January 19, 2023 / 🌍 Workspace Map 2.0, better performance, right-click context menu

[mdubakov]

Workspace Map 2.0

New Workspace Map solves most of the problems you had with the old one. Now you can zoom in and zoom out the whole workspace structure, move spaces around and organize them in a sane way, and even add connections between database right here.

New Workspace Map is based on canvas, so it works fast. Workspace Map is available via the top left menu. Let us know what you think about it.

Right-click context menu (experimental)

In nearest future, we are changing the way how you will access actions in cards and tables. Previously there was … icon on every card, now it will be the right-click.

Right-click menu works in all Views, including Table, Timeline, etc. We know that it can be frustrating for existing users, but without these elements cards look much better and these elements don’t hide any useful information, like state in lists. So you will not have this problem anymore:

NOTE: You can enable Context Menu feature in Experimental Features already, but we will force it in the next release for all users.

Views inside Rich Text field

This feature graduated from experimental and all users can access it. You can add existing views into Rich Edit field via / → Insert View menu or using << shortcut. Just type << in a Rich Text field and you will see a list of existing views:

Your feedback will define next steps and improvements here, please let us know what you miss!

More Relation Views: Table and Feed

Finally, you can add Table and Feed Views into Relation Views section inside entities (huh, it is not an easy sentence to grasp). OK, here is the video:

Default account for external actions

Now you have to select integration account every time you execute an action via a Button, like send a message to Slack or Email. Now the last account you selected will be set automatically, so less clicks for you.

Document creator notifications

Document creator will receive notifications about all new comments added into a document now. Nothing to add.

Entity View performance improvements

Entity View loads ~20% faster now. Technically, we removed redux-form and it affected performance significantly. Maybe you will not spot the difference, but your subconsciousness will.

Copy button in code block in Rich Text fields

Pasha said that this is the most important feature in the release.

Experimental: Auto close right Panels

Panels Navigation works great, but some people complained that panels accumulated on the right side. We’ve added an experimental feature that you can enable in left top menu that will automatically close right panels. We want to make it a default behavior, but maybe you will give us some feedback and we will make it as a setting…

GitLab syncs Issues and Labels

Now you can sync Issues and Labels in GitLab integration. All important fields are supported (it seems).

18 Fixed Bugs

• Table View: Loosing focus in table view if navigate through the columns via right arrow on keyboard
• Inconsistency in set of actions for view added separately and inside of folder
• Favorites: Smart Folder is still present in Favorites if User lost access to the Space
• Favorites: It’s impossible to create first-level entities in Smart Folder in Favourites
• Favorites: ‘Rename’ and ‘Delete folder with view’ does not work for folder in Favorites section
• Favorites: Js error on removing from Favourites entity contained context views
• Favorites: ‘Rename’ & ‘Delete’ are disabled for entity in Favourites unless user opens any entity of that database or create smart folder with such DB
• Hubspot: field “birthday” in HubSpot is not declared as a date field in Fibery
• Whiteboard: It’s impossible to create Tree view on embedded whiteboard if there are more than 5 DBs in the space
• API: It’s possible to create more than 2 tokens via browser console
• Board View: "AtIndex must be in range [0…0]’ error when moving cards one by one in filtered out column
• Left menu: Js error when adding new entity in collapsed smart folder
• Calendar view: can’t move entity to the another day via drag and drop
• z-index issue in ‘Move database to another space’ control
• Entities rename got broken - cursor jumps to the end
• Calendar pop-op does not closed on outside click if this click is inside of table
• Object menu doesn’t appear when you select an object on whiteboard
• Some documents appear in favourites only if you open it soon the search

[Matt_Blais]

OMG so much awesome in this release!

[mynym]

Thanks for the news. I see (and psychology supports that) a huge benefit in the working with visual representations.

