Some missing "pro" features to Fibery

Ideas & Features
1

Hello,

TL;DR
There are very long threads on long awaited features. The huge number of messages and the dispersion on several threads makes it hard to follow if they are considered in the mid-term pipeline or not. This post is just a tentative to get some kind of centralized status on those (the goal is not to discuss each feature in this thread, I’ve put the link when possible to dedicated threads). I also give some motivations that triggered to write this post but they are less important so I put them after :sweat_smile::

  • Space and DB-level permissions ([IN DEV] Entity-level permissions) → it’s in dev but not appearing in the public roadmap making hard to know if we are months-away or years-away.
  • Entity lock (making a single entity read-only with a request mechanism to ask for change) (‘Locking’ entities
  • Field lock for fully automated fields: a lot of fields have their value set by automations, we should be able to lock them to avoid accidental modifications (no thread found on this)
  • Multiple entity views to be used in different contexts (Individual Layouts for a node, hide fields etc)
  • Ability to use Add by Form in all +new <entity> actions (February 2, 2023 / Table of Contents, Full Add via Forms → the feature delivered today provides the functionality but not the ability to guide/nudge users into using it. It’s way too easy to overlook, making it much less useful.
  • Link “Add by Form” with Entity-level permission (depending on permission, you can access certain Forms and not others) (found no thread on this)
  • Better notifications and task management (Lack of Work Management features in Fibery (Reminders, Dependencies, Notifications, My Work, etc.)) → Personally, if we could at least start with a “watch entity” and “watch database” feature, I would be really happy :grin:. But reminders are also much needed.
  • Personal dashboard (Configurable Dashboards) → Embedded views are a step in the right direction but it’s limited to scroll-down orientation, not full 2D-configurable dashboard
  • Bulk edit entities (Multiple select or bulk editing)
  • Ability to change name of the “Assignee” and “State” fields: small stuff but frustrating (Allow more field name changes

Why we need those features?

I really love the energy Fibery team puts into delivering new features that are often unexpected ways to do something we needed but with an extra something (the Fibery touch? :grin:).
However, it also feels (to me at least) that there is un slight imbalance between delivering new shiny innovations and making the existing robust and reliable down to the little details. The very powerful data models and automations makes it maybe slightly too easy to make such requests low priority since most of the time, you can find workaround using a nice automation trick or by rethinking slightly your data model.
Problem with that is you are forcing your users to accumulate technical mental load (all the automations have to be maintained, cared for, ported into new DB, etc.) for things that seem straightforward (I fully realize they might not be, I’m just stating that from a user POV). And having to adapt your data models to work around a lack in the product is obviously not ideal (but to be fair, this would be true for any product with its own specific limitations). Some of those requests are small stuff but they adds up in frustration.
In my opinion that would make Fibery slightly less “startupy” but rather ready for more mature usage.

Sorry, I know that this post is not really in a format “one post one feature request” but I felt it was somehow needed.

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Lovely feedback, thank you.

Wrt this:

It’s basically quite technically challenging to have the automation update a field that is otherwise ‘read-only’ but in the meantime…

I suggest you create an editable field that the automation can update, and then create a formula field that simply recreates it.
(formula fields can return any datatype, so just putting the name of an existing field in the formula gives you a read-only copy).

Then you can hide the ‘original’ field everywhere (not visible in any views, including entity view) and show the read-only field wherever needed.

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It’s good feedback, but is simultaneously another big-bag-of-things thread. They end in debate about what’s most important and normally many people pile in with their pet list of things that are incredibly niche, or very hard to do effectively / with simple UX. What is another of these going to achieve?

I think as a community we’d be better off putting wishes in a single thread per logical group of features.

That said, you’ve mentioned it, so I shall comment as I so strongly agree…

“Watch entity” (and perhaps “watch database”) seems like such a huge, relatively easy win. I am perplexed by the lack of prioritisation for that. It just seems so… necessary.

The lack of “watcher” notifications/functionality is making some in the company seriously question using Fibery as an issue tracker, incident management tool, etc. If we go back to the default of JIRA then we’ll have less reason to use Fibery at all as it’ll all get fragmented.

I’ve had several conversations with others encouraging them to give Fibery a go, and they ask what the drawbacks are, I tell them honestly that it’s hard to get notifications of updates to things you care about, and they all just look at me like “why would you even consider using it then?”

I’m sure that the AI stuff that the Fibery team is playing with is cool and Hacker-News-friendly. But I will only buy the Fibery team a crate of beer if they add “watcher” functionality. :wink:

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Make that 2 cases!

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It’s good feedback, but is simultaneously another big-bag-of-things thread. They end in debate about what’s most important and normally many people pile in with their pet list of things that are incredibly niche, or very hard to do effectively / with simple UX. What is another of these going to achieve?

Point taken and mostly shared :grinning: (hence my anticipated apologies at the end of the post). Goal is not to discuss each of those requests in this thread, that is why I added the link to the dedicated discussions whenever possible. The goal here is to try to ask for a slightly centralized status on those (mostly) popular requests from Fibery. But if for any reason that’s not possible/desirable, I’m not expecting any huge debate as they are already happening elsewhere.
It’s just that, due to those numerous discussions happening in different places, I’ve completely lost track of what we can expect in the short/mid/long term. This is my clumsy attempt at getting some clarity :blush:

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Now we have a roadmap for the next 3 months and I will publish it soon :slight_smile:

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@HereBeBeasties @jondkinney I don’t know if y’all are truly kidding about the cases of beer, but I will no joke pitch in for a few cases of Fibery’s beers of choice when notifications/“watcher” functionality is baked in natively. :beers:

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Here is the Fibery roadmap for the next 3 months.

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