Saltcorn 0.9.4 - List builder, new aggregations, audio and video

By Tom Nielsen
Published on 

Saltcorn 0.9.4 is out and brings the following improvements:

List view are now constructed using a builder that is similar to the show edit page and filter builder - you drag elements from a toolbar into distinct columns. The main reason for implementing this is that the old builder was very slow with densely connected tables in large apps. In addition it gives more flexibility, in the future will be able to have more than one element in a column. The HTML element can now be used in Lists which wasn't possible before.

We've changed the behaviour around the allocation of autoincrementing primary keys. The key sequence is no longer reset after deleting rows. In particular in tables with version history enabled, the previous behaviour was counterintuitive and could make it more likely that operator error around version restore caused inadvertent disclosure of confidential information.

Filter views now have aggregations. These show the aggregation value for the table as a whole or the subset selected in the filter display. Previously this functionality was provided by the statistics module where you had to create a view for every value shown. By making this available as a component in the filter view the number of views required to create a dashboard can be dramatically reduced.

New aggregations - Percent true and Percent false - are now available on Bool fields. This makes it much simpler to show e.g. the fraction of tasks that have been completed in a todo list. Previously this was only possible by introducing a calculated field. 

Triggers can now be multi-step just like actions that are run inside a view. There is also a new step control flow action containing a mischievously named GOTO operation that allows you to jump around in the steps.

Audio and video media files are now better supported. There are audio and video file views for file fields, and a new module called recorder for streaming recording of audio and video files, for both mobile and desktop browsers. 

Tags for tables, views, pages and triggers were introduced a long time ago but were hidden away in a single submenu. These are now built into the main lists of tables, views, pages and triggers for easier access. There is also an option to download a tag as a pack which includes all the tagged entities. 

Interpolations are now available in many places where you enter text shown to the user. The idea is that instead of having a switch to determine if the text is a formula or not, you use handlebars ( {{ .. }} ) inside text entry boxes. We are still trying to figure out how best to indicate that interpolations are available


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