Imagine trying to do a search to a database and you need to add a DO SEARCH at the begging of a long chain of MERGE WITH, you can’t. You need to start over from scratch*.
Perhaps the biggest power an app can have is the ability query the data… if so, then this could be the biggest improvement to Bubble.
Is something like this in the works?
Example of what I am talking about…
DO SEARCH
MERGE WITH
DO SEARCH
MERGE WITH
DO SEARCH
MERGE WITH
DO SEARCH
MERGE WITH
DO SEARCH
MERGE WITH
DO SEARCH
MERGE WITH
DO SEARCH
MERGE WITH
DO SEARCH
MERGE WITH
DO SEARCH
MERGE WITH
DO SEARCH
MERGE WITH
DO SEARCH
MERGE WITH
DO SEARCH
FILTER
If you have a lot of data type which you would like to search I’ve found that the easiest way to do this is to create a search data type with something like this, remember it up to you on what info is important to see in your search.
Example
Data type: clients
Feilds :
name
phone
Data type : report
Feilds :
report Id
report label
So let pretend that those above data type are what your wanting to search.
Now we need to go back a step. Every time you create a new (client or report) create a search to.
Saving any info you need.
Example of search data type
Feilds:
label (can be anything you want like report number) (txt)
client name (make sure to save the name to this data type this will help with searching) (txt)
client details (data type - client)
report details (data type - report)
Adding the full data type give you the ability to click on the search and link straight to the information of that data type.
The next bit is trick and sorry it already messy and confusing.
Create a group and with in that group add a input box and a repeating group.
Conect the repeating group to do search for (search)
With a condition to search (any field = inputbox) and this is where saving the (client name) comes in.
I hope that’s a answer to your question if not I hope you find one and sorry for the mess.
Yes, the idea of creating a repeating group with sub-results and using it in your final query is good. Jonathan, thank you for taking the time to explain your workarounds.
However, my point is rather a design change in the Bubble Editor that would allow you to edit the Datasource “window” in a more convenient way.
The current version is practically imposible to use for complex searches. (great for relative simple stuff)
The window is about 20th the size of my computer screen.
I can’t insert Do Search infront of another.
So if I have something really long in the Datasource window, I have to start over from scratch.
If the content is large, when clicked it jumps around, when you are done the mouse pointer might be over a different item.
I can visualize a panel that pops up similar to the rich text editor and allows you to do something like this.
Do Search [My_table] [Constraints (button)]
[X] Merge with [ ] join [ ] (or dropdown) <----- allow insert new actions
Do Search [My_table] [Constraints]
[X] Merge with [ ] join [ ]
Do Search [My_table] [Constraints]
[X] Merge with [ ] join [ ] <----- allow insert new actions
Do Search [My_table] [Constraints]
[X] Merge with [ ] join [ ]
…
Filter Advanced: (button)
I understand the Bubble Team is busy as the customer base has grown. And I am sure they want to improve in a lot things and in hindsight wish they had done some things differently. But it couldn’t have goten this far without great vision, innovation and talent to make it come to fruition in the first place.
So Bubble Team; don’t hesitate to ask for contribution from the community. I can present a design for such a panel. Even it is not used exactly it may help formulate a significant Bubble experience improvement.
I’ve only been using Bubble for a VERY short time but that damn little window and “Do a search for…” is already EXCEEDINGLY tiresome.
I get it, we ARE conducting a search. But geez, just let me reference data type thing and add constraints. No need to draw the dang thing out.
Had the same problem tonight when I got inspired to put silly little random pre-fills in some of my placeholder inputs. So, we have 3 data types which of course I named Random Title 1, 2 and 3 and further they have fields which I of course named Adjective 1, Adjective 2, and Noun 3.
So all we’re doing here is effectively (this is pseudo code folks, don’t get all bent):
to make some funny phrases. But of course to do this in Bubble, you have to click inside a tiny window, and point and click (and why does the bar for selecting the menu get REALLY tiny sometimes??? — like 3 pixels wide… sometimes I hit the trash icon instead!) AND type the following:
“Do a search for Random Title 1’s Adjective 1:random_index” [HARD RETURN SPACE] click oh goddam no not there shit click the tiny bar “Do a search for Random Title 2’s Adjective 2:random_index” oh crap no not greater than equal to eff me [BACKSPACE] oh geez Louise one too many back click the search thing again … etc.
Some of the simplest operations become real RSI-inducing wristnastics.
Anyway, there are some pretty obvious quality-of-life improvements that could be made to Bubble that would make it an even faster development environment. I’d welcome them!
I have to agree, once you get used to how bubble works it would be nice to graduate to a more raw based query editor. A bit like you can open up a html editor using a html visual element, or just create a pop-out query window.
I had to laugh on clicking the trash icon, I have lost count how many time I have done that! Also missing the trash icon when I want to click it and opening up the reference page.
