the form. Later I either don’t need that event anymore and delete the function or decide to change its name, but I only change the function name in the form, not in the component properties (or viceversa). In both cases I end up with a component with an event set to execute a function that does not exist. And I don’t like it. I would like one of the following: …