One addition to yesterday’s release is an upgrade to variables.
What is a variable?
In app creation, variables work like containers to hold numbers, phrases, the results of a calculation, a database call, or other important values in the app, in the mobile device’s local storage or in the cloud.
Instead of repeating these values in multiple places, a variable can be used wherever it is needed in your Blocks code.
App , stored and cloud variables
When you create a variable, you’ll have the choice between an app, stored and cloud variable. All variable types work across screens and the only difference is where they are stored.
An app variable works across screens and is stored in the app itself
A stored variable also works across screens but is saved to the mobile device itself. This means that a stored variable can be retrieved from a previous session. A stored variable is similar to saving a value to Local Storage and is especially useful for retrieving a user’s previous setting.
A cloud variable also works across screens but is saved to the cloud powered by Firebase. By default, the cloud variable is saved to the Thunkable default Firebase database but you can save them to your own private Firebase database by following the instructions here. Cloud variables can be used similar to saving and retrieving values to a Realtime DB powered by Firebase and can be used in a number of applications that share data across users in the cloud.
Happy Thunking,
Albert @ Thunkable
