January 16, 2025 / 🔬 Very experimental My Items vs. All Items in sidebar, some emails and formulas improvements

[mdubakov]

Today’s release is very modest, with just few updates here and there and one very experimental feature.

Very experimental: Left Sidebar My Items vs. All Items

We’re working on the new sidebar and in this release we’re releasing very experimental changes. Main idea is to introduce My Items area where all important things lives, so you can work mainly in this mode and enjoy more clear left sidebar. My Items is like a whitelist of things you care about.

What changed:

1. Favorites renamed to My Items.
2. Shared with me and Private sections moved to My Items.
3. Now you can add Spaces to My Items: Add to My Items action appears in … for every Space.
4. You can switch left sidebar to My items or All items mode.

What we will change in near future:

• Implement some rules to add Spaces and important Entities into My items automatically for all users. For example, if you are invited into CRM Space, it will be added to your My Items section. Or if you are assigned to a Team X and there is a Smart Section with Teams in left sidebar, this Team X will be added to My Items section as well.
• Disable Drag and Drop of Spaces for all users, so in All Items the order of Spaces will be the same for all users and only Admin will be able to change it.
• Remove Hidden for Me section (since My Items solves the same problem)
• Add Nested Spaces and make it possible to create Views & Smart Folders on a top level as well.

If you are curious, enable All / My Items switcher in Sidebar in Experimental Lab, configure My Items section and provide your feedback, we really need it to make it right.

Batch actions are out of experimental

Batch actions on Board, Timeline, List, Feed and Calendar views are out of experimental and enabled by default for all users. We’ve fixed many bugs and there are ready for prime time. Select some entities and update some fields.

NOTE: Batch actions for Table View will be added in the next release.

Instant updates for Emails (Gmail OAuth only)

New emails (configured via Gmail OAuth) are synced to Fibery real time now with almost zero delays. Make sure to enable Receive instant data updates using webhook option in email integration.

NOTE: We’re at the final step of Google verification for Fibery Gmail sync, so I hope Gmail OAuth will be fully available for all users in the next 2 weeks.

New formulas

Two new formulas were added:

AbsoluteValue(number)

Calculates the absolute value of a number. Examples:

AbsoluteValue(-14) → 14
AbsoluteValue(123) → 123

Log(number, base)

Calculates the logarithm of a number for a given base. Example:

Log(128, 2) → 7

Improvements

• Lock Whiteboard unified with Views Lock
• Multiple Entity Views are now available on paid plans only (plus, the legacy Solo plan), true to our pricing page.

Fixed Bugs

• Whiteboard:
  • Pen tool can create a huge data entry
  • Certain Shape Box makes browser to be unresponsive
  • Unlink All fails if link is a formula
  • Сhange objects color on whiteboard map in dark mode to make them more contrast and visible
• Reports:
  • Wrong meta in shared reports
  • Hitting Esc causes configuration loss
  • Context filters are not visible fully and are impossible to setup
• No entity is shown in notifications if Space or Database which entity belongs to was deleted
• Integrations:
  • Custom integration: Cannot include more DB’s after first Sync
  • Wrong message in case of error during integration
• Duplicated Table option in Embed view list
• Lock entity: Rich text stays editable for locked entity and otherwise
• Avatars are semi-transparent on read-only user
• Same icons are used for different actions - Lock & Copy to private
• Restoring two versions of the same Entity fails with …oops
• Quick filters on views are accent (diacritic) sensitive

[RonMakesSystems]

Aaaah these are amazing! Fibery as a hubspot replacement, lets gooooo!!! Batch actions are a game changer.

The only bug / weird UX: it is unclear when an entity is selected vs it is open in the next panel. For example, I click it, it opens in sidebar, but it looks like its selected, so then cmd click on others but then they just open in new tab. I can shift click, but then the open entity (that looks like it is selected) is not actually selected. I have no idea what a viable solution would be though.

Also just noting that using shift is working for bulk select, (first and last), but not for deselect.

If its unclear I can make a screen recording!

One more thing is selecting multiple and then moving it to a different column in board view. And moving the lanes in bulk in timeline view. Probably on roadmap, but just noting in case its not.

[Mircea_Braescu]

These updates feel like small Christmas presents, but I think you’re leaving a huge opportunity on the table. You should keep your development / release cycle but publish these announcements on friday morning, and then you call these updates:

Fibery Friday

[helloitse]

I do not want to wait another day for the updates but the title is cute!

