Hi Gliders,
I was wondering, is there any advantage of using/creating a custom screen, over using a screen from data?
What I can see or think of is, that when you create a custom screen, you can design it the way you (almost) want it.
With a screen from data, you are a little (forced) to use the standard layout you can chose from.
But maybe there are also other things?
I think screen from data is probably fine if you just want something simple and functional that allows you to view, add and edit data.
Personally, I’ve never used it 
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Are you still using Classic Apps?
Whether in Glide Apps (new) or Glide Classic Apps (old), all screens need to have a data source.
Classic Apps
The Custom layout used to allow us to add more than one component to the screen. Custom was a multi-component screen. The other layout were a single-list layout: great for simplicity, but quite limited.
Glide Apps
All screens are now custom: you can add multiple components to any screen now. Really, the layouts that are not custom (card, grid, list, table, etc.) are presets of a custom screen with a collection component.
I think @Pierre_de_Man was referring to the below two options:
I almost missed the reference because as I said, I never use the first option.
(Actually, I lie. I sometimes use the first option because it’s a quick and easy way to set the screen data source. Then I immediately delete the default Collection component and start building)
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I am not using the classic Glide app.
I have created a new app and there, when I want to create a new screen, I see three options.
Screen from data
Custom screen
And form screen
Because of what I want to try to do in the app, I was thinking of using the custom screen, so I am a little bit more flexible.
But I was wondering if there was another advantage.
Those are the once I mean.
I just noticed the options below it.
I was more focused on the top three
Oh my gosh, my apologies, I hadn’t understood Pierre that you were referring to the two menu items that Darren highlighted. I thought you were still referring to Classic Apps.
I literally never use “Custom screen”. When I create a new screen, I usually do “Screen from data” because I already have an idea what table I am going to use as the data source. In fact I usually create the table first with a few basic columns. I’ll create the screen from data, and just like Darren, delete the default component which is a collection. Then I build out the layout.
I would say that “Screen from data” and “Custom” are the same. “Custom” will default to the User Profiles first table as the data source, “Screen from data” will be what you select. But from a layout perspective, both are muli-component custom layouts.
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I think the Screen from Data option, as well as the sample screens further down in the menu are more targeted at those that are very new to Glide and just learning. They give you way to get up and running with a functional App with almost no effort at all. Although I can’t speak for others, I would be surprised if any experienced Glide developers ever use them.
I think I’d view them a bit like training wheels on a bicycle
I wonder if the screen from data has any performance advantage from the custom screen.
As pointed out above, most screens start from data and end up becoming custom screens
I’m in the practice of creating 1 row glide table for each tab instead of basing the screens on the big tables. Then basing the collections on queries or relations. It does take a bit longer to load, but you end up with better performance after that. I wonder if there are a lot of negatives doing that
I gave it some thought: I think I would almost always recommend “Screen from data” over “Custom”. The two screens are the same really, it makes no difference. But there is a higher chance that “Screen from data” will keep you out of trouble. “Custom” does default to the Users first table. If you will not be using the Users first table as the data source, then you will need to select a new data source at one point, and this is better done as early as possible (the earliest being by selecting screen from data): if you add components and then change the data source, components are wiped which is not what you want and then you go into panic mode (been there, done that).
Before changing the data source, one does not know that the components are going to be wiped, neither does one know that components can be copy-pasted. Neither of those two things are obvious. The product team could probably add a warning there 
So basically, “Custom” is a “Screen from data where the table is Users” “Screen from data that defaults to the first table”, and unless you know for sure you want the Users first table as your data source, you might as well opt for “Screen from data”.
Not quite. Custom will default to the first table in the list. If that happens to be the Users table, then yes, that’s what you get.
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Ah, interesting. The chances of the data source having to be changed seem even higher then. Might as well do it as early as possible I think.
I was playing around with Screen from Data the other day, and I picked up some pretty nasty behaviour related to actions. I might not have this exactly right, but as I recall I accepted all the defaults that it gives you, and then built an Edit screen - using the default Edit action. After I was done, I decided to switch to a different Collection style (eg. List → Table). After I did that, I went back to my Edit screen and discovered that it had reverted to default, and all my customisations were gone. This put me right off, so I immediately deleted everything and started again with a custom layout, and vowed never to use “Screen from Data” again.
This actually sounds very familiar. I didn’t know that another behavior was possible. Let me try “Custom” a little, I might change my mind entirely.
hmm, now you have me thinking.
I wonder if the difference might be that my default MO is to always use custom actions, and so all of my actions end up being saved/named and permanently attached to the parent table. Whereas when you accept the default actions, they’re a bit more “fragile” in the sense that they’re only bound to the parent screen. So if you change that then they float of into the cosmos, never to be seen again. Just guessing here, so I could be blowing wind out of my bottom
I’ll be interested to hear what you learn from your explorations.
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Interesting.
hehe, you have no idea what you started here, @Pierre_de_Man
@nathanaelb and I have spent the past hour or two backwards and forwards in private exchanges trying to figure out if what I saw the other day was a bug, or if I just have a really bad memory 
I don’t think we’ve come to any specific conclusions, except that perhaps Glide doesn’t always do what you might reasonably expect it to do.
As to Screen from Data vs Custom Screen, I’m still firmly in the Custom Screen camp
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Sorry?
But it is good to see how or what others think of things.
This way we may get a different view on things.
I had almost the same situation as you.
But I always thought that it was something that I did wrong, or that it was because of how Glide is built (the backend)
For now, I am on the camp Custom screen.
I think it has a little bit more flexibility/freedom.
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This discussion had convinced me to try Custom. It had never occurred to me that there was a real difference.
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I always use custom. Screen from data is only useful if you want a single, simple list without ANY other components on that screen. However, the moment you add any additional complement to the screen it automatically converts to a custom screen.
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