Why the ability to view data in local tables is paramount

[steve_synopsis]

I may sound like a stuck record as I have brought this up before but I believe that the ability to view data in local tables is of upmost importance.

Most apps depend on the storage of data in some format and while Thunkable allows 4 native ways to do this along with connectivity via APIs, most of these methods rely on internet connectivity. As a developer, I am always cognizant that this may not always be possible, and that the app should still work.

So, I prefer to hold data locally and download/uploads updates when connectivity is available.

Writing an app to store data locally means that during the development and troubleshooting phases, one must be able to check the tables to ensure that the data that is supposed to be read into the app is there and any data written to the tables is done correctly.

The inability to see what is going on in local tables makes development quite tedious and time-consuming. I have tried using Google Sheets for initial development/troubleshooting and then once the logic was good, migrating to the local tables. As a workaround this is ok, but it means changing the blocks and can still lead to unnecessary errors.

I hope that the Thunkable team hears my plea and I encourage any other users in the community who share this view to add your voice to this feature request.

@matt_conroy @ioannis

Thanks as always,
Steve

[tatiang]

This feature is overdue.

[ioannis]

Hello @steve_synopsis
Thank you for creating this topic. I’ll pass it on to the team.
Local Data sources and local variables store their values locally so this is why you can’t see the user data.
Do you have the same issue with the app and stored variables?

[jared]

How can the builder see the data on your phone?!?!

Local data is local to the phone. It’s stored on the phone. So if you wanna see it you need to make a way to view it in your app.

[tatiang]

I would want to be able to view the data saved when previewing a project in a browser (e.g. on my MacMini).

[jared]

Those data are saved to the browser in local storage or an indexedDB most likely. Not the builder or your project files.

Not that it’s be impossible but would require another or modified ui to be built to manage this.

[steve_synopsis]

If I am in the process of building an app and for example accepting input from the UI and storing it in a table, as part of the building and troubleshooting process I should be able to examine the table by going to datasources, selecting the table and seeing the data. I can do that with Google Sheets. My question is, why can’t I do with a local datasource.

I have a table with 453 rows that I pasted from Excel and I can see all of that data,

but if I run this code to insert a row I cannot see that data.

but the text on the button confirms that the data was added to row 453 but is not visible

Sorry, but that makes absolutely no sense to me.

[rosapaulamolina101ra]

add wait blocks between events

[jared]

That’s not the row ID. I think at some point you used to be able to do this but maybe it doesnt work as expected all the time? Idk

Does that work when you try other row numbers? Does that work if you use the green row id block instead of a hardcoded number?