Re: FREE Chrome Extension that enhances the Expres... - Page 2

Stefan_QREW · 08-15-2019 01:00 PM

Hi AppSheet Community

As someone who is in the App Editor 24/7, I frequently catch myself trying to remember the syntax for a particular expression, re-reading a formula several times to figure out where my missing parentheses are, or searching my mind for some fancy formula I put together ages ago.

I know many of you have experienced the same.

To make life a little easier on our favorite app making platform, the QREW Technologies team has released the first version of a Chrome Extension, QREW TOOLS, that adds some cool features to help address those pain points:

LIVE EXPRESSION FORMATTING

IN-EDITOR DOCUMENTATION SEARCHING

SAVE AND INSERT CUSTOM FORMULA SNIPPETS

I hope you guys enjoy this and that it helps you get more enjoyment and productivity out of the AppSheet Platform.

Please give me a shout if you have any feature suggestions or find any bugs

QREW_Ben

Can confirm. Your hugs are appreciated

Stefan_QREW

— QREW TOOLS UPDATES v1.000 —

Hey Everyone,

We’ve pushed the first major update to QREW Tools. Chrome will update to this version automatically for you as it gets released, so no need to go and update manually.

Updates on this release: Open CODE EDITOR SETTINGS. Multiple Color Themes and the option to configure some of the text editor behaviors like autocompleting brackets (lookin at you @MultiTech_Visions)

FYI - I accidentally defaulted the editor to the “Blackboard” Theme… many apologies! The original theme is the “Default” theme.

I’m curious to know which themes are your favorite. - I think I like “Material” the best.

Steve

Alright, I’m gonna try it…

Right off the bat:

Would prefer the viewport expand to display the entire expression rather than a fixed height with scrolling.
Would be nice to collapse AppSheet’s expression explanation and function help.

Stefan_QREW

I think those are great feature requests. Definitely making the short list.

Steve

BUG: If I highlight rows and tab to indent, the indent does not honor my configured indent size.

Steve

FEATURE REQUEST: Grab focus! How nice it would be to just start typing upon entering the Expression Assistant, rather than having to click again in the editing window!

Stefan_QREW

Hi @Steve I’ve just published an update that auto-sets the focus/cursor into the Editor upon opening. You should see this update in a day or two (becuase Chrome Store Review Process).

Fabian_Weller

Me too
Thank you for your hard work.

Stefan_QREW

— QREW Tools Update v1.010 —

We just released another public version with some major time-saving features.

There are now two more options in the Flyout: SCHEMA & VIEWS
These show a full listing of Tables, Columns & Data Types and All View Names and Types. This is a huge time saver for me when constructing deep links or writing dereferences.

Now you dont have to close the editor to lookup column names in another table, or search through the source data tables in another window.

ENJOY!!

The update will be rolling out automatically within a few days

Mike_A

This is awesome @Stefan_Quartemont! Workloads have taken me away a bit fro Appsheet, but it’s great to see what you have done to make the environment even easier to work with! Huge thanks.

Grant_Stead

Boss! @MultiTech_Visions Check out what we’ve got now!

Stefan_QREW

It’s an addicitve feature… We have panic in the QREW office now when we have to write a cross table expression without this feature.

Steve

Wow!

Marc_Dillon

@Stefan_Quartemont
Any chance of getting this extension for Firefox?

Stefan_QREW

I’ve heard it’s actually not very difficult to port a Chrome Extension to Firefox, though I haven’t look I to specifics.

I’ll take a look and see what it takes. If it’s super easy, it could still be a couple weeks before it would get approved for distribution once I upload it, just FYI

Marc_Dillon

Awesome, thanks!

holgerhubbs

I very much enjoyed the fantastic QREW Editor, but today I noticed that it stopped working (11-30-2019). I tried reinstalling the Chrome extension, but it did not solve the issue. Some days ago I noticed some subtle changes to the Appsheet.com Ui; is the issue with the extension or with my browser? Thank you very much! Holger

Stefan_QREW

Yikes! Sorry for that issue, everyone.

I’m not noticing any difference in functionality on Chrome for Mac v. 78.0.3904.108

Can any shoot me some Screen shots?

Steve

Nothing to screenshot; the tool simply doesn’t occur in the Expression Assistant editing pane. No errors, no messages, nothing obvious in the JS console. Extension menu in the toolbar still works. Reinstalled the extension with no effect.

holgerhubbs

I have the same Chrome Version 78.0.3904.108 on Mac 10.15.1 (19B88), and QREW doesn’t work anymore.

