Why is everything opened up in the editor by default

I’m having some difficulty finding the proper terminology to describe the issue so I’ll use screenshots. Here’s the default I prefer:

I find, however, that after I close the app in the editor and then open it up again I get this:

Everything is expanded and since my app is pretty big, it can take a long time to close everything.

I think this started after the search function improved:

Is this a problem that others have noticed? Is there an easy way around it?

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Lynn
Participant V

Hi @Kirk_Masden
I just had the opposite problem. There is a setting to turn that on and off. I am not at my computer but it’s at the bottom of the ?? page
UX, Manage, Author, Editor settings

Thanks @Lynn! I should have known about this but, alas, “Expand all views” has been off.

I was able to replicate the problem. I start with all fo the views “unexpanded” (“compacted” or whatever), then use the new search function in “Data” which automatically expands everything – not only in Data but elsewhere too. My hunch is that “Expand all views” is being turned on in the background (even though the setting in “Manage” doesn’t change), leading to the temporary problem of views being expanded. Here’s how things work:

  1. Check to see that “Expand all views” is off:

!

  1. Confirm that the Tables view in Data is nice and compact:

  1. Type a search word in Columns:

  1. Now, see how other views in the app have been expanded, even though they are unrelated to the search:

I now know that I can put everything back to normal if I find the search term I forgot to delete. It’s a bit confusing, though, because when a search word is left in one part of the editor it expands EVERYTHING in all other expandable parts of the editor. So, you need to remember where you were searching or, ironically, search for your search.

This is another example of why I would like AppSheet to announce new functionality that is in beta. If we had a little announcement (“We made this. It’s suppose to do such and such. If it doesn’t work we might get rid of it. Tell us what you think.”), then we would have a place to give AppSheet feedback. Without such an official announcement of new features, discussion about them may tend to get distributed rather haphazardly throughout the community.

Looks like search has created a bug? I havent used search.

It’s really good if you have a big app with lots of columns or actions to become buried in the haystack, so to speak. Despite the issue I described, I think it’s a very useful feature of the editor.

@Kirk_Masden if I am not mistaken it is only column search the produces this behavior. Tables, Actions, Workflows, etc. do not cause this, at least in my case. So you should always be able to clear it up by removing the search term in the columns view. Also, in my case anyway, all the objects that are auto-expanded in other tabs are in some way related to the tables that were returned by the column search results.

I agree with @Jamie

I see if I apply a search in the Columns tab, it filters and expands all tables where a column matches my search.

The Slices tab will ALSO apply the same search word, filter the slices AND expand them. Though the word is NOT inserted into the field.

If I delete search word in the Columns tab, both the Columns tab and Slice tab return to normal.

Thanks @Jamie! I wasn’t aware of that. Good to know.

This is a bug. Column search should only expand the column panes. Column search has a different behavior than other searches because it expands the panes and show only the relevant columns.

I’ll get a fix out tomorrow such that search only affects the column panes, for now you’ll have to clear out the search before switching tabs. Sorry for this issue, I introduced it while adding column search functionality (it used to only search for table name like in the table tab) but thanks for the report.

Thanks @nico! I really appreciate your quick response!

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