Search for "dead weight" within apps

[Kirk_Masden]

There have been several requests for the addition of search capabilities to the editing interface. First, however, let me review the current state of the art:

Searching the whole App Tips & Tricks 💡

If you like to know where in the App you are using a column, you can use the App Documentation. [image] In this you can search for text. For example. You have created a Virtual column and you think you could delete it. But … perhaps you have used it in a workflow rule? Or in a format rule? Simply search for the column in the App Documentation to find out where it is used.

@Fabian’s excellent post tells us how to conduct comprehensive searches throughout the entire app.

Still, there have been many calls for more convenient or more powerful search functions. In this post, I’d like to add one more search function to that “wish list”: a “dead weight” search.

By “dead weight,” I mean virtual columns, views, actions, etc. that are unconnected to the rest of the app. Such dead weight tends to accumulate as a result of trial-and-error app building where the app builder (me) forgets, hesitates, or is unable to delete everything associated with a strategy that proved to be unsuccessful or was supplanted by a more successful strategy.

Finding such dead weight is rather time consuming for humans, even with the search function that @Fabian has pointed us to, but I think it’s the kind of thing that a computer algorithm ought to be able to do very efficiently. If a view has no path, no sequence of events by which it could be shown to the user, it’s dead weight. If a virtual column is neither shown in a view nor referenced by an action or other column, etc., it’s dead weight. I wouldn’t want the editor to automatically delete anything but if it could highlight such dead weight when I ask it to, that would be great.

Perhaps a dead weight search could be added to the performance analyzer because, after all, a primary reason to get rid of dead weight is to make the app lighter and improve performance. Moreover, since the performance analyzer is only invoked when the user chooses to invoke it, the addition of such a function wouldn’t slow down or require a change in the normal operation of the editor.

Finally, here are links to previous feature requests that beg for search-related improvements in the editing interface:

Better search capabilities within the AppSheet editing interface Feature Requests

As AppSheet has grown, it has become possible to develop apps in which columns, actions, and expressions interact in increasingly complex ways. The ability to build more complex apps is great but it can be very difficult to figure out what is connected to what when one returns to an app after some time has passed. We can use our browser’s search function in some contexts to solve such puzzles but the current search function is extremely limited. So, here’s my proposal: Add the capability to …

Seatch capabilities in development editor Feature Requests

While developing an App, I need search (/replace) capabilities: e.g. Search where is this Slice used (expressions, views, actions, reports,…) Search where is this field used Search replace a field name

Search expressions that contain column names Feature Requests

It would be very useful if you could search within each table in the search box of the DATA> COLUMNS section. For example, put a name (or part of the name) of a column and show in color (such as when there is an error or a warning) all the columns that contain that word in the expressions. This would allow to easily locate all the dependent columns when modifications have to be made.

[Kirk_Masden]

I posted this over three years ago, in the dark ages of AI.  Now that Google is making significant strides with its AI products, I hope this idea can be revisited.  AI can be useful in building apps, but it may be even more suited to tasks such as looking for dead weight (parts of apps that are completely unnecessary -- features or columns that the creator tinkered with and then forgot to delete, etc.).  Improved AI assessment of efficiency issues would also be appreciated.