I would like to have your advice regarding my setup.
I build multiple solutions for a company. From project management to HR tools and inventory management. I am finished with the project management tool now and I am asking myself, how I proceed.
Option 1.
I create for the next topic for example the inventory a new app with the same user database.
Option 2.
I do everything in ONE application. Therefore I will then hide pages and so on…
I am not sure what is the best way to go? Option 1 should be easier in terms of connecting data… but will everything become slower and slower? What do you prefer?
And at the moment I use the “app” instead of the desktop version. Which version is better for the future? At the moment the app has more functions which I prefer…
I’ve been through this, and my advice is to create multiple Apps that share the same data source. The problem with trying to build one big App that does everything is that eventually you get to a point where it becomes too unwieldy. It becomes difficult to manage and maintain, it starts bogging down and getting slow, and your users start complaining. At least that’s been my experience.
Much better to break it down into smaller manageable chunks.
When it comes time to build your second App, start by duplicating your first App (be sure to choose the “keep same sheet” option). Then modify the second App, removing the bits that you don’t need and adding the extra bits that are needed. The nice thing about this is that you’ll have all of your computed columns in your second App, so you get a good head start and don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Taking this approach, you can knock out a whole suite of related Apps quite quickly.
This is what I’ve done at the company where I work. Currently we have a suite of about 8 Apps which all share the same data source. Each App serves a separate purpose - HR, Operations, etc.
I believe this is a sensible approach since the change to Teams pricing. I used to tell people to try keeping things under the same app, but as you said, for bigger apps it’s kind of hard to manage things long term when you add a lot to it.
This is interesting and useful for me too as I am currently trialling Glide to see if I can use it as a front end for a rather large Airtable set of bases.
It will ultimately have approx 6 functions / apps - all using the same data and by the same set of people.
Hadn’t even considered breaking it down into separate apps.
I can see the sense in doing it that way though - so pleased to read this discussion.
Only question is - the best way to tie it all together. I don’t want to have to send separate links to do different tasks (my users will be quite transient and unlikely to install apps). I’d rather send them all to one place and let them choose a task / app from there. Also don’t want them to have to log in to each app separately. Ideally one log in for everything.
Maybe a master glide App as a landing page? But wouldn’t solve the log in issue.
Yes, users must sign in to each App separately, but once the authentication cookie is set it becomes a seamless experience.
I plan to extend this over time and embed other projects. But I still have a few Apps that need to be converted to Pages first.
I should note that web embedding Glide in Glide is only supported for Pages, and only available by request at the higher subscription levels. Enterprise and (maybe) Business.
Having to authenticate to each App is a bit of a killer.
To be honest - really struggling to find a suitable front end solution for my AirTable database. Have tried so many. Softr was looking so promising until I hit the buffers with it last week. Then I tried Glide again and it was looking fab - but there are now a couple of things (like this) - that are concerning me.
Thanks again though - this really helps! (Least of all I won’t spend hours trying to work out if it is possible or not!)
Really?
I’m a little surprised. You do realise that they only have to sign in the first time, yes?
At that point the authentication cookie is set and they’ll never have to sign in again (unless they delete the cookie, deliberately sign out, or sign in from a different device/browser).
And with Google sign in it’s just a couple of clicks and you’re done. It’s a little more troublesome if you’re using PIN authentication. But again, under normal circumstances it only has to be done once.
I’ve certainly had no complaints from my users. I pre warned them that they’d need to sign in to each app once, and they’re fine with that. I’ve had no related issues at all.
