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

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
2X_f_f12f247e5ac91dc82a36536f51b16ff6d3950fe5.gif

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

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Steve
Participant V

WOW!!! That looks great!!!

Mike_A
Participant V

Just awesome @Stefan_Quartemont! I will definitely need to try this out! Really something that should be in then native editor. Maybe the Appsheet team can use this as an example to drive future editor enhancements. Thanks for the effort and for sharing!

Now just add a library of @Steve โ€˜s best collection of formula examples and this could be huge

A preloaded library of expressions (@Steveโ€™s especially) would be so cool. Iโ€™ll have to look I to that

@Stefan_Quartemont, how is the Library coming along?

@Henry_Scott The more thought Iโ€™ve given this, I feel an expression library should be a sort of open-source collaborative effort.

In the spirit of that, Iโ€™m going to move this discussion to THIS THREAD.

Jonathon
Participant V

Solves this feature request:

https://community.appsheet.com/t/ide-style-editor/

Awesome work

Thanks, @Jonathon. Let me know if you see any areas for improvement or expansion on this.

Have you ever considered implementing an ERD feature as a way to help visualize column relations between tables. I could definitely say it would be nice to have a diagram visualization of my data relations similar to what app sheet has under specs but maybe formatted a little closer to data tables in mssql or postgres as just a couple examples. It wouldn't be that difficult I wouldn't think to generate it using the schema section of the browser extension.

Lynn
Participant V

@Stefan_Quartemont Brilliant!

Hey guys, wanted to let you know weโ€™ve officially launched the Extension Iโ€™ve been leaking you a few whispers about.

@Santiago
@praveen
@brian @Brian_Sabino
@Adam
@Peter
@Derek

Thanks for giving us a great platform thatโ€™s a ton of fun to use and is changing the way so many people are doing business and solving problems.

Looks really cool! Will give it a try in the next few days and will also send around to others in the team.

QREW_Cam
Participant V

Loved using it the past month or so, glad I donโ€™t have to keep it a secret anymore!

Mike_A
Participant V

@Stefan_Quartemont
And here is the type of examples I wish i could easily find. Not sure if itโ€™s easy to add as a library??

@mike, you could certainly save that whole things as a snippet, but it would be cool to have a place in the Documentation site for user generated expressions/implementations that is easily searchable

Thank you very much. This is so helpful.

Here I read:
These snippets are stored in local browser memory, so clearing your browser memory WILL DELETE any saved snippets. We do not receive this data.

  • Can we sync the Snippets over different Chrome Profiles?
  • Could we do a Google Drive sync with the Snippets?

@Fabian

Great questions. The ideal scenario is that weโ€™d store these snippets in the cloud for you, so you could have access beyond the life of the browser memory. It takes more development and has an added cost to it, so we wanted a lighter approach to start with.

Storing it in such a way that it syncs with that same chrome profile across devices is not to difficult, though. Iโ€™d have to test if it gets deleted as the browser data gets cleared.

Iโ€™ve also considered an option to mass download/upload, but that seems more like an inconvenient work around rather than a fix

@Stefan_Quartemont this looks great, will be testing it out today!

gregdiana1
Participant V

@Stefan_Quartemont I tried this out but found that the SNIP button overlays or replaces the expand the expression window button in the bottom right-hand corner of the expression editor window as shown below. This means for longer expressions one has to now manually scroll. Can this be resolved ?

Currently, the formatted text space is not dynamically resizable, unlike the original AppSheet textbox, but I have thought about including that.

Thanks for the suggestion!

I too would love to see this added. Definitely miss the ability to review the entire expression at once without have to scroll.

This is a great add-on to the AppSheet editor. I have some complex expressions that would also benefit from an expandable edit box. I would love to see that added into the extension.

Hey John,

We have an update that will allow for a larger window size coming soon

Very cool!! Thanks @Stefan_Quartemont.

Octfolio_Seb
Participant III

Awesome @Stefan_Quartemont, this looks fantastic!

Really spectacular @Stefan_Quartemont . I love it.

Thanks for trying it out and sharing your thoughts, @Mariano_Sanz_Gil.

Thank you! Youโ€™re the BEST! #peace2u

@Stephen_Mattison Thanks for the props and leaving that awesome review on the Chrome Extension Store. Puts a on my face

Youโ€™re very welcome, you deserve it!!! Thanks for this kind & quick note, truly a Pro!
THANK YOU for the COOL & USEFUL extension! Adding links to the official Appsheet Help Docs right inside your gizmo is a sweet & efficient BONUS! All looks like a lot of hard work!
I just got started with it and already truly love it. So far, I LOVE the different color text added during Expression building. Just that tiny visual difference alone will save Developers countless hours and frustration by giving an instant glance at what is where. Bravo Sirs & Maโ€™ams!

Thanks! Sounds fantastic. My one reservation is with the idea of adding extensions to Chrome in general. I heard an interview with Geoffrey Fowler of the The Washington Post that I found rather concerning:

https://www.npr.org/2019/07/31/746878763/how-tech-companies-track-your-every-move-and-put-your-data-...

I think, in fact, that we rely on the company that makes the web browser software, Chrome or Firefox, to have our interests at heart, right? And our interests would be to not be tracked. And yet Chrome is not doing that for us. Thatโ€™s in pretty big contrast to its much smaller rival, Firefox, which is made by a nonprofit called Mozilla.

I listened to the audio but hereโ€™s an article by Fowler on the same topic:

Most of you are far more tech savvy than I am so Iโ€™ll defer to your judgment as to whether or not there is as much concern about adding extensions as Fowler indicates. Or, maybe even if there is some concern, itโ€™s worth it. I donโ€™t know. I know that Google is a very important AppSheet partner and Iโ€™m not trying to disparage Google, but I wasnโ€™t sure what to make of Fowlerโ€™s position.

P.S. Hereโ€™s a video:

Kirk, if youโ€™re scarred then live in a bubble, and cut the cordโ€ฆ The entire big tech community is listening to everything, and knows you better than you know youโ€ฆ

@Kirk_Masden I was decently ignorant of how an extension could access my data before building this. Itโ€™s crazy how much of the browser experience an extension can monitor and modify - I would have thought there would have been more restrictions.

Fortunately, modern extensions have to declare in their privacy policies what they are tracking and have some particular security policies from Google that they need to abide by.

Basically - read the privacy policies to make sure youโ€™re not going to get your identity stolen by a chrome extension.

Thank you @Stefan_Quartemont. Iโ€™d like to apologize to you because I hadnโ€™t read your post carefully enough to recognize that the extension is one you built. I really appreciate your response and this huge contribution. Actually, I had posted about the need for better expression editing tool myself earlier:

I just added the extension and found it extremely intuitive and easy to use. This will save me the trouble of going back and forth between the browser and my text editor. You should get a medal from AppSheet!

@Kirk_Masden No worries, friend. Iโ€™m really glad youโ€™re enjoying the extension.

We tried to make it simple and fun to use. Some of the things we are looking at adding soon are user settings customizations for color theme, bracket closing, and a few other editor specific settings.

@MultiTech_Visions ^^ Those are for you

I wait with bated breath. (^_^)

Holy moly, huge hugs to your team!!

THANK YOU!!!

Glad you like it @Neal_MF_Harper! Thanks for the hugs

@QREW_Ben particularly likes hugs (He has a t-shirt that says so)

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