I am new to Bubble. Just completed Buildcamp beginners course (excellent).
Now I want to focus my learning to build on my basic skills.
Can I ask the advice of experienced Bubblers…including those amazing people who answer so many questions to help the community.
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What aspects of Bubble should I focus learning on that seem to cause most newbies pain?
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What questions do you find yourself answering over and over (things many people get tricked by, confused or tend to do wrong eg: data structure) that might be areas I should focus on?
Just hoping for guidance in my journey to help me focus and learn.
Thanks!
I’d think of the database as a spread sheet, so if you had a column of, say Fruit, you would then have fields below that called Apple, Orange, Banana etc. This is a basic way to visualize the database structure.
Then, if you have a User Datatype and you want to link a user to their favorite fruits, you would create a field in the user’s datatype which is Type:Fruits
Another thing to try and learn is custom states because you will be using them a lot. The way I visualize them is that they store information in the browser temporarily, so if a user is choosing their favourite fruits, you may want to store their choices in a custom state, then when they are ready to Save their settings, then you can save all those custom states in one go.
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Hey @darren.james7518 Great help here…thanks. One of the things I am getting my head around is the linking between data types. And right on about Sates…I picked up so far they are useful and the way you describe them makes it really clear…I see you’re saying the can make a difference not only to functionality but also app efficiency.
When planning your database structure, take note of the “weight” of each of your data type.
For example in one data type, don’t have too many fields keeping lists. Every piece of information adds to that weight to each row of data. So imagine having your app needing to load tons of heavy data (literally and figuratively) during a search. This is a common issue that cause slowdowns.
Satellite Data
This is a good write-up on the matter.
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Hi @ihsanzainal84 I really like the ‘weight’ analogy and the article you linked to is very good - thanks for that. It’s a lot to take in, the database structure side of things…I come from a marketing and creative side, and the fascinating thing about Bubble is it opens up development to a broad audience I don’t have the university training in things like DB structure to guide me, so I started unaware. Getting clear help like yours to understand the issues and guide the way is terrific…thanks mate.
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Hello fellow creative person! I am a relatively new Bubbler myself (only over a year and a half) with a very rudimentary understanding of HTML/CSS and JS but I go through the forums and go through Bubble tutorials every free moment of my time to accelerate my skills.
Saying that I’ve come to realize that learning basic HTML/CSS and JavaScript will help you expand the functionality and performance of your Bubble apps. Such as using CSS to add more flexibility to your elements as current Bubble does still have some limitations. Or using the Toolbox plugin to add javascript to Bubble.
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To add more to learning how searches work in Bubble here are some bits of knowledge I gathered from the community over time about the subject. I believe lack of understanding of how searching in Bubble affects performance has become a common beginner’s trap recently.
Workflow sequence for client-side actions
Read the whole thread for more tidbits by @keith
New behavior for “contains” vs “contains keyword(s)”
A question I see popup a lot when matching text.
Order of Operation in Bubble
Here’s a chart of how workflows actually run in Bubble. The whole thread is a good read!
Here are some smaller tips:
Tool to build regex expressions!
If you ever need to do some advanced text matching you should learn to use the :extract with Regex operator.
The <> Operator
For when you see an operator that looks like this <>
Bubble is not just a great way to build your own apps, it’s also is a great stepping stone for learning to build apps natively. I feel that the process of learning to build in Bubble is helping me in my journey to become a full-stack developer (as a side job/hobby).
Happy Bubbling!
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Hey @ihsanzainal84 …I have read a few posts in this forum on Toolbox and noted that for down the track. I have only very basic exposure to JS and a little more on CSS and HTML from web design efforts, so at least I know what to look out for. The learning is additive and I have a rare opportunity to be able to immerse myself for a little while, so I am going for it and enjoying it very much.
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YES! I picked that up and it was why I wanted to start this thread and get feedback on this and other traps so I can focus my learning on things people found difficult to undo/relearn.
I am sensing that another pain point is payment integration. And repeating groups and getting them to do more exotic things is another.
Your links show just how helpful this forum is…can’t believe how many good people are willing to help others out…literally hours of time giving by some.
And thanks for yours - really helps…
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@anon71899553, a lot of learning comes from solving problems. So, try to help people on the forum. This way you gain experience and also build a name for yourself.
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@gerbertdelangen I agree…when I get to the point I know an answer with confidence I will be proud as punch to help someone…a bit of road to walk before then. But in the meantime, I am reading every post because its amazing what I can learn from questions even if I can’t quite understand the question (let alone the answer). A day later I stumble over something new in a course I am doing that relates to a question someone has posted and the dots are starting to be joined!
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Hey 
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Checkout @AirDev ‘s free bootcamp 
Hey @tetedikaakwa Yes…I did check it out…not sure about whether it’s based on the new responsive? Also not sure about the focus on Canvas and trying my early training to that given there are now other component builders out there and sounds like Bubble is developing a native one too…?
Try to not rely on plugins while learning. I’ve seen some posts by beginners getting confused or having to seek help (that may no longer exist) about plugins they downloaded but when i read more about what they are trying to solve, i find that it can be done natively in Bubble.
That being said there are plugins that I can’t live without. Toolbox and List Shifter.
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