The tipping point for me to start working with Fibery was when I saw that I could link an element form the whiteboard to a database - all kinds of applications of this feature popped up in my mind! Imagine the fusion of Miro for structure with Fibery for process, with Miro holding the „big picture“ overview of everything, and Fibery tracking all processes and allowing to link them back to the visual structure, feeding the symbols with all kinds of status information and accessing every details with one click from the overview…

Even without the level of sophistication of Miro, a whiteboard with that functionality, allowing for a seamless switch of levels of abstraction would make Fibery THE killer application for ANY complex process. An of course for me, that’s why I very much hope you are going in this direction…

[JoelH]

Will leave more feedback when I’ve used the new features a bit more. But this is great.

All good stuff and two outstanding things IMO.

Right-click context menu
Been waiting for this one! I activated it, and it only took a little time to get used to.

Finally I don’t need to “pad” my lists with created_at timestamps, because the ... and expand icons overlapped fields I wanted to change inline.

Timeline views became a little bit better to work with. Before this feature, sometimes I all saw was the icons, it was so frustrating to edit (fiddle with zoom or try to hit that 4mm space). (Timeline still suck for project plans btw, since you cannot turn off auto-rearragement, so they fall on separate rows.)

Tree view became easier to work with. I don’t have to look for and click that small + button any more, it was very far away from where I’m typically looking at, and it took a bit of an active effort.

I tried to go back (disabled the experimental context menu), and really realized how much better I think this is. Everyday actions feels more accessible. And everything looks a bit cleaner.
Love it!

Auto close right Panels
I guess I should wait a while longer to digest it, as for all new features, but it just clicked with me. This was what I wanted all the time.

The two-panel navigation system is a killer feature to me (one of the things that made me fall in love with Fibery), but I always disliked what felt like excessive panel stacking.

Definitely belonged to the user group that spent time closing the panels to the right. And the panel stacking to the right shrinking the real estate on both panels and looking honestly ugly and bothered me. Didn’t know what the alternative was though, but it seems this was it (for me).

When I started with Fibery, Panel stacking took some real getting used. I can’t speak for new users any more since I’m probably too used to the panels, but my gut feeling is this will be easier to grok.
Thank you!

Other stuff
Honorary shoutout to consistency - good to have all the view types available in entities now. I like that we don’t have to beg for new features like this, and you just do them.

Just because a feature might be relatively less used that other of it’s kind, when you need it and it’s not there, it can be so frustrating. I love platforms where everything is consistent and predictable in the features it offers. The worst is vendors that build 90% of a core feature and then move on to new stuff. Then years and lots of frustration to get attention, before they come back and fix it. You get this.

Me and my long code blocks also thanks Pasha and the rest of the team for understanding the importance of the copy to clipboard button.

[adamf]

PLEASE do not make the right-click menu compulsory. This is the first update since I have been with Fibery that would be a step back in usability.

Reason one: I work on a touchpad with no physical buttons. Doing a right-click is a bit more work that letf-clicking the three dots. It’s not a tragedy, but then again, why make something harder when it can be easy.

Reason two: I very often open items directly in the expanded view. It’s actually my preferred way to see items, I don’t like when the content I need to focus on only takes half of the screen. After the update, this will be very difficult. Doing a right-click adds too much friction to this action.

The icons only appear on hover so I don’t think they bring much clutter to the design. There is always only one card that is slightly covered and only if you make it that way with your own action. That’s a very small price to pay for increased efficiency and usability.

[Chr1sG]

@adamf

The icons only appear on hover so I don’t think they bring much clutter to the design. There is always only one card that is slightly covered and only if you make it that way with your own action. That’s a very small price to pay for increased efficiency and usability.

This was actually one of the most complained-about usability issues we had

[Eren_Turgut]

Maybe add a menu point, e.g. Features, and move Experimental Features that might boil down to preference to that submenu after they are out of the experimental phase?

[JoelH]

I first discovered the real use of Workspace Map 2.0 today when I needed to test a concept that required a dozen new relationships. It was so easy and powerful to link up my databases, and get a good overview of everything. Great work!

[ccollins]

Any plans to incorporate right-click context menu into the left sidebar? If I’m looking at a document, it would be awesome to be able to right click a view in the sidebar to select ‘open as right pane’ so I don’t have to jump back and forth or do it through searching

Also, is there any way (or plan) to reorder buttons in the context menu?