[mdubakov]

@RonMakesSystems

The only bug / weird UX: it is unclear when an entity is selected vs it is open in the next panel. For example, I click it, it opens in sidebar, but it looks like its selected, so then cmd click on others but then they just open in new tab. I can shift click, but then the open entity (that looks like it is selected) is not actually selected. I have no idea what a viable solution would be though.

Also just noting that using shift is working for bulk select, (first and last), but not for deselect.

We will think what to do with selection, nice catch. And check deselect, looks like a bug

@RonMakesSystems

One more thing is selecting multiple and then moving it to a different column in board view. And moving the lanes in bulk in timeline view. Probably on roadmap, but just noting in case its not.

This will be implemented in some future, we have it in plans.

[grex22]

Instant GMail updates are going to save us so many headaches… thank you!! Didn’t even know this was on the roadmap!

I’m also now off to enjoy working in my much-less-cluttered left sidebar …

[Alex_Rublev]

Would be great to have batch lock action

[mdubakov]

Should not be hard, we will do it in the future

[helloitse]

@mdubakov

• Remove Hidden for Me section (since My Items solves the same problem)

My Items does not solve the same problem for admins.
In my workspace, the Personal or “My Items” section is exclusive to my dashboards or go-to items for day to day work.

The Spaces section contains the spaces most needed across the range of work that might be assigned to the whole team.

Hidden for Me hides configuration spaces or inactive spaces. For example: Recruiting, when there are no active openings.

[mdubakov]

@helloitse

The Spaces section contains the spaces most needed across the range of work that might be assigned to the whole team.

Here I agree. In our future solution you can add space to My Items, but it will be always visible. We will think. One idea is to keep Spaces group even in My Items.

@helloitse

Hidden for Me hides configuration spaces or inactive spaces. For example: Recruiting, when there are no active openings.

Here a solution is quite the same, remove Recruiting from My Items if you don’t need it often.

[helloitse]

@helloitse

“My Items” section is exclusive to my dashboards or go-to items for day to day work.

What becomes the solution for this? Will we still have favorites within my items?

[mdubakov]

@helloitse

What becomes the solution for this? Will we still have favorites within my items?

In general Favorites are transformed into My Items, so all Favorites views and entities are in My Items. Please enable this feature and try for yourself

[helloitse]

I have the current version of the feature enabled. I think it’s great as is! My questions are geared towards calling attention to proposed future changes that will remove functionality that already exists, and I currently depend on. I think you’ve proposed removing the favorites section.
Since the sidebar changes are a part of every day use small increases in friction become big pains day after day. Maybe it would help if I reframed my questions?

Why is the goal to remove an existing function at all? Why can’t we have both “My Items” and “Hidden for me”? What about the current iteration is bad? Do the future changes improve the situation? I want to point out that it makes things worse for more complex users.

The ability to have favorites as a shortcut for work management is a ubiquitous feature. It’s best practice in personal work management is to keep this strategically small/targeted to current goals.

Examples

[mdubakov]

@helloitse

Why is the goal to remove an existing function at all? Why can’t we have both “My Items” and “Hidden for me”? What about the current iteration is bad? Do the future changes improve the situation? I want to point out that it makes things worse for more complex users.

The ability to have favorites as a shortcut for work management is a ubiquitous feature. It’s best practice in personal work management is to keep this strategically small/targeted to current goals.

According our stats, just 15% of our users do use Favorites. And we are not removing them, but renaming to My Items.

As for Hidden Spaces, we will think, maybe indeed we will keep it, since there are cases when it can be good.

[ccollins]

@mdubakov

As for Hidden Spaces, we will think, maybe indeed we will keep it, since there are cases when it can be good.

I’m glad @helloitse brought this up. I got really concerned reading this last week but forgot to reply. Hidden spaces are important for my workspace and will be until the ‘Share database with groups’ feature is released and I’ve had time to modify how our space permissions are set up. With current permissions, I need “dummy” spaces for more complex setups. These “dummy” spaces will never be clicked on by non-admin users and will clutter the ‘All Items’ side bar if the hidden folder goes away.

I would love to see hidden spaces remain but just labeled ‘Hidden’ not ‘Hidden for Me’. In the ‘All Items’ sidebar, Admins should determine which spaces belong in ‘Hidden’ and in what order, same as you are planning for Admin’s determining the order of the non-hidden spaces. Then in the ‘My Items’ sidebar, the user could decide which spaces go in or out from that ‘Hidden’ folder.