Sorting App blocks

MIT App Inventor Help
#1

When you built an important app with lots of bloks, it become difficult to remember where are blocks you need to modify

I think it could be interresting to add a find tool (Ctrl F) but i have seen that it was already disccussed in other posts...

for my mind i'd be interresting to to identify blocks areas as in this exemple

image
image1293×712 144 KB

I think too it 'd be good to be able to select several block'sgroups in order to move it in one moving.
I don't know if someone is in charge to improve AI but if yes may be it could have a look...

3 Likes
Tabs for storing
#2

I used the browser's tool :crazy_face:
Though it doesn't take me to the blocks like it should work, it atleast makes my job easier by highlighting the block name.

#3

Yes of course, i tried it to but if you have lots of block it highlighting very small blocks which is difficult to see, and it can't jump from one to other as we can have in a text editor for exemple

#4

Yes ikt.
I had around 3000 blocks on 1 screen and it was a nightmare :roll_eyes:

3 Likes
#5

yes. on my screenshot , i highlighted "Reglage" but you can't see it and as soon as you zoom or move highlighting desapear and you have to reactivate it...

1 Like
#6

And the problem is that the builder lags when you try to move around a workspace with many blocks (2000+)

#7

Well, when you start coding your App, organise the Blocks by grouping types together, and frequently use right-mouse-click 'Clean Up Blocks'.

#8

3000? Want to see my app from 11,000 blocks? :niewinny:

#9

Also jean-marc, when you have a very long Block that looks like crocodile teeth, there is usually some optimisation to be had that can reduce the Block count - also reducing the potential for bugs and making everything lighter to handle.

2 Likes
#10

That was one screen
My block total would be nearby yours :joy:

#11

For me, everything is on one screen because I do not use screens, but arrangement.
About 20 "screens" from the arrangement.

#12

get an image of your blocks (→ right mouse click in Blocks area)

grafik
grafik866×643 21.2 KB

also read this :

Thank you... :+1:

#13

I prefere organize my bloks depending of what they are concerned by...because with clean up i'm lost in organization...

#14

Exactly. Sorting alphabetically etc makes no sense. Well, maybe it's good when you have "Hello world" applications :D.
It would be good if the blocks could be sorted by Tags. Tags could be added in the comments. For example, sorting in several columns according to the first word of a comment.

1 Like
#15

.... well that is what I have said. Clean-up Blocks does not arrange your Blocks Alphabetically, it arranges them in a single vertical column.

#16

For me, block cleaning made one column of several hundred blocks. Not arranged alphabetically. I do not know what criteria it will sort by, but there is no logic in it.

#17

Here is an idea for section dividers.

Section dividers
Section dividers747×173 11.1 KB

The yellow error prev/next arrow buttons should be able to get you to the prev/next section

2 Likes
Text search in the Blocks editor
#18

The point is, you need to start with tidy Blocks arrangement, there isn't any IDE capable of mind reading to the extent that it can auto-organise pre-written code for you.

However, you might like to try organising by category, AI can do that for you. It's also a fact that many people find it easier to navigate their blocks when they are arranged in a single column. Clean-up Blocks arranges the Blocks neatly, a set distance apart, so if you start by working with a single column, when you need to add a block between others, you can drag the block in position and then apply Clean Up.

1 Like
#19

Before cleaning, my blocks were arranged in several dozen columns according to the functions they belonged to. For example, blocks responsible for connecting and reading / writing data via BT together. Blocks responsible for loading data to subsequent pages of the application separately. Separate blocks for processing binary data. There is a problem with bluetooth in the application, then I know where to rewind the blocks to the bluetooth section. And this block cleaning made one column not logically arranged. I tested on two applications. Therefore, I am asking what is the scheme of this cleaning function? Or maybe it just doesn't work?
Sometimes something that used to work stops after an update.

#20

I saved the aia file to my computer. Then I changed with a extern program (visual basic) the block information, so I could switch position, enabled etc. Not nice, but usefull...
There is a youtube video how to double a button.