erquhartE
Convex Community2y ago
18 replies
erquhart

Show all fields in the dashboard data view

The scenario typically goes like this:
- I'm debugging something
- I'm using the dashboard to reference data, changes to data, etc
- I observe a missing field and deduce something based on the missing field
- After running in circles for a bit I realize the field is being added at the end of the table only when it has a value for one of the currently visible rows

Sorting out my confusion often includes:
- Am I looking at the wrong table?
- Am I sure this field is in the schema?
- Didn't I just see this field and now it's gone?
- Scrolling and carefully looking at all of the field headers to make sure I'm not missing a field that's there

If my table has a schema, even if one of the fields has no value, I'd really like for it to be visible in the table view. When it changes dynamically, I've only ever seen that cost me time and a bit of lost hair 😄

Maybe this could be optional? My two cent would be to make all fields visible by default, as I suspect that will be the user's assumption, and optionally collapse/hide empty fields, as I realize some users have way too many fields and can't use the dashboard very well with all of them showing.

If Convex is tracking all field names for schema-less tables, I'd advocate to show all fields for those, too, as it'd be very helpful for grokking the difference between my mental model and what I've actually persisted. But I'm assuming Convex isn't keeping a list of fields in this case.
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