This probably seems stupid but I’m looking for some confirmation about my thinking regarding back end work flows. I think I’ve vastly overthought them but I’m hoping that mulling things over during the Christmas break has made it a bit clearer. Can someone confirm if these are really simpler than I’ve been expecting…
I’ve been kind of in awe of these because they run on servers that I don’t understand but in reality they’re basically the same as front end workflows in that they’re set up in mostly the same way as front end workflows but they’re just triggered from a specific action to run them. There’s no real mysticism to them and so are good for things like payments and sign ups because they’re more secure and it doesn’t matter if someone’s doing something on the app when signal drops out because it’s not being done on their phone? Is that correct? If it is correct, are there other operations I should be doing on the backend to make things more secure?
Hi there, @joefarrowsmith… yup, in a nutshell, backend workflows ain’t magic.
You can use them (and probably should be using them) for all kinds of things, and only one aspect is related to security. For example, in one of my apps, a student takes an action, and I need to display something to them and then score the action in a pretty complicated (or maybe just convoluted) way. So, the act of displaying the result of the action to the student is done in a frontend workflow so they can see the result immediately, while the act of scoring the action is sent off to the backend because the student doesn’t need to know it’s happening, they don’t need to see the result of that action, and I can schedule the backend workflows to run a certain number of seconds or minutes apart in case lots of students are hitting the app at the same time.
Anyway, everything you wrote is correct, and you should dive into the wonderful world of backend workflows. They’re not scary, and knowing how to use them is essential if you want to be using Bubble the “right” (or at least the “righter”) way.
Mike
As always, thank you so much for sharing the benefit of your experience!
I find elements of the Bubble Learning Curve so steep that sometimes I have to step back and let things sink in. It’s really valuable being able to check general ideas about things and enables me to move on with it all.
You’re a star. Thanks again and have a lovely day.
All the best
Joe
@Kamp, it can’t hurt to start by checking out this video from one of the best Bubblers in the business.
Keep in mind that the “game” has changed a bit now that workload units are a thing, but you should definitely still learn about backend workflows, and again, that video is a great place to start.
