Cannot Figure Out Document Reader & Word Counter

ron · July 22, 2020, 4:23am

Hi. This plugin is completely mystifying. I’ve spent a couple of hours trying to puzzle it out, but cannot figure out how it works.

I would like to upload a file, obtain its word count for further processing in a workflow. But nothing I’ve tried works, and I have no indication that it is actually uploading selected files.

The placeholder text fails to appear, I’ve tried getting the word count in Workflow actions, but nothing seems to work. There appears to be no documentation or examples of use, and I am referred to the Plugin page, which provides no information and just links to paid courses on other topics?!

Possible to provide some examples or walkthrough of how this works? Some documentation? Thanks!

alexandru · July 22, 2020, 12:29pm

Hi @ron,

Thanks for reaching out and sorry for trouble. It might be a plugin related issue, but we would need to check on it first and see whether it requires a fix on our side. Could you please go to Settings - Collaboration tab within your editor. Add our support@zeroqode.com account to your collaborator’s list. Also, please tell us your app name and page name where this problem occurs on test. Or you can create a testing page with same steps so we could tweak it if you don’t mind.

Note: avoid the warning message regarding plan, as we are an agency and you can easily add us to your collaborators.

We’ll investigate it inside your app and get back to you with a feedback asap.

Best,
Alex

ron · July 22, 2020, 4:11pm

Okay, thanks. You have been invited to Audiomate app. The page is called testing_wordcount.

ron · July 23, 2020, 6:00am

Okay, I tried implementing the plugin on a completely blank page and it worked. So I am wondering now if it is conflicting with something on the original page. I have deleted it from that project mentioned above and the plugin can now be found on project: audiomatehs and page: production_product_detail. Support collaboration is enabled.

It works, however, if placed in a group it does not work. You can see it on that page and try moving the uploader and the text that emits the word count in and out of any grouping on the page. When in a group, it fails. When just on the page and in no group, it works.

Look forward to resolving, as it should be quite useful (note also I moved it here to a newly purchased Headstart templated project to eliminate any possibility that the Aerdev template may have interfered with the plugin’s functioning. Thanks!

alexandru · July 23, 2020, 11:28am

Hi @ron, thanks for sharing your app and provided details. We have checked on it and it doesn’t function properly when placing plugin element into a group element, indeed. Please let us fix it and I’ll notify you back on this matter asap.

ron · July 23, 2020, 3:16pm

Thank you! Very much appreciated.

ron · July 24, 2020, 1:50pm

Hi, Alex. Any progress in making this plugin work properly in groups? Was hoping to use it (bought it twice!) in a project and now stalled and thinking I may have to abandon the model I’ve designed that depends on this functioning as advertised. Thanks!

alexandru · July 24, 2020, 2:15pm

Hi @ron,

Thanks for catching up. Our development team is already working on plugin fixes. I’m afraid I cannot guarantee estimates on this matter, but you can be sure that I’ll notify you back as soon as we try to fix this issue and launch the fixed version, so you’ll be able to run your application smoothly.

Thanks in advance for your patience.

ron · July 24, 2020, 4:29pm

Ok thanks. I’ll keep an eye on notifications.

alexandru · July 27, 2020, 4:45pm

Hi @ron,

I’m reaching out with an update. Our team has successfully investigated the reason of this issue. The plugin is up-and-running even with the current version. I’m afraid there are some things that we cannot influence because this is how Bubble works. So, when one of the parent elements (group, in this case) of the element has set the fixed-width option:

The updating functions from plugin are not called and the plugin does not react to change:

And if you remove this checkbox so the parent group element is not fixed-width, everything is working fine:

The thing is that this plugin is being used within a template of ours, that implements lots of group elements as fixed-width, because this makes things easier for responsiveness and your UI keeps a good look.

There are 2 options of how you can make things work:

place the plugin element outside a group element that is fixed-width, and you can make plugin’s element fixed-width if you need as this is working fine as well
if your plugin element has a parent element, both plugin element and its parent group must not be fixed-width

Thanks a lot for your patience.

ron · July 27, 2020, 4:58pm

Hi, @alexandru!

