Categories
Release Notes

3.7/3.8

Module Exporting and Importing

It is now possible to export modules to other instances from the Edit Module page. It downloads your module to your computer, allowing you to reupload to another instance. This is a useful too for partners who want to try modules in one instance and move to another one when ready.

Admin and Users Wording Bug Fix

We have updated the Manage Users section to specify the difference between the various types of administrator permissions, with “Admin (Administration Only)” being correctly listed where applicable.

Improved Data Display Settings Field Order UX

The Data Display Settings while editing blocs have been updated, and the UX for choosing the order of fields is now easier and also faster performance wise.

Improved UI/UX Required Columns while importing data

We have a removed the list of field slugs that you see while importing data in a bloc. This decision was taken on the basis that the list is not necessary and is available when you export a template anyway.

New Field – Calendar/Resource Planner

We are delighted to announce a new and powerful Calendar/Resource Planner field. We will be posting our full documentation at https://manual.blocworx.com but you can enjoy all existing Blocworx features working within the context of the calendar, e.g. data filtering, process actions after adding or editing (including Mail Alerts etc). It is has a full drag and drop interface and is of course mobile Friendly. You can choose from a variety of views and settings.

More Dynamic Custom Times and Settings for our Automated Reports

Prior to now, automated reports were restricted to certain times and days, we have opened up the frequencies and times to be fully dynamic and also added many more options for time periods of data you want to include.

Multi File Image and File Preview

You can now see the images in our multi file field, and also opt for a file list view. With this you can also delete images from editing.

Module Importing and Bloc Duplication

We have fixed several bugs in this feature, making it extremely stable and reliable allowing to duplicate your blocs and import blocs from other modules with ease and confidence.

Auto Login

We have a new User Setting called “Can Log in Automatically”. With this setting ticket for a user, the user can login instantly without putting in a username and password, once the user has this feature and their username is in the authentication url. e.g https://example.blocworxcode.com/auth?autologin=johndoe . This is useful for generic public access to a system that does not require any security credentials.

Results Box, small bug fix

In our Results Box field, numbers beginning with 0 had been stripping the 0, making it difficult for using it for mobile phone or contact numbers. This no longer happens.

Blocworx Gateway Field Improvements

Prior to now, our Blocworx Gateway API Field could only handle a single level of json as a response when consuming an API. It can now read multi levels without having to configure else in the field. The system will automatically know based on the key (that should match the field slug) what the value is. So no mapping is required.

Cross Bloc Data Manipulator and Files

Prior to now, while using our “Cross Bloc” field, although you could update or create records in other blocs, you could not add or update files. You now can.

Text Field UX and Performance

Sometimes you wanted to trigger maths fields or even rules while typing in a text field. If you had this setting turned on, this tended to be resource intensive on the browser, it now waits until you have finished typing before executing the actions. It knows itself when you have finished so the setting remains functional but this improvement allows for a better performance.

Results Box Field Actions Processing – Isolate Fields

While editing data in a Results Box, it’s possible to perform field actions on those edited fields. Prior to now, the field actions were processing the entire record, even when that was not necessary. As a performance improvement, you can optionally choose for the system to only process field actions on certain fields.

New Feature: Push from Dev to Live

We now have a version control feature in our Admin section that allows you to push your entire dev instance to live. This allows you to build all your blocs and do all your editing before going live. It’s our first iteration of what is going to be Blocworx Version Control. Please contact us for more information. Turning on this feature requires custom configuration by the team at Blocworx.

Editing Blocs – Performance and UX Improvements

Prior to now, while editing blocs, the actions were getting triggered, e.g. dropdown fields were loading data, rules were getting triggered and results boxes were loading. Although this was intentional at the time to allow the builder to have a better preview of what they were building, it was causing both performance issues and issues around confusion in terms of activity that was taking place while you build blocs. For this reason we removed it.

Cross Bloc Data Manipulator Field Improvements

When using this field and you are using the button to trigger the action, there are now more options available: You can now clear a list of fields after the button has been clicked, you can also set it to automatically focus the cursor on a field, and there is there now a waiting/loading spinner to make it clearer that something is happening.

Performance Improvements

We have completed some technical performance improvements where unnecessary queries were being made during maths processing and when rules are called. Every version we aim to make the software faster and more powerful.

Tabbing Improvements

Prior to now, tabbing within a bloc was not always consistent, with it not tabbing onto some fields where the user may have expected. We have improved this to make it more predictable and obvious to use.

Encryption

We have built an integration with Evervault, who provide a high quality encryption service. This is available in the App Settings section. Please talk to us for information about this service.

API Endpoint – Processing Field Actions

The ability to process your records in Blocworx on the server side in much the same way you can while using the front end screen has been something we are proud of. By having this feature we were able to build much more powerful automations and features without the user having to do anything on the screen. This feature is now available as an API call and will appear in our API documentation very soon. Please contact us for more information.

Logged In User Information Show More/Editing Bug

Prior to now, if you clicked Show More or Edited a record, the logged in user would change to the one of the record. While this was fine for Show More, for editing it is expected that the information changes to the username who is doing the editing. Furthermore, there was an issue where even after you have finished viewing a record, the value of the user who created that record would remain on the screen. These issues are now resolved.

Results Box Pop Up Editing and Show More

We have a new feature where you can edit records from a result box by triggering a pop up. This opens a pop up of the bloc you are editing. This is similar to our (now depreciated) Sub Bloc field but much faster and cleaner. We also have this feature available simply for viewing records from the Results Box.

Cross Bloc Data Manipulator New Triggering Options

Prior to now, the ways you could trigger a Cross bloc field was either via submitting the record, or with a button click. We now have 4 new powerful options to add to this.

  • After Record Deletion: If you delete a record, you can now trigger a cross bloc field, this is useful for updating records elsewhere that may have doing things like counting live data or reading certain values from the bloc where you are deleting the record.
  • After Results Box Record Deletion: Similar to After Record Deletion, it can trigger if you delete a record from a chosen results box.
  • Open pop with the bloc: Similar to our new Results Box pop up editing, instead of automatically updating data elsewhere, this will now open a pop up of the bloc whose value you are changing. This gives you full control over all the fields in that bloc. This is a replacement for the now depreciated Sub Bloc field.
  • Embed the bloc within this bloc: Similar to the pop up, this will open out the bloc you are manipulating right inside the bloc you are currently in. This allows you to build what might seem like very large forms but will be fast and light weight due to able to load the fields from other blocs.
Categories
Release Notes

3.6

  • Using the search by a specific field in a bloc it now autocompletes values, once clicked they trigger the filter/search immediately.

  • Ability to edit Results Box Data and even apply rules, actions and other settings to the data you’re editing.
  • Ability to trigger rules, actions and other settings when applying a Cross Bloc Manipulator field trigger. For example, when creating a record you could have it autogenerating a number and even sending a mail alert.
  • Some Text Changes to remove the concept of Blocworx only for handling scanning, words like “Scan” changed to “Entry”.
  • Issue resolved where using Delete All Data was not deleting files in those records on the server.
  • Issue fixed where the red alert when a rule is broken was not disappearing in some cases.
  • The ability has been added to move a bloc to another module
  • A new field parameter where special characters can automatically be stripped from a string.
  • The icon and pop up for the Results Box has now been removed. This was unused and unnecessary feature.
Categories
Release Notes

3.5

    • UUIDs will now be used for all new urls for pages, blocs, modules and field IDs (field IDs are internally set on our side). So for example for any new bloc created the url will look something like this… https://domain.blocworx.com/module/sample-module/bloc/98fc1efe-6f05-49ba-8c39-b7616895dcb8 instead of https://domain.blocworx.com/module/sample-module/bloc/1234. This is a significant structural improvement that will make it very easy to move and copy modules in our next release. It also makes rules, fields and other IDs more secure and stable in the software.
    • There is now the ability to download files in a bloc. This feature downloads a zip file of all files based on the data that was filtered (or not filtered).
    • Legacy Features are now going to be hidden and can be turned back on again in App Settings
    • Bug fix of issue where a large number of fields being added in the same element had problems with ordering.
    • New ability to archive data automatically, as opposed to deleting, archiving disables from the live data thus giving better performance and cleaner data, but also provides the comfort of being able to revert easily.
    • Bug fixed where the calendar was not loading the data for the date that was selected (if the date was a Primary Calendar field)
    • Allow the ability to decide if checkbox data can be listed either by comma seperated (current default setting) or one line after the next.

      Coming Soon in Version 3.6
    • Ability to edit Results Box Data and even apply rules, actions and other settings to the data you’re editing
    • Ability to trigger rules, actions and other settings when applying a Cross Bloc Manipulator field trigger. For example, when creating a record you could have it autogenerating a number and even sending a mail alert.
    • Ability to export modules and files and import them into another system.
    Categories
    Release Notes

    3.4

    • Our Mail Alert section has been cleaned up with all the redundant options now removed when adding or editing mail alerts.
    • For all new fields created from this version onwards, if a field is being used by any rule or field parameter it is not possible to delete it without first editing or changing the parameter or rule first. This adds more stability to your no-code builds and creates more predictable behaviour.
    • Fixed a Maths field bug where an infinite loop was being caused by a red alert rule warning.
    • Removed the pop up warning when editing blocs that already have data. This has proved unpopular and had been ignored by builders.
    • Upgraded our main Framework and code language version.
    Categories
    Release Notes

    3.3

    • Resolved issue where an Auto Generate Reference field (the field that can be used to count against) was triggering a new autogeneration while editing a record
    • Changed wording/typo in a field name
    • Cleaned up the list of roles when there are multiples of 2 in the Manage Roles section
    • New Maths field updates to allow min(), max(), round() and avg() and more to come soon
    • Fixed bug where on new versions, any new text on the front end requires a log out and log back in for it to appear
    • Fixed small issue issue where the same setting could be seen twice in the Edit Theme section
    • Fixed a bug where when a rule breaks on the maths field it causes an infinite loop of the rule breaking over and over.
    • Added new option to the Cross Bloc Data Manipulator field where you can unset the Condition section to “No Conditions Required”, thus reducing confusion and improving UX.
    Categories
    Release Notes

    3.2

    • It’s now possible to add multiple search filters/criteria for our Results Box field. Where previously the look up could only match one field, now you can search multiple fields in the other bloc that must match multiple fields in the bloc the Results Box is being created in.
    • There is a new feature where you can disable a user, i.e. make them inactive, this will prevent them from being able to login. This is useful for staff leaving etc but where there is data associated with them.
    • Fixed a small bug where when editing a page, the icon pop up was being visually blocked.
    • A major new and useful update to our Mail Alert field, where you can now attach the .docx templates you may have built in that bloc.
    • There is a new feature where blocs cannot be deleted if they are associated with field parameters or rules.
    • A new feature where you can see all the schedules running in your system in the Manage Data section.
    • A new field parameter that allows you to load data from other blocs based on a search criteria. The purpose of this is to allow master lists to always be loaded directly from those lists, as opposed to the data being copied in. This is similar to a JOIN statement in SQL and will allow users to build even cleaner sytems with just one source of truth for their data.
    • Fixed a bug where the File field file name was still visible in the field after submitting. It now clears correctly.
    Categories
    Blog

    Blocworx Flowcharts

    This feature is a useful troubleshooting and process examination tool. It allows for quick handovers of blocs to other people and could even be used to simply design a process.

    This currently can be done for each bloc. Coming soon will be the ability to map out your entire system to see how modules, pages and blocs link together.

    This will allow people to have an auto-generated sitemap of their software with the click of a button.

    Categories
    Release Notes

    3.1

    • Major New Update: The Autogenerate field can now be a fully dynamic string with multiple dates in the string and any format of your choosing, not just pre-selected formats. It also now has the ability to include data from other fields, just like our Merge Field.
    • Improvements to our Results Box field to handle various field types like images, file downloads and barcodes.
    • Improvement where the File Builder field and Mail Alert field now has rules/actions called once the button is pressed.
    • Small UX improvements including the Download button at the top of a bloc for templates now reduced in size.
    • Added Improvements and easier access to the user Digital Signature page.
    • More Improvements to our Blocworx Gateway scheduler and the main Bloc scheduler (including internal testing improvements)
    • Improvements and more stable fixes when adding and editing rules.
    Categories
    News & Press

    Blocworx 3.0: Welcoming IOT, Scheduling, API Gateways and more

    We’ve been hard at work, understanding our customers, understanding ourselves and discovering more and more opportunities with our product. Our work has culminated in features that address the fundamentals of what Blocworx is built for, which is no-code operations and tracking. We established that there were some core solutions that needed to be implemented to make Blocworx the best solution there is available:

    • IOT Compatibility
    • Integration and connectivity of Blocworx
    • Automation and Scheduling
    • Structure and flow, treating no-code like coded work
    • Publicly Available Code and Projects

    IOT Compatibility

    Recognising the needs for hardware technology and no-code to be increasingly compatible, we are rolling out 3 new fields, the Bluetooth field, an MQTT sender and MQTT broadcaster. We are already live with our Bluetooth field and have the ability to track temperatures from thermometers. We will be constantly adding more and more devices and configurations. The MQTT fields will allow you to connect to any MQTT broker, or a broker provided by us, thus you’ll be able to easily send and receive data to any device over MQTT.

    Integration of Blocworx

    We are opening up Blocworx, for both data coming in and out. Our new Blocworx Gateway Field allows you to send HTTP requests to any location and work with the response. These requests can be triggered via various means, e.g. a data changing somewhere, or simply using a button, or before you submit your form. This opens up Blocworx and gives you access to an infinite number of APIs, e.g. currency converters, language translators, your own inhouse custom APIs. The launch of the Gateway Field is also done in combination with our new Blocworx API.

    Blocworx API

    We have launched our API docs for our customers. We will be adding many more endpoints to the docs over the coming weeks. By combining our Gateway field with our API it will be possible for developers to build their own functionality that talks to and reads from Blocworx. This opens Blocworx to be available in any IT infrastructure a company might be using.

    Automation and Scheduling

    Blocworx has many features and tools, to the point that a citizen developer can get very creative with their solutions to problems. There was one thing missing. To get the best out of Blocworx the processing always had to take place while the user had the screen open and physically interacted with the page. They would build a beautiful process but it was not possible for them to apply the same functionality automatically. We have made a major change to this so now all our features can be accessed via means outside of the Blocworx web application itself.

    For example, when someone uploads data using excel, we could apply the rules to the data, call APIs, extract parts of the data and populate other parts, apply Maths data, check for duplicates, populate other blocs with relevant data. All in one upload. We can apply this to any way data gets inputted into Blocworx, either via an API, data upload, or scheduler. Which brings us onto our next new feature. The Blocworx Scheduler:

    Manage Bloc Scheduler

    Everything described above can now be automated. You could set up a bloc with initial default values and simply begin to create records by themselves. This could be handy for creating audit schedules or even simple reminder systems or stock checking systems using this combined with fields like our Cross Bloc Data Update field and Mail Alert fields.

    For example, as a demo, we built a schedule that pulls the latest status from a different bloc of a mechanical tool, this resulted is in being able to give a live graph of uptime of the tool. This was possible using a combinations of simple Blocworx rules and our scheduler.

    Structure and Flow

    At Blocworx, we take the applications that people build seriously. No-Code by its nature is database driven software, meaning the algorithms and flows that are set out, are determined and held in a database, not immediately in code. While this creates the ultimate flexibility, it can also introduce questions around the resilience of the software. To resolve this Blocworx is introducing a suite of features and solutions that not only address this problem but turn it into an opportunity.

    1. Aside from our existing strong back up regular procedures, we will be introducing bloc restore points in Version 3.2.0. This means you will be able to roll back a bloc you have built. We hope to build on that in the future by having system wide restore points.
    2. We now have the ability to review and troubleshoot your bloc using a Mermaid JS flowchart. If you have built some tools in Blocworx and are beginning to lose track of what you have built or how it works, our flowchart will give you an instant glance of the structure of your bloc. The great news is, because this chart is generated on the fly automatically, you will be able to review all your existing work too, not just new blocs!

    Publicly Available Code and Projects

    We have built connectors, integrators, Node based Bluetooth Readers and MQTT listeners, auto printing projects, various portals and even simple HTML projects, all of which connect to Blocworx in some manner. We have decided that over the coming weeks we will be making the code for all of these publicly available with documentation. This will allow developers to have out of the box projects waiting that are connected with Blocworx. All of these projects, while completely different to each other, have one thing in common, they are simple code based projects that make use of the power of Blocworx.

    Categories
    Release Notes

    3.0

    • Added a Sign in with Google feature allowing any business who are with Google to use their own account to log in.
    • Huge improvements to the Blocworx Gateway Field allowing for a wide range of API calling and more options including an automatic scheduler that loops through the records, similar to the Mail Alert scheduler.
    • New Feature: User can now control the actions that occur for any field. The feature is called Manage Field Actions. This feature allows the user to tidy up and control the flow of what happens for each field.
    • New Feature: Ability to put in a custom url with generic parameter style, meaning urls that leave Blocworx can be dynamically generated.
    • Introduction of the Flow Chart: The ability to view your bloc at a glance using a Flow Chart.
    • Major New Feature: The Bloc Scheduler, this feature allows users to automatically run their blocs and all rules, conditions, actions, mail alerts, cross bloc actions can occur automatically on a schedule. There is an option to either loop through existing records, or even create new ones.
    • Excel Uploader Automatic Processing: Using the work complete with the Bloc Scheduler we then added the ability to automatically process a bloc using the Excel Uploader, meaning values can be set, rules can be called and even mail alerts sent when data is getting uploaded.