Sergio_Sa

I think the problem is related to Appsheet changes. In the moment I see the changes no more see the extension working.

Stefan_QREW

Gotcha!

It seems the editor changes have not reached my AppSheet account yet. Once they do, I will investigate the break and respond with an ETA on the fix

holgerhubbs

Thank you!
It is easy get attached to the QREW Editor.
Let me know if you need remote access to my Chrome browser?

QREW_Cam

Haha Right? Im especially missing the auto closing parenthesis and brackets!

Steve

Tools no longer working for me, too. Pixelbook, Chrome OS Version 78.0.3904.106 (Official Build) (64-bit).

Lynn

Same chrome on win 10 laptop.

QREW_Cam

@Stefan_Quartemont interesting catch: The extension shows on a lot of my older apps. Tried updating version in the Manage-Version Tabs and after doing that it disappeared for that app.

Mainly confirming some sort of change in the appsheet’s editor that the extension show/hides based on.

Former Community Member

Looks like the crash is from this function in the extension code that looks for the App ID in the page.

function scrapeAppId() {
    return (
        document.querySelector("#appPreviewLink")
            .href
            .match(/appId=([a-z0-9\-]+)/)
            [1]
    );
}

We made some changes to how the editor loads, which seems to have removed that link in so The extension runs just fine if I attach the debugger at the return statement and run this:

$(document.body).append(
  $('<a id="appPreviewLink" href="appId=deadbeef">bar</a>'))

Scraping code is always going to be kind of brittle, though we’re certainly not trying to break stuff! We do have a window.getId() function, which is similarly an internal API but is less likely to change in the immediate future.

Stefan_QREW

Steve,

Thanks for looking into that and reaching out! I suspected that could be the culprit based on the screenshot posted previously. I knew our method of extracting the Apps GUID from the HTML for the API call to return the app schema was kinda sketchy and would be likely broken based on an AppSheet editor update.

I will get that updated based on your feedback.

Thanks

Stefan

Stefan_QREW

Hey Everyone,

We’ve just uploaded a patch for the issue. It has to go through a review process (0-3days) by Google and then it will appear automatically for everyone.

Thanks to everyone for flagging the issue and helping the debug process.

Keep Calm and AppSheet on!!

Sergio_Sa

Hy
Is back again. Thank you

Craig_Clancy1

Hi Qrew, nice work with the feature. I just noticed with a long Snippet name it cuts the top row in half.

Stefan_QREW

@Craig_Clancy1 - Thanks for pointing that out. I will get a fix out for that in the near future

Grant_Stead

Agreed with collapse. Your add-on makes it unnecessary anyway.

GreenFlux

Thank you for all of your hard work! This is a great addition to the AppSheet developer community.

This add a lot of important features that we were missing from the editor. But the 6-line limit is too small for many of my formulas.

I end up having to write my formulas in a text editor so I can see everything, then paste into the expression editor in AppSheet. This removes most of the benefits of the extension and adds a step-- making the original editor still a better choice for my regular work.

Are there any plans of adding a resizable editor? The regular AppSheet expression editor allows you to resize the window. And I have seen others request the same feature here:
https://community.appsheet.com/t/free-chrome-extension-that-enhances-the-expression-assistant/13313/...

I think you’ve added a lot of great features, and I would love to use them, but you’ve also removed a very important feature. Please consider adding a resizable window. Thanks!

Stefan_QREW

@GreenFlux - We don’t have a “Resizable” solution for the editor at this point. Some easier options are Pop-Out (Think nearly 3/4 full screen size editing area) or Collapsing some or all of the expression library below.

Which would you prefer?

Steve

This.

Bahbus

Seconded.

GreenFlux

Agree with @Steve and @Bahbus. A toggle button to collapse the library and give the extra space to the editor would be ideal.

Thanks, @Stefan_Quartemont ! I don’t think the drag-to-expand feature is necessary if you can just toggle to a much larger view box with the library hidden.

Stefan_QREW

Well, The collapsers have it!

I’ll get working on that fix and let you guys know when it’s ready.

Thanks for the feedback - @Steve @Grant_Stead @GreenFlux @Bahbus

FREE Chrome Extension that enhances the Expression Assistant [AppSheet Toolbox/QREW Tools]