Thanks for running this issue to ground. Definitely a non-obvious cause, but with the workaround I should be able to find a way to use the plugin, which for me has great value in our use case.

I can test, but perhaps I can just ask you as well: If the plugin is inside a group that is not fixed width, but that group is within another group (or one “above” it) that is fixed width, will it fail? In other words, must there be no fixed width groups all the way up the group hierarchy?

Thanks again,

Ron

alexandru · July 27, 2020, 5:19pm

Hi @ron,

Thanks for feedback.

Unfortunately - yes, it is going to fail. You can give it a try on your side as well for testing purposes. It requires its parent elements not to be fixed-width, in order to work properly. But you can really leave the parent groups because they are set up for a proper UI and responsiveness of your application, and simply place the plugin element in some place where it doesn’t require lots of change.

Hope it helps.

ron · July 27, 2020, 5:22pm

Alex, thanks. That does help.

The solution lies in tactical design, and not code. The good news: there is a solution!

Best,

Ron

alexandru · July 27, 2020, 5:25pm

Always welcome @ron, just one thing to ask, since it is not a plugin related issue, could you please leave us an honest review by going to Plugins tab in Bubble editor. You can find the plugin by name and give it as many stars as it deserves. The more feedback we get, the more motivated we are to build great plugins. Thanks

ron · July 27, 2020, 5:30pm

Alex, it will be my pleasure to update the review to make clear that the plugin delivers as promised, and that Zeroqode support has been first rate in providing ways to work around some limitations in the Bubble platform.

I would suggest perhaps describing those limitations and workarounds in the plugin page and documentation, so that those coming after me will be able to get the full benefit of this extremely useful product.

Thanks again,

Ron

alexandru · July 28, 2020, 7:16am

Thanks @ron, we’ve taken the feedback into account to work on future improvements! If you have any other questions or issues, please let us know

alexandru · July 29, 2020, 2:05pm

Hi @ron, unfortunately, we haven’t received the appropriate review of our plugin. Could please update the review if it is possible of course

ron · July 29, 2020, 3:47pm

Alex, I haven’t forgotten. Spent yesterday working with it and devising workarounds for the Bubble issue. Still not clear to me, by the way, that the fixed width is the issue. Seems to fail within any group, fixed or not.

But no matter, happy to have a way to use it and plan to upgrade the review as I said I would.

Aside: is there a way to get at the originally uploaded file so that it can be saved in the database? The content is the raw text without apparently no formatting or carriage returns, and in many cases would be too large to store in a field. And anyway, for further processing of the text file (in our case, using it for audio production) we would want the file as originally uploaded, as the formatting is useful.

If there isn’t such a way now, possibly a customization could be done? Thanks!

Ron

ron · July 29, 2020, 10:53pm

Alex, I updated my review in both apps where I’ve installed the plugin. Checked the plugin page and do not see the updates. So I made a reply there to set the record straight. Thanks again for your excellent support!

For the record, here is my updated review, and I hope it shows up above as well!

Extremely Useful • Great Support

This plugin delivers functionality that is exactly what I need for a media-centric project. It’s simple, and anticipates the state information required to let me to build something friendly and useful for end-users

Moreover, the support I received working through some Bubble limitations has been just great. Feels like working alongside a fellow team member to get the job done.

Greatly enjoy working with Zeroqode and their products.

alexandru · July 30, 2020, 10:48am

Hi @ron,

Thank you very much for this feedback! I hope you can make things work for your project. Everything should be up-and-running, so just make sure the plugin element is outside a parent group that has fixed-width, or turn off this option. As previously mentioned, you can have the plugin element as fixed-width, if you will, but it has to be outside any group element.

I’m afraid it is only possible to save the Content or any other available state into your database fields. But the actual document being uploaded can be seen in your Data - File Manager tab. As for formatting, this is not possible to accomplish with this plugin, unfortunately. However, we have taken your feedback into account and if feasible, we’ll look into the future possibility of adding some new features.

Thanks for understanding.