April 11, 2024 / Groups in List View (experimental), Whiteboard Relation Tool

[mdubakov]

Groups in List View (experimental)

Now you can group entity at any level in List View by relation, state, single- and multi-select fields.

You can add groups to all levels, but only one group per-level is supported. Drag and drop works as expected. Setup is streamlined and should be easy to do .

Feature is experimental, please activate it in Settings → Experimental Lab.

Up next, we’re tackling any leftover bugs and adding a grouping feature to the Table View and Smart Folders. Your thoughts really matter to us, so give it a whirl and let us know what you love, and what’s missing before we roll it out to everyone.

Whiteboard: Relation Tool

We are working on improving the combination of Databases + Whiteboard, and today’s release addresses a significant problem. Previously, we had a single Connector tool on Whiteboard that we tried to use for all scenarios, such as connecting shapes or connecting entities. However, it was very confusing because, in most cases, users want to establish actual relationships between entities, and the tool had many gaps and bugs.

Now, we are introducing a new Relation Tool that simplifies the creation, modification and deletion of relations between entities. It works for all kinds of relations, including many-to-one, many-to-many, and even self-relations. In a nutshell, you have a new way to work with relations visually .

Other things you should know:

• You can activate Relation Tool via R shortcut or holding a Shift key when creating a connector between entities.
• When you delete a relation on a Whiteboard, it actually deletes a relation between entities.
• If you have only created connection lines between entities, it is possible to select them and convert them into real relations.
• Currently, there is no auto-layout feature, so you will need to arrange the cards manually.

Make entities/documents mentions clickable in Inbox notifications

You can now access the mentioned entities directly through your Inbox by simply clicking on the entity name.

Improvements

• To speed up your workspace, we completely remove Fields, Databases, and Spaces 90 days after they are moved to Trash.

Fixed Bugs

• Rich-text: Table blinking on column resize if there is some text in the cell
• View is not searchable for non-owner in case it was moved from My space to usual space
• Timeline: auto changing from ‘Quarters’ to another period after zooming and navigating to earlier/later dates
• Duplicated to My Space view don’t get highlighted in the left menu
• User is not redirected to the Document in My Space if he doesn’t have access to any entity or DB and nothing is added to Favourites
• Unable to move Database to other Space
• Whiteboard: Active fields don’t get moved on top in Fields popup on Whiteboard
• Whiteboard: Fields popup closes every time you select field on the card
• Wrong abbreviations for Space and Database in schema change filter in Trash and Activity log
• Entity View’s right column expand arrow overlaps with scroll on Windows
• Graphql Home Page shows deleted spaces
• Oops error when redirect to an entity with restored field in compact section
• Entity View: Default size for relation timeline is broken

P.S.

We are working on a minor release that can change the way you prioritize features and work with product feedback. If you are curious, join the waitlist and be contacted when it is ready for preview.

Fibery 2.0 Waitlist

[interr0bangr]

Awesome release!

In the group by feature, two questions/issues:

1. How do you do self-referencing levels? Seems like it’s not possible at all anymore with this feature activated?

2. I was expecting to be able to group by a formula/lookup field since I thought that was a type of “relation” but it doesn’t seem to be possible. Am I missing something or is that feature to come later?

[interr0bangr]

I answered at least one of my questions. I see that the little circular “self-reference” arrow has been replaced with the (recusive) relation field in the “Group By” options.

[ccollins]

Great release!

You might already know this, but one bug I am experiencing with the experimental list view grouping - I am seeing it jump back and forth between grouped and not grouped. For example if I group by state, then when I open or close a state the view flashes to a non-grouped layout, then flashes back to the grouped layout.

[mdubakov]

Can you record a gif or a video? So far we can’t reproduce it.

[YvetteLans]

Awesome new features

I really love that the first version of grouping is released. However, I was hoping that there wasn’t a need to open/close levels to see what’s in a group.

Currently we hacked grouping by using a board view with only 1 column.

Would be awesome if that’s possible in a table since you can then show more helpful information.

In the released version of list grouping, I need to open/close each and every state / assignee / etc. to see what’s in it. That’s not UX friendly in my opinion, especially when there is no expand/collapse all feature.

The benefit of grouping is that you can easily scan the page, based on groups. Like Clickup or other tools have (old screenshot from Google):

In Fibery it feels like relations instead of groups

I also really miss the icons in this setup, especially when you group by state. It gives the workspace just that extra bit of love.

[ccollins]

I am grouping by state. And I have a lookup on state for the object’s assignees. If I filter the view to only show state’s where the object’s assignee contains me, that’s when it jumps back and forth. If I remove that filter, there is no issue.

Here’s a video with example data: New list | Fibery - 12 April 2024 | Loom

[Yuri_BC]

The grouping feature is great, thanks!
Here also, my main tension with any grouping or nesting in views, is the time spend in opening and closing rows. This may be solved by expand/collapse all button and locking a ‘tree state’ to autocollapse with a toggle, but needs some experimenting to find the best solution.

Such feature could be integrated in the custom entity view layouts coming up? Since users being able to configure placement and behavior of fields including views, appears like the same topic.

Multiple related posts:

Collapse All - Expand All in Nested Hierarchies

This has become an increasing issue with nested entities, the ability to collapse or expand hierarchical rows in table/list/board views. See also

[RonMakesSystems]

It looks like the Whiteboard Relation tool doesn’t work for 1-to-1 relationships yet. Is that a bug or an unshipped feature?

[mdubakov]

It is a bug, we will check

[Nevil_Hulspas]

Love the grouping in list view, now just REALLY eagerly waiting for this grouping in table view. When is it expected @mdubakov ?

Also fully agree with @YvetteLans by the way, it shouldn’t have to be uncollapsed. Or at least should be a setting that can be changed (open / closed by default).

[mdubakov]

@Nevil_Hulspas

Love the grouping in list view, now just REALLY eagerly waiting for this grouping in table view. When is it expected @mdubakov ?

I hope in the next release it will be available as experimental

[interr0bangr]

With grouping enabled, every single time a level is expanded/collapsed, the entire view seems to collapse and then re-expand/refresh, which is very distracting. Is this a bug or just how it is?

[ihartrafimovich]

It’s a known bug, and it’s quite tricky to fix, but we will fix as soon as possible.

[interr0bangr]

@interr0bangr

I was expecting to be able to group by a formula/lookup field since I thought that was a type of “relation” but it doesn’t seem to be possible. Am I missing something or is that feature to come later?

I never saw an answer to this question yet.

Grouping works with relation, state, single and multi-select fields, but not lookup/formulas which I guess because those are “references” and not “relations”, right? Is there a plan to be able to use lookup/formula fields for grouping in the future?

[ihartrafimovich]

I can answer the question from the developer perspective: the problem you described is quite complicated because unlike relation fields, lookups/formulas don’t have both-way-reference.

It moves the functionality to the group by simple value (number, text, date) category, which we decide do not address primarily.