Current state of working with dynamic data or CMS

At a glance

A community member expresses frustration with the integration of external data, such as Baserow, in a Webstudio project. They find the data flow and expression management to be confusing and cramped, with a lack of reusable expressions. The community member suggests that Webstudio is not suitable for either non-developers or developers, as it is not "no-code" enough for the former and too limiting for the latter.

In the comments, another community member acknowledges the feedback and suggests improvements, such as better data visualization, automatic expression generation, and the ability to use JavaScript functions instead of just expressions. They also express interest in seeing a demo of the specific use case where reusable expressions were crucial.

A third community member suggests that Webstudio could leverage AI tools, such as a chat interface, to simplify the CMS integration process, while still providing direct code access for developers. They also suggest making the AI-powered features part of a Pro plan to account for the compute costs.

jjakobsturm

I just had to edit a Webstudio project that is working integrated with dynamic Baserow data. Yes, I "had" to because it felt like a chore. It was a really frustrating experience, the integration of using external data feels so over the place. Get data here, use data over here, copy paste the same expressions to adjust some parameter.

It feels so cramped, in this small sidebar, in these small expression windows. The data flow is just not really clear. It feels like the data integration was an after thought and was just put into the space that was available.
Also, the ability to create an expression as a variable that can be reused is just not there, which means a lot of duplicated code.

I am coming from the developer side and I would have just prefered to edit the code straight myself, that would have been a lot faster. But then on the other hand, how would a non-dev be able to do these changes? It would be way too complicated for the,m as you need a decent understanding of JavaScript objects.

So with the current implementation – who is Webstudio (CMS) for? In my opinion nobody. In the current state, it is not enough 'no-code' to attract non-devs, but too cramped and confusing for devs...

I know this is not a straight suggestion but just my frustration speaking. Maybe someone can empathize with me and figure out a solution.

4 comments

BBogdan

Hi, thanks for the feedback.

Can you describe steps and changes you did so we understand where specifically you get frustrated?

OOleg Isonen

Hi, I get it, we need:

Better way to see data instead of switching to inspect window
Expression for selecting data, the "data.x.y" notation would be inserted by clicking on data nodes automatically, so one doesn't need to type or know that object syntax
Expressions are currently only used to filter/apply things where the data is used, so there wasn't exact understanding they need to be reusable, would love a demo of what you were building where reusing expressions was crucial
Ideally expressions would also have an interface to build them without knowing syntax or alternative is AI generation in-place
Missing methods in expressions is bad too, because you often want to do little manipulations and you are right a js function instead of expression would allow to write js and would be much more powerful and easier for devs

jjakobsturm

Thank you! Yes, these are all things that would make the experience a lot better. I will record a short video showing what my struggles are and post it here later. Thanks! 🙂

SSteve Suderman

As someone who built a SaaS product that is becoming obsolete because of AI, I think it's worth thinking carefully about this. Building a no-code CMS integration component for WS would consume a lot of Dev resources. And we have AI tools that could be used instead. I just used Claude to help me make bulk edits to a Contentful database from my local dev environment. I can imagine WS using a chat interface that would basically ask you what CMS you are using, asking for API key etc, and walking you through the setup. Additionally, giving direct access to the code for those who want that would meet the needs for dev users. It might make sense to make the AI part of the Pro plan given the compute costs. idk.

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Current state of working with dynamic data or CMS - who